Several gamers play Dungeons & Dragons at Off/On the Square at 228 E. State St. The pandemic has elevated the popularity of tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering.
For some tabletop gamers, the pandemic shutdown made their hobby of choice that much harder to enjoy. For others, it introduced a new kind of escapism.
The pandemic and its quarantine created a watershed moment for tabletop gaming. As the world ground to a halt and people were forced to stay inside, many turned to online gaming as a way to stay connected to their friends. Interest in games such as Dungeons & Dragons — commonly called D&D — and Magic: The Gathering surged; as a result, Wizards of the Coast, the company that manufactures both, reported record sales for each in 2020.
Per CNBC, D&D sales grew 33% in 2020, continuing an upward trend of success since the game released its fifth edition in 2014.
Meanwhile, Magic saw a 23% uptick in business in the same year, with an extra 17% increase in digital gaming licensing revenue.
It’s not just the games that experienced a boom because of the pandemic. Roll20, an online tabletop gaming client, saw such a spike in new user activity in March 2020 that its servers assumed it was a targeted cyberattack.
Shows such as “High Rollers” and “Critical Role” rode the wave of online live-streaming that exploded in popularity at the start of the pandemic, with the latter releasing an animated show based on its first campaign on Amazon Prime in February.
Now, branded merchandise and clothing dot bookstore shelves. Video games for both D&D and Magic draw millions of players, though more for the latter than the former. Actual play podcasts fill any podcatcher within arm’s reach and, almost daily, there is a new crop of independent games released on storefronts like DriveThruRPG and Itch.io. Being forced to stay home appears to have worked wonders for the tabletop gaming scene.
As more people are introduced to the hobby, demographics show the people playing the games getting younger. Max Stenzel, owner and operator of Off/On the Square, 228 E. State St., said most of the new people he’s noticed playing D&D were between 15 and 25 years old.
“The ones I’ve seen popping up, for the most part,” Stenzel said, “are kids in high school that may not have had the experience of a D&D game before, but they’ve played video games. Or people that have just graduated high school and actually have some free time and money that they can spend on dice and books and whatnot.”
For both newcomers and old hands alike, there are a few marked differences between playing in person as part of a group and playing on a computer.
Ben Hollendonner, a Magic player since 1995, said sessions on the free-to-play digital game Magic: The Gathering Arena tended to end sooner than in-person sessions. In-person games are more likely to let things play out in hopes of the perfect card being drawn, but online players are encouraged to cede games if it is clear they are about to lose.
“Because of the way the app game is structured,” Hollendonner said, “you’re not rewarded for playing as much as winning. So, if you’re not winning … you’re more rewarded to just concede the game quickly and move on to another game where you are more likely to win.”
Both Stenzel and Hollendonner noted there also is a social aspect missing from online play. Players have to be careful to not talk over each other online and cannot read body or facial language like they can in real life, Stenzel said.
Hollendonner said people who were used to the limited interactions of Arena would have to be more sociable to fellow players in person. Hollendonner, also a D&D dungeon master, said the abundance of resources for creating digital maps means players who start playing online tend to be more dependent on visuals and have a harder time adjusting to the theater-of-the-mind style of in-person play.
“I’m going to be honest,” he said. “Buying maps and miniatures is expensive … It costs almost nothing to get a digital map pack or forge up some digital tokens in MS Paint.”
Some things, like the clash between narrative-focused and game-focused D&D players, transcend generations.
“Those two camps have been warring across all of the generations of D&D,” Hollendonner said.
The sheer variety of tabletop games available means anyone interested has a wide range from which to choose.
There are both role-playing games and collectible card games based on “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Power Rangers” and even “My Little Pony,” Stenzel said.
D&D’s anticipated “next evolution” is set to be released in 2024, the 50th anniversary of the game, and the Magic Pro Tour has been resurrected for the 2022-2023 season after a four-year absence.
Whether it’s rolling dice or slinging cards, nothing appears to be slowing these games down.
