Now is an amazing time to be a fan of Dungeons & Dragons fan. Loads of companies that don’t actually have ties to the popular tabletop game have been fan servicing the hell out of D&D, and simple yet very much appreciated websites like D&D Beyond and Roll20 allows groups of players to team up and play from the comfort of their own homes. Now, in the next logical step, Dungeons & Dragons augmented reality is slowly turning into a thing, with some passionate pioneers leading the way by making good use of the Unreal Engine.

An Imgur user by the name of Venerus recently posted some of the work he and his friend have been doing on bringing some of our favorite monsters from the D&D Monster Manual to life using augmented reality. He and his friend are using the Unreal Engine to animate creatures from D&D and pairing said monsters with flat tokens, which bring them to life when used with a compatible camera or phone. Check out the first steps of Dungeons & Dragons augmented reality below:

Progress on an augmented reality monster manual

For some work between two friends, this seems extremely promising. Not only that, but once they get the miniatures to be less clumpy/more visually appearing, this would be perfect for those that use physical constructs when they play. Seen above, the two have also created an entire augmented reality landscape on which other tokens can be placed, creating a very lifelike battlefield…sans the shaking trees.

Venerus states in the Imgur post that they still have a long way to go in implementing the technology efficiently. The monsters disappear if the tokens even get partially covered, and the tokens are, as mentioned above, pretty large. Still, Venerus and his friend seem committed to making this experience a ‘reality’, so more power to them. Who knows, pretty soon we might feel like we’re in a Yu-Gi-Oh! show whenever we play D&D.

So, thoughts on the Dungeons & Dragons augmented reality tech? Should it become commercially available, would you use it? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!