How to Play Dungeons and Dragons Online 

TTRPGs have been getting some much-deserved love in recent years. While there is something delightful about playing in person, the ease and convenience of online play does call. So, we’re looking at how to play the classic TTRPG Dungeons and Dragons online. 

Whether you’re all about the theatre of the mind or require a little integrated app support, there are plenty of ways to play Dungeons and Dragons online. We’ve got three programs to streamline your sessions and we’re also showcasing how you can play in a more traditional style over video calls or voice chats. Although, do you really trust that the clumsy rogue didn’t just roll a crit fail? (I’m not the clumsy rogue, I swear 👀) 

What is Dungeons and Dragons? 

Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), first published in 1974. For fifty years, gamers across the world have been gathering around the table to weave epic tales of adventure, battles, and critical rolls. (Legend has it you can roll a critical success, but I’m the Queen of Natural Ones so what do I know?) Currently, we are on the Fifth Edition which has been in play since 2014.  

Set in the fantasy land The Forgotten Realms, DnD allows your Dungeon Master to guide a merry troupe of adventurers through an ever-growing collection of pre-written or homebrew campaigns. But no two playthroughs are ever the same, as you build a unique character out of an incredible range of races, classes, and subclasses. Not to mention the influence your personality and backstory (the more tragic, the better) will have on the outcome. 

Whether you come to the table as a player or DM, every session is a barrel of laughs as you navigate combat, role-play, and that check roll you really shouldn’t have whiffed. Seriously, you have a +3 modifier and advantage! (Or is it just me the dice hate?) 

How to Play Dungeons and Dragons Online

Step One: Have friends who are free at the same time as you. If somehow the planets have aligned you have this step down, we have a few ways you can gather online to play! We’re looking at Roll20, D&D Beyond, and Tabletop Simulator as programs you can play DnD on, as well as taking some time to kick it old school with the theatre of the mind. 

Roll20

Roll20 is a browser-based interface for all your tabletop RPG needs, with extensive support for Dungeons and Dragons and other popular TTRPGs like Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and Marvel’s Multiverse Role-Playing Game. Better yet, you can sign up for free! Or you can subscribe for greater storage and access to other features. 

Packed with easy-to-use tools, Roll20 has everything you need to get your campaign up and running. There are interactive character sheets so you can easily keep track of what spells you’ve used or the damage you’ve taken. The built-in chat details all the actions taken by you and your fellows, and even has commands for rolling multiple dice for damage, saving throws, and more.  

Taking centre stage is the map, where you can move player and monster tokens around as the adventure progresses. As DM, you can choose from readily available assets or import your own. There is even a library of licensed adventures for you to peruse. Roll20 prides itself on having the powerful tools to automate the tedious stuff! 

Best of all, it’s a one-stop shop app complete with support for voice chat, so you don’t need a secondary program open to hog CPU resources. 

Roll20 System Recommendations

While it is a browser application, Roll20 does a lot in real time. Here is what the folks of Roll20 recommend from your system, as of September 2023. As it is an evolving platform, these may change in time. 

D&D Beyond

D&D Beyond is the official app from Wizards of the Coast, so it does feature a lot of in-app purchases. But never fear, once again you can choose to have a free or paid account – depending on how much access you need to the massive library on offer. The free account is also limited to six characters (but if you have more than six active characters, I seriously applaud you). 

Much like Roll20, this is your one-stop shop for all things Dungeons and Dragons. You can access rule books, campaigns, fully functional character sheets, maps, and there is even a companion mobile app, to support play IRL and online! 

There is plenty of support for new and old players alike, from helpful blogs to DM tools and even digital dice! With just the click of a button, you can roll the exact number of dice, with the right amount of sides, and dole out some serious damage! No more hunting through the dice goblin’s hoard for six d8s! 

The maps feature on D&D Beyond is new, still in the alpha stage in fact. This allows DMs subscribed to the Master Tier to host tactical gameplay within the app, with maps from the D&D Beyond library or your own uploaded content. Maps are then populated by player tokens, monsters, NPCs, and such to share gameplay with everyone. 

The one feature missing from D&D Beyond, presently, is voice chat. But this is easily supplemented by apps like Discord, Skype, or even Zoom. 

D&D Beyond System Requirements 

Currently, there are no listed specs on D&D Beyond for minimum requirements. (Aside from a discontinued thread on the forum from when the digital dice were first added.) It’s safe to assume that if your browsers are all up to date and your hardware is operating tickety-boo, then you should be fine to run D&D Beyond. 

But much like Roll20, this is an evolving platform and that could change! 

Tabletop Simulator

Tabletop Simulator is a physics sandbox game set at a gaming table. Thanks to the extensive community workshop, you can bring just about every game to the table. You can subscribe to any number of D&D games made by diligent players, or you can build your own! Tabletop Simulator includes a range of active minis that you can import to your game, which have fun walking and combat actions when clicked. Better yet, you can upload assets onto custom pieces and build your adventure from scratch. (You have to use those digital assets from Humble Bundle at some point!) 

Tabletop Simulator is a great tool for building your D&D games. As table host and DM, you have access to TTS’s entire library of pieces, so you can bring dice, coins, bowls, their own modular tile set, and heck even a Pikachu to your game. Whatever you need to bring the story to life. What’s more, there are features to hide certain sections of the table, so you can keep surprise bosses a secret until you speak those immortal words, “Roll initiative.” 

As a player, you can move all the board pieces around and use the in-game functions to roll the dice. There are even tablet pieces which can be added to the game, with full access to the internet. You can have a digital copy of your character sheet right there! Plus, you can always flip the table if the DM decides to TPK your merry band of adventurers! 

What’s more, there is in-game support for voice and text chat, so you don’t have to use secondary apps while playing. 

Tabletop Simulator Official Specifications

As a fully-fledged game, Tabletop Simulator has official specifications. In the past, I have mentioned that the recommended 4GB RAM will potentially not be sufficient – especially if you are loading a D&D with loads of pieces. Just something to be mindful of, if you’re playing on an older gaming PC. 

Theatre of the Mind

Now, if you already have all the books, character sheets, dice, and a dedicated Dungeons and Dragons pencil case, spending money to play virtually may seem somewhat redundant. Especially if you prefer to kick it old school and don’t need minis, maps, and more. 

This is where the theatre of the mind comes in, and yes, you can do it online. With apps like Discord, Skype, and Zoom, all you have to do is call. The DM can maintain their air of mystery, without having to hide all those notes behind a physical screen, and players can easily role-play, describe their crit success finishing moves, and so on. Basically, so long as everyone has the bits they need, you’re sorted! You can even turn on cameras if you fancy seeing your mates’ faces. 

The one drawback is not being able to verify rolls. However, Discord has plenty of D&D bots – even the official Avrae D&D Discord bot – which can be used to simulate dice rolls, make saves, and track initiative. 

Once you’re all good to go, it’s up to your DM to guide your imagination through the campaign! 

Discord System Requirements

If you do go the Discord route, here are the official system requirements. 

What Do You Need to Play Dungeons and Dragons Online 

There are plenty of things you need to play Dungeons and Dragons online. Character sheets, rulebooks, spell cards, a campaign notebook – the list goes on. In terms of hardware, the main takeaways are a gaming headset, a webcam, and a PC that can keep up. The gaming headset is so you can keep a comms line open with your friends, whether on Roll20 or Discord, whereas the webcam is more required for the theatre of the mind route. Still, there’s nothing stopping you from having D&D Beyond on one monitor and a video chat on the other, it’s all about what works for your campaign really. 

Now, for the PC. You are already likely using a gaming PC or laptop that can keep up with the demands of a browser-based app. But if you are rocking slightly older hardware that doesn’t support the latest driver updates or insufficient RAM is making you lag, then an upgrade may be in order. 

We’ve picked out a headset, webcam, and gaming PC that we think will be the perfect companions on your Dungeons and Dragons adventures. Should they not fit your class, our full collections are but a click away. 

Logitech G G332 Gaming Headset

• Wired gaming headset
• Premium 50mm drivers
• 6mm flip-to-mute microphone
• On-ear volume control
• Multi-platform compatibility

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Streamplify CAM PRO 4K Webcam

• 4K webcam
• 8.5 megapixels
• 5X digital zoom
• Two integrated microphones
• 105-degree viewing angle

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Refract Gaming Celeste Pre-Built PC

• Pre-built gaming PC – fully tested and ready to ship!
• AMD Ryzen 7 7700X CPU
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU
• 32GB DDR5 RAM and SSD storage
• Covered by our three years parts and labour warranty

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More Dungeons and Dragons Gameplay

For those moments when your calendars don’t align, you can still enjoy some cracking DnD gameplay! 

How do You Play Dungeons and Dragons Online?

Are we missing something vital from our list? In truth, there are so many D&D companion apps and programs you can use to enhance your experience. (I have four on my iPad alone.) Let us know how you play Dungeons and Dragons online in the comments below, and we’ll be sure to add them! 

PC specs are subject to change.