Mirrorscape’s new AR tabletop platform could enhance your D&D campaign

26.07.2023 - 15:09 / techcrunch.com / New

Yet another virtual tabletop (VTT) tool has joined the fray, giving Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and tabletop role-playing gamers alike a new augmented reality experience.

Mirrorscape, a mixed reality and gaming development company, announced the open beta launch of its app, letting users experience their favorite tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) in AR.

The new VTT app launches at a time when many players are shifting away from the typical pen-and-paper play and transitioning to digital gaming — whether by creating character sheets on D&D Beyond, hopping on Discord/Zoom to play with long-distance friends or using services like Roll20.

Mirrorscape aims to shake up traditional tabletop as well as VTT gaming with its technology, allowing users to enhance their game session with AR, build 3D maps, roll digital dice, chat with fellow party members and more all on one platform.

The app is available to download for free on the App Store and Google Play Store. A PC version is launching in the coming months.

Similar to other companies in the same space (Ardent Roleplay, Spatial and Tilt Five), Mirrorscape’s most significant feature is its building capabilities. The customizable platform provides game masters (GMs) with a toolset for creating an animated world of their dark and twisted dreams, from dimly lit dungeons to small villages overrun by orcs.

At launch, Mirrorscape provides access to around 50 already-built maps, which can be purchased in the store section within the build tab. Individual digital items, such as miniature figures and terrain, range from 99 cents to $4.99.

The app includes a free starter kit, including approximately a dozen or so free maps, a few basic structures like cavern walls, cobblestone floors and doorways, along with five free minis, including a dwarf, a barbarian and a huntress. Hero Forge users can link their digital mini for free.

In addition to Hero Forge, the company partners with major game publishers and model manufacturers Paizo (Pathfinder and Starfinder), Reaper, Fat Dragon, Dwarven Forge and many others.

Mirrorscape offers two types of playing modes. Players can either view the map in AR mode — where they point and look through their phone cameras to explore the landscape — or 3D mode, which takes place in virtual rooms such as “Forge’s Tavern,” featuring a cozy fireplace and mugs of mead, and “The Hall of Heroes,” a candlelit room that pays tribute to fallen adventurers.

There are only two virtual rooms available at launch, but the company plans to launch more in the near future, Eric McIntire, the company’s brand manager, told TechCrunch.

Both versions come with POV mode, where party members can click on an eye icon to look at the world from their characters’ perspective.