Roll20 is a website consisting of a set of tools for playing tabletop role-playing games, also referred to as a virtual tabletop, which can be used as an aid to playing in person or remotely online. The site was launched in 2012 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The platform's goal is to provide an authentic tabletop experience that does not try to turn the game into a video game, but instead aids the game master in providing immersive tools online. The blank slate nature of the platform makes integrating a multitude of tabletop role-playing games possible. During quarantine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has allowed a variety of real life games to transition online, facilitating RPGs in an online space. In July 2022, it was announced that Roll20 will merge with OneBookShelf to become a new company. History 2012 – 2019 Roll20 was originally conceived as a personal project by three college roommates, Riley Dutton, Nolan Jones, and Richard Zayas, to help them continue to play Dungeons & Dragons after graduating and moving to different cities. After realizing that their personal app could help others as well, they started a Kickstarter campaign in the spring of 2012 with an initial goal of $5000; the campaign managed to raise almost $40,000. After a short beta testing period following the end of the Kickstarter campaign, Roll20 was released to the public in September 2012. Roll20 reported reaching 1 million users in July 2015 and 2 million users in January 2017. Academic Evan Torner, in the book Watch Us Roll: Essays on Actual Play and Performance in Tabletop Role-Playing Games (2021), highlighted the impact of Roll20 on the actual play movement. Torner wrote, "Roll20 allows players to seamlessly control information in a shared 'tabletop' era and broadcast content of interest to both the group itself and the wider audience watching it play. Joined with Twitch and YouTube, it constitutes a powerful tool in the kit of industry up-and-comers" and that the "system would impact the play of millions at mass scale [...]. Roll20 would enable these players to document and broadcast their actual play experiences for others to consume". In July 2016, Roll20 announced that they had acquired a license from Wizards of the Coast for official Dungeons & Dragons material. Along with the announcement, they released the first official module for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, Lost Mine of