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

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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.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

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Carl Pinder, who works with FG now was working on this with a Kickstarter….in 2015 for 3D. Can’t believe it took 10 years to get something similar to the market and I wish Doug and FGU would do something similar as it was system neutral and could drop character sheet into it for a game and it did calculations off that. I actually built the first level of level of Undermountain with it back in the day and ran a couple sessions with it on the table tv for our group back then the players decided to throw me a curveball and go down the well in the Yawning Portal…fun times :)
WotC had made decent progress on a 3D VTT to debut alongside THIRD EDITION way back in 2000 . . . . the fact it's taken about 25 years for anybody to bring a successful 3D VTT to market speaks to the difficulty of the task.
 

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WotC had made decent progress on a 3D VTT to debut alongside THIRD EDITION way back in 2000 . . . . the fact it's taken about 25 years for anybody to bring a successful 3D VTT to market speaks to the difficulty of the task.
Now that I posted . . . was the 3D VTT supposed to debut with 3E or 4E? I sometimes get WotC's attempts at digtal tools confused . . . either way, 25 years or 17 years, it's been a while.
 


4e I believe. Was there two of them? Or just two of the 2d attempts?
There were digital tools being developed for release with both 3E and then later 4E . . . a 3D VTT was definitely a part of the package for 4E, and I think 3E too . . . but, heck it's all vapor ware. :)
 

You can assign customized fonts per language now. Full font customization requires an extension. But it's a pretty easy extension.
Yes but you can’t just change a font so that two speakers of the same in game language can have different fonts.

You know, like you can do with every single text using program since Windows 95?
 

Yes but you can’t just change a font so that two speakers of the same in game language can have different fonts.

You know, like you can do with every single text using program since Windows 95?
Ok sure. I've never heard anyone request that capability. And checking the feature request list I discovered their is a request for something like that. And it has a whole 12 votes in the almost whole year that it has been there. You really think they should spend developer resources on that? Fantasy Grounds - Feature Requests
 

Ok sure. I've never heard anyone request that capability. And checking the feature request list I discovered their is a request for something like that. And it has a whole 12 votes in the almost whole year that it has been there. You really think they should spend developer resources on that? Fantasy Grounds - Feature Requests
It’s only a basic function of every single vtt for over twenty years. Why change things now? Hell it only took them twenty years to be able to put a label on the map. I’m not really holding my breath.
 

What makes something a stupid list for a free tier? This is not something I am interested in, nor a market I follow, but I never assume anything is free. Nor do I believe it should be. So, IMO, anything free is just a bonus. So again, what is stupid about free stuff?
The most useful feature of any VTT is being able to host your game actually have it handle rules/dice/etc in the VTT. Free tier doesn't allow hosting your own campaign.

No, I don't think someone should be allowed an unlimited amount of freedom for free but one single campaign? Or creating/sharing/download completed maps? That would feed so well into their microtransaction heavy future they want. Free to Play pricing is what's necessary for something like this to get large adoption especially if they want it on consoles, which WotC has definitely spoken about being interested in the future.
 

The most useful feature of any VTT is being able to host your game actually have it handle rules/dice/etc in the VTT. Free tier doesn't allow hosting your own campaign.

No, I don't think someone should be allowed an unlimited amount of freedom for free but one single campaign? Or creating/sharing/download completed maps? That would feed so well into their microtransaction heavy future they want. Free to Play pricing is what's necessary for something like this to get large adoption especially if they want it on consoles, which WotC has definitely spoken about being interested in the future.
Umm. Every single vtt on the market would like to have a word.
 


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