Sigil, Wizards of the Coast's VTT, Officially Launches

Sigil, the 3D VTT developed by Wizards of the Coast and formerly known as Project Sigil, has officially launched on Window devices. Today, Wizards of the Coast announced that anyone with a D&D Beyond account (free or paid) can now access Sigil, provided they have a computer with Windows OS. Interestingly, the system's full functionality is based off of D&D Beyond's subscription tiers, with access to create multiplayer rooms and the ability to share and load maps tied to the Master Tier account. Master Tier subscribers also have access to builder kits, custom mini outfits, and unpainted minis. The Sigil client can be downloaded from D&D Beyond.

Sigil has been in development since at least 2023 alongside the launch of the One D&D initiative. One major concern about the new system, which uses Unreal Engine 5 to create 3D battle maps for D&D, was its pricing. At least for now, pricing seems to be tied directly to D&D Beyond subscriptions instead of pushing an additional monetization scheme onto players.

EN World saw a preview build of Sigil earlier this year, with a robust and relatively quick-to-implement map building system. One question that I kept asking while previewing Sigil involved exactly what Wizards wanted Sigil to be, as it functionally appeared to be a level or map builder with some basic D&D automation built into the game. The system doesn't include a full D&D revised 5E engine, but it does contain a significant amount of integration for the app to mimic some of D&D Beyond's dice rolling and resource management system has. It doesn't look like a bad VTT, although it's more appropriate for big set piece battles rather than standard "goblins attack the caravan" type encounters.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Down the road, post-beta, if you can buy an adventure module for $50 and it has all the 3D maps and assets built in, that would be incentive to switch to this VTT.

It would, although I do wonder what the price points of the three versions would end up being (hardcover, DDB, Sigil)?

Right now you can buy the hardcover adventures for $50, the DDB version for $30, and the two combined for $60 (for a $20 discount). My instincts would tell me that a Sigil version of an adventure would be at least as expensive as the hardcover book, as one is paying for all the asset design and asset management for the program. So your $50 for a Sigil version on its own might be right on the money. But I would expect that that $50 would not include the DDB copy of the book too... you'd probably have to go to $60 at least like you do for digital + physical. And want to get all three? Probably around $100 if I was to make a guess (full-price on the physical and Sigil versions, with DDB thrown in for free.)

 

[Belen]

I don't necessarily agree, it dilutes the market. And let's be honest here, many VTT projects have just absolutely failed to deliver made promises. That dilutes trust even more, an insane amount of VTTs makes it impossible to choose and impossible for publishers to support them all unless someone comes up with a standardize adventure format for VTTs, which hasn't happened yet. There is already a TON of disdain against playing online people having bad experiences with half arsed VTTs and exploitative business models is not going to change that in a positive way...

WotC has from my perspective a very bad track record with software, especially long support for it. On the other hand I like Magic: Arena, well implemented version of MtG (after many, many failed attempts). Others have stated that the 4e tools were great, don't know, I own the books but never played 4e. I don't like DDB either, nor WotC's business model, nor their direction. But people have figured out how to connect DDB to other VTTs and WotC has licensed D&D to other VTT platforms, so I don't really care about DDB/Sigil as a real alternative to the FVTT I use. I still want to try it and see how they implemented it, as I'm running Mac primarily these days, I'll see if I can get it running via Crossover (compatibility layer similar to Proton for Linux). But I have installed Talespire (that has a Mac client) and see how it looks these days and see how it runs on a Mac Mini...


It is not without reason that many people dislike Hasbro/WotC as a company. I still like D&D enough to buy the official D&D FVTT modules for it, but I could care less about the company that makes it. I don't see it like a great evil, like some. I just see it as something untrustworthy in many respects, especially regarding software products. The product (direction) and business model never was going to get me interested in the first place, even if I didn't already have extreme reservations about what kind of product/service/business model WotC would produce with Sigil. I made my choice with FVTT and even if it gets abandoned tomorrow (it won't!), I could still run the FVTT server without security issues. I could still access my content, modules, etc. (as it's already downloaded).

If you're interested in the VTT market, technology, D&D, etc. You can download Sigil, install it, play with it. I would not advise you invest money in it with the idea/promise that it will get better. Wait until the product is done and then evaluate if you want to pay for it.

Currently, Sigil is free.

You pay for a sub for DDB. Sigil is an add on. Now, if that changes, I will evaluate if it is worth investment.

 

[mamba]

Currently, Sigil is free.

You pay for a sub for DDB. Sigil is an add on. Now, if that changes, I will evaluate if it is worth investment.

but you are not getting the battlemaps of the adventures you own for free. Assuming they do offer them (and the monster minis), I doubt they will be offered for free

 

[TheSword]

but you are not getting the battlemaps of the adventures you own for free. Assuming they do offer them (and the monster minis), I doubt they will be offered for free

I imagine it will be somewhere around the price of Roll20 module or Foundry module. Hopefully with a discount for purchasing hard copy, beyond and Sigil as a bundle. Seems fair.

 

[EthanSental]

After playing around and importing my dndbeyomd characters, I can see it making money off people buying minis of characters from stories, not just the dndbeyond like Karlach sheet, but the physical mini of her like in the live play with them and other Bg3 characters. Especially since teilfing isn’t in there yet as a species to chose. I’m sure I’d pick a few characters like Drizzt, Raistlin, elmimster, etc if they were available and would be cool if they were.

 

[Mort]

but you are not getting the battlemaps of the adventures you own for free. Assuming they do offer them (and the monster minis), I doubt they will be offered for free

Yes another reason to prefer MAPS for now. you get the battle maps for free and in an easy to use format. Worked great for the entire Planescape adventure

 

[LordEntrails]

Can you create your own content, other than maps? Can you share it? Are they setting up a community store where you can sell it?

 

[Zaukrie]

Can you create your own content, other than maps? Can you share it? Are they setting up a community store where you can sell it?

Not yet. You can share maps. We don't know. It's beta. We don't know anything about pricing or that stuff at all.

 

[TheSword]

Hmmm. I wonder if perhaps we aren’t getting a full campaign adventure is because they want Sigil to be ready, and they want the modular support ready for Sigil?

 

[Nebulous]

It would, although I do wonder what the price points of the three versions would end up being (hardcover, DDB, Sigil)?

Right now you can buy the hardcover adventures for $50, the DDB version for $30, and the two combined for $60 (for a $20 discount). My instincts would tell me that a Sigil version of an adventure would be at least as expensive as the hardcover book, as one is paying for all the asset design and asset management for the program. So your $50 for a Sigil version on its own might be right on the money. But I would expect that that $50 would not include the DDB copy of the book too... you'd probably have to go to $60 at least like you do for digital + physical. And want to get all three? Probably around $100 if I was to make a guess (full-price on the physical and Sigil versions, with DDB thrown in for free.)

I guess they might offer a bundle discount on the two digital products, but the print one will remain its own thing. I also imagine they want to move away from print books and transition to digital. If they can sell maps and models like they did plastic miniatures and plastic props and grids, they will have a nigh infinite source of income. Microtransactions (yes, they suck) for detailed armor and weapon sets also seem like a logical course of action.