In the process, the pandemic is changing how D&D is played, maybe for good.Īround the world, 'D&D' fans like Nathan McNiff and Ashley Risteen have migrated their sessions to the internet, using online platforms like Roll20. Though binge-watching Netflix and assembling puzzles are far more common ways to pass the hours, many are playing D&D to experience their own Game of Thrones-like adventures, all over Zoom and hobby-specific platforms like Roll20. She adds, “When I play D&D, I feel free.”Īs people are forced inside, some are retreating to their own imaginations thanks to Dungeons & Dragons. I don’t know how much we get that when we sit and watch Netflix.” We’re having so much fun, our attention turns away from the terror of what is happening.
“It’s the only time in the week when we feel present. “It has been the highlight of my week,” says Ashley Risteen, 29, an actress from Byfield who plays a paladin in McNiff’s game. It was the first time it wasn’t dark for the hours we played.” “That was the first time in two weeks I forgot about the coronavirus,” McNiff tells Inverse.Īs the owner of a small business, The Wandering Stage, McNiff sees Dungeons & Dragons as a distraction from stressing about his livelihood during a pandemic. So McNiff, 37, and his friends from the Boston area have escaped into a safer world: that of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s emptied streets, closed businesses, and kept friends apart. McNiff's state has more than 38,000 cases of the virus and 1,700 of those people have died. Outside McNiff’s home in Woburn, Massachusetts, the Covid-19 pandemic has the world in a vise. McNiff’s friends stare back at him through his laptop screen, hanging on every word. Nathan McNiff leans into his Chromebook microphone like an audiobook narrator and describes an epic story akin to the 1981 fantasy film Clash of the Titans.
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