Despite the visually breathtaking graphics and captivating sound offered by modern video games, sometimes you just can’t beat a good old fashioned board game. Perhaps it’s something about being in the same room as your fellow players or letting your imagination do the work as opposed to a program, but there’s just something extra special about rolling dice and moving a figure across a cardboard mat. But what if meeting up at your buddies house for a night of D&D just isn’t an option?

Tavern Tales: Tabletop Adventures aims to solve this conundrum by using VR technology to immerse you and your buddies, no matter your locations, in an intimate virtual game room loaded with every tool and resource you need to build and play your very own tabletop RPG adventures. 

According to the official website:

“Tavern Tales: Tabletop Adventures is every tabletop enthusiast’s pipedream made manifest. It gives you all the things that you know and love about traditional tabletop games, as well as giving both players and DMs tools that couldn’t possibly exist in the real world – creating an immersive online TRPG experience like no other.”

Promising an authentic tabletop RPG experience, players begin inside a large tavern filled with plenty of ale to chug, chicken legs to munch, and axes to throw. Oh, there’s also a fully-customizable game board featuring a variety of dungeon tiles, scenery, and set pieces; over 250 miniatures, including dragons, orcs, serpents, heroes, and giants; and a full dungeon master toolkit. Everything is designed to replicate a classic in-person game session. Each dungeon master has access to their own DM privacy screen, players fill out stat sheets for their personal characters, and every action is — of course — determined by a throw of the dice.

However, the most exciting aspect of this open-ended VR tabletop simulator is its impressive level of map customization. Dungeon Masters can craft their ideal game world in a matter of minutes using a variety of terrain manipulation tools, set pieces, and other unique visual elements.

During one part of the gameplay trailer, you can see an ocean-based map that includes a ship floating above an underwater cave system littered with aquatic monsters. Later on, we see an epic battleground complete with an invading army attempting to storm a well-defended castle. By offering players the tools to craft their own adventures, Tavern Tales has the potential to establish a catalog of user-created environments and adventures. Imagine being able to share your custom adventure with fellow players online, allowing them to experience the same journey with their own party.

Earlier this week, signups for the first round of Tavern Tales’ closed beta went live and within just 24 hours all 250 spots were filled. Demand has been so great that a second round is now scheduled following round one, which is scheduled to last two weeks. Signups for round two are available now at http://taverntalesgame.com/beta/.

Tavern Tales: Tabletop Adventures is currently aiming for launch on both Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift/Rift S. As for whether or not the title will see an official release on the Oculus Store, the developer stated via Reddit that their first submission to Oculus was rejected awhile back, but that they will attempt a second submission within the next several months. Until then, Quest-owners participating in the closed beta will need to sideload the game onto their headset using SideQuest.

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