Meet Elle Dwight, Creator Of New Virtual Tabletop Platform ROLE

The pandemic led many Tabletop RPG players to seek out new ways to play their favorite game. Whether you were stuck in lock down or simply live far away from the rest of your group, the growth of Virtual Tabletops has been a great way for new and old players of RPGs to get together and play.

Role is a new system that focuses primarily on ease of access for all players. Founded in 2020 by childhood friends Elle Dwight (CEO) and Ian Hirschfeld (CTO), Role’s focus on inclusivity and accessibility make it an exciting new platform. I’ve been taking a look around it and while I haven’t played with people on it yet, I’m very impressed. If you’ve been intimidated by other VTTs in the past this one might be for you. I find the layout intuitive and really easy to use.

The main focus is being able to see your friends and have an experience closer to actually being at a table, so there aren’t as many tools to get in the way of that as other platforms, but what is there works really well. They are working all the time to get new games and systems available for more streamlined play and to partner with game creators to bring you even more content. They are even creating their own system called Chrome which will be a free to play horror and cyber-noir RPG which sounds pretty cool. 

Dwight was kind enough to answer some interview questions about Role and herself. I’m happy to share that interview with you here and look forward to being able to play games on this new platform. 

TTRPGs have enjoyed a huge surge of popularity and growth, what has been your favorite part of the new generation of TTRPG players?

One of the best aspects of all these new players and creators joining the space is all the new ideas and play styles that are emerging. Many of these players are free from the conventions of “classic” role playing, and are embracing new formats of story gaming that suit them and their needs. This has led to a huge wave of game design and narrative innovation. Story gaming is a new frontier for imagination and collaborative play, and it feels like this is just the beginning.

Do you have a favorite system to play?

I’m personally a big fan of the Cypher System from Monte Cook Games. I really love how it’s simple enough to be accessible, but layered enough that long campaigns and more experienced players can really sink their teeth into it. The stat pools and the way you stake your points when you roll add a nice risk/reward mechanic that simulates real life effort in a very clean and compelling way.

We’re also big fans of the Panic Engine here at Role, originally of Mothership fame. We love the OSR play style and the “rulings over rules” flow of play that this sub-genre encourages. The Panic Engine has such an elegant layer of pressure and entertaining failures built on top, which really makes for fun one-shots and short campaigns where losing is just as enjoyable as winning. We’ve used this system as the basis for our first original game, CHROME.

What do you look for in a TTRPG when you are looking for something new to try?

I’m mostly looking for a system that is easy to understand and fast to get started with. While I love my massive library of heavy RPG books, it can be tedious to learn and memorize such dense materials. We know that’s a barrier for many new players and creators in this medium as well, so I really appreciate a game that is quick and clear to get started. Layering on depth and complexity beyond that is a bonus. A test I like to think about is ‘could I teach someone this game in less than 30 minutes?’. 

The pandemic really shined a light on digital platforms for playing TTRPGs, what do you think has been lacking from these spaces that you hope Role can provide?

We’ve always believed that the “VTT” (Virtual Tabletop) style of play is often too complex and unapproachable for the average new player. When we look at the popularity of streaming shows like Critical Role, Dimension 20, Transplanar etc. we really see that what people are enjoying most are the face-to-face interactions and live storytelling. It’s less about crunchy rules and miniatures and more about looking your friends in the eyes and enjoying a true human experience through the game.

At Role, we focus on a “people-first” approach. That means everything needs to be simple, easy to learn, and focused on getting you back to the conversation. We’re video-centric, more like a Zoom or Discord call with gaming elements intuitively tucked into the margins. We also pride ourselves on having a robust suite of code-free drag-and-drop creation tools for any person to make content for their games in the easiest way possible. We don’t consider Role a “VTT”, instead we like to say we’re a platform for “Social Narrative Play”.

What would you say makes Role more inclusive than other online systems such as Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds?

For one, our systems are designed and engineered to be as approachable as possible. We want this to be something anyone can learn and enjoy quickly, even if they have very little gaming experience. Secondly, we pride ourselves on being a platform for any game, not just the big popular names. While you can technically play any game on other platforms, there are often many technical hurdles to get through in order to get there. With Role, we have seen a huge influx of indie titles and homebrew gaming as people use our tools to play the games they want to experience.

This is especially important for marginalized creators, who need a quality home for their games, a place where they can have easy native support for playing online and where their community can play in safety. We continue to work almost exclusively with POC and LGBTQ+ creators across the industry to support their content and help them grow. As a majority POC & LGBTQ+ company ourselves, we want to see more people like us succeed in this space - and we are delighted to see that it’s working!

Are you working on any new features for Role that you can talk about?

We just launched a huge update that adds Screen Sharing to every game on Role. This is big for our players, because now they can seamlessly share any companion materials, external apps, etc. within their game room. This further opens up possibilities for innovative and creative play styles as people bring in the materials they want to use for their games.

We’re also working towards a distribution update in the very near future, which will empower game creators to package and sell their games on Role in ways that go beyond just PDFs and images. We want game creators to have a fully-native digital game experience that is immersive, easy, and fun for their players - all packaged up and easy to find on Role.

What inspired you to create Role?

Role playing games have been a passion of ours since childhood. We often say this is the most accessible medium of game design - because all you need to do is write! We wanted to bring the joy of role playing and creating to the world. With over a decade experience building platform tech in gaming, we wanted to apply our expertise to create something modern, accessible, and powerful in ways we felt would help open this community to more people across the globe.

You’ve been friends with your co-founder since you were kids, what is one of your favorite gaming moments with them?

Creation has always been the cornerstone of our friendship. When we were teenagers, we used to make gaming websites and custom video game maps together. At one point, we got really into customizing and creating entire campaigns and pseudo-RPGs using the Starcraft editor. Role actually began as a mobile app that we created together in 2015, a small project built on our mutual love of role playing games. Coming back to that love now, designing Role over from scratch for today’s players has been a dream come true.

Finding live streams of TTRPG games has become very easy, what do you hope Role will be able to help provide to streamers that other platforms don’t provide?

As a video-centric play platform, we are one of the only places a streamer can go to online and just point their stream at us without the need for complex overlays and edits on their end. We continue to add features for making the play rooms more immersive, including custom art and skinning. Our drag-and-drop creation tools also help steamers easily prep and run their games without cumbersome UI getting in the way. All in all, running a game on Role is fast and easy, which means streamers can set up a high-quality seamless experience more confidently with us.

We’re also actively in the business of partnering with and funding new streamer content. Specifically, we focus on shows from POC & LGBTQ+ creators, marginalized voices who deserve a prominent boost in the gaming community.