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.

 

[Afroconan]

People over at Reddit claiming that they'll eventually walk it back once they get people hooked... Ffs

 

[Cergorach]

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'm pretty sure that Sigil also had an internal roadmap that was cut short when they stopped development. I'm not saying they are winding down development, I'm saying that it's a potential option. WotC/Hasbro is functioning like it has ADHD, bouncing around everything, and burning down what they loose interest in after a short while. See what happened to their computer game development plans, also very much culled.

I don't really have an interest (anymore) in WotC D&D digital products in the VTT and character generation space. I've found solutions that fit better with my needs and wants, but the reason why I never looked at the WotC solutions for 5e when we needed to move to online play, is because of my experience with WotC and D&D digital products over the last decade and a half. I do not trust WotC to handle long term digital solutions well for D&D.

That's got to be some sort of AI-drive Rules Assistant, right?

Not necessarily, and to be honest it would be better for everyone involved for it not to be LLM driven. But how it is written, it seems to be the case. They could train a small model on all the rule(book)s, FAQs and rulings.

 

[Nikosandros]

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

From the description, it seems to me that it would just be the possibility of accessing the campaign page directly from maps. But I hope that campaign management itself will see some improvement down the line.

or the Rules Assistant anywhere? That's got to be some sort of AI-drive Rules Assistant, right?

That's my impression as well.

 

[Azzy]

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?

That's the feeling I get, too.

 

[Echohawk]

From the description, it seems to me that it would just be the possibility of accessing the campaign page directly from maps. But I hope that campaign management itself will see some improvement down the line.

If it is just a replication of the very minimal functionality on the current "My Campaigns" page, that will be disappointing. But when the Maps teams added encounter building support, it was an improved version of what was already available, so I'm cautiously optimistic that calling the new part the Campaign Console means there will be a little more to it.

 

[Azzy]

Huh. I may play around with it. I'll probably stick with Foundry, but it's worth taking a look at.

 

[perringaiden]

I'm optimistic, BUT only if they expand campaign sharing to allow non-owner DM's to use the content their players own. Currently you can only use your own purchases in the VTT, even if you have a DM Tier subscription and someone shares you items in that specific campaign.

Given that the VTT instances are Campaign specific, it should be easy to control and limit the shared content.

 

[AlViking]

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?

The last one certainly. Which, as much as I have issues with LLMs, seems like an actually appropriate use. It will be interesting to see how it works, I assume it will be built on current rules which may not work for some.

 

[AlViking]

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?

Most likely explanation is that they realize no one is going to subscribe simply for Maps even if it is popular. Meanwhile they wanted to add a few features, ensure stability and server cost, or even just came to accept that it's not going to increase subscriptions. On the other hand if it's free along with the ability to play around with the core rules, it's just one more reason for people to get familiar with DndBeyond. The more people using it, the more people playing the game, the more subscriptions and sales.

It's not an altruistic move by any means, I also don't see why it would mean they don't have any confidence in the tool. I've only played with it a few times but it's a decent map tool if you don't want the overhead and complexity of some of Roll20 (I've never used Foundry). Meanwhile if you pay for the rules on any of the VTTs, they can disappear tomorrow just as easily. Just like I no longer have physical copies of video games, movies and most books.

 

[sevenbastard]

Rules Assistant anywhere? That's got to be some sort of AI-drive Rules Assistant, right?

From what I understand it monitors the voice part of the game and then chimes in with "they have dark vision" whenever the DM mentions lack of light.