Early on in my tenure at TuneIn, I had the idea of developing a TuneIn-owned station that would cater to the audio needs of tabletop gamers. I knew this was a niche user base and would need to present a thorough brief. With the support of my fantastic bosses, this became a long-term research and development project that allowed me to articulate the problem from start to finish, develop a plan, and present potential partners and sponsors.

For: TuneIn
Date: 2024
Scope of Work: UX & UI Design
Software: Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, Figma

Demographic Research

The Basics

What are Tabletop RPGs?

Tabletop Role-Playing Games, more commonly abbreviated Tabletop RPGs or TTRPGs, is an umbrella term for social games played with a group of friends around the table or online, where
each participant creates, controls, and plays a fictional character in an evolving story or adventure.

Examples Include:

  • Dungeons & Dragons
  • Pathfinder
  • Call of Cthulhu
  • Vampire: The Masquerade
  • Blades in the Dark
  • Starfinder

The Numbers

How Popular are Tabletop RPGs?

The most popular Tabletop RPG, Dungeons & Dragons, has been experiencing a renaissance since 2014 that was strongly fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

4.3 Billion

minutes watched on Twitch in 2020

10 million

virtual players on Roll20

33% increase

in Dungeons & Dragons
sales in 2020

100+

Tabletop RPG Actual Play podcasts

40%

of Dungeons & Dragons
players are women

40%

of players are 25 or
younger

The environment

how are tabletop rpgs played?

In 2024, there are two main ways that Tabletop RPGs are played: in person around a table, and virtually via tools such as Discord, Zoom, Roll20, and many others.

All you truly need to play Tabletop RPGs are paper, rules, pencils, and friends, but other tools commonly used are maps, miniatures to represent players and monsters, dice, props, and most critically: music.

Capitalizing on Tabletop RPGs

PART 1

Game Night O&O Stations

PART 2

Tabletop RPG Podcast Experience

Game Night O&O Stations

Backing Music for Epic Adventures

Music is an important part of all tabletop RPG games. Setting the mood, dictating the stakes, and even just signaling to the table that it’s time to stop chatting and get to playing.

Having go-to stations that offer different atmospheres that are a well-curated and reliable ad-free experience would add value for any TTRPG player looking to enhance their game experience.

Invigorating | Strong | Suspenseful
  • Fighting Back – Neal Acree
  • The Cinder King – Omar Fadel
  • Stormkeeper – Two Steps from Hell
  • I Am the Storm – Ramin Djawadi
  • Battle the Darkspawn Hordes – Inon Zur
Mysterious | Whimsical | Alluring
  • The Lost Temple – Trevor Morris
  • Lost Forest – Neal Acree
  • I Was Born for This – Austin Wintory
  • The Great Plains – Patrick Doyle
  • Winter in Alaska – Patrick Doyle
Light | Melodic | Curious
  • Stroll Through Nicodranas – Omar Fadel
  • Back in Venice – Jesper Kyd
  • The King’s Arrival – Ramin Djawadi
  • Market Place – Inon Zur
  • The Fox and the Farmer – Justin Bell
Upbeat | Bright | Folk
  • Hupperdook Tavern – Omar Fadel
  • Long Ago & Far Away – Doug Wood
  • River’s Dance – Greg Edmonson
  • Two Hornpipes – Hans Zimmer
  • Tavern Music – Inon Zur
Brass | Adventurous | Bold
  • Taking the Helm – Thomas Bergersen
  • Norwegian Pirate – Two Steps from Hell
  • The Medallion Calls – Klaus Badelt
  • Discombobulate – Hans Zimmer
  • The Kraken – Hans Zimmer
Eerie | Sinister | “Nightmare Fuel”
  • The Ritual – Neal Acree
  • The Caverns of Crystalfen – Robert Wolf
  • Woedica – Justin Bell
  • Wallachia 1455 – Trevor Morris
  • Spores – Jed Kurzel

Tabletop RPG Podcast Experience

Reimagining the User Experience

The current podcast categorization and UI model doesn’t work for Actual Play games. Content is spread out under multiple different umbrella categories, and creators are limited in how they present their stories. Currently, different stories are mixed together under one title podcast, making new content harder to find and keep up with. Digging through episode lists to find where you left off is annoying at best.

Additionally, finding new content relies more on word of mouth than algorithms. Unless you already know what you are looking for it is almost impossible to find new content. By changing how this content is presented, TuneIn can become the #1 destination for creators and consumers alike.

Making a Better User Experience

Proposed User Flow

One of the most important parts of redefining the user experience is adding better navigational tools. Adding a category for Tabletop & RPGs allows for better content tagging, which will lead to more accurate user profiles and algorithm success. 

Adding keyword phrases associated with Tabletop RPGs to the internal search algorithm would redirect potential users to the correct content while simultaneously showcasing the breath of IP offerings in TuneIn’s library.

Search Keyword Phrases Include:

  • Actual Play
  • Dungeons & Dragons
  • DnD
  • Pathfinder
  • Tabletop Role Playing Games
  • Role Playing Games
  • TTRPGS

User opens Podcasts

User selects “View All Genres”

User selects “Tabletop & RPGs”

Bonus feature: Resume

Proposed User Flow

One of the biggest banes of episodic content in podcasts is the inability to find the episode that you listened to last with ease. Unlike non-episodic content, it matters what order users listen to material in. And they don’t necessarily listen to the entire breadth of content without taking breaks.

Being able to easily continue where you left off, despite new content being added, would be beneficial for all episodic-based content. There currently isn’t a comparable feature in the podcast space and this unique ability could define TuneIn as a pioneer in the podcast space and go-to platform for listeners.

Potential Partnerships & Sponsors

Dimension 20 Partnership

A Collection of Exclusive Content, in a New Format

Dimension 20 is an Actual Play show created by Dropout, formerly College Humor. They have 18 seasons and over 200 episodes, with the majority of their content available exclusively on Dropout.TV streaming service.

Creating a partnership with Dimension 20 and bringing their exclusive content behind the paywall would help expand the premium offerings for TuneIn listeners and tap into a new market.

Titles Include:

Wizards of the coast sponsorship

Major Players in the TTRPG Scene

Wizards of the Coast is the company that owns Dungeons & Dragons, the largest tabletop RPG IP on the market, as well as Magic: The Gathering, a very popular deck-builder. Additionally, in 2022, they acquired D&DBeyond, the most-used Dungeons and Dragons web-based tool on the marker.

Their parent company, Hasbro, reported a profit of $142.3 million in 2023 Q2 for Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming. Partnering with a well-known company that has significant name recognition in the community would allow for additional opportunities and expansion as this content evolves.