How to D&D with F&F
How we battle monsters instead of pushing pixels with Frontify and Figma
Like every team that works remote-first due to Covid, we, the Frontify Product Design Team, run into the challenge of staying connected and feeling like the kick-ass team we are.
Before Covid, we had tabletop game nights with beer and pizza, but since being stuck at home with limited options in the gaming department (because of technical requirements and not wanting to spend too much money), we struggled to keep it up.
Then one day, an idea struck me. I had quite some experience playing D&D in the past — even taking on the hat of the Dungeon Master — and I enjoy creating maps and fleshing out the backstories of NPCs (Non-Player Characters) — so why not suggest it to the team and try it out? After all, playing a make-believe game could actually work online just as well as offline. I asked the team if they were willing to try it out and, to my surprise, everyone was on board!
Fast forward a couple of months and we’re head over heels in the deepest depths of a fantasy world, forming great bonds, fighting monsters together, and managing to overcome even greater obstacles with the power of our imagination and creativity. Great team building? I think so.
But how do we actually play?
Creating Our Characters
To play D&D, the most important thing is to create your own character (fortunately there are already loads of great tools out there to play remotely), so it was a no-brainer to send the team over to dndbeyond.com. The tool provides a digital character sheet that does all the math for the player, which is just brilliant for starting out with brand new players who don’t know yet how to do all the complicated calculations. And just like that, everyone came up with their own amazing alter egos to bring into our first session, so all we had left to do was to play.
The players:
Washmud, the human Sorcerer who pretends to be a wizard, played by our code-savvy Product Designer Jamie.
Serook, the fire obsessed tiefling Warlock with a dark past and an even darker patron, played by our Design Lead Dan.
Fawn, the feminist elven ranger with a dragon sidekick, played by our Aussie pixel queen Simone.
And Eldro, the dorky dragonborn wizard (who needs to stay the hell away from ale), played by our also kinda dorky but lovable UX Expert Rick.
They met in a tavern (cliché, I know), and the rest is history…
The Product Designers’ D&D Toolbox
It didn’t take the newly-formed band of adventurers very long to run into trouble, so a battle map was needed. To keep things simple and easy, I didn’t want to introduce an additional tool, so I decided to use what we already know and use on a daily basis.
This includes:
- Google Meet so we can see each other while playing
- Figma for maps and other visual goodies
- And Frontify to document our journey together
I create my battle maps with elements from 2-Minute Tabletop (an outstanding resource for every Dungeon Master) and set the maps up in Figma for the party to discover. It didn’t take our experienced product designers long to come up with a creative way to make character token components, too — and of course some variants. (see the image below)
We also use Figma’s incredibly handy auto-layout feature for initiative tracking (defines who’s turn it is) and more.
As an example, check out the aftermath of our latest battle:
- There’s an area of effect that’s easily visualized by a layer with a layer blur in Figma
- An invisible Duergar, aka a giant grey dwarf with an attitude
- A giant pile of ash (Rest in Pieces, Duergar 1)
- And two goats summoned by our resident Wizard-Boy (who knows what for?!)
Alas, there’s another masterful tool that we use heavily for our Dungeons and Dragons game, and that’s our very own Frontify. Within it, I set up two Guidelines: one for the players and a super-secret one for myself.
The guideline the players use is handled like some kind of wiki; I provide a session summary for every time we play, and they are free to fill in the gaps. There’s also a section for locations the party visited and people they met. (ref. picture)
The super-secret guideline is my personal Dungeon Master binder. It contains all the extra information about the NPCs and places that the characters didn’t discover yet. I’m not gonna include a picture of that one here to refrain from spoiling my lovely co-workers.
And Off We Go
Curious about how to involve your own team in a game of D&D? My suggestion is to just jump right into it. There’s an insane amount of tools and information out there, ready to be discovered (and even free of charge). All you need is someone willing to take on the task of Dungeon Master-ing and you’re ready to go. Too intimidated to use all the fancy tools? Just use what you’re already familiar with and go from there. I can assure you that it will bring your team together in a way it has never been before and stir up those creative juices. Start with a one shot (a short session that usually only lasts one evening) and ask your players if they want to continue playing or if it’s not for them. Then, go from there.
And this is where I leave you. I have dungeons to design and players to torment, with the thought that maybe someday in the future we’re even going to play in person. Then, we can get to painting some minis or doing even nerdier things (in the name of team building, of course).
