The world’s first digital miniature: Doppel persuades the Kickstarter to back a TTRPG hardware project

We’ve digital minis as pixel tokens to move around a virtual tabletop but Doppel does something different. The hardware device brings a digital character to the physical tabletop.

For some, part of the attraction of physical minis is painting them, their feel and even their presentation on display. For others, all those merits are problems and Doppel has found enough backers on Kickstarters who might feel like that to hit target.

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There’s still three weeks to back breadBoard.gaming’s project. Doppel is more than hardware, although that mini display you move around the battlemap is the hero element because there are iOS and Android app companions.

Through the app, you maintain a character sheet, and Doppel supports various popular tabletop RPGs and customises the visual appearance. If friends have Doppel you can even share characters. Please have a think before you do that, though.

The other feature is the speaker and so you can play battle sounds, magic sounds or even voice clips if you want to give your character a voice.

There’s no mention of a subscription model and in the comments the official breadBoard.gaming account says no subscription will be needed. They don’t say there won’t be one, mind you, but does say “I hate that as well myself!”

But Doppel offers more than just visual and auditory enhancements. With the intuitive app you can access your character’s information with a few taps of the screen. And with the turn assistant feature, you’ll never miss a beat, ensuring you’re always ready to seize the moment. With Doppel, the power to switch between characters seamlessly gives you the freedom to embody any miniature you desire.

There are Early Bird offers, and where there are ten or more backer slots left, I’ll mention them here, which means the $109 unit that comes with a charging cord is first.

Once that Early Bird tier sells out, Doppels with a charging case will be the reward at $158, and breadBoard tells us that’s 45% off the expected retail price.

However, backers pledging $316 or more (that’s about £250) will get two and a charging travel case for both.

The estimated delivery is this year and in November 2024. That’s an ambitious target for a hardware delivery.