Dabloons: TikTok role players have made a viral game

Roleplaying is popular on TikTok, but usually it means someone dressing up in cosplay to film a video in which they welcome you to their fantasy tavern or offer you a task. Over the last month, a new type of roleplaying movement has swept over the site. It’s called “dabloons,” and the hashtag has over 730 million views.

The latest trend overtaking TikTok is the dabloon economy. It’s a collaborative, informal role-playing game in which players acquire the fictitious money “dabloons” – based on the 16th-century Spanish coin known as a “doubloon” – and exchange them for fictitious commodities like soup, weapons, or a big shark with a horse head.

You may get dabloons just by watching a video that gives you some. You will soon come across more movies, most of which include an image of a cat greeting you with the phrase “hey traveller” and then showing you their inventory of products that you can buy for a specific number of dabloons.

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— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) November 25, 2022

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— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) November 25, 2022

A dabloon gifting or sale video may be made by anybody. There is no database that counts how many you have or what you buy. There is no external website that makes or controls them.

In reality, there’s nothing stopping you from simply claiming to have ten billion doubloons in your fictitious bank account. However, with no practical rewards other than whimsy, if you choose to cheat, you’re only truly cheating yourself.