Maps Feature on D&D Beyond Becomes Free to Use

Wizards of the Coast is making its popular 2D VTT service Maps free-to-use over on D&D Beyond. Announced today over on their website (and likely coinciding with a press event over on Gen Con), D&D Head of Franchise Dan Ayoub announced that its Maps VTT service will be free to anyone with a D&D Beyond account starting on September 16th. Anyone with an account will be able to host a game over on Maps, a privilege that was previously reserved for Master-tier subscribers.

Maps became the default VTT service for Wizards of the Coast after it started to wind down the expensive 3D Sigil service just a few days after launch. The service allows players to use official D&D maps pulled from most adventures as well as 2D tokens. Starting with Dragon Delves, the service also includes pre-made maps using encounters from adventures.

 

[Parmandur]

Maps going free is great.

That message is bizarre and rings of "corporate said we had to say this" sort of wording. The D&D team is working far ahead on projects and I wonder if the 2024 books didn't hit the marks they expected (being based on popularity over a year old) and realization is starting to set it. At the very least, the rush D&D had during the pandemic is cooling and maybe they're starting to notice. Fractionalization seems to be setting in. But I very much doubt WotC D&D will see the surge it had just a few years ago.

Nope, not that: Hasbro juat had their Quarterly earnings report, and D&D is app9doojg very, very well.

 

[AlViking]

So I guess we don't have to wait for the YouTube videos to see how this is somehow a bad thing. ::sigh::

 

[mamba]

Nope, not that: Hasbro juat had their Quarterly earnings report, and D&D is app9doojg very, very well.

is it? I thought it was basically flat compared to a year ago (ie before the new core books)?

 

[Parmandur]

is it? I thought it was basically flat compared to a year ago (ie before the new core books)?

@Alphastream talked about this on today's episode of Mastring Dungeons, D&D appears to have gone way up compared to the first half of 2024. Who knows about longterm, but D&D seems to have gotten quite the boost in sales.

 

[Selas]

A lot of the doom-posting I've seen continue to use either lack of sales numbers from WotC or bookscan numbers as evidence when in reality we don't know since direct sales seems to be the majority of their income nowadays followed by FLGS

 

[darjr]

@Alphastream talked about this on today's episode of Mastring Dungeons, D&D appears to have gone way up compared to the first half of 2024. Who knows about longterm, but D&D seems to have gotten quite the boost in sales.

This.

 

[Charlaquin]

from the article


We’re laying the groundwork for a new initiative that will bring community voices directly into the room. Our goal is to create a rotating advisory group made up of creators, publishers, educators, and fans who can help us shape future tools, policies, and content in a real, ongoing way.

We’re still finalizing the structure and process, but our intention is clear: this isn’t a one-time survey or a PR move. It’s about building lasting collaboration with the people who make D&D what it is.

More details to come, but we are also developing a creator spotlighting program that will highlight third-party creations across our official channels. If you’re making something incredible, the world should see it.

At D&D, we understand that the community is the beating heart of the game we all love, and we want it to thrive so more people can experience adventures with their friends and family.

We’ve stumbled before. We’ve learned from it. And now, we’re committed to clearer communication, more transparency, and consistent support—for players, creators, and publishers.

Wow! I was skeptical about the idea of embracing a franchise model or whatever, but… this is a very positive start to the new direction!

 

[Cergorach]

I could see it as a negative, either WotC doesn't have much confidence in their Maps solution, they are winding down development for it, they don't see it positioning itself as worth paying for in the market, etc. OR this is just a way to attract more people into an overflowing VTT market to the WotC VTT solution that integrates with DnD Beyond... The service where you don't 'own' your digital D&D books...

Just make sure you 'backup' your purchases offline for when your purchase get 'retired' for reasons xyz...

For me this has zero impact, as I'm a happy user of Foundry VTT. But sometimes we point users to Roll20 as a free easy solution, because no VTT is a one size fits all solution, and FVTT is not ideal for everyone. Maybe this opens up the WotC VTT solution as a decent free alternative for D&D?

 

[Echohawk]

I could see it as a negative, either WotC doesn't have much confidence in their Maps solution, they are winding down development for it, they don't see it positioning itself as worth paying for in the market, etc.

It's definitely not this. Maps is one of the bits of Beyond that publishes at least a vague roadmap of future developments and sticks to it. They aren't winding down development:

I see this move as Maps now having enough extra features that it's possible to differentiate a free-tier of access from an "all the bells and whistles" level of access. And, of course, each free-tier Maps user is an opportunity to convert someone to paid-tier user to get access to all those additional Maps features.

 

[Echohawk]

Rereading my own post, I have to say that those last two features have me intrigued. Does anyone know if they've mentioned anything more about the Campaign Console or the Rules Assistant anywhere? That's got to be some sort of AI-drive Rules Assistant, right?