Guest Blog: Bringing MonsDRAWsity to Roll20 (And Your Campaign)

It’s incredibly exciting for MonsDRAWsity to be the first officially supported board game on Roll20! I can’t explain how it’s happened, but my design career has been oddly full of firsts. My first game, Nerd Words, was the first party game released by the educational games company, Genius Games. My next game, Tattoo Stories, was one of the first titles when Bicycle Playing Cards launched their board games division. Then, MonsDRAWsity was the first party game released by Deep Water Games.

Here we are today, with my silly little game about monsters and memory going out to scores of Roll20 members. I’m such a fan of Roll20, and I am honored to be a part of the platform’s story. I hope players enjoy the game, and I can’t wait to see what other board game experiences the Roll20 team is working on for the future.

My mind has been racing with ideas of ways people could use MonsDRAWsity in RPG campaigns ever since I got word that Roll20 was going to be digitizing it for their platform. As an occasional DM that usually runs one-shots, I’m always on the lookout for something to inspire the next adventure. Some of the ideas I think could be really neat:

• It Was All A Dream- Open your next session by playing a single round of MonsDRAWsity. One party member dreams about a monster (plays as the Witness). When they awake, they tell their fellow party members about the creature from their dream as it slips from their memory. Any players who earn points this round according to the rules of MonsDRAWsity earn buffs when the party faces this same monster later in the campaign. The dream was a premonition and the players’ ability to recall details about the monster gives them an edge in the encounter!

• The Island of Master Moreau- Unusual creatures have been sighted along a stretch of coast. Rumors suggest the source may be a laboratory on a nearby island where a crazed druid is conducting cross-breeding experiments.

• I Hate Portals- The party members have all answered a local mage’s ad to take part in an experiment for some spare coin. When the experiment goes awry, they are thrown through a series of portals and have to survive until the mage can figure out the kink in his spell. Asking your party members to interact with creatures, species, and races from other dimensions and planes of existence could be a great way to teach them not every encounter requires brute force, and that perception checks can be a very powerful tool indeed.

• Creatures Around the Campfire- Perhaps MonsDRAWsity can be an in-universe pastime like Gwent, Hearthstone, Triple Triad, Fizzbin, or Sabacc. Parties could play rounds of MonsDRAWsity as their characters as they just sit around the campfire or hang out in a tavern during their next in-game “long rest”. This would provide the silly MonsDRAWsity experience, while allowing players to stay in-character.

In addition to integrating the MonsDRAWsity assets into your game sessions in some thematic way, I’d invite people to just play a couple rounds of the game to open up your next digital get-together. The game is a great way to get people loosened up and talking before diving into something meatier. In other words, it’s a great transition from “real life” to “game night.”

MonsDRAWsity is now available on the Roll20 Marketplace. If you're a Pro Subscriber reading this in May, you already have a copy, courtesy of Roll20 Reserve. Redeem your copy here!