Mirrorscape Wants to Conjure Your Favorite Tabletop Game in AR

It’s fair to say that the virtualization of our lives has become one of the standout frontiers of the 21st century, which the metaverse stands to accelerate. One of the hottest testbeds for this market will likely be the augmentation of realities we associate with our desks and tables for work and play, as well as any other spare pieces of furniture we have lying around. Mirrorscape, an AR platform bringing augmented reality to tabletop gaming, is one of many companies eager to jump in and apply AR technologies to a space they feel makes sense for consumers. 

But first, when was the last time you played a tabletop game at an actual table?

For most of us, the communal influence of friends and allies joined around the table in pursuit of adventure has become harder and harder to organize, as modern life drags us further apart.

While we’ve been saved from the doom of a lockdown without roleplaying by services like Roll20 and D&D Beyond, they’re both part of an ongoing digital transition turning Dungeons & Dragons and games like it into PDF-juggling, tab-switching, Discord-channeling screen-fests, which can feel vastly removed from tabletop gaming.

As is often the case, what technology complicates, yet more technology aims to simplify. Mirrorscape is a new augmented reality tabletop platform, mapmaker, and toolset seeking to bring people back to the table, by conjuring a dungeon onto it to quest through with your friends around the world. With an iOS or Android phone or tablet, or even augmented reality glasses, you’ll be able to see tabletop gaming come alive in your living room.

The platform joins Ardent Roleplay, Tilt Five, and Spatial, the latter two Kickstarters from 2019 that both hinged upon the purchase of hefty peripherals, and Ardent being an app like Mirrorscape that is compatible with phones. While all advertise the ability to simulate tabletop roleplaying experiences, only Ardent resembles a holistic, functioning platform for D&D to rival Mirrorscape.

A widely compatible AR tabletop platform that can simulate anything from chess to Horus’ Siege of Terra—handling all the background math and centering dynamic graphics—has been the fervent hope of many a TTRPG fan ever since the Minecraft HoloLens demo at E3 in 2015.

WIRED spoke to the Mirrorscape team to understand how the service works. “We wanted to keep the best parts of D&D, getting together with your fellow players, in concert with the technical innovations revolutionizing the game,” Grant Anderson, Mirrorscape’s CEO, tells WIRED. “The company already boasts partnerships with HeroForge, Fat Dragon, and Dwarven Forge, who are just some of the model manufacturers interested in bringing their art to the augmented table. We’re integrating Fifth Edition, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Cthulhu, and many more, including Games Workshop franchises, but we’re also building that functionality with customization in mind.”

“This is the perfect hybrid,” adds Eric McIntire, the company’s brand manager. “No one gets left out because of distance or technology, and it’s all through one versatile platform that makes sense of every player’s circumstance.”

Even Joe Manganiello, who is Mirrorscape’s creative director as well as star of True Blood and Magic Mike, agrees. “I am both excited and invigorated to be a part of the Mirrorscape team,” he explains. “Through their technology I have seen the future of gaming and entertainment and I am incredibly passionate about getting it into the hands of the public.”