Every virtual tabletop eventually asks the same awkward question: who else has to pay? We have decided the answer is nobody.
Remote Play in DungeonRig is free. Your players open a link in whatever browser they already have - phone, laptop, the old machine in the spare room - and they are at the table. No install, no account, no seat to buy, nothing to configure. If someone drops out, they click the link again.
It is free for you too, and not only if you have bought a licence. A free registered account can host. Red Autumn Software covers the cost of running the relay, because a feature that only works when everyone at the table has spent money is not really a feature.
There is a generous monthly allowance behind the scenes to keep it sustainable, and DungeonRig warns you in the app long before you would ever reach it. Playing locally at your own table never touches it at all. We may one day offer an optional paid add-on for awkward networks - university and hotel firewalls are their own adventure - but that would be an addition, never a condition.
Three tiers, plainly
Update, 17 September 2026: This is a historical development entry. The launch list is closed. Current registration enables online hosting and eligible free-pack downloads, not the complete paid library. Founder purchases include currently available packs marked Founder-included; launch adventures are not yet listed. See https://dungeonrig.com/faq and https://dungeonrig.com/buy for the current offer. Existing purchase rights are unchanged.
We would rather you understood what you get than be pleasantly surprised later, so here it is without decoration.
The free demo is the whole application with a starter set of content. Not a trial, not a countdown - the full toolkit, so you can run a real session before deciding anything. Encounters are capped at three monsters and two players.
Register for free to get the full DungeonRig asset library and demo adventures, plus Remote Play hosting. The same encounter limits apply: up to two players and three monsters. You agree we may email you, and you can stop that at any time.
The Founder licence removes the play limits, works on up to three of your computers, and unlocks selected Founder adventures. It includes the same complete asset library as Registered: all current and future maps, tokens, portraits, music, sound effects, backdrops, and similar reusable assets published by Red Autumn Software AS. Other adventures may be sold separately. One payment. No subscription, and no monthly fee to run your own games.
What is not included, so it is said out loud: separately sold adventures, online services, and future major versions are not promised forever. Your installed copy keeps working regardless - that part is not conditional.
Road to beta: built at the table, nearly ready to share
Update, 17 September 2026: This is a historical development entry. The launch list is closed. Current registration enables online hosting and eligible free-pack downloads, not the complete paid library. Founder purchases include currently available packs marked Founder-included; launch adventures are not yet listed. See https://dungeonrig.com/faq and https://dungeonrig.com/buy for the current offer. Existing purchase rights are unchanged.
DungeonRig began with a simple frustration: running a great tabletop session should not require six browser tabs, three subscriptions, and a degree in software. After months of building, playing, breaking, and rebuilding, the core experience is taking shape: local campaigns, living maps, theatrical combat, story tools, sound, and free browser access for players. Public downloads open soon. Join the launch list if you want to test it, challenge it, and help a small team of tabletop enthusiasts turn it into something worth sharing.
Founder access should fund the finish line, not a forever bill
Update, 17 September 2026: This is a historical development entry. The launch list is closed. Current registration enables online hosting and eligible free-pack downloads, not the complete paid library. Founder purchases include currently available packs marked Founder-included; launch adventures are not yet listed. See https://dungeonrig.com/faq and https://dungeonrig.com/buy for the current offer. Existing purchase rights are unchanged.
We are building DungeonRig because we love tabletop games, not because every player needs another monthly bill. Founder access is a one-time US$19.99 purchase for the locally installed core app and all current and future DungeonRig library content published by Red Autumn Software AS. US$19.99 is the total price; no additional tax is added at checkout. Selected adventures expressly marked Founder-included are included; other adventures may be released or sold separately. Remote players join from a browser without buying a seat. That early support helps us finish the public release, keep improving the core, and prove that useful creative software can respect both its makers and its community.
Your library, your rules: bring the worlds you already own
A tabletop tool should help you use your imagination, not decide which files you are allowed to bring. DungeonRig now treats bring-your-own content as a first-class feature: import your maps, tokens, backdrops, music, sound effects, and PDFs without an arbitrary item cap. Files remain local and organised in libraries you control. Ready-made packs are there to save time, not to turn your campaign into a walled garden.
The map remembers where you have been
Line of sight tells you what the party can see right now. That is only half of what a map needs to know. The other half is memory - the corridor they walked down three weeks ago should still be on the map, even though nobody is standing in it.
DungeonRig keeps that memory with the map, not with the session. Explored ground stays revealed between sessions, so you never open last month's dungeon to a blank sheet and try to recall which rooms they actually got to. If you want to take it back, you can paint the fog on again by hand.
It sounds like a small thing. In practice it is the difference between a map that tracks a campaign and one that resets every time you close the lid.
A real milestone: the first signed Windows build
A flashy feature is easy to celebrate. A trustworthy installer is less glamorous, but it is what turns a project into something people can actually use. On June 24, DungeonRig produced its first Certum-signed Windows build. The installer, update path, build pipeline, and publisher identity now have a real foundation. It was one of those quiet milestones that made public beta feel less like an ambition and more like the next practical step.
A powerful tool still has to welcome a first-time GM
By June, DungeonRig could do a lot. The next challenge was making that power approachable. We rewrote app-wide copy in ordinary language, added direct paths to the right tools, improved empty states, and built onboarding around real jobs such as creating a world and hosting a session. The goal is not to hide depth. It is to let a new game master find the next useful action without reading a manual before the first adventure.
Content packs arrive - shortcuts, not a walled garden
Update, 17 September 2026: This is a historical development entry. The launch list is closed. Current registration enables online hosting and eligible free-pack downloads, not the complete paid library. Founder purchases include currently available packs marked Founder-included; launch adventures are not yet listed. See https://dungeonrig.com/faq and https://dungeonrig.com/buy for the current offer. Existing purchase rights are unchanged.
Some game masters love building every room from scratch. Others need a tavern, a monster, and a stormy soundtrack ten minutes before the session. The content-pack system was built for both. Packs can install several kinds of assets into the right local libraries, with clear ownership and updates, while ordinary imports stay open. Free packs help registered players get started; Founder access includes all current and future DungeonRig library content published by Red Autumn Software AS. Adventures are a separate category: selected Founder-included adventures are included, while others may be sold separately. Use what helps, replace what does not, and keep making the game yours.
Darkness became part of the adventure
Line of sight is not just a visual effect; it changes how a dungeon feels. We refined darkness, torch vision, and character sight so hidden rooms stay hidden and light has tactical meaning. Then we added a guided tour because a good system is only useful when a GM understands it. Paint the walls once, place the lights, and DungeonRig handles the reveal while the table concentrates on cautious footsteps and bad decisions.
Combat should feel like an event, not a spreadsheet
Automation should remove bookkeeping, not remove the people playing. DungeonRig's combat pass brought in a quicker initiative setup, visible attack dice, clearer damage results, conditions, temporary hit points, and restrained visual effects that make a big roll feel big. The GM can still adjust, improvise, and overrule. The machine handles repetition; the table keeps the drama.
Getting the rules right so the GM can bend them on purpose
The best time to discover a rules bug is never halfway through a boss fight. We reviewed turn order, attacks, conditions, damage, and awkward edge cases against the tabletop rules, then backed the fixes with tests. DungeonRig is not trying to replace the GM's judgement. It is trying to make the routine answer dependable, so any house-rule decision is a choice rather than a workaround.
330 creatures, ready to drop on the map
Prep time disappears into small tasks, and one of the smallest and most annoying is copying a stat block. You know the monster. You just need its numbers in front of you, attached to the token, at the moment initiative starts.
DungeonRig ships with 330 creatures from the System Reference Document 5.2.1, converted into structured data rather than pasted text. Drop one on the map and it arrives with its armour class, hit points, attacks, damage and saving throws already wired into the initiative tracker. Roll its attack from the same place you rolled everyone else's.
The SRD material is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, and we credit it properly on our credits page. DungeonRig is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast - the SRD is simply open, and that openness is worth using well.
Building with discipline: focus beats feature count
Development is not only the list of things added. It is also knowing what to remove. In May we retired a large experimental AI adventure-building pipeline and simplified the surrounding systems. Interesting technology is not automatically a good product. Maps, sessions, libraries, combat, stories, and remote players needed the attention more. DungeonRig will keep useful optional AI tools, but the game at the table remains the point.
Beyond the battle map: tools for the moments between fights
DungeonRig was never meant to be only a grid with tokens. Campaigns live in introductions, clues, journeys, voices, and reveals as much as they do in combat. The story-tool work connected world structure, scene planning, narration, area notes, and cutscenes so a GM can prepare the dramatic beats beside the maps they belong to. Run a tactical dungeon one week and a character-heavy mystery the next; the rig should support both.
One screen for you, one for the table
Most of the friction in running a game at a real table comes from one problem: the screen that helps the GM is the screen that spoils the players. Notes, monster health, the thing behind the door - all of it one careless tilt away from being seen.
DungeonRig splits it in two. The control station is yours: initiative, hit points, hidden markers, the next scene queued up. The player view goes to the TV or projector and shows only what the table is meant to see - the map, the tokens, the lighting, the moment. Both stay in sync in real time, so revealing a room is one click rather than a scramble.
It also means you stop apologising for your laptop. No more angling the lid, no more asking people to look away. The GM screen went back to being a GM screen.
Learning by doing: guided tours enter the app
A tooltip that says 'this is a button' does not teach anyone how to run a game. DungeonRig's first guided tours were built around outcomes instead: create a world, add a token, host a session. The tour system follows the work across views and dialogs, then gets out of the way. It marked a shift from documenting features to actively helping new users reach their first successful table.
Remote play grows up: one shared table, different rooms
The early remote client could show a map. By April it was becoming a table. We closed the gaps between the GM view and the browser player view: lighting and fog, token movement, drag feedback, selections, conditions, and dice requests all had to arrive safely and in the right order. Players still needed only a link. The hard work happened underneath so the experience could stay simple on top.
Every scene deserves a soundtrack
A creaking door can do more for a room than another paragraph of description. In March, music and sound playback became part of the working session instead of a separate experiment. The aim was immediate: keep ambience, stingers, and scene audio close enough that the GM can use them without interrupting the story. DungeonRig should make theatrical play easier, even when the production crew is one person behind a screen.
The day the maps learned to see
A map image knows nothing about the dungeon drawn on it. The March visibility rework started changing that. Walls could shape sight, darkness could conceal unexplored space, and light could belong to the scene rather than being painted into the artwork. That foundation became Map Forge: prepare the logic once, then let the map react naturally as characters explore it during play.
The first remote table comes alive
The first remote-play milestone was modest: make the map on the player's screen follow the map controlled by the GM. Once that worked, the shape of the product became clearer. DungeonRig could support the living-room television, the friend joining from another city, or both in the same game. No separate player purchase and no complicated client setup - just a browser link and a shared adventure.
From alpha experiment to a foundation worth building on
The winter alpha had answered the first question: yes, one local tool could make our own game table easier to run. March began the more disciplined build. We kept the map navigation, drawing, tokens, and turn tracking that had already proved useful, then reorganised them around campaigns, shared state, and a clearer play surface. This was the point where DungeonRig stopped being a string of experiments and started becoming one product.
Early alpha: the first encounter could finally keep its place
By February, moving pieces around the map was useful enough that we immediately wanted the next bit of paper off the table. The first initiative tracker was deliberately small: add the party and monsters, sort the rolls, see whose turn it was, and move forward without losing the thread. It was not yet a combat engine, but it proved an important principle that still guides DungeonRig: automate the repetitive bookkeeping and leave decisions with the GM.
Early alpha: tokens turned a map viewer into a play surface
A navigable map became a game surface when the first tokens arrived. The January alpha could place character and monster images, select them, drag them around, and keep their positions with the map. Grid snapping and sizing were still rough, but the feeling was immediate: this was no longer a picture on a television. It was a table the GM could operate.
Early alpha: drawing directly on the table
Prepared maps never survive first contact with players. In December, the alpha gained its first drawing layer so the GM could mark a blocked passage, sketch an area of effect, point out a clue, or improvise a room without leaving the table. The tools were basic—pen, shapes, colour, erase—but they established a lasting goal: DungeonRig should support the plan and the unexpected detour equally well.
The first alpha: put a map on screen and make it feel good
The first DungeonRig alpha was not a suite of tools. It was a single map on a screen and a stubborn focus on navigation. Import an image, zoom without losing your place, pan across a large dungeon, fit it to the display, and bring it back exactly where the table needed it. That modest November prototype became the base for everything that followed: if operating the map did not feel immediate, none of the ambitious features would matter.