Events & Updates

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you're all starting your week off on the right foot! I wanted to let you all know that Altrole is now accepting Staff Applications for the Spring Season! Our entire server runs off the passion of volunteers who do this for the love of the game, so if you're interested in joining either our Instructor team or Events team, you can now apply to join!

Our Instructor team is responsible for running the educational courses you all know and love, from the Level 1 basics to our advanced Level 2s. Even if you don't have any experience teaching, that's ok, because we will walk you through how we go over our scripts & slide decks so that you're prepared to begin helping people get into D&D!

Our Events Team focuses more on special events, creating and running their own seminars, showcases, and interviews that are still TTRPG related, but less structured than a "traditional" course. A lot of our older, higher-level courses are also available for Events Team members to run if you'd prefer to work off of existing ideas and materials as well. If you have an idea for an event you'd like to see, the Events Team is right up your alley! ideas off of the rest of the team to find fun things to do!

If you're interested in becoming an Instructor or Events Team Member, please fill out the Google Form in our Discord by this Friday! Over the weekend, we will review the applications, and we'll begin reaching out to potential applicants next week to schedule an Orientation.

Thank you all for your interest!

Altrole has Transitioned to 5.5e!

With the release of the 2024 Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and the soon-to-release Monster Manual, I'm proud to announce that we have fully transitioned our courses to 5.5e! Our old 2014 materials are currently archived, but we will still run them by request.

I am aware that some people may be disappointed with our choice to update to 5.5e. While DMs and Players are still free to play whichever systems they choose, Altrole's main responsibility has always been to lower the barrier of entry into TTRPGs, and 5.5e is the best version of D&D for new players to learn, both due to the better layout of the sourcebooks and revisions to frustrating rules.

So, for now, we hope you'll join us in learning more about the revised D&D rules! Once we get our hands on the Monster Manual, expect more one shots and campaigns to start popping up, and perhaps some special events too.

Thank you all, and happy gaming!

Altrole Turns 3!

I am so happy to be celebrating Altrole's 3rd Anniversary with everyone! It's been a long journey to get here, but I am excited to think about Altrole's future as a figure in the TTRPG community!

Altrole would be nothing without all of you tabletop nerds (said with love) making it the place for players to learn how to play, grow their knowledge in the TTRPG space, and help others get into this hobby that holds a special place in our lives. Whether it's the staff members who volunteer their time and energy to run events and courses, or the GMs who run games for players, to the players themselves who undertake the brave task of pinging & DMing other players to form groups together! All of you are what make Altrole, and the tabletop community, so wonderful, and I am thankful that I have gotten to be a part of it for the last 3 years of my life.

We have another Content Sharing Sweepstakes for you all, so if you want a chance to get a month's access to all those glorious sourcebooks, go hit that accept button in Upcoming Events! I hope you all will join us for our Town Hall at 1:00 PM EDT, and after that, we have a plethora of public games being run that you can spectate the rest of the day!

So go forth! Enjoy your Fridays, keep an ear out during the events for future reveals, and know that the entire Altrole Team and I appreciate each and every one of you for making this place so great.

Celebrating Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary!

Gary Con has generously donated badges for Altrole to participate in the virtual convention! We currently invite Altrole members who would like to GM a game for GaryCon to reach out for a free pass! For more information you can go to https://garycon.com/.

GMs that run events totaling 4+ hours also get a free pass for next year!

If you're interested in playing some Dungeons & Dragons games or other TTRPGs, we're doing a GaryCon raffle to give out free virtual badges every week until the day of GaryCon's Virtual Event (March 21-24)!

Everyone that gets a badge can sign up as players in other games, or attend virtual events by many notable names in the TTRPG space!

Now that we're settling into 2024 proper, Altrole is opening up applications to become a member of staff! Applications are open for both the Instructor Team and the Events Team

The Instructors are responsible for running the courses you all know and love, from the Level 1 basics all the way up to the Level 4 topics. Instructors will be taught how we like to go through our course materials, how we manage scheduling, and eased into teaching through mock courses, 1 on 1 mentor sessions with existing instructors, and guided public courses with staff on standby to help if needed.

The Events Team are responsible for creating and running the more unique events you've seen in the last couple of weeks, from the DM interviews and office hours, to public One Shots! Events Team members will be given instruction on how ideas are turned into events, how to go through running them, and given time in brainstorming sessions to bounce ideas off of the rest of the team to find fun things to do!

If you're interested in becoming an Instructor or Events Team Member, please fill out the Google Form in our Discord by this Friday! Over the weekend, we will review the applications, and we'll begin reaching out to potential applicants next week to schedule an Orientation by the end of January.

Thank you all for your interest!

After checking the calendar, I realized that a whole year had passed from our first upload on the Altrole Youtube channel! Time flies when you're having fun, amirite? I wanted to take a minute to be a little sappy about it, because when you're the admin, you get to do that.

This whole thing started with an idea: Why don't we start making videos? Simple enough, but easier said than done I suppose. It took me over a month to make one 22 minute breakdown video, all the while I was teaching myself how to tweak OBS, how to edit videos, what to put in the edits, and a ton more. I've learned so much since then, not only about video creation, but about what I enjoy and don't enjoy in the TTRPG space, through the successful ideas like the Monster Breakdown Series, and the failures like the D&D News Roundup. While I'm always learning and growing as a creator and person, that progress is incredible to see when going back to look at the old videos we started with.

This channel has been a great avenue for me, and others on staff, to continue to explore our passion for D&D beyond the courses and events we run here on the community. While the videos will never replace the live events and courses we do here, I'm hoping it will allow us to grow and engage with the Altrole community on a wider scale. But of course, all of this wouldn't be possible without all of you that support us, whether its by viewing and enjoying the content, liking and subscribing, or even supporting us financially on the KoFi. You all make this worth it, and I speak on behalf of all the staff here when I say:

Thank You

As we approach 2024, I'm excited to continue working on more videos and ideas with you all, and always willing to hear what you want to see. Whatever we come up with, we'll keep you all up to date on new developments! 

As the cold wind blows, and a chill runs through the air, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! It's been one helluva year so far here on Altrole, and even more to come as we finish up 2023 in the next two months (crazy how soon that is, right?). While the staff and I have some things we're working on, I wanted to take a look forward to 2024, and give a primer on some of the things we'll be focusing on next year:

1. OneD&D is expected to release next year! While we know a little, we plan on going through all the new changes OneD&D is bringing to the tabletop. Once we get a grasp on the new material, we'll be hosting seminars where we discuss it with all of you, and should the changes be adopted into the core 5e experience, we'll look at updating our scripts to match the new sourcebooks. All of this hinges on what the OneD&D release experience is, so we'll  have to keep our ear to the ground and see what happens

2. Our Events Team is working tirelessly to create new, engaging events for you all to attend outside of our slew of courses. From public D&D games to trivia, we're hoping to give you all more opportunities to engage with the rest of the community on Altrole. While I can't share any specifics yet, keep an eye out for an announcement from that team as things develop

3. Since April of 2021, Altrole has grown to well over 6,000 members! However, as the pandemic lifted and people started going back outside again (can't relate), growth for the server has started slowing. While we continue to advertise the server as a resource for new players, we want to establish Altrole as the place to learn the game. As such, we're forming some initial ideas to reach out to other TTRPG creators, and get Altrole's name out there to the larger D&D community. These potential partnerships would focus on creators that share our vision of lowering the barrier of entry into TTRPGs, but we'll be able to share more about these if/when they develop.

It's insane to me that we're only 6 months away from Altrole's 3 year anniversary. I never would have expected this community to grow to what it is now, and I am so proud of everyone who's joined and helped make it what it is today. Thank you all for being a part of this amazing journey.

— Bill, Altrole Admin

Happy birthday Altrole! Today marks 2 years since we started bringing people into the server to help teach them the basics of D&D!

Back then, there were no "staff". There was simply James, the server's founder, me, a guy who barely knew what he was doing, and a couple other people like Cype who knew their way around server bots. We only offered Character Creation, Combat, and Roleplay, and our LFG section was just us encouraging people to group with other people they saw around the server. We didn't even have a Discord invite link! We brought people in manually in large chunks every Thursday and then held a server orientation for all the new members.

Since then, we're up to 30 staff members that help run the 32 courses we have, have brought in over 5,000 D&D players to form over 350 groups, and created a community that works to lower the barrier of entry into TTRPGs and help one another. Our membership growth isn't the only thing I'm proud of though. Over the years, our courses have become more refined, our systems on-server more user friendly, and our Learning to DM series has helped over 250 people get started on their DMing journey, all completely free from any financial barrier. And while I'm the owner here, that will never change.

The one thing I'm most proud of is all of you. Every single one of you have built this community into something special. In just two short years, we've made a lasting impact on the tabletop gaming space. What we do here has encouraged others to start up their own servers to teach people how to play, I see people on Reddit and other forums recommending Altrole as the place to start for new players, and I happily read the glowing feedback you all give our wonderful instructors with our course feedback survey. Without you, we wouldn't be the community that we are today. From the bottom of my heart, truly, thank you.

As we turn towards the future, I hope this community will serve as a place where anyone who wants to get into D&D and tabletop gaming can come to learn without stigma, and we're looking to continue expanding our reach to become a well-known name amongst the tabletop gaming community. We're working with new ideas to continue to grow and improve, but if you want to hear more about what we're working on behind the scenes, make sure to join our Discord for a town hall later today to get a sneak peak and have your voice heard in the future of the server.

Thank you again, for giving me the absolute pleasure of managing this wonderful community.

May all your rolls be 20s,

Bill, Altrole Admin