The Best Places To Find A D&D Game Online, Ranked | StartPlaying (2024)

The ability to play Dungeons & Dragons online changed the game, in many ways literally. You're no longer limited to only playing with people within driving distance. Or even worse, trying to force reticent friends and family members into a game. Now that you can play on virtual tabletops and with video chat, there’s a whole world of potential party members out there. The new challenge becomes finding the right ones.

Here at StartPlaying, our goal is matching you with a Dungeon Master that meets your needs. In service of that, we’ve looked at how various chat groups and social media platforms approach the process of searching for D&D games. We still think we’re the best when it comes to offering a professional experience, but here are the best places to find a D&D game online.

8. Tabletop Wizard

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Our first stop brings us to a site made for finding online and in-person tables. Tabletop Wizard lets you sign up for free and peruse a variety of board games, wargames, and TTRPGs. GMs post titles, descriptions, and times in easy-to-read thumbnails. It’s all straightforward and user friendly. It's a shame, then, that Tabletop Wizard has such low usage. As of this moment, there are only 37 games visible in its search. You're not exactly spoiled for choice.

7. Facebook

Facebook groups have been around for a looong time. That means there’s a large number of people in the larger tabletop RPG groups. The Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition group has over 180k members, making it a great place to find fellow fans. That being said, it is a general group as opposed to a "looking for players" forum. The rules do keep the group from being flooded with memes and junk, but the point stands that most people there probably aren’t looking for a table. Also it is a Facebook group, so be wary of those comment sections.

6. Reddit

The true gold of Reddit is its endless specialized communities, called subreddits. There’s subreddits for specific TV shows, DIY advice, and even finding D&D groups. LFG and LFG Premium are two such subreddits. Posts tend to follow a particular format, which can seem tedious to create at first but does lead to very detailed listings. It’s a great way to find the genre, player experience level, and general vibe you're going for. The main setback is that these subreddits don't seem to be very active. Most posts have one comment if any. That said, maybe people are just DMing the poster instead of commenting, so it could be worth a shot.

5. RPGMatch

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RPGMatch's About page tells the story of how its founder wanted to find a TTRPG group to play with after a long time away from the hobby. With his usual groups gone, he found that LFG forums didn’t ask the important questions like one’s safety tool preference or how intense they like their combat. RPGMatch uses surveys to gauge your preferences and match you with similar players. It’s a great idea that tackles compatibility problems before they become problems. The only thing holding RPGMatch back is that it’s newer than a lot of these other options, so the user base is smaller.With enough user feedback and time, however, it could become a powerhouse.

4. Roll20

It's no surprise that one of the biggest websites for online D&D would be a great place to find fellow players. The Roll20 forums have dedicated space for both paid and free game listings. The biggest convenience here is knowing that everyone in the forums uses Roll20 as their platform of choice. Assuming you also use Roll20, that’s one important commonality right off the bat. The only drawback in terms of this list is that Roll20 is not only a D&D platform. While it’s great to try new games, you’ll be wading through posts about other games if you're just looking for D&D groups.

3. D&D Beyond

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Here's another obvious contender. It's an official platform for D&D, one where thousands of people create characters. And of course D&D Beyond has forums with dedicated threads for finding groups to play with. The forums are of similar quality to those of Roll20. The reason this ranks slightly higher is the purpose of this list: you’re here looking for online D&D games, and D&D Beyond forums are all about that. You'll find nothing but people looking to play D&D, which is exactly what you want.

2. Discord

Nothing beats an active, safe Discord server. If you can make your way into such a community, you’ll find a great group of people to play with. You can also have a separate channel for pre-session setup chat, use voice/video chat for the game itself, and set up bots to play music and roll dice. Essentially, Discord is a one-stop shop for online D&D. The official Dungeons & Dragons Discord server has a wonderfully organized array of channels for finding DMs, finding players, and even finding whole communities.

1. StartPlaying Games

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We did say we think we’re the best. StartPlaying is a whole site built for matching players with DMs. Our search tools allow you to filter for the date and time of day when you prefer to play, then deliver all kinds of games that meet that desire. You can also search by DM if you know you want a performer, combat master, or something else entirely. There are games meant for beginners, hardcore homebrew for experienced players, and pretty much every official module being run. It’s not just about finding a game, it’s about finding the game you want to play.

The Best Places To Find A D&D Game Online, Ranked | StartPlaying (2024)
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