D&D Beyond Maps VTT Now Open for Testing

Wizards of the Coast quietly releases new 2D Virtual Tabletop feature to D&D Beyond subscribers

In a recent announcement that surprised many D&D players, Wizards of the Coast has just unveiled a new tool called D&D Beyond Maps. Currently available in testing to Master Tier subscribers, at its core Maps is a 2D virtual tabletop that shares some of the basic characteristics of popular VTTs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.

The release of the platform, however, is somewhat surprising given that Wizards of the Coast is currently investing millions into an upcoming 3D virtual tabletop that’s being built using the Unreal Engine and which was recently made available to select testers to fairly mixed reviews. In fact, several years ago there were rumors that Wizards of the Coast was actively working on a 2D VTT, but that it was scraped as the focus moved towards the 3D platform. It now appears, however, that the project was still in development.

So what what does D&D Beyond Maps offer? Below we break out everything you need to know.

What is D&D Beyond Maps?

Maps is 2D virtual tabletop (VTT) platform that is available in D&D Beyond. As it’s currently in Alpha Testing (with only Master Tier subscribers having access), the functionality is fairly limited compared to more established VTTs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds.

Notably, the platform will interact completely with D&D Beyond, allowing players to access official Wizards of the Coast materials, as well as character information for players and campaign features for Dungeon Masters.

While Maps is quite rudimentary so far, it does offer the following features, which are outlined in greater detail in their How to Start Playing Guide:

Playable Maps

Users can upload their own maps as images and then scale them to fit within the Maps interface. It also offers the following maps from existing D&D 5e products (although their are plans to release more official options in the near future):

• Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
• Keys from the Golden Vault
• Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk
• Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
• Giants of the Star Forge

Notably, a Fog of War feature is also available that allows DMs to ensure that certain sections of the map are not visible to players. One major limitation, however, is that Maps does not include any drawing, measuring or pinging tools (although they have said these will be available in future updates).

Adding Tokens

Like other VTTs, Maps also allows Dungeon Masters to upload tokens that represent monsters, NPCs and player characters. So far, however, the selection is limited to existing D&D artwork and there isn’t any option for customization. What’s more, you can’t see the stats or current hit points of monsters or PCs, which means that if you are planning on using this tool, you’ll have to do some napkin math and keep track of everything.

DMs also can’t incorporate any homebrew monsters and there are limitations in terms of what you can create with NPCs. That being said, there is still a fairly decent selection of tokens available, given that you do have access to almost every monsters in official D&D 5e materials.

Final Thoughts

While it’s still early days for Maps and the testing is far from complete, it’s interesting that Wizards of the Coast is investing in a platform that is a far cry from their upcoming 3D VTT (which is slated for release in the next year or two). Whether Maps is something that WotC will actively invest in, however, remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen if it’s something players will actually use given that there are other more established VTTs on the market.

Regardless, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead. In the meantime, below is also the official video from D&D Beyond discussing the new Maps platform.

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