Dungeons and Dragons is becoming bigger and bigger every year and it has a huge audience on Twitch. In fact the highest paid channel on Twitch in the Twitch leak was a dungeons and dragons channel called Critical Role. Seeing them making over $9 Million in just over a year may have got you thinking about creating your own D&D stream on Twitch.
In this article we are going to show you how to create D&D overlays so your stream can give your viewers the best possible experience. We are also going to show you where you can purchase a custom overlay if you don’t want to design one yourself. Let’s jump in and get started.
Where To Get D&D Overlays For Streaming
When it comes to creating a Dungeons and Dragons overlay we need to think about the elements that you need on your stream. Below is a list of the elements that you should include in your overlay.
What You Need On A D&D Overlay For Twitch
Player Cameras
The first thing you want in your scene is player cameras. Your audience will obviously want to see each players face. This can be done with a multiple camera setup or you can have a camera that has multiple players in frame. For example you may have two people at one side of a table and two at the other. You could easily capture everyone with just two cameras in this situation.
You should also include these players name and character names below their camera boxes. This makes it much easier for the viewers to follow along with the game and understand whos turn it is. You can also add some info on characters and players to the about section of your stream.
Dungeon Master
You should also have the Dungeon master camera somewhere on the screen. It is best to isolate him so viewers know who is in charge of the game. For example, you may add his camera in a corner with a different color border or out of the main group of cameras. This makes it easy to identify him as the dungeon master.
D&D Board
Last but not least you will want your board or map to be featured on the screen. This is a must have for D&D on Twitch. You may have a camera pointed at your map if you are using a physical map. If you are using a digital map you can just add it directly to your overlay.
Other Info
When coming up with your overlay think about anything else that you may want in your scene. This could be sponsors, alerts etc. It’s your stream, so this is entirely up to you.
Pre-Made D&D Templates
Below is some of the pre-made templates we found online. Bare in mind the selection wasn’t great but we have curated some of the best ones below.
DMS Guild Wood Panels
This is a pretty clean D&D overlay from DMS Guild.
You can purchase for a donation of your choice.
Etsy D&D Packs
With a quick search on Etsy you will find a range of different D&D overlays for your stream.
If you want something quickly this might be your best option however it is quite expensive.
Etsy Full Pack
This might be the best full pack we found on our search. It contains all the scenes you will need as well as extras like panels, labels etc.
You can also edit this pack in Canva when purchased giving you more flexibility.
Where To Get A Custom D&D Overlay For Stream
If you are really serious about streaming D&D on Twitch then you will want to get your own custom overlay. This will make your stream stand out from others using pre-made overlays. You can also start to build a “look” around your brand that people will recognize across all of your social media.
When having an overlay created or creating one yourself, you should draw out a rough sketch of what you want. Use the guide above to figure out which elements you want in your overlay. You can then give this to the designer so they have a much better idea of what you are looking for in your design. You will have less back and forth with revisions as well, making it cheaper.
Where To Hire A Designer
If you want to hire a designer to create your overlay, we would highly recommend utilizing Fiverr. They have a lot of great designers on the platform who are already experienced in creating overlays for streaming. You can commission them to create one around the sketch you have drawn out.
This is the best designer we found who is specialising in D&D templates and overlays.
We have also added a section below were you can check out some of the best overlay artists on the Fiverr platform.
Create Your Overlay With Place It
If you don’t want to create your own overlay you can create your own. If you are an experienced graphics designer you will probably use photoshop to deign your overlay but you don’t need us to tell you that.
If you are just getting started with graphics design and want to easily create an overlay, we would recommend using Place it. Place already has some Stream Overlay templates which you can customize yourself.
You can use some of these templates as a starting point for your Dungeons and dragon overlay.
Examples Of D&D Overlays
If you need some inspiration for your D&D overlay check out these overlays below from some D&D streamers on Twitch.
This overlay is used by CaptainRoBear on Twitch.
This overlay is used by Valuefnd on Twitch. As you can see their layout allows them to use a physical board.
Wrapping Up
You hopefully now have all the knowledge you need to purchase or create a Dungeons and Dragon overlay for Twitch. You can now enjoy playing with your friends while sharing your journey with Twitch.
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