Abstract

The essential experience of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is to live out a story-like adventure, grounded in specific rules and mechanics, but ultimately guided by a storyteller dubbed the Dungeon Master (DM). This project, DnDEngine.com, is a website for playing D&D campaigns online that captures and enhances this interactive- storytelling experience. Existing platforms, such as Fantasy Grounds and Roll20, provide systems for keeping track of information about the campaign including character components, monster stats, item descriptions and spell details. Roll20 provides simple interfaces for storing this information, but unfortunately it lacks the ability to store custom information. Roll20 systems provide a digital-paper like interface that allows you to store character information, yet it does not take full advantage of its digital format. Fantasy Grounds does allow for more customization, but has a complex interface that is hard for new players to navigate. D&D Engine borrows from the best parts of these platforms, and presents a full-featured application that better utilizes the project's digital format to provide an enhanced experience over traditional paper gameplay. Regarding monetization, Roll20 offers a free platform that lacks advanced features, while Fantasy Ground offers advanced features but requires each person to purchase a copy of their software. D&D Engine offers a free “basic play” component as well as following a tiered subscription model that provides adjustable levels of premium features for advanced players.

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