Hello everyone!
Recently, we’ve had a fairly hefty challenge drop onto our D&D campaign - namely, my Wife has gone to university to pursue a career that she can enjoy and be proud of1.
My wife also happens to be one of the 5 players in our campaign, fondly called the Cheese Chase2, and this leads to logistical issues - you see, we have always played in person - first at the local D&D club, then in pubs, then in hired meeting rooms, and then, when me & my lovely wife moved into a larger place, in our dedicated D&D & Board Games room3.
Something had to be done to keep the campaign together - we could pause it, and only play on holidays, but that puts a lot of pressure on her when she needs to be preparing for exams and such. We could also shift online, but given that I would estimate that we have 14 cases of ADHD just between the 6 of us around the table, I know where that leads - people will be on their phones, playing other games, browsing the web, and not engaging, and the campaign would risk dying from distraction alone.
No, I need to do something to allow us to keep meeting as we always have done, but to allow my wife to connect remotely. And, by happenstance, we had a very large, fairly new, fairly broken TV in the shed. And by fairly broken, here’s what I mean:
You’ll notice the subtle lack of anything below a third of the way down.
But, through some jiggery, much pokery, and a very useful video from a youtube channel called Frugal Repair, I managed to fix the problem using some packing tape, in just a couple of hours, including disassembly and reassembly!
So now, I have a 58” LCD TV. My plan is to make one of those amazing-looking D&D tables where the centre of the table is the TV, with the maps on display. This way, my Wife can log in remotely on a piece of software like Owlbear Rodeo or Roll20, and the players in person can move their minis on the table!
Ultimately, I would love to make something that can work out where the miniatures are and update the maps in real time, but for now, let’s focus on the woodwork!
The Mission: Make the best D&D table EVER!
I had previously made what I thought was the best rudimentary D&D table ever - which was essentially an 8’x4’ table with a drywipe Mondo-Mat covering the entire thing in a hex-grid. It is extremely fun to be able to carry battles right to the edges of the board!
But now, I have the opportunity to make a very large and very fancy D&D table, and I want to capitalise on it as much as possible!
Here’s the TV lying down4 on the table where I usually had the 8’x4’ board on top of. This is going to be huge!
Research Time!
I have some ideas for the table - I want it to open and close over the TV to reduce the space when it’s not in use, and I want everyone to have maximum space to store things, and I’d like to wire in microphones for the seats so that everyone can be heard properly - that sort of thing - but I would be a fool if I assumed that I had thought of everything that could be achieved in making this, so to the internet we shall go! Additionally, this gives those of you who have gotten this far in a state of mild puzzlement a chance to see what the heck I am trying to do! So, let’s look at what everyone else has done before me so we can do what dungeon masters do best5!
One of the first to pop up when I started searching was this beautiful article:
Credit to WheatlandWoodwork over on Etsy for this beauty! you can find the link to it here if you have a spare mortgage downpayment burning a hole in your pocket.
Main Features for this one are:
Plug sockets for each player. This is so clever - half my players use digital character sheets, so being able to keep charged will keep the game flowing! I can probable get away with just USBs for my group, mind you!
Fold-out niches for players. It keeps things tidy, and looks great. Biggest problem for me is that my players like to lean - the board we use regularly creaks alarmingly as people lean in to look at stuff, or lean on the table. I’m not convinced that those hinges would stand up to my players!
Cup Holders! An absolute must - spilt drinks are bad when it’s just minis, but if it’s a TV… eesh.
LED lighting. This can set the mood of the game, and I am 1-00% down for including some!
It also covers up into a normal table for normal tabley things, like shove ha’penny and hobbyist butchery:
and has some very pretty storage underneath. I won’t be able to mimic this, because I have an existing table I’ll be using to keep costs down, so I’m only focussed on the top! I do want to be able to cover the TV, but I am also conscious that those panels all have to go somewhere!
This one is from someone called Lynxicanus on Reddit, and it is also beautiful!
![r/DnD - [OC][ART] DnD / Gaming DIY table](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!s-S1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b0aeae9-22ae-444f-a4b0-1dae692ff58e_640x480.jpeg "r/DnD - [OC][ART] DnD / Gaming DIY table")
The LED lighting around the edges in the form of the one ring’s writing, genius. And the runes for each player - as my Wife suggested, you could have slots for each player name, so that it can be switched up. The runes can work as atmospheric lighting, and that is a big bit of awesome for me, as raw LEDs can look a little too sci-fi for a fantasy table!
This has the same concerns of people leaning on the flip-out bits, so I may have to work with this style instead of against it - I’m having some ideas on that…
This one is a concept table6 by Western Pride Woodworks:
The craftsmanship in this is likely to be way, waaaay beyond my meagre capabilities7, but damn, doesn’t this look good! The slight raise to the screen and the built-in pockets for the dice and accessories make me feel very happy. The space around the outside may be too little for paper dnd sheets and books, though, so that would need tweaking for my design. The profiling on the edges and the overall design are definitely up for consideration!
This last one (before I hit the hay) is from Game Theory Tables, and was co-developed by WotC:
This one has some really cool features - the slots around the inside and outside mean that everything is modular, which is very cool. It has so many features, you almost need an annotated diagram. Fortunately for us…
They have one!
I love the idea of the DM screen being almost part of the table, so that idea is 100% going into this. the trays aroudn the outside, I would be concerned again with the leaning. The sloped surface under the trays would be much less harsh on the knees than any sharp edges I’ve seen elsewhere too, and the wine stem holder is definitely worth considering!
Time now to mull all of this over - I will be thinking on this this week, and my next steps are to make the TV in CAD, and start looking at where the cables and air-flow needs to go to keep the TV working - then I can look at the accessories in more detail!
For now, if you have any ideas for what the best D&D table needs, please comment!
Thankyou and Goodnight!
And I am so, immensely proud of her. I know I usually keep footnotes for comedic value, but she has gone back into full time education, away from the home she has built with me. Even before that, she was one of the bravest women I knew. I’m so damn proud.
The campaign, not the wife.
Because only a fool would waste the largest room in the house on having a TV at one end and then sitting at the other to look at it!
In the final design, it will be the other way up so that the screen is actually visible.
Plagiarism!
It took me a moment or two to decide whether this was a 3D rendering or AI image generation. That’s the thing I hate most about AI images - they make you doubt skilled digital work like this.
Though I will research how to do it and see whether it’s feasible - I’ve done surprising things in the past, like fixing a TV!