on automating the process of playing rather than making it easier to connect people and have them create and tell dynamic stories. At least that’s how Elle Dwight sees it, having co-founded Role Inc with childhood friend Ian Hirschfeld early in 2019, with the aim to create a tool for online role players and storytellers that was, first and foremost, intuitive and welcoming. “It is a pretty populous and diverse market
right now” admits Dwight. “With what we do at Role, we do not consider ourselves to be a virtual tabletop. We are a different type of software product to service a different and evolving format of online roleplay. We are much more invested in the person to person experience. When we looked at what makes role playing games really joyful, fun and engaging, we really wanted it to be about putting the people first, getting you on a high quality, high resolution stable video call with people so that you can look them in the eye. We really believe that role playing games are at their best when they are a game as conversation or a conversation as a game and so we really tried to design Role to be that.” Role is essentially a video conferencing app
then, with all the gameplay elements kept out of sight until needed, or as Dwight puts it, “intuitively tucked into the margins.” It means for those that like to stare at rulebooks and tables rather than connect more directly with other players, Role might not be for them. “There are other platforms that may have more complex systems than us for things like simulating a miniatures battle. That’s great. That’s excellent. They excel at that. We really have taken a very different stance. We strive to be the easiest place to run a game.”
BUILDING BLOCKS So if Dwight is hesitant to call Role a VTT, what does she liken it to? Or to put it another way, if Fantasy Grounds, with all its evolved complexities and DLC is the Crusader Kings of virtual tabletops, what is Role? “We are Roblox,” says
Dwight emphatically. “A big piece of it for us is content creation. The way that I like to think about it is that role
August 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 43
playing games are the most accessible form of game design, because the only thing you need to know how to do is write. Playing a role playing game is a live act of content creation and there’s an entire experience around that that is really joyful for people where they will create content in anticipation of play, they will create content while they play, they will create content in the wake of playing. And when we look at the growth of the role playing market, it’s primarily driven by community content creation.” Dwight cites the success of Wizards of the
Coast’s DM’s Guild, which gives creators license to create and share custom D&D content, to the tune of more than 100,000 fan-made supplements. “Creating content needs to require as few additional skills as possible beyond an ability to write and design game content. And so we built the world’s first - and I think, still only - really good drag-and-drop game creation and content creation tools for role playing games. It’s like Squarespace for role playing games. We have an entire suite of gameplay elements and standard elements that you can use to create custom sheets and templates for your favourite games. In the wake of that, we have seen our community launch literally thousands and thousands of custom games on Role through custom sheets and template creation. And so that’s really another part where the Roblox metaphor comes in: we don’t aspire to be a virtual tabletop. We do not aspire to be a place that simulates the tabletop experience. What we aspire to be is a social video play experience, and then a really easy and accessible but powerful content creation tool for role players to create their own content, publish it, and share it with their friends and with the world.”
Elle Dwight, co-creator of Role
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