Wizards of the Coast announced its new virtual tabletop Maps Entering the public beta after a year of alpha testing. This new phase of Maps takes all of the original features of the virtual tabletop – including digital dice rolling, character tokens, and integration of cards and monsters from a user’s D&D Beyond library – and adds the ability for players to conduct combat encounters and inflict initiatives directly follow in the virtual tabletop.
However, there was no mention of Wizards of the Coast’s shiniest new toy, Project Sigil, a 3D virtual map currently in closed beta. Sigil premiered at Gen Con earlier this year in a live play to mixed reviews Baldur’s Gate 3 Actors Samantha Béart and Neil Newbon alongside real acting titans Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar and Anjali Bhimani.
These low-prep features include easy integration of player and enemy tokens and real-time encounter balancing based on refresh Dungeon Master’s Guideand a flexible initiative without interrupting the encounter. For larger encounters or multi-level dungeons, monsters can be hidden until the time is right. This gives Dungeon Masters the opportunity to always add more drama (or bring in a few extra monsters if things aren’t looking good for the group).
Oddly enough, this map update makes Wizards a strong contender in a digital landscape full of competing products, including popular solutions like Alchemy and Foundry. But it also puts it in direct competition with its own partners, including officially licensed VTTs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. Of course, the advantage for harried gamemasters is that after rolling up a character digitally, players can simply press a button in the web browser to seamlessly transfer the action from the theater of the mind into a visually immersive 2D digital combat experience. According to the post on the D&D Beyond blog, “The goal of Maps has always been to allow Dungeon Masters to prepare less.” [and] play more.”
According to the D&D Beyond announcementOnly Master tier subscribers can host game sessions in Maps, but all users with a free account and browser-based Internet access can join a hosted game.
