DUNGEONING IN THE DARK
Redacted-character D&D: the party game where nobody knows who they are.
Everything on this page may be used freely in coverage, reviews, videos, and streams. No permission needed. If you'd like a table set up for you to try, or Full keys for your group, just ask.
Fact sheet
- Title
- Dungeoning In The Dark
- Developer
- Copperthumb's Curiosities (Josh, a one-person tabletop workshop in California)
- Genre
- Redacted-character D&D. A party-game format for fifth-edition play.
- Platform
- Any modern web browser, phone or laptop. No app, no accounts.
- Players
- One Dungeon Master and up to 12 players. Only the DM needs to know the rules.
- Session
- One evening for a one-shot; the free table covers levels 1 to 3, the full game levels 1 to 5.
- Price
- Free (Lite: 4 races, 4 classes, levels to 3). Full Vault upgrade $9.99 one time: 14 races, 12 classes, levels to 5, the item vault, homebrew export.
- Availability
- Live now at dungeoninginthedark.com; Full Vault at Copperthumb's Curiosities
- Community
- discord.gg/zq6sqEhfF
- Contact
- support@copperthumb.store
Descriptions
Dungeoning In The Dark is redacted-character D&D: every player gets a real, fully rolled 5e character and cannot see it. They discover who they are the fun way: by doing things.
Dungeoning In The Dark is a party game built on D&D 5e with one rule changed: nobody can see their own character sheet. Every hero is rolled in secret and dealt face-down. Only the Dungeon Master sees the truth, and reveals it one fact at a time, live, onto each player's phone. Swing a sword and learn your Strength. Take a hit and learn your hit points. Flirt with the innkeeper and learn things about yourself you would rather not have known. It's free to play in any browser, with no app and no accounts, and because there is nothing for players to read, it is the easiest first D&D night there is: if one person at the table can run a session, everyone can play.
Dungeoning In The Dark began with a question: what happens when players can't see their own character sheet? The answer turned out to be that character creation becomes gameplay. Each player's character is generated in full, with race, class, ability scores, equipment, personality, and a secret, and then every field is redacted behind black bars. The Dungeon Master sees everything on their own screen, and as the party plays, reveals facts one click at a time. Each reveal lands instantly on the player's device with a note in their personal chronicle.
The result is a session where a veteran and a total newcomer are on equal footing, because neither of them knows what they're holding. Newcomers need no prep and cannot misread a sheet they cannot read. Veterans get the pleasure of deducing their own build from clues. The DM gets a table that leans forward.
Underneath, it is genuine fifth-edition play: real characters using the System Reference Document, standard rolls, party-wide level-ups where every new power arrives redacted too. Hidden facts never leave the DM's device; players receive only a masked copy, so peeking at the network tab gets you a wall of black bars, same as the sheet. It runs in any browser and needs no accounts. The free Lite table offers 4 races, 4 classes, and levels 1 to 3, a full night's play. The $9.99 Full Vault opens all 14 races, 12 classes, levels to 5, the complete item vault, and homebrew export. One purchase, no subscription.
Dungeoning In The Dark is made by Copperthumb's Curiosities, a one-person tabletop workshop in California known for handmade, 3D-printed game gear.
How a session goes
The DM opens a table, types in the players' names, and deals the fates: the game forges a complete stranger for each of them. Players join from a link or QR code on their own phones, pick their name, and stare at a sheet that says nothing. The DM starts a scene. Someone tries to kick a door: the DM reveals their Strength. Someone gets stabbed: there are their hit points. Someone starts a fight in a tavern and discovers, in front of everyone, that they are a Rock Gnome wizard with a Charisma of 6 and a secret that explains a great deal. When swords come out, the DM hits Combat!: the initiative order marches across every device, and monsters the DM would rather not name yet appear only as redaction bars. Dice live on every sheet; roll in the open and the result lands on the shared Table Board for the whole party. Reveals accumulate, the sheet fills in, and by the end of the night each player has met themselves. Level-ups keep the mystery going: new powers arrive redacted too.
Features
- Every character fully rolled, fully hidden, revealed one click at a time
- Real-time sync to every player's phone; hidden facts never leave the DM's device
- Only the DM needs the rules; zero prep for players
- Runs in any browser, no accounts
- Free Lite table: 4 races, 4 classes, levels 1 to 3
- Full Vault: 14 races, 12 classes, levels to 5, 110+ items
- DM toolbar: HP, conditions, death saves, spell slots, rests, level-ups, undo
- Combat tracker with initiative, rounds, and veiled monsters
- Dice on every sheet: roll in the open or behind the screen
- Party-wide level-ups with redacted new abilities
- A per-player chronicle of every reveal
- Passphrase recovery and campaign snapshots
- Homebrew: custom items, secrets, trinkets, names, with export
- One-page gilt PDF export of any sheet, redactions intact
- Vision mode: high-contrast palette and larger type
- Built on the SRD 5.1 under CC-BY-4.0
Reveal demo
A player's view as their DM declassifies them, one fact at a time: Tiefling, then Warlock, then the secret. Silent, 15 seconds. Free to embed.
Screenshots
Full-resolution originals (2x and 3x) are in the zip.
Logo & art
The mark is a candle burning atop a skull whose eyes are twenty-sided dice. Please don't recolor it, add effects, or place it on busy backgrounds. Cream on dark is the house look; an ink version is in the zip for light pages.
About Copperthumb's Curiosities
Copperthumb's Curiosities is Josh's creative studio in California. By day he's a software and game developer; the rest of the time he designs and 3D-prints handmade game gear, puzzle boxes, dice vaults, and the like, and runs a YouTube channel on making them. Dungeoning In The Dark is the studio's first game: the same care, pointed at the table itself. Shop and channel at copperthumbscuriosities.com.
Statement on AI and how it was made
All of the writing and artwork in Dungeoning In The Dark is my own, and every illustration in the Nobody's Funeral one-shot is licensed from human artists. Characters are made by the game's own random generator, which draws from data tables I built and from the D&D 5.1 SRD released under Creative Commons. No generative AI is used for any of the game's creative content, including writing and art.
The one place I use AI is in software development. I'm a web and software developer by day, and I use some AI coding tools when building the app itself. Questions about any of this are welcome at support@copperthumb.store.
Legal
Dungeoning In The Dark includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Dungeons & Dragons and D&D are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast; this is an independent work and is not affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. The Dungeoning In The Dark name, logo, and artwork are © Copperthumb's Curiosities and may be used in coverage of the game.