A family can be in the same room and still spend an evening on separate screens. Doungim was built around a different idea: use technology to create one shared experience in the middle of the table rather than another device in every person’s hands.
Doungim is a tabletop roleplaying games console developed by Realm Kinetics Ltd in the UK. Its main display lies flat on the table and becomes the map. Players move physical miniatures across it and roll real dice directly on the surface. A camera reads the rolls and tracks what is happening on the board.
The digital layer is there to keep the shared story moving. A parent or child can describe the kind of adventure they want out loud: a haunted lighthouse, a dragon beneath a school, a journey across a desert, or a world invented on the spot. Doungim can build the map, characters and story around that description, then run the game or assist the person who wants to run it themselves.
“Virtual tabletops put the table inside the computer,” said A. Boush, co founder and CEO of Realm Kinetics Ltd. “Doungim puts the computer inside the table.”
Tabletop roleplaying is active rather than passive entertainment. Players have to say what they want to do, listen to one another, make plans, disagree, compromise and then adapt when a dice roll or another player sends the story somewhere unexpected. Doungim provides the world and keeps track of what is happening, but the people around the table still make the decisions.
The console can also remove one of the biggest barriers to an impromptu family game: somebody normally has to prepare it and run it. In Game Master mode, Doungim can manage the adventure, rules, characters and turn order so everyone at the table can play. If someone wants to remain the Game Master, Doungim can instead act as an assistant while that person keeps control of the story.
Sessions can be kept short, which makes it easier to fit a game around an evening. Captions can appear on screen, text can be read aloud and the pace can be adjusted when needed.
The table does not have to be in a single home either. Remote players can join a session while other players remain around the physical board, allowing families and friends in different places to share the same map and the same story.
The idea is simple: keep the advantages of digital tools, but make the table and the people around it the centre of the experience.
Kickstarter
Doungim was funded in under three hours and is live now. View the Kickstarter campaign (opens in a new tab).
About Doungim
Doungim is a tabletop roleplaying games console developed by Realm Kinetics Ltd in the UK. Its main display lies flat on the table and shows a digital game world while players use physical dice and miniatures. The system can assist a human Game Master, run a group game, or run a solo adventure, with support for remote players.
