How Do Digital TTRPG Players Game Online?

Remote ethnography

Foundation

Who is this for?

Tales of Xadia, a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) based on the Cortex Prime system. 

What are we looking for?

Tales of Xadia was creating digital character sheets to help players run the game smoother and easier. For this project a fellow researcher and I were asked to investigate how players play the game based on the Netflix series, The Dragon Prince.

What do we think we know?

The social aspect of the game provides a tangible effect to learning the tools that we couldn’t capture outside of real play. 

Findings

How do I find out?

In order to answer these questions I had to reach out of my comfort zone to use a technique I had not utilized yet, ethnography. Ethnography is simply observing users in their “natural habitat” without any intervention by the researcher. Afterwards we gave each participant a short survey about their experience. To be able to get all of their screens as well as their live reactions to the game, I combined OBS Studio, a free tool for streaming, and OBS Ninja, a free tool for OBS which allowed me to capture the users’ screens. This setup is shown in the example picture. We had two designated groups of participants who have never played the game before, people who have experience with digital player tools from other TTRPGs, and people who were only familiar with the Dragon Prince IP.

What did we actually find?

The social aspect of the game did allow for newer players to pick up on how to use the tools. Even when combining less experienced players together each person brought different understandings to the table and they were able to help each other out in different areas. The checklist nature of picking the dice to roll made it easy for players to quickly pick up the game and be able to start enjoying themselves. That being said, the tools themselves were not actually helping to teach the players. The primary mode of learning was social through both the players and the Narrator, basically the person who runs the game. 

Impact

How did I impact the product?

The designers were able to take the insights gathered and update the methods they used to teach people the tools without relying completely on the person trying to run the game. This leaves them able to focus more on creating exciting stories and memorable play experiences for their friends. 

What did I take away from this?

For this project I had to adapt to new techniques for user research that I had not previously used. It was extremely insightful to just watch these players play the game and use the tools without need for a researcher to intervene to ask questions. They would ask questions when confused and help each other learn. That adaptability is key to my strategy for user research.