Demiplane for Beginners: 10 Practical Tips for Your First Session

If you’ve started playing a tabletop RPG recently — or you’re jumping into something like Daggerheart or Pathfinder 2e — you may have been pointed toward Demiplane as your digital companion. It’s a genuinely useful platform, but it can feel confusing the first time you open it. There are multiple menus, different types of dice rollers, and features that only work if you’ve set things up correctly first.

This guide covers what Demiplane actually is, how the pricing works, and ten practical things you should know before your first session. Skip any of these and you’ll likely spend valuable table time troubleshooting instead of playing.

What Is Demiplane?

Demiplane is a digital toolset for tabletop RPGs. Founded in 2019 and acquired by Roll20 in 2024, it’s built around a concept called the Nexus — a system-specific hub that houses digital rulebooks, a searchable compendium, and interactive character tools all in one place. Think of it as the equivalent of D&D Beyond, but for games like Pathfinder 2e, Daggerheart, Vampire: The Masquerade, Avatar Legends, and a growing roster of other systems.

Each game has its own Nexus, and they’re genuinely well-made. The digital reader links directly to rules text from character sheets, the character builder walks you through each step, and the compendium makes mid-session rules lookups fast. What Demiplane is not — at least not yet — is a full virtual tabletop. You won’t find battle maps or automated targeting here. Many groups pair it with tools like Roll20 or Owlbear Rodeo for the map side of things, while keeping Demiplane open for characters and rules.

How Does the Pricing Work?

Creating a Demiplane account is free, and some content — like rule primers and free quickstart guides — is available without spending anything. To access a game’s full digital rulebook and use those options in the character builder, you purchase content through the Demiplane marketplace for each Nexus separately.

A Demiplane Membership costs $4.99/month and unlocks two significant perks: unlimited character slots across all Nexuses, and the ability to share your purchased content with up to 24 friends. That second feature is a huge deal for groups — if one player owns the core rulebook, everyone in the group can access it. For a GM who owns several sourcebooks, the membership essentially pays for itself in the first month.

10 Practical Tips for Using Demiplane for the First Time

1. Always Start from the Right Nexus

This sounds obvious, but it trips up a lot of new users. Demiplane hosts many different game systems, and each one has its own Nexus with its own menus, rules, and tools. If you’re playing Daggerheart, you need to be on the Daggerheart Nexus — not a general landing page. Jump between games using the top-left site menu, which gives you quick access to Sources, Game Rules, Characters, and Groups without needing to navigate via the back button or start from scratch.

Getting this right from the start means all the options you see — classes, ancestry choices, feats, equipment — will actually match the system your group is playing.

2. Use the Guided Character Builder, Not a Blank Sheet

When new players first see a Demiplane character sheet, the instinct is often to click into individual fields and start filling things in manually. Resist that urge. Go to Characters → Create New and use the guided builder flow instead. It walks you through each decision in order — level settings, rules preferences, ancestry, background, class, and so on — which means you’re far less likely to miss something or create an invalid character.

The builder also lets you click back to earlier steps and change your mind without breaking anything. If you get to the class selection and decide you want to revisit your background choice, you can. Treat each screen as a checklist rather than a one-shot form, and the whole process becomes much less intimidating. For players building their first 5e character or diving into a new system, this guided approach saves a lot of headaches.

3. Set Your Rules Preferences Before You Start Building

On the first screen of the character builder, there’s a Preferences & Rules area that most people click straight past. Don’t. This is where you toggle optional rules, content from specific sourcebooks, and variant systems. If you don’t configure this upfront, you might see options from books your group isn’t using, or miss options you’ve actually purchased.

For brand new players, the cleanest experience is to stick with core content only on the first build. Once your group understands the base system, you can revisit preferences and layer in additional sourcebooks. It’s much easier to add complexity than to untangle a character built with half a dozen optional rules active when nobody knew what they were doing yet.

4. Arm Your Equipment — or Your Rolls Won’t Work

This is the one that catches almost everyone the first time. Adding equipment to your character inventory doesn’t automatically mean it’s active. For weapons and armor to affect your attack rolls and defenses on the sheet, you need to equip or arm the items — marking them as active in your inventory section.

If you try to make an attack roll and the number looks suspiciously low, or your AC seems wrong compared to what you expected, check this first. Nine times out of ten, the gear is in your inventory but not actually equipped. It’s a small step that has a big impact on how your character functions during play.

5. Find Your Roll Buttons Before the Session Starts

Demiplane’s character sheets put dice roll buttons directly on the stats themselves — click the value or the dice icon next to a skill, attack, or saving throw, and it rolls automatically. There’s no separate dice window to navigate to for sheet-based rolls. Most new players don’t realize this until someone else at the table points it out mid-session.

Before your first game, spend five minutes in solo mode just clicking things on your character sheet. Roll your skills, your attacks, your damage. This dress rehearsal means you’ll feel comfortable in the moment instead of frantically searching for how to roll a Perception check while the GM waits. Understanding RPG dice in general is helpful, but knowing where the buttons live on your specific sheet is what actually matters at the table.

6. Understand the Two Dice Rollers

Demiplane currently has two separate rolling systems, and knowing the difference saves a lot of confusion. There’s the character sheet roller built into your character tools — this is primarily for your own view — and there’s the Group dice roller which broadcasts results to everyone in the campaign chat.

These two systems aren’t fully integrated yet, which means a roll you make on your character sheet won’t automatically appear in the group chat for other players to see. If everyone needs to see the result (initiative, contested rolls, anything the whole table cares about), roll through the Group roller or announce your sheet roll out loud. This limitation is worth knowing about before you sit down to play, rather than discovering it in the middle of a crucial moment.

7. Don’t Expect a Full Virtual Tabletop

Demiplane is excellent at what it does — digital compendium, character management, rules lookup — but it’s not trying to be Roll20 or Foundry VTT. There are no battle maps, no token movement, no automated targeting or area-of-effect calculations. If your group needs a virtual tabletop for online play, you’ll want to run Demiplane alongside another tool.

Many groups use Demiplane for character sheets and rules reference while running maps in Roll20, Foundry, or even just sharing a screen over Discord. Now that Roll20 has acquired Demiplane, integration between the two platforms is actively developing — so this gap will likely narrow over time. For now, think of Demiplane as your digital player handbook and character manager, not your entire online table setup. If you’re just getting started with online play, our guide to setting up your first TTRPG campaign covers the broader toolkit you’ll want to have.

Demiplane vs. Roll20: What Each Tool Does Best

Since the two platforms come up together so often, here’s a quick breakdown of how they split the work for most groups:

Task	Demiplane	Roll20
Character creation & management	✅ Excellent guided builder	⚠️ Basic sheets only
Digital rulebooks & compendium	✅ Hyperlinked, searchable	❌ Not included
Rules lookup mid-session	✅ One-click from character sheet	❌ Not available
Battle maps & terrain	❌ Not available	✅ Core feature
Token movement & positioning	❌ Not available	✅ Core feature
Fog of war & lighting	❌ Not available	✅ Available (paid tiers)
Automated AoE & targeting	❌ Not available	✅ Available
Group scheduling & campaign chat	✅ Built-in Groups feature	⚠️ Limited
Shared dice rolls (visible to all)	⚠️ Group roller only	✅ Full integration
Content sharing with group	✅ Membership feature	❌ Not available
Roll20 VTT integration	✅ Beta integration active	✅ Native

The short version: Demiplane owns the character and rules side of the table; Roll20 owns the battle map side. Most online groups run both simultaneously, which is exactly what the tools are designed for.

8. Use Groups for Scheduling, Shared Chat, and Shared Rolls

The Groups feature on Demiplane is underused by new players who focus entirely on the character tools. Groups let you organize your campaign, schedule sessions, manage who’s playing, and keep a running chat log — all in one place. It’s worth setting up even if your group coordinates elsewhere, simply for the ability to keep campaign information centralized.

The Group dice roller lives here too, and while it’s simple, it’s exactly what you need for rolls the whole table should see — initiative order, group skill checks, anything where transparency matters. Getting comfortable with the Groups area before your first session makes the platform feel much more like a complete play environment.

9. Use the Digital Reader as a Second Tab

One of Demiplane’s best features is the linked Digital Reader — when you open a rulebook through the platform, the text is fully hyperlinked. Click on a feat name or a condition and it opens the relevant rule directly. This turns rules lookup from a multi-minute PDF hunt into a two-second click.

Keep the Digital Reader open in a second tab during your session. Better yet, teach players that clicking ability and feat names on their character sheet opens the same rules text inline. This one habit eliminates most of the “wait, what does that do again?” delays during play. For GMs, the same applies to the compendium — searchable and filterable in ways that a physical book simply can’t match, which is a genuine upgrade whether you’re running Daggerheart or Blades in the Dark.

10. Start Small, Then Build Your Setup

The temptation when setting up Demiplane for the first time is to configure everything at once — character tools, groups, external VTT integration, shared content. That way lies an afternoon of setup and a group that’s exhausted before the session even starts.

For your first time, keep it minimal: Demiplane for character sheets and rules, a simple voice or video tool for communication, and either physical dice or the built-in rollers. Once your group is comfortable with the basics, you can layer in more — linking Demiplane characters into Roll20, exploring the Group features more deeply, or taking advantage of content sharing if one player has a membership. The platform grows with you, which is genuinely one of its strengths.

Getting the Most Out of Demiplane

Demiplane rewards players who take a little time to learn the layout before sitting down at the table. The character builder is excellent once you trust the guided flow, the digital reader genuinely changes how fast you can look things up, and the compendium is one of the best implementations of linked rules text in any TTRPG platform.

The platform works best when you set your preferences early, equip your gear properly, understand which dice roller does what, and pair it with a VTT if your group plays online. None of these are complicated steps once you know to take them — they’re just not obvious from the outside looking in.

Whether you’re building a character for Daggerheart, creating your first Pathfinder 2e build, or just exploring what digital tools can do for your table, Demiplane is worth getting comfortable with. Your first session will go much smoother if you’ve done the five-minute pre-flight check this guide describes.

Continue Your Journey

• What Is Daggerheart? A Beginner’s Overview — If you’re on Demiplane for Daggerheart, start here to understand the system itself
• Daggerheart Character Creation Guide — Walk through building your first Daggerheart character step by step
• Essential Digital Tools Every GM Needs — Demiplane is just one piece of the puzzle; see what else belongs in your digital toolkit
• How to Set Up Your First TTRPG Campaign — The bigger picture for groups just getting started
• Understanding RPG Dice — New to tabletop? Get comfortable with the dice before your first roll

Have you used Demiplane at your table? Drop your experience in the comments — whether it’s a setup tip that saved you or a feature you wish you’d known about sooner.