Fall 2014

The Digital World is Sparking a Pen-and-Paper Renaissance

Table Top Games are Evolving with Technology

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The Wheaton Effect

As of May 10, 2014, the hit YouTube show TableTop was successful in obtaining $1.4 million for a third season through Indiegogo. Previously funded by YouTube’s Original Channel Initiative, the show and its host – Wil Wheaton – had to reach out for alternative methods to fuel future productions. While the Indiegogo campaign is a great success for parent company Geek & Sundry, the renewal of TableTop also has good implications for the entirety of traditional board games.

TableTop is a YouTube video series that gives viewers a brief introduction to the featured board game. Wheaton introduces the game’s basic rules and setup before delving into a small session with other celebrities or internet personalities. Thanks to the advantages of post-production editing, the episodes are cut down to the bare essentials, reducing long games that run more than several hours to a mere 30 minutes.

Though other board game review shows existed before TableTop, Wheaton’s show took off because it demonstrated the fun, personal stories that come about from tabletop gaming. With episodes averaging well over 500 000 views, it’s no wonder why board game retailers and developers are jumping at the opportunity to get some screen time. Immediately after being featured on the show, almost all board games experienced a positive trend in sales[1]. As TableTop enters its third season, its impact will only grow along with the newly reinvigorated board game community.

A new way to / roll 1d20

Geek & Sundry’s TableTop is not the only champion of older forms of entertainment on YouTube. In early 2013, MLG employee and popular eSports personality J.P. McDaniel (also known by his online handle itmeJP) began to broadcast a campaign of the renowned Pen-and-Paper (P&P) Role-Playing Game (RPG), Dungeons and Dragons, on his Twitch and YouTube channels. The series, RollPlay, was initially just meant to be a fun side project for McDaniel and his close friends. Two years later, McDaniel has left his job at MLG and cut most of his ties with the eSports community in order to be a full-time P&P RPG streamer.

RollPlay has had a positive effect on the P&P community’s producers and consumers. Dice have slowly been dusted off as players return to the d20 systems of old and parties separated by many miles are now able to connect online thanks to Roll20, a browser-based tabletop simulator with built-in dice macros. McDaniel’s followers – hard-core gaming fans that originally tuned in to his channel for StarCraft II content – have slowly fallen in love with the old-school roots of gaming.

One of McDaniel’s series, RollPlay R&D, focuses on highlighting a different P&P system every 4-8 weeks. As such, developers and designers of P&P systems have reached out to J.P. McDaniel as a result of the show’s success. Adam Koebel, co-creator of the P&P system Dungeon World, commented that “there was definitely a positive trend during the R&D show vis-a-vis sales of Dungeon World… Anecdotally, it looks like there’s been positive impact”[2]. Furthermore, Koebel has even gone so far as to personally create content for use in McDaniel’s

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