Rollcall Tavern

D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons, originally launched in 2017 and acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 2022. It serves as the primary ecosystem for the 5th Edition ruleset and the updated 2024 "5.5e" core rules. In 2026, the platform is undergoing a massive "Game Platform" rebuild, moving away from its original hard-coded architecture to a data-driven engine. This allows the platform to support more complex customization and the new "Season" based content release model introduced this year. Description D&D Beyond is the definitive "companion app" for D&D. It combines a high-speed character builder, a digital library of all official sourcebooks, and a native 2D virtual tabletop called Maps. The platform is designed to be the easiest way to play the game, handling all calculations, spell slots, and inventory management automatically. With the 2026 "Season of Horror" and "Season of Magic" updates, it has become a living platform that delivers monthly content drops and themed community events directly to player character sheets. System Overview & Key Features The 2026 Game Engine Rebuild Wizards of the Coast is currently rebuilding the backend of D&D Beyond from the ground up. This move allows the site to finally support highly requested features like custom classes, complex homebrew non-magical equipment, and more responsive rules validation that doesn't rely on legacy code from 2017. The Maps VTT The integrated 2D virtual tabletop is now free for all users to host games as of late 2025. It features "Quickplay Maps" for all official adventures, allowing GMs to launch a session with pre-placed tokens and fog of war. New "Reveals" functionality lets GMs share high-resolution gallery art and monster lore directly to players' screens during play. New "Quickbuilder" Flow To improve onboarding, the 2026 character builder features an "art-forward" Quickbuilder mode. It guides players through the most impactful decisions—like subclass and background—while using optimized defaults for smaller details, allowing a new hero to be ready for play in under five minutes. Content Sharing (Master Tier) The Master Tier subscription remains the most popular for groups. It allows a single user to share their entire digital library—including the new 2026 Ravenloft: The Horror Within and Arcana Unleashed books—with up to 12 players across five different campaigns. Legacy vs Core Toggles Following community feedback, the platform now features robust toggles to enable or disable "Legacy" (2014) content. This ensures that groups can choose to stick strictly to the 2024 rules or mix in older subclasses and spells without the interface becoming cluttered or confusing. Digital/Physical Integration Most new 2026 book releases now feature a "Physical + Digital" bundle. When you buy a hardcover from the official store, you receive an instant unlock code for D&D Beyond, ensuring your character builder and digital library are updated before the physical book even arrives in the mail. Additional links dndbeyond.com : Official D&D Beyond website dndbeyond.com/roadmap : The 2026 Development Roadmap Hub Maps - D&D Beyond's VTT

Roll20 is the most widely used browser based virtual tabletop in the world, launched in 2012 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Developed by Riley Miller, Nolan T. Jones, and Richard Zayas, it was designed to break down the barriers to tabletop gaming by requiring zero installation and offering a robust free to play tier. It remains the industry leader in total user base, hosting millions of games across nearly every imaginable tabletop system. Description Roll20 is the "everyman" of virtual tabletops, prioritizing accessibility and ease of use. Because it runs entirely in the cloud, players and Game Masters can start a session in seconds from any modern web browser. It features an integrated marketplace where users can purchase official rulebooks, adventures, and art packs that integrate directly into their campaigns. While it offers advanced features like dynamic lighting, its primary appeal is its massive community and the simplicity of its "pick up and play" nature. System Overview & Key Features No Installation Required Unlike many of its competitors, Roll20 requires no software downloads or server configuration. The Game Master simply creates a room on the website and shares a link. This makes it the ideal choice for groups with varying levels of technical expertise. Integrated Character Sheets Roll20 features thousands of community and official character sheets that handle the math for you. Clicking an attribute or a weapon on your sheet automatically sends the roll to the chat window, applying modifiers and calculating critical hits instantly. The Roll20 Marketplace The platform boasts the largest digital storefront in the industry. You can buy modules for D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and more, which come pre loaded with maps, tokens, and journals, drastically reducing a Game Master's preparation time. Dynamic Lighting and Layering Subscribers gain access to a powerful lighting system that restricts what players can see based on their character's line of sight. The Game Master can easily manage different layers for maps, tokens, and hidden notes that only they can see. Built in Video and Voice Roll20 includes its own integrated WebRTC video and voice chat system, allowing groups to see and hear each other without needing to run third party software like Discord alongside their game window. Jumpgate Technology Introduced in 2024 and 2025, the "Jumpgate" update overhauled the core engine to provide a much smoother, high performance experience. It improved frame rates, reduced loading times, and modernized the interface to compete with newer, hardware accelerated platforms. Additional links roll20.net - Official Roll20 website and Virtual Tabletop marketplace.roll20.net - Official Roll20 Marketplace for assets and modules

TableStage is purpose-built map display software for in-person tabletop games. It runs on a Raspberry Pi 4 as a flashable image and turns any TV or screen into a controllable map display, operated entirely from a phone or tablet browser. Setup takes a few minutes: flash the image to an SD card, plug the Pi into the screen, scan the QR code that appears, and the display is live. There is no open laptop at the table, no PC, no cloud, no accounts, and nothing for players to install. A Windows version is coming to Steam soon. TableStage is deliberately not a full VTT. It has no tokens, no character sheets, no dynamic lighting, and no rules automation, and it does not try to move the game onto a screen. Physical minis stay on the table. The software exists to do one job well: put maps on the table with as little friction as possible, and add atmosphere with pinned music and ambience. /images/general-media/1785795372_YVhCgnVG.png The GM controls everything from their phone, including switching maps, drawing fog of war live as the party explores, adjusting the grid, and managing audio. Maps are organised into collections, so a GM can group everything for a campaign or a session and switch between them quickly during play, with audio pinned per map. Collections can be exported and imported, which makes it straightforward to back up a library, move it to another device, or share a prepared set with someone else. The display itself shows only the map, with no menus, cursors, or interface clutter visible to players. Everything runs locally over the group's own Wi-Fi, and after initial setup the system never touches the internet, making it suitable for venues without reliable connectivity. /images/general-media/1785795379_FowVrjRg.png Key features Static and animated maps up to 4K60 Fog of war drawn on the phone, revealed live on the screen as the party explores Grid overlay calibrated to your screen (size, shape, colour, opacity) Maps organised into collections Audio pinned per map for autoplay on map selection or playable from the playlist Collections can be exported and imported for backup, transfer, or sharing Music and ambience over Bluetooth, AirPlay, HDMI, or the Pi's audio jack Idle screens, colour grading, and animated overlays such as clouds and fog Controller runs in any browser, optimised for mobile device operation Fully offline after setup /images/general-media/1785795387_L29WqWlz.png Suitable for Groups playing in person who want maps displayed on a TV or table screen without a computer at the table, who prefer to keep their physical minis, and who want a setup that works without configuration or accounts. Links tablestage.com - Official website

I Cast Fireball is a Dungeons & Dragons 5e Actual-Play podcast. Our first campaign played through the D&D adventure Tyranny of Dragons, and our second campaign is loosely following the story of Pathfinder's Skull & Shackles Adventure Path. Founded by our DM, Thomas Brower, I Cast Fireball is more than just an excuse to have a D&D group that actually meets consistently. Links icastfireball.net - Official website youtube.com - Youtube channel podcasts.apple.com - Apple Podcasts feed patreon.com - Patreon page

A local-first battlemap display tool for game masters. Cast a map with fog of war to a second "player" screen while you control everything from a private GM panel. Lodestar runs entirely in the browser with no build step and no dependencies. It runs entirely in your browser. No install, no account, nothing to download if you don't want to. You open it, load a map, click "Open player display," and drag that window over to your second screen. You control everything from your own DM panel, and your players only see what you choose to reveal. /images/general-media/1780915788_spLeMCfy.pngLodestar is completely free and open source, so you can use it, fork it, or tear it apart however you like. Maps — load high-resolution map images from local disk; pan and zoom freely. Player display — open a second window, drag it to another screen, and cast the map to your players. The player window can go fullscreen. Fog of war - Trace polygon areas and click them in reveal mode to show/hide on the player display. - Name polygon areas with a GM-only label. - Paint or erase fog with a round or square brush of adjustable size. - GM sees fog as an adjustable tint/opacity; players see solid black. Multi-floor — build multi-level locations; each floor has its own map, fog, tokens, and stairs. Navigate with the on-screen floor widget. Stairs — place GM-only staircase markers that link floors; they scale with the grid and zoom and are invisible to players. Tokens — drop, drag, label, color, and size them in grid cells; they snap to the grid and appear on both displays. Grid — toggle and adjust size, offset, color, opacity, and token snapping. Ping — Alt+click draws an animated marker on both displays. Measure — reports distance in grid cells and feet. Splash / blackout — show a splash image or a plain black screen on the player display instead of the map. Library — save full setups (image, grid, fog, tokens, floors, views) to a local IndexedDB library; export/import the whole library as JSON for backups or moving machines. When you save a map, it's stored locally in your own browser, not on a server somewhere. Nothing gets uploaded, so your maps stay on your machine. The catch is that the saved library is tied to the browser and device you saved it on, so it won't follow you to another computer or survive clearing your browser data. If you make maps you want to keep, use the Export button to save your whole library to a file. That file is your real backup, and you can import it on any device. Links uncleplants.github.io - Lodestar web app(no download) github.com - Source code

Draw Steel is a tactical heroic fantasy tabletop roleplaying game designed by Matt Colville and the team at MCDM Productions. It is built to provide a modern, cinematic alternative to traditional d20 fantasy games. It focuses on high action, tactical depth, and ensuring that every player character feels like a legendary hero from the very first level. The system it is a spiritual successor to is Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Description In Draw Steel, players take on the roles of Heroes. Unlike other systems, the characters are heroes from the start. The characters are already capable of taking on the world and whatever threats may arise. The system encourages a highly tactical approach to combat encounters, promoting teamwork and clever use of abilities to control and affect any battlefield they might find themselves at. System Overview & Key Features The 2d10 Core Mechanic The game abandons the d20 focus and instead offers two ten-sided dice (2d10) instead. This creates a better mathematical average and becomes more predictable and reliable. No To Hit Rolls Draw Steel eliminates the traditional roll to hit. Instead, heroes automatically hit their targets with their primary abilities, but they roll to determine how much Power or impact the effect has. This keeps the game focused on making meaningful tactical choices rather than wasting turns on a miss. Heroic Resources Each class manages a unique resource, such as Focus or Valor, which builds up during a fight. These resources are spent to activate powerful Signature Moves and Heroic Abilities, ensuring that combat has a rising sense of drama and escalation as the heroes grow more powerful the longer a battle lasts. Tactical Movement and Forced Position Combat is designed for a grid. Many abilities do more than just deal damage; they allow players to slide, push, or pull enemies and allies across the battlefield. Positioning is vital, and the environment is intended to be a weapon that heroes can use to their advantage. Tiered Success Action resolution often uses three tiers of success. A low roll might provide a success with a cost, a middle roll is a standard success, and a high roll is a spectacular success that might trigger bonus effects or additional damage. This ensures that every roll contributes something to the ongoing narrative. Links mcdmproductions.com - Official MCDM Productions website mcdm.gg - MCDM community and developer portal