Project Sigil Project Sigil Updates: D&D's 3d Virtual Tabletop

Project Sigil is the upcoming 3D VTT from WotC. From various Gen Con reports --

• Creative Mode lets you prep on the fly or modify pre-made content
• Assets from Baldur's Gate 3 are included, such as the characters as digital miniatures
• Minis have multiple poses but are not animated
• Spells are animated though
• Uses Unreal Engine 5 (or 4, I've seen different reports)
• Launch on PC, mobiles and consoles later
• Closed Beta this fall--sign up here
• DDB subscribers will have greater access

This is the 'creative mode' toolbox, apparently!​

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Beyond came later and it was from a different company. After losing the D&D license, the folks that wanted to make Morningstar tried to resurrect it as a more general project, but their Kickstarter campaign failed.

Yes I know that, I mean I think WotC got the offer from Beyond they liked better

 

[Nikosandros]

Yes I know that, I mean I think WotC got the offer from Beyond they liked better

Mornisgstar looked mostly vaporware. I was impressed by how solid DDB was right from the start.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

First off, everything I've purchased on DDB is available to me right now on my phone because you can download copies of anything you want, and I have. So it could shut down tonight and I would still have all of 5e and my third party content. So much for that hypothetical.

How do you download books from D&D Beyond? I thought they didn't allow for PDFs or anything of the sort.

 

[Nikosandros]

How do you download books from D&D Beyond? I thought they didn't allow for PDFs or anything of the sort.

You can download the material in the mobile apps. Of course, it is only accessible through the apps themselves. It is somewhat similar to how streaming apps let you download videos.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

One of the biggest quality of life improvements a VTT can make, that DDB can't, it AOE effects. Also, I have not run a game in DDB using its encounter builder, but I don't believe that it has the ability to apply, track, and expire status effects. Cooler graphics and 3-D maps are nice, but I would rather VTTs catch up with making it easier for the DM to manage encounters. It will be the sole thing I base my decision on whether to move to WotC's VTT to run my games on.

You are correct as far as I can recall. One can highlight a token on map to indicate that status effects apply but it is all manually managed.

 

[Cergorach]

4e's online tool was fantastic at the end. Like truly excellent. I get a lot of people didn't like 4e, but at the end of that run they had a very good, useful tool for use with that game.

5e's online tool is fantastic. DnDBeyond is an excellent set of tools.

D&D Insider was crap when it came out. I think 4e was mechanically extremely strong, I own most of 4E D&D products, but it didn't feel like D&D to our group and we never got interest/motivated in playing/DMing it. This is not a poke at the 4e edition. I never touched D&D Insider at the end, but that doesn't negate the fact that D&D Insider isn't around anymore. Anything you put in there (money/time/effort) is gone.

DDB is like Windows, you want to play your favorite game, your stuck with that ecosystem. Only recently did WotC open up D&D to other VTTs (like Foundry) I think Roll20 also had official D&D options a for a while, but has the same issue that DDB has, it's a 'live' service. IF people had a choice, a LOT of people wouldn't choose DDB, just like a LOT of people wouldn't choose Windows if they weren't restricted to it... It's not unusable, certainly not 7 years after release. But when I went looking at the available tools (DDB/Roll20/etc.) I wasn't really impressed by them when I compare them to the stuff 3rd parties made during the 3e era, add to that the 'live' service model and what happened to official 3e and 4e tools, and I'll happily call it crap. Maybe my standards/requirements are just unrealistically high or people have just been conditioned to accept the 'live' service and 'walled garden' models.

IF you're happy with DDB and how Insider wound up, be happy. Don't let me rain on your parade. But I said I was going to be harsh on WotC/Hasbro on their software/service products and my opinion stands, just like yours. It's up to others to decide what they do with our opinions on the matter. Of course I might change my mind (just like you could), but WotC/Hasbro has been doing 'bad' things well into the 5e era, so there isn't much trust there that things will change for the better...

First off, everything I've purchased on DDB is available to me right now on my phone because you can download copies of anything you want, and I have. So it could shut down tonight and I would still have all of 5e and my third party content. So much for that hypothetical.

How long before that phone app goes EOL and no longer work, and does the app actually keep working if it can no longer phone home (every day/week/month/year)? Will you keep your phone OS on this version forever? Don't get me wrong, I can export DDB books in not approved ways, but that's just a crappy looking PDF. And that's just the text, what about the rest of the functionality?

With the VTT 'I shall not name again' I have just backed locally up every stable release they ever released. I can install it on any Linux/Nodejs (virtual) machine I want (and use a modern browser to connect to), I can also backup locally any module I've downloaded. Including the official D&D ones. I can also backup locally all the things/adventures I made. If in 20 years I want to run the things I have today, I can. AND I can play games on it that aren't D&D or even medieval fantasy...

But I also understand that this is not realistic for the average D&D player/DM to do, the moment they hear Linux and Nodejs, they run away screaming (I just run away screaming when I hear Nodejs* )...

 

[Mistwell]

D&D Insider was crap when it came out.

Right which is why I said it was excellent near the end of 4e. Which it was.

DDB is like Windows, you want to play your favorite game, your stuck with that ecosystem.

This is not a rational criticism of DNDBeyond that it doesn't have competitors as good as it is? It's excellent for D&D, which is what we're discussing. So modern WOTC software since late 4e has been excellent. Which is HALF the software they've put out for D&D.

I just don't like re-using a complaint from 15 years ago as if it remained unchanged all these years. They have a decent track record now with software for D&D. 15 years is a pretty long time of success to not have to hear "but their track record..."

 

[Zaukrie]

It's really too bad we can't talk about Sigil. Some of you have made these points for months. We've heard you.

 

[mamba]

I just don't like re-using a complaint from 15 years ago as if it remained unchanged all these years. They have a decent track record now with software for D&D. 15 years is a pretty long time of success to not have to hear "but their track record..."

they bought DDB, they did not create it. The first thing they are actually creating in a long time is the VTT. That being said I would not point at their track record either way, it is a completely different company with a completely different development team

 

[Parmandur]

they bought DDB, they did not create it. The first thing they are actually creating in a long time is the VTT. That being said I would not point at their track record either way, it is a completely different company with a completely different development team

I mean, to be twchnical, the first thing in a long time WotC has made is Magic Arena...which is wildly successful. And the organization that made Arena is who is making this VTT, not the organization that made Gleemax (literally, Chris Cao made Arena).