Are you a fan of tabletop RPG campaigns? With the new Covid-19 restrictions around the world, more and more people are not able to leave their homes. Weekly events have been cancelled and this whole situation has made others realize what actual items they have at their disposal to end boredom. People have also realized over these last few weeks that not everyone has access to a computer, or even a gaming console; don’t worry though because this app will get that weekly adventure back on everyone’s schedule.
Created by Adriano Cola, “mRPG Chat” is a text based multiplayer adventure game. He himself created this app for the sole reason of being able to play with friends who live far away, but also don’t have access to a PC. At first glance you’ll notice that this application looks like a standard messaging app, but it is far from it. The first thing a player needs to do is create a username. A username is key to find other players, after which a “GM” needs to create a chat room and physically add everyone who is joining the campaign.
To create a new campaign the GM will tap on the top icon. This will give the player access to the “GM Screen.” From here the GM must create each individual character sheet, to ease this process mRPG has a 5th edition template available. The GM can edit sections on these character sheet. Players will have access to change values such as level, hit points as well as have full control of their own inventory.
After every player has been set up is where the fun begins. Tapping the user icon at the bottom each person will have the ability to chat as themselves or as their characters; This makes distinguishing comments between people a lot easier, also makes for some funny banter if a person forgets to change their avatar bubble. A GM can also create simple one-off NPC’s by swiping the character bubbles to the right. This saves time with character creation if an NPC will be making a short apperance.
To make a standard dice roll mRPG has created a beautiful dice calculator. Just tap the dice needed, add modifiers and boom- a usable value. Macros can be utilized to meet player needs. Rather than a player rolling fireball, and attempting to roll all of those dice; a macro such as “#fireball” can be created, with all values programmed and ready to go.
We love this app. Gamers can create campaigns and/or join in on others. If a player can’t find anyone locally to play with, they can hop in a “public campaign” that another user has created. In our current social normal, it’s important to keep interacting with people to maintain our human connection. The big benefit of mRPG Chat is the access to our friends and loved ones who don’t have a PC, and can’t access popular sites like “Roll20“. Starting a conversation out of the blue is hard for some but jumping into a character ready to take on a hoard of goblins; for some reason feels natural.
Stay safe everyone, and get to rolling some digital dice.
