5 Websites That’ll Help You Find Your Next Online Campaign
It’s hard to find a group of strangers to play with you. Here are some of my suggestions for where to find your next RPG or D&D campaign.
Finding an RPG or D&D campaign can be hard—especially when you don’t have a helping hand to guide the way for you.
Ever since the dawn of tabletop gaming, many have struggled to find a campaign they can call their party. As a hobby inhabited by introverts and neurodivergent geeks alike, the struggle to build up confidence and ask someone if it’d be okay for you to join their dice-rolling adventure is very hard to overcome. Especially when said conversation is had in the dreaded realm known as reality.
However, this problem has been easily solved with the introduction of virtual tabletops, online forums, and communities. People looking for new friend groups no longer have to dread that face-to-face conversation part. All players have to do is send a simple message, and those without campaigns shall be campaign-less no longer!
Don’t worry. I understand this struggle. Suffer no more, dearest children who wish to roleplay and roll dice. I’ve got you covered with some great resources I’ve used in the past to find some online TTRPGs and D&D campaigns of my own!
Find a D&D Campaign With D&D Beyond
Ever since its launch back in August 2017, D&D Beyond has become the go-to hotspot for all things D&D-related. From community homebrew to online character creation, this website quite literally has it all (so long as you’re willing to pay for the additional digital content).
D&D Beyond’s massive online social circle has fostered an active and bustling forum community over the past few years. In these forums, you can discuss a wide variety of topics, from sharing gameplay tips with players to asking questions about mechanics or certain descriptions to even specific threads dedicated to conversations all about one specific class.
I personally enjoy spending my time talking with the big hulking Barbarian enjoyers, wink wink.
READ MORE: How to Use D&D Beyond
But, most importantly, there is an entire forum dedicated to finding or hosting online TTRPG games. All you need is an account, and you can start browsing! It’s as easy as pouring a bowl of cereal. Out of all the examples on this list, this one is the most active and the most diverse in options.
In just one day, I counted that 10 new games looking for players had been added to the forum. In one week, over 50 games were newly advertised.
Just Beware…
The only main downside I can really give to D&D Beyond’s game search forum is the quality of the games being advertised. Some games definitely have experienced DMs who know how to advertise to strangers. However, the others… yeah, a couple of posts needed major touch-ups.
My only advice for making sure you join a good, high-quality game is to do your research into the people you’re going to be playing with beforehand. Having good communication between both the players and the DM is essential to making sure a campaign goes well, as it allows for both sides to state their expectations and wants from the campaign.
Roll20 Has More D&D Campaign Options than Subway Has Toppings
As the most popular virtual tabletop on the internet, it would make sense for Roll20 to have resources for finding online games.
With a section of their website titled “Find Games to Join,” it’s no wonder that they’ve put a lot of effort into making sure you find the right game for you. Unlike D&D Beyond’s noncategorized filing of games that are open to join, their less forum-oriented approach allows you to insert keywords and preferences so your search is more tailor-made.
READ MORE: How to Use Roll20
One problem that Roll 20 doesn’t suffer from that more others do is the issue of system diversity. On D&D Beyond, it is natural to expect most groups running D&D 5e with maybe some Pathfinder here and there. It’s not like the system is literally named on the site, right?
This is a problem you’ll come across practically anywhere. It’s not anyone’s fault, though. D&D is insanely popular. Meaning it is the easiest to recruit players for because of how large the candidate pool is.
Yet, since Roll20 is a virtual tabletop service that hosts a massive library of systems, if you’re looking for a system other than D&D, Roll 20 most definitely has it – from the Marvel Multiverse Roleplaying Game to City of Mist to even the My Little Pony Roleplaying Game.
If I were to look for a new campaign to join right now? Between you and me, Roll20 would be my go-to. It is an insanely versatile platform for running tons of different systems, it allows for easy virtual meet ups between multiple people, and has an active community constantly looking for players.
The Tabletop Wizard Studies How to Find People RPG Campaigns
One of the lesser-known and, admittedly, smaller options you might want to give a try is Tabletop Wizard. They don’t have a massive member count like the previous examples. But what they do have is a constantly updating list of virtual campaigns looking for members.
The site advertises itself as a manager that “helps you find and join 100s of different tables, whilst giving you the power to manage and organize your own – 100% free.”
And that is precisely what they do! With different sections dedicated to the different varieties of tabletop games, you might be able to even join a game of Sorry! or Warhammer 40K if you browse their Board Gaming or Wargaming sections.
What’s Really Great About It
It is easy to tell that the site cares about being a go-to spot to join fun, enjoyable games. The site consistently posts content about how to run a proper game and about fun concepts you can run with your game, like the importance of good worldbuilding and how to set the stage for good roleplay to occur.
Personally, however, the biggest thing weighing down the site’s quality has to be its overly detailed organization. In order to filter the joinable games, you have to update your profile’s preferences. Which, on paper, is insanely useful. This lets players set up what aspects of a game they’re looking for in advance, saving them time by removing any games that don’t fit what they’re looking for.
However, this is also the site’s biggest annoyance. If I need to change my preferences, I have to go through my account preferences to change them, like if I want to no longer include a specific TTRPG in my search history. It’s a small problem, though, and isn’t that hard to deal with.
Overall, I highly recommend checking Tabletop Wizard out if you’re looking for a game and can’t find one anywhere else.
Startplaying.games? Yeah, I think I am.
Puns aside, StartPlaying.games, similarly to Tabletop Wizard, does not have a massive following like Roll20 or D&D Beyond. However, because they market themselves specifically as a platform intended to find games for players, it has a very open and inviting layout that really pulls in players with a friendly atmosphere and an immediate display of open games to join.
The games hosted on StartPlaying.games are hosted by site approved dungeon masters who work diligently to run games that are high quality, fun, and professionally organized.
Additionally, the site hosts games from a wide variety of systems. Some popular non-D&D examples are Pathfinder 2E, Vampire: The Masquerade, Star Trek Adventures, and plenty more. So, if you’re looking for a game that isn’t your standard d20 rolling circle jerk, you have options. Trust me on that.
However, in order to join most of the games listed, you not only have to get approved by the DM, but you also have to pay per session. This isn’t something that is found in all the games listed. However, it is a common practice the DMs use in exchange for quality assurance in each session run.
Orcs Can’t Use Social Media to Find a D&D Campaign — But You Can!
As a conclusion to this list, I wish to tell you my favorite place to find TTRPG games. This is the secret weapon I use to slay my nightly boredom whenever I find myself without a game to play.
I just go around the social medias and ask if anyone is interested in playing in a TTRPG with me!
If you go scrolling through any TTRPG-related media and ask around, you are bound to find a bunch of nerds in the same boat as you. Trust me, you are NOT alone whenever you feel that craving to roll up a new character but have no group to play with.
Within this anti-social hobby, everyone is looking for a place to call their niche. And if you can’t find a house after scrolling through any of the previous sites, why not give some people a home yourself? Ask if anyone wants to play a game. And if you can’t find someone to dungeon master for you and your crew, then consider picking up the mantle yourself.
At the end of the day, we are all just a bunch of dice-rolling geeks looking to tell a story together. So get out there and start playing!
