Afraid of Communities - Indonesian Tabletop RPG scene & LFG

29 Jan, 2026

Afraid of Communities is a series where I talk about the Indonesian Tabletop RPG scene. Future topics related to the local scene will be under this title.

If we compare the Indonesian Tabletop RPG scene to a human age, it is still in its childhood, learning new things, experimenting, and playing. It has not yet begun to ask who it is or what it wants to become. For now, it plays, learns, plays again, and learns once more. That's how young our community is.

I became a part of this scene back in 2018 after playing with people from around the world since 2016. I never thought that there would even be a scene. Well, I was wrong.

Comparing the state of the scene in January 2026 and in 2018, I can say that it's already grown, it's quite different. But most of them are still the same, with D&D 5e being the most popular (and always will be).

I'm going to share what I know about the Indonesian Tabletop RPG scene. How it was, how it is now, and how it will be. I am also going to talk about the trends, the cultures, and the communities that are part of this scene. Just like Indonesia and its peoples, I guess we are united in diversity. Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, am I right fellow Indonesians? And with diversity, comes conflicts and differences.

What I share will certainly be biased from my perspective. But I hope it will give a glimpse to what the Indonesian scene is all about.

Pre-D&D 5e and Critical Role (before 2017)

I don't consider this period to be the "start" of the scene. More like an embryo stage, or a child still in their mother's womb. And what I know is only what I've heard from the people who started before me.

Before 2014, the scene only existed in small groups. College and high school students. Those who were privileged enough to have internet access, holidays abroad, or had lived in another country and exposed to Tabletop RPG.

The earliest person that I know plays Tabletop RPG, whose name I won't mention here for privacy, brought AD&D 2e and D&D 3.0e in early 2000s. He's still playing Tabletop RPGs and currently in his 40s. I tried to reach out, but unfortunately I couldn't get to him to gain more insight on his early days as a Tabletop RPG hobbyist.

I know Har started out in early 2000s as well, encountering Nobilis and D&D 3.5e. He even made his own system to play with his school friends because he only got to create a character for Nobilis and read D&D 3.5e.

Another person, my friend Tom, started with MUD (multi user dungeon) platform he found online. That's how he found out that the platform used an earlier D&D system, which he couldn't remember. Not long after that, he played D&D 4e when he was in high school and college. One of his players was actually my wife, Cita. This was back in mid-2000s and that group stayed together until D&D 5e came out. Extra info from him: he had met someone, a family friend, who had played D&D when the person went to college abroad. It wasn't known whether he brought D&D to Indonesia or not.

I know forums such as Forum GameIndo, Forum VideoGamesIndonesia, Forum Megindo HotGame GameQuarters, and Forum Lautan Indonesia were big back then, and these forums had their own roleplay subforums. Some of them are original fictions and characters, while others are from various pop culture media.

(Fantasy 'n Games is one of the earliest, if not the earliest boardgame store that sold D&D products and held D&D sessions)

There is also a blogpost from 2008 that mentioned about Fantasy 'n Games, a boardgame cafe in South Jakarta, who sold D&D products and had sessions there.

The rest is obscure history that still needs to be uncovered.

The Critical Role Wave (2016 - 2022)

I'm calling the next periods as "waves", because they are related to certain media or events which influenced Indonesians to play Tabletop RPG. This one is the Critical Role Wave. And to an extent, the Stranger Things Wave.

To be clear, I wasn't a part of this wave. I'm an outlier who started this hobby because my PC exploded in 2015 and had to find a new hobby. I started in January 2016 (10 years!), and perhaps that can be a topic for another blogpost.

YouTube content and streaming got big around this period, which caused a wave of new Indonesian Tabletop RPG players. They were heavily influenced by Critical Role's Vox Machina campaign, which was still ongoing early in this period. Stranger Things Season 1 also got released back in 2016.

A lot of the players didn't get to play Tabletop RPG yet at that point, as it was difficult to look for groups. But Facebook groups began to pop up. Then Discord servers got big in 2017. The first "big" Indonesian Tabletop RPG community, D&D Indonesia, formed in 2017. Followed by D&D Jakarta. More local variants also appear, the most notable is D&D Yogyakarta.

After two years of playing on Roll20, befriending people that I met online from various countries (shout out to my friends Manek, Pato, Paul, and Karrot from India, Mexico, Canada, and the Philippines/Korea!), I eventually joined the local Discord communities. It's clear from their names that these communities are focused on D&D 5e. Other games weren't really welcomed. They called people who played other games "heretics", a term that's still used to this day. My friends and I can confirm that that word was used for us because we played Call of Cthulhu in one of these servers.

There's also smaller communities, such as Rigor Mortis, who were more accepting to different games. The mods also create an off-shoot community/event called DEX (Dungeon Explorers), which became the first Indonesian Tabletop RPG convention/event unrelated to boardgames/card games. Previously, Tabletop RPG was only a smaller part in events like Jakarta Tabletop Day, who were more focused on boardgames and card games.

(Dungeon Explorers, aka DEX, a Tabletop RPG community/convention based in Jakarta. One of its staple events is D&D Epic, a multi-table session with interconnected encounters. This is from one of their events in October 2019. I'm in this picture!)

Boardgame stores and cafes also played a huge part. Arcanum is probably the largest in Jakarta. Another one that I used to visit was Castle 8 in Depok, where some of my friends usually play. These stores and cafes become their own community, usually detached from the larger, more "tribalist", communities.

This era peaked at the start of COVID when everyone were at their homes. Discord servers got more populated. Newer players and newer GMs. More campaigns. Which also resulted in more people branching out to become Tabletop RPG designers. Some of them, like me, joined the RPG Writer Workshop (now Storytelling Collective), making our first adventure modules. Others made their own system, like Kutuk an Indonesian Horror Tabletop RPG released in 2022.

Most of the players who started out the hobby from this wave was heavily influenced by the narrative and heavy roleplay style of Critical Role. I guess that's a common thing even outside of Indonesia. And yes, a lot of Matt Mercer effect during this time. But from my experience, those who came from this wave seems to be more open to trying out different games. I guess since they're some of the earlier Tabletop RPG players in Indonesia, they already got their fair share of D&D 5e. Some of them were the ones who branched out, or stopped playing D&D altogether, after the OGL controversy in January 2023.

The Radit Wave (2023 - 2025)

This one is a short period, and probably still ongoing. But it is the largest boom in Tabletop RPG popularity here in Indonesia. The Radit Wave started because of Raditya Dika, Indonesian stand-up comedian/actor/public figure, made videos of him and his friends playing D&D 5e. There is also a smaller, but also significant wave, that came around this time. The Baldur's Gate 3 Wave.

Raditya Dika then made a video with one of the big Indonesian Discord communities, and their members skyrocketed once they put the Discord link in the video description. Thousands joined, wanting to see what this D&D all about.

(Some of Raditya Dika's first D&D videos)

The result? So many players. Only a few Dungeon Masters. A lot of them left after finding out that the rulebooks are in English, they had to read and learn rules/mechanics, or they need stable internet connection to play. Others stayed, made their own smaller groups and communities, or spilled over to another big server. Those who stayed sometimes struggled with the fact that D&D has a lot of rules. So they found an alternative in Ten Candles. Yup, that horror game with d6 dice rolls and candles, became a rules light alternative to D&D. People played it online using candle PNGs. They changed it to various genres other than horror, similar to how the Japanese scene modified Call of Cthulhu.

At this point, I wasn't really involved with the local scene since 2021. So what I have written above is from other people's accounts.

Just like how Critical Role influenced the play style of those who came from The Critical Role Wave, Raditya Dika's style influenced players who started out from this period. Sessions seems to be more focused on comedy and entertainment. While those who came from Baldur's Gate 3 are more focused on combat and builds, power gaming.

Another effect of The Radit Wave is more Indonesian actual plays. Other public figures, actors, influencers start out their own thing. Unfortunately, these big actual plays are known to use generative AI for their production, some even promote it in the community. Live streamers, like the vtubers, also streamed Tabletop RPG sessions.

There are more paid Game Masters as well, because more and more people want to play D&D. One of the most notable ones is TPK (The Pandemonium Kollektive), a community started by paid Game Masters to provide service for players who want to play at the table. While other paid Game Masters have their own base camps in boardgame stores/cafes and Discord servers.

More local creators too! One of the most prolific local creators is Desyanto of OnMeja Games, who started out with boardgames and branched out to Tabletop RPGs and focusing on publishing in Indonesia. He started out with a DURF adventure, and has published games such as Quack Healer and Wanaloka.

Oh, since we're talking about something that is not D&D (finally), other communities that are not focused on D&D are starting to appear. One of them is ID:TRPG, which started out as a podcast for the mods then became its own community. I was active there, organizing a regular sharing session called BroSis (NgoBrolin Sistem, or "Talking Systems"). I even invited Zedeck Siew as a guest to talk about Mythic Bastionland, which he documented in his Bluesky post. Unfortunately, BroSis hasn't been active since August 2025. Which led me and my friends to create...

LFG

The creation of LFG began when me, my wife Cita, and my friend Kevin of Distracted at the Table met Shao Han, a Singaporean Tabletop RPG creator. We talked a lot about the Singaporean scene and the importance of local communities. It certainly sparked something in Kevin at that point, as I was still focused with BroSis in ID:TRPG.

After BroSis ended, the three of us met with our friend Beeb of in lower case in September. All of us were in agreement that we wanted to create something, an event, a convention, that is driven by a community.

Then on the 1st of November, 2025, we had LFGcon SESSION 0 at our friend's cafe. Four games (Daggerheart, Dread, Mothership, Mythic Bastionland). 18 participants, including Game Masters. We wanted LFGcon SESSION 0 to be a test, to be sure that there is an interest in the scene to have an event not focusing on D&D, but also other Tabletop RPGs.

Our numbers grow from there. We prepared LFGcon SESSION 1 right after that. Opened the registration on December, which is sold out after one hour. Then on the 24th of January, 2026, we had LFGcon SESSION 1 at a hotel's restaurant in Central Jakarta. Six games (Call of Cthulhu 7e, Daggerheart, Dungeons & Dragons 5e, DURF, Mothership 1e, Nobilis 2e). 40+ participants.

(The participants of LFGcon SESSION 1)

LFG/LFGcon's motto is "Find New Games. Find Your Group." It comes from our hopes and dreams that more Indonesian get to play various Tabletop RPGs and have people to play with. We also want to have something that other countries have. Conventions and Events. Living in a Third World Country, it's probably difficult to attend something like Gen Con. So, why not make our own?

The Discord server is currently sitting at 108 members. Some of them are designers who have established themselves and those who are starting out. There's even bloggers now! (I already gave Kevin and Beeb a shout out, so shout out to Har of Diceless)

I'm sure it will increase whenever we announce the open registration for our next convention, which we are currently aiming to be every quarter of the year. So the next one should be around April - June. For now, the mods are preparing for smaller activities. Things like Book Club, Ngabuburit (waiting for iftar during Ramadhan, but while playing Tabletop RPGs), and other smaller activities, both on Discord and offline. We will see how it goes.

The Future

When I was still active in one of those big D&D Discord communities, someone said something along the lines of "Community is useless. At the end of the day, only your table that matters." I believed that for a bit after seeing how volatile and vulnerable these communities are. They're one of the reasons why I wasn't a part of any communities for most of the Pandemic.

But my mindset and perspective have changed, especially after being a part of various OSR/NSR/P-OSR communities. I see that in order to have a healthy and growing scene, communities are needed.

Reading blogposts such as Yochai Gal's The New New School Revolution, Dungeon Bison's Hosted a mini-con, Clayton Notestine/Explorers Design's How Do We Design a Gaming Community, and Lyme/Brackish Draught's A Quick and Dirty Guide to Building a Local RPG Design Scene, even watching Matt Colville's Community video, really helped me to embrace communities once again.

I personally don't have big ambitions to make sure that LFG is at the forefront of the scene. I just hope and wish that LFG can be a melting pot of different cultures, styles, personalities, and games where we get to share our love of this hobby.

What I wish to see is more people in the scene trying out different games. To see more Tabletop RPG designers from the local scene.

After going through 2025 and starting out 2026, I am hopeful for the future of Indonesian Tabletop RPG scene.