The Connection between Discord and Roll20

We see the tabletop industry move towards digital spaces with the rise of gamers using digital spaces to play traditional games, utilizing the internet’s ability to cross physical distance to allow separated individuals to play “face-to-face” again with video call software.  While this practice has been growing in popularity since high-speed internet became accessible to more people, the lockdown and the COVID pandemic added rocket fuel to this fire.  In a study conducted between 2020-2022, I found that most campaign groups were using two specific media platforms for their weekly sessions, Roll20 and Discord, with Discord being used by 68% of participants.  Interestingly, every single participant in this study that used Roll20 during gameplay was also using Discord, with Roll20 being used for the virtual maps and gameplay visuals while Discord was responsible for its voice chat and ability to store and categorize campaign information in dedicated channels.  As industry leaders like Wizards of the Coast continue to develop digital platforms similar to Roll20, this study looks to answer the research question:  what traits of Roll20 are prompting TRPG players to simultaneously use Discord as a secondary platform?

Goal

The goal of this report is to examine why Roll20 was linked in usage to Discord by 100% of participants that used the platform based on collected testimony.

Methods

The findings of this report are a Qualitative Content Analysis based on data previously collected via respondent-focused focus groups and interviews between the summer of 2021 and early 2022, with each focus group being a group of people currently involved in a TRPG campaign together.  35 Participants were found and selected using convenience snow-ball sampling due to budget restrictions.  

My Contribution

For this study, I served as the lead researcher.  I designed and conducted the focus groups and interviews, then analyzed the data and wrote both the original study and this report myself. 

Insights

Discord was the single most used media object based on participant testimony, with almost 69% (24/35) of individuals using the platform to play, while Roll20 was the fourth most used at just over 42% (15/35) usage.  This demonstrates a clear trend that both platforms are among the most popular options for TRPG fans wanting to play virtually; but the more noteworthy statistic is that 100% of groups using Roll20 to play were simultaneously using Discord, with Roll20 serving as the visuals with its virtual tabletop and Discord’s voice chat feature allowing the group to talk to one another during play.  There were many cases of groups only using Discord, but no participants in focus groups or interviews would use Roll20 as a standalone media tool.  There seemed to be a universal reasoning behind players using this exact combination, as one Dungeon Master (DM) summarized:  “It’s pretty garbage.”  In most TRPG campaigns, audio information is the primary mode of exchanging knowledge and understanding the gamestate, with description from the DM ‘telling’ players what is happening at any given time. 

Unfortunately, it seems to be the quality of Roll20’s audio software that has left players unsatisfied to the point that 100% of participants used Discord just to be able to hear one another clearly.  As mentioned, the main method of receiving information and checking the gamestate during TRPG sessions comes from verbal description, so a service with unreliable audio quality that drops voices or cuts out periodically is going to negatively impact players’ experiences and the overall flow of gameplay. 

It is clear that those groups utilizing Roll20 believe that it is a worthwhile tool to enhance virtual TRPG sessions, with an added sense of “immersion” being the key point brought up by most users.  Immersion can be an important element for any game, but especially a role-playing game where the player wants to work within the framework of their character; for virtual sessions, that level of immersion can be significantly lowered for many players, so tools like Roll20 are highly valuable for their unique contribution.  Opposed to that, this immersiveness is quickly negated when communication errors are happening repeatedly because of the platform’s call feature.  Some groups use other platforms or software for virtual battlemaps, with Microsoft Whiteboard and the screen sharing options found on Zoom and Discord providing this visual, showing that there are alternatives to dedicated services like Roll20.  This demonstrates a clear hierarchy for the needs of most TRPG players, with audio clarity being more valued over immersive visual components for the majority of participants.  

Recommendations 

I believe an important detail is that, while every group using Roll20 was also using Discord to talk to one another, there were many groups who used Discord without the addition of Roll20 or other virtual tabletops.  This comes down, in part, to different playstyles, with some groups enjoying immersive, detailed visual maps while other groups used a “theater of the mind” playstyle that relied on verbal description of scenes and didn’t employ a map.  It doesn’t matter which end of the spectrum a group found itself, the vast majority of TRPG campaigns rely on clear verbal communication between members, demonstrating that audio quality is one of the most important attributes for any platform used to play online; if Roll20 had better quality audio to begin with, groups would not have to use Discord as a way of fixing this problem.  Regardless of the quality of the immersive nature of a tabletop simulator or the impressive map customization offered, if these services don’t let players clearly hear their GM describe a scene, users will find additional software to remedy this.  My recommendation for future attempts at making digital platforms for TRPG players is that they must offer high-quality audio and video call options for users, improving upon a common complaint about Roll20.  Giving Roll20 praise it has earned, the platform’s many integration features, such as buttons to connect the website to a user’s D&D Beyond and Discord accounts, should be a feature emulated by competition.  There are too many popular media options on the market today that most players won’t want to give up for the sake of using a new virtual tabletop, so allowing any new platforms to connect to existing TRPG tools should be a priority of any development teams.  A purposeful integration of outside software could be a potential avenue.  Focusing all efforts on creating an immersive, easy-to-learn virtual battlemap simulator, with the understanding that many players will already be using services like Discord, could be an effective way of prioritizing the most important features of the virtual tabletop and avoid competing with established services.  

For the full, in-depth report, please come back next week when I release the extended study findings. Thank you for your time and support.