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Roll20: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Common questions
Who founded Roll20 and when was it launched?
Roll20 was founded by three college roommates Riley Dutton, Nolan Jones, and Richard Zayas. The platform officially opened to the public in September 2012 after a successful Kickstarter campaign in the spring of 2012.
How many users did Roll20 have by mid-2022?
By mid-2022, Roll20 had more than 10 million users after doubling from five million users in almost two years. The company tripled in size from 20 or 25 employees to nearly 60 under CEO Ankit Lal who took the helm in February 2022.
What happened to Roll20 user data in February 2019?
In February 2019, TechCrunch reported that Roll20 databases were hacked along with those of eight other companies. The information of over four million users was posted for sale on a dark web marketplace exposing vulnerabilities of the browser-based platform.
When did Roll20 acquire Demiplane and what was the result?
Roll20 acquired the digital tabletop role-playing toolset company Demiplane in June 2024. The combination of the Roll20 virtual tabletop and the Demiplane character sheet ecosystem allows users to build their first character and get into their first game with cross-platform access.
What are the subscription costs for Roll20 as of July 2021?
In July 2021, Roll20 increased their subscription costs for the first time with the annual Plus tier rising from 49.99 dollars to 59.99 dollars. The annual Pro tier increased from 99.99 dollars to 109.99 dollars while the free version restricts users to 100 megabytes for uploadable assets.
Three college roommates, Riley Dutton, Nolan Jones, and Richard Zayas, found themselves scattered across different cities after graduation, unable to gather around a physical table to play Dungeons and Dragons. Rather than letting their shared hobby dissolve into the distance, they coded a personal application to bridge the gap, unaware that their project would evolve into a global phenomenon. In the spring of 2012, they launched a Kickstarter campaign with a modest goal of 5000 dollars, only to see the community rally behind them and raise almost 40000 dollars. The platform officially opened to the public in September 2012, designed not to replace the tactile experience of tabletop gaming but to replicate the social intimacy of a shared table in a digital space. This blank-slate approach allowed the software to integrate with a multitude of role-playing systems, from the ubiquitous Dungeons and Dragons to niche indie titles, creating a flexible environment where the game master could retain control while players connected from anywhere.
The Growth Of A Virtual Community
By July 2015, Roll20 had reached one million users, and by January 2017, that number had doubled to two million, signaling a massive shift in how people consumed role-playing games. Academic Evan Torner noted in 2021 that the platform enabled players to seamlessly control information in a shared era while broadcasting content to wider audiences through Twitch and YouTube. This integration turned private gaming sessions into public performances, allowing the actual play movement to reach mass scale. The platform became a powerful tool for industry up-and-comers to document and broadcast their experiences, fundamentally changing the relationship between players and spectators. In July 2016, the company secured a license from Wizards of the Coast to distribute official Dungeons and Dragons material, releasing the first official module, Lost Mine of Phandelver, on the Roll20 Marketplace. This partnership was followed by official support for Paizo's Pathfinder and Starfinder games in February 2018, cementing Roll20 as a central hub for the tabletop community.
Cracks In The Digital Foundation
Despite its growing popularity, the platform faced significant challenges that threatened its reputation and user trust. In September 2018, a controversy erupted when co-founder Nolan T. Jones, acting as head moderator of the Reddit Roll20 subreddit, banned a user named ApostleO. Jones mistakenly believed the account was a previously banned user circumventing a prior ban, and after a failed attempt to clarify the situation, ApostleO deleted his account and posted a summary of the hostile customer service on Reddit. The community backlash was swift, with many users criticizing the ban and the inclusion of Roll20 staff as moderators, forcing the company to apologize and turn over moderation of the subreddit to the community. The following year, in February 2019, a more severe blow occurred when TechCrunch reported that Roll20's databases had been hacked along with those of eight other companies. The information of over four million users was posted for sale on a dark web marketplace, exposing the vulnerabilities of a browser-based platform and raising serious questions about data security in the gaming industry.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to prevent in-person gatherings in 2020, the platform experienced an unprecedented surge in usage as groups who played in-person role-playing games turned to Roll20 to continue their games virtually. Liz Schuh, head of publishing and licensing for Dungeons and Dragons, stated that virtual play rose 86 percent in 2020, aided by online platforms such as Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. Erik Mona for Paizo commented that tools like Roll20 and Discord played a huge role in keeping the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities together, helping the annual PaizoCon, originally scheduled as an in-person event in Seattle, go fully digital in 2020. The company's growth continued to accelerate, with CEO Ankit Lal, a Google veteran who took the helm in February 2022, reporting that the company had tripled in size from just 20 or 25 employees to nearly 60. By mid-2022, the number of users had doubled in almost two years, going from five million users to more than 10 million, prompting the company to restructure its employee groups to focus on both users and publishers.
Mergers And The Consolidation Of Power
In July 2022, Roll20 and OneBookShelf announced a merger that would combine the content libraries of both companies and make OneBookShelf's PDF libraries accessible within Roll20. Ankit Lal became the new company's CEO, while Steve Wieck, CEO of OneBookShelf, became president of the new company and joined Roll20's board of directors, with the combined entity retaining the name Roll20 and a legal name of Roll20, LLC. The consolidation continued into June 2024, when Roll20 acquired the digital tabletop role-playing toolset company Demiplane. Lal stated that the combination of the Roll20 virtual tabletop and the Demiplane character sheet ecosystem would make it easier for users to build their first character and get into their first game. Christian Hoffer of ComicBook.com reported that the acquisition would not have any immediate impact on users, but Demiplane CEO Peter Romenesko noted that the merged companies would look to close the difference between their two platforms very quickly. J. R. Zambrano for Bell of Lost Souls commented that it seemed an era of consolidation was on the way as players like WotC and Roll20 moved to consolidate their powerbases.
Tools For The Modern Dungeon Master
Roll20 functions as a browser-based suite of tools organized into individual game sessions, allowing users to create or join environments that include dynamic character sheets, automated dice rolling, and shared maps with basic character and enemy tokens. The interface features integrated text chat, voice chat, and video chat, along with Google Hangouts integration, creating a comprehensive communication hub for remote groups. A separate marketplace allows users to purchase art assets and complete game modules, while a reference compendium provides information for several game systems. Compendiums and game modules published through the marketplace are only available to use on the Roll20 platform, though some art assets can be transferred to other sites or downloaded for physical sessions. The platform supports many tabletop systems, including Shadowrun, Dungeon World, Gamma World, Traveller, and Numenera, and for less known systems, it offers an open source repository where the community can contribute character sheet templates. Following the purchase of Demiplane, Roll20 began to support cross-platform access so that content unlocked on one platform would automatically unlock on the other, with Paizo, Darrington Press, Kobold Press, and Renegade Game Studio granting permission for cross-platform access to their products.
The Cost Of Access And The Digital Divide
While the platform offers a free tier, the free version restricts users to 100 megabytes for uploadable assets, and to get 1 gigabyte, users must fork over 4.99 dollars a month or 49 dollars per year. The platform also does not allow the use of dynamic lighting functions unless you pay the subscription, although you will still have a fog of war option if you choose not to pay. In July 2021, Roll20 increased their subscription costs for the first time, with the annual Plus tier increasing from 49.99 dollars to 59.99 dollars and the annual Pro tier increasing from 99.99 dollars to 109.99 dollars. Academics Daniel Lawson and Justin Wigard examined Roll20 as a digital space and the potential barriers to entry in play, such as the digital divide and various disabilities. They reviewed the levels of subscription and wrote that Roll20 indelibly connects functionality to money, meaning higher levels of subscription offer increased modes of accessibility in terms of available functionality. In brief, money purchases remediative features and thus rhetorical agency in these game spaces, as the platform provides easy-to-use tools for integrating external assets but incentivizes purchases that dramatically reduce accessibility barriers through ease of access.
Awards And The Birth Of Burn Bryte
Roll20 was named the Gold Winner in the Best Software category of the ENnie Awards in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, recognizing its impact on the industry. The company has held an online gaming convention named Roll20CON every year since 2016, consisting of an organized series of online games hosted on Roll20 and streamed on Twitch, along with other events. Roll20 has partnered with charitable organizations to run Roll20CON: The Cybersmile Foundation, an organization providing support for victims of cyberbullying, in 2016, and Take This, an organization focused on mental health in the gaming community, in 2019. In July 2020, Roll20 released their own science fantasy role-playing game named Burn Bryte, with James Introcaso as lead designer. The game was first announced during Gen Con 2018 and was mentioned to be designed from the bottom up to be played on Roll20's virtual tabletop platform. Starting in August 2018, a playtest was launched for Roll20's Pro-subscribers, which was later expanded to their Plus-subscribers in November of the same year. With the game's launch, multiple Actual Play campaigns were started on Twitch, demonstrating the platform's ability to host not just games but entire communities and events.