How to play roleplaying games online: a guide from zero

What you really need, the three ways to play over the internet, when you need a virtual tabletop and how to set up the first game so it does not fall apart.

Playing RPGs over the internet has its advantages (people from anywhere, no travel, everything written down) and its own problems. They tend to repeat, and almost all of them have a fix.

This guide is for people who have never done it, so it does not assume you know what a VTT is or that you already have a group.

What you need

For your first game this is enough:

Essential	Why
Voice	Discord, or the video call of the site where you play. Roleplaying is played by talking.
Somewhere to roll dice in plain sight	So everyone sees the result. Rolling at home and calling out the number works until someone doubts it.
Somewhere the character sheets live	Even a shared PDF. So nobody says "wait, how many hit points did I have?".

Everything else (maps, miniatures, music, dynamic lighting) improves the game, but you do not need it. Many of the best online games are played without a map, just talking, which is how RPGs were played for twenty years.

If it is your first time running a game, do not build a set: prepare one scene and talk. You learn the tools later, once you know what you are missing.

The three ways to play online

Live, by voice

The closest thing to the table. You meet at a set time, talk for two or three hours, and the story moves a lot.

For: the pace is the usual one, jokes land, you can feel the tension. Against: you have to match schedules between three and five people, which is the number one reason a campaign dies.

Written, at a slow pace

Each person writes when they can: a couple of messages a day, or a week. The game lasts months.

For: nothing to schedule, and writing gives more careful roleplaying, more centred on the character. Against: combat drags on forever, and if someone disappears for two weeks, it shows.

It has its own guide: Written roleplaying.

Mixed

This is what many people end up doing: a voice session every two weeks and, in between, the group writes what happens on the road, the quiet conversations, the shopping. The voice session is kept for the big moments.

It fits adult life best, though few people try it.

The VTT: what it is and when you need one

VTT stands for virtual tabletop. It is a program that works as a shared board: the map, the figures you move, the dice, the character sheets, sometimes the voice.

You do not need one to start. You need one when:

You fight often and positions matter. "Can I reach him from here?" is impossible to settle by talking with five people.
You forget things. A VTT remembers the poison, the turn order, who has what.
You want it to look good. Showing the map of the crypt when they open the door adds a lot.

If you play intrigue, investigation or drama, you do not need one: there the map gets in the way more than it helps.

What to look for when choosing one

Your group should not have to pay. If every player needs a paid account, half of them will not join. Look for one where, at most, only the person running the game pays.
It should support your game. Almost all of them are fine with D&D. If you play something else, check whether the system comes ready-made or at least lets you build it.
Nothing to install. Whoever plays from a work laptop will thank you.
Sheets that do the maths. So you play instead of doing arithmetic.

There is a list with specific options in Free roleplaying games in Spanish.

Setting up the first game, step by step

1. Pick the game before the group

It works better this way: if you say "I want to run this thing, anyone in?" you attract people who like that. If you say "let's set something up", you spend three weeks deciding.

To start, any short game with light rules gets you further than the 300-page rulebook you bought.

2. Three or four players

Online, every extra person is one more turn and another voice talking over the rest. Three is comfortable, four is fine, five is already hard, and with six it rarely works.

3. Session zero: half an hour that saves months

Before playing, meet for half an hour to talk about:

The real schedule. For example, "Thursdays from 21:30 to 23:30, and if we have not started by 22:00, it is cancelled", better than just "Thursdays".
What kind of game it is. Adventure, humour, horror, intrigue. So nobody turns up with the wrong character.
What you do not want to appear. Topics that sit badly with someone. You say it once and never touch it again; it is one of the things that saves the most games.
What happens if someone misses a session. Do you play without them? Cancel? Decide it while everyone is calm.

4. Make characters together

Spend half an hour all at once, even if it is by voice, instead of each making theirs alone. You get characters who know each other and have reasons to travel together, and nobody turns up with the lone wolf who talks to no one.

5. The first session: start in motion

The classic mistake is to start in the tavern and wait for something to happen. Start with something happening: they are already in the cart and the road has been cut off, they are already inside the house and the door has shut. The character introductions come by themselves on the way.

The five problems of playing online, and what to do

Nobody talks, or everybody talks at once

Without body language you lose the turn to speak. Say it out loud and by name: "Marta, what does your dwarf do?". It sounds like school, but it works.

The awkward silence on audio

A muted mic, a dropout, someone thinking. Online you cannot tell "thinking" from "gone". Get the group used to saying "one moment, I'm thinking".

The session that never starts

Twenty minutes of catching up before anyone rolls a die. Start yourself with a two-sentence summary of where things were left, and begin the scene. The rest gets caught up while playing.

Distractions

Everyone is in front of a computer with a phone next to it. The fix is shorter sessions. Two attentive hours are worth more than four half-present ones.

Someone disappears

It will happen. Decide it beforehand: their character stays quiet in the background and does not die, no decisions that hit them hard are made, and you message them privately once, with no drama and no automatic removal.

How much it costs

You can play free and in full. What usually costs money:

The rulebooks, if you play something commercial. Many games have free, legal basic rules, including the big ones.
Advanced VTT features: lighting, large storage.
Map and sheet art, if you get picky.

You need none of that to play. We recommend playing three sessions for free and then deciding what you are missing; it is almost always less than you thought.

And after the first game

Once the campaign is rolling, these habits improve it more than any new tool:

A three-line written summary after each session. The person who missed it will thank you, and so will the one who comes back in January.
Somewhere the group notes who is who and who owed what to whom.
Finishing on time. A campaign dies of exhaustion far more often than of boredom.

To go on: how to find a group if you still need people, and Running a campaign once you have one going.