Already posted to the integrated feedback form, but figured I would post here to see if other DMs and players agreed. Also, if anyone has found any useful workarounds for the things I mentioned... feel free to let me know.
A few quality of life improvements I would like to see:
1. A dice option on the map screen. 2. When you roll dice from the phone app it doesn't show what kind of dice has been rolled in the game log. You see the total, but a player could be rolling the wrong type and number of dice. 3. It would be helpful to be able to see the HP and AC of my players above their tokens or next to their names in the game info window. 4. I would like to be able to add status effect symbols to monster and player tokens. 5. Currently players are able to place monster tokens. I would like the ability to restrict them from doing so. 6. I would like to be able to place a grid overlay, that I can select the size of, on top of my maps. 7. I would love a way to import an image on top of the map instead of having to rely on tokens for everything. I like to show reference material to my players and sometimes that is just a big picture of something that I overlay briefly on my maps. 8. When players kill an enemy the only way to show that the enemy is dead is to either swap out the token or to remove it. I would like a way to put a big skull or massive X over the dead enemies.
I have just run my first online game using Maps. It had some pros over using Photoshop (which is what I normally use) but also some cons.
I have submitted all of these to the integrated feedback form, but I thought I'd also post them here:
1) Tonight's session involved fighting a bunch of duergar. It would be nice to be able to resize tokens for creatures that can change size.
2) Since players can move / zoom the map on their screens, I have no idea what they're looking at. It would be cool to have a feature where I can mark a spot on the map and it forces the players' screens to go to that spot.
3) Moveable spell effect templates would also be nice! We can use the draw tool easily enough, but if a player has, say, spirit guardians going, it moves with them, so you have to erase and redraw it every time they move.
Suggestion: I used my tablet for the group map on my table and my phone for my DM map. It would be cool to lock my DM rolls to just the current device screen instead of the account.
Having now run a couple of sessions, I have a short list of things I think would improve it.
First, overall thoughts: I like this relatively well. The learning curve isn't steep -- I was able to throw a map and encounter together over the break between the first and second half of our session (when we got through the preliminary stuff faster than I expected -- I'm a bit rusty *grin*). But there are things I also sorely missed.
(Apologies if any of these are already on the roadmap or have already been suggested elsewhere. The roadmap is vague, and I had trouble finding the right place to even leave this comment! (The survey link for some reason isn't loading properly for me. Tokens
Custom tokens. While the tokens available are pretty wide-ranging (since I own a fair number of books here on DDB), you cannot find everything, or even necessarily a close approximation.
Resizing tokens. To be fair, there *were* a couple of tokens that would have worked...except, that they were huge, and I needed something medium. Even if scaling was just being able to size them up and down the scale (tiny/small/medium/large/huge/gargantuan), it would help a lot.
Hidden by default. When a token is first dropped onto the map, it should be hidden by default. That way you don't have to worry about a token loading up where players can see it.
Adjacent idea. A "toolbox" area that tokens can be loaded onto that only the DM can see and then dragged onto the map as needed would be useful.
Ability to load multiples of a token.
Ability to mass-rename a set of tokens
Autonumbering tokens but the numbers are visible only to the DM. (To keep track of which bandit/zombie/whatever is which). If you mass-rename them, it should not affect the numbers.
Fog of War
The area off the map image should be automatically Fog of War, not visible. At the moment, if you have tokens off the map edge, they can be seen on the player view, which was quite a surprise.
Draw Tool
Need opacity selector for more transparent drawing. (Doesn't need to be a whole graduated percentage thing. Just "Opaque / Transparent" toggle would be fine.
Desperately need an AOE shape creator, so you can drag out a particular circle or cone or square of the appropriate radius/diameter
In addition, it would be useful if the shapes drawn thusly could then be *moved*, so you can draw, say, a 20' radius circle, and then reposition that circle to centre it the way you want.
Map Loader
It would be nice to create our own subfolders to keep maps in. Lest we end up with an endless list of maps, and having to rmember what we named it when we wrote the adventure six weeks ago to load it.
It would be useful to be able to switch from one map to another and have the tokens persist through the change. At the least, the player tokens should carry over.
I'd love a little larger limit on filesize for uploaded maps. (I found a bunch of cool set maps, but several of them are slightly over the 10Mb item.
These are just the ones that have popped up to me as I've been using the maps app for my game. Overall, I really like this product, and do hope it doesn't get *too* bloated -- lightweight and easy is needed! --- but even so, there's still some features it needs. Thanks for all the great work!
Having now run a couple of sessions, I have a short list of things I think would improve it.
First, overall thoughts: I like this relatively well. The learning curve isn't steep -- I was able to throw a map and encounter together over the break between the first and second half of our session (when we got through the preliminary stuff faster than I expected -- I'm a bit rusty *grin*). But there are things I also sorely missed.
(Apologies if any of these are already on the roadmap or have already been suggested elsewhere. The roadmap is vague, and I had trouble finding the right place to even leave this comment! (The survey link for some reason isn't loading properly for me. Tokens
Custom tokens. While the tokens available are pretty wide-ranging (since I own a fair number of books here on DDB), you cannot find everything, or even necessarily a close approximation.
Resizing tokens. To be fair, there *were* a couple of tokens that would have worked...except, that they were huge, and I needed something medium. Even if scaling was just being able to size them up and down the scale (tiny/small/medium/large/huge/gargantuan), it would help a lot.
Hidden by default. When a token is first dropped onto the map, it should be hidden by default. That way you don't have to worry about a token loading up where players can see it.
Adjacent idea. A "toolbox" area that tokens can be loaded onto that only the DM can see and then dragged onto the map as needed would be useful.
Ability to load multiples of a token.
Ability to mass-rename a set of tokens
Autonumbering tokens but the numbers are visible only to the DM. (To keep track of which bandit/zombie/whatever is which). If you mass-rename them, it should not affect the numbers.
Fog of War
The area off the map image should be automatically Fog of War, not visible. At the moment, if you have tokens off the map edge, they can be seen on the player view, which was quite a surprise.
Draw Tool
Need opacity selector for more transparent drawing. (Doesn't need to be a whole graduated percentage thing. Just "Opaque / Transparent" toggle would be fine.
Desperately need an AOE shape creator, so you can drag out a particular circle or cone or square of the appropriate radius/diameter
In addition, it would be useful if the shapes drawn thusly could then be *moved*, so you can draw, say, a 20' radius circle, and then reposition that circle to centre it the way you want.
Map Loader
It would be nice to create our own subfolders to keep maps in. Lest we end up with an endless list of maps, and having to rmember what we named it when we wrote the adventure six weeks ago to load it.
It would be useful to be able to switch from one map to another and have the tokens persist through the change. At the least, the player tokens should carry over.
I'd love a little larger limit on filesize for uploaded maps. (I found a bunch of cool set maps, but several of them are slightly over the 10Mb item.
These are just the ones that have popped up to me as I've been using the maps app for my game. Overall, I really like this product, and do hope it doesn't get *too* bloated -- lightweight and easy is needed! --- but even so, there's still some features it needs. Thanks for all the great work!
I didn't even think about token resizing and ran into it last session! Good one!
We need DM notes and a way to make the DM map device specific along with everything you just mentioned! I use my phone for my DM stuff and I launch the campaign map on a tablet. It sends all my DM rolls across and I have no way to leave notes or mark Traps without the party seeing them.
I have been using the alpha for a few months now. That being said, there are a few things they must add to compete with Roll20 and such. 1st its the tokens. They are just not good. I expected the dnd licensed version of a VTT to have way better minis. Plus you cant upload any as far as monsters go and not all monsters have a token. 2nd, they NEED a soundboard that can connect to Spotify for background music. Or at least be able to upload your own music so the whole party can hear it THROUGH dnd beyond. They also need to add a soundboard for sound effects and whatnot. Also if they could add a way to have items and objects on the tokens menu. Like tables and carts and horses and things like that. Because at this rate it’s not ass good as Roll20. They just aren't there yet. However all their problems and where they fall short are all fixable. Now for the pros they do have nice map layouts and they are very clear maps and i love that you can upload maps. They just need to really focus on making it feel more like a tabletop and less like a map art gallery. I also do love the simplicity of it. I wish the dice rolls were more animated instead of a classic number in a chat bar thing they got. I wish everyone can see a dice roll across the screen. However as the dm i just use my own dice and encourage my players to use real dice too. Gives us the feeling of playing irl. But yeah thats about it off the top of my head. I do have high hopes though. Now if wizards of the coast can team up with dungeons deep dive VR THAT would be revolutionary.
I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet but having tokens for traps would be really helpful. I was trying to figure out how to add a pit trap to a custom map. If there was a token that I could just add to the area and then hide it until it was activated that would be really simple.
I have given up on the maps feature. Development has been so slow. I feel like most the devs are working on the 3D VTT and maps are an afterthought.
Most of the updates are along the lines of "we've added more maps!" Which is fine, but this product isn't usable for my game until there's an initiative tracker.
I don't expect this to be as full featured as Roll 20. I like the idea that it's integrated with Beyond, and I like being able to use one system for everything.
As it stands I'm in a very difficult position.
- The Beyond Maps feature doesn't include an initiative tracker. We tried it. My players hated it.
- The devs keep making changes that break the Beyond 20 extension, and have closed all lines of communication with the dev. So my players get frustrated when they try to make rolls and they aren't sent over to Roll 20.
- Beyond has legit the best character sheets, so my players don't want to give up Beyond.
I am really disheartened by the situation, and am about ready to give up on DMing. Every choice I make is wrong.
I would love to move everyone over entirely to Beyond and just be done, but an initiative tracker isn't even on the roadmap.
I have given up on the maps feature. Development has been so slow. I feel like most the devs are working on the 3D VTT and maps are an afterthought.
Most of the updates are along the lines of "we've added more maps!" Which is fine, but this product isn't usable for my game until there's an initiative tracker.
I don't expect this to be as full featured as Roll 20. I like the idea that it's integrated with Beyond, and I like being able to use one system for everything.
As it stands I'm in a very difficult position.
- The Beyond Maps feature doesn't include an initiative tracker. We tried it. My players hated it.
- The devs keep making changes that break the Beyond 20 extension, and have closed all lines of communication with the dev. So my players get frustrated when they try to make rolls and they aren't sent over to Roll 20.
- Beyond has legit the best character sheets, so my players don't want to give up Beyond.
I am really disheartened by the situation, and am about ready to give up on DMing. Every choice I make is wrong.
I would love to move everyone over entirely to Beyond and just be done, but an initiative tracker isn't even on the roadmap.
I agree the initiative tracker would be nice. I like that the system isn't bloated like Roll20 or Foundry but it can stand to have an initiative tracker.
One thing we really need is annotations for the map. This will expand on the experience with my players so they can make notes on the map to keep track of who/what/when/where things are in the world. I hope you are working on this. This would make my life exponentially better as a first time DM.
I had been using the Inititive tracker from the Encounter tool in a seperate tab. It would be nice there was a widget on the Maps that would refelct it, but it's easy enough to just have those windows side by side. The only downside is the players can't see the order easily. (I guess I don't see this as a game-breaking ommission becuase we managed to play a good 40 years offline where the inititive order was just something the DM scribbled onto a scrap of paper behind their screen when combat started. It would be nice to have, but it doesn't feel essential to the *map* tool.)
The only downside is the players can't see the order easily. (I guess I don't see this as a game-breaking ommission becuase we managed to play a good 40 years offline where the inititive order was just something the DM scribbled onto a scrap of paper behind their screen when combat started. It would be nice to have, but it doesn't feel essential to the *map* tool.)
I see your point and agree in a lot of ways. When I first tried to use the Map tool in my games I just pasted the initiative order in the Discord and figured my players could follow along.
They hated it. It led to a whole lot of "Oh is it my turn? I lost track of where we were at."
With the initiative tracker in Roll 20, they can see exactly how close their turn is. They know I'm aggro about having a plan for your turn, so they know how close they are to needing to have something ready.
My players legitimately complain about very little. I am a very lucky DM.
This is one thing that is a big deal to them. They like seeing an initiative tracker. 🤷 I feel like I need to make it happen if I can.
I agree that we don't want maps to become bloated like R20 and Foundry. It's simplicity is it's redeeming quality. I do, however, feel like an initiative tracker would be widely used.
Would be nice or I hope that there will be a map building tool that accompanies this once it's finished. Or at least a specific existing one that is compatible with D&D Beyond Maps.
Having had a brief play around with the maps, the only thing that is currently stopping me using this over OwlBearRodeo is the Fog of war.
I like to prep the map prior to playing so that i can remove the fog of war room by room at a simple click (OBR) vs (DnDB) using a freehand tool which means i may accidentally show a hidden room etc.
That and being able to resize tokens on the fly. Everything else looks really promising. If the above FoW was implemented i really wouldnt need OBR at all and everything i need would be in DnDB.......
I would like a token called Trap or something to keep hidden so I know without looking at another maps that they stepped on a trap tile. I have tried to "Homebrew" one, but it doesn't seem to come up on anything after I created it.
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Already posted to the integrated feedback form, but figured I would post here to see if other DMs and players agreed. Also, if anyone has found any useful workarounds for the things I mentioned... feel free to let me know.
A few quality of life improvements I would like to see:
1. A dice option on the map screen.
2. When you roll dice from the phone app it doesn't show what kind of dice has been rolled in the game log. You see the total, but a player could be rolling the wrong type and number of dice.
3. It would be helpful to be able to see the HP and AC of my players above their tokens or next to their names in the game info window.
4. I would like to be able to add status effect symbols to monster and player tokens.
5. Currently players are able to place monster tokens. I would like the ability to restrict them from doing so.
6. I would like to be able to place a grid overlay, that I can select the size of, on top of my maps.
7. I would love a way to import an image on top of the map instead of having to rely on tokens for everything. I like to show reference material to my players and sometimes that is just a big picture of something that I overlay briefly on my maps.
8. When players kill an enemy the only way to show that the enemy is dead is to either swap out the token or to remove it. I would like a way to put a big skull or massive X over the dead enemies.
I have just run my first online game using Maps. It had some pros over using Photoshop (which is what I normally use) but also some cons.
I have submitted all of these to the integrated feedback form, but I thought I'd also post them here:
1) Tonight's session involved fighting a bunch of duergar. It would be nice to be able to resize tokens for creatures that can change size.
2) Since players can move / zoom the map on their screens, I have no idea what they're looking at. It would be cool to have a feature where I can mark a spot on the map and it forces the players' screens to go to that spot.
3) Moveable spell effect templates would also be nice! We can use the draw tool easily enough, but if a player has, say, spirit guardians going, it moves with them, so you have to erase and redraw it every time they move.
Suggestion: I used my tablet for the group map on my table and my phone for my DM map. It would be cool to lock my DM rolls to just the current device screen instead of the account.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
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Having now run a couple of sessions, I have a short list of things I think would improve it.
First, overall thoughts: I like this relatively well. The learning curve isn't steep -- I was able to throw a map and encounter together over the break between the first and second half of our session (when we got through the preliminary stuff faster than I expected -- I'm a bit rusty *grin*). But there are things I also sorely missed.
(Apologies if any of these are already on the roadmap or have already been suggested elsewhere. The roadmap is vague, and I had trouble finding the right place to even leave this comment! (The survey link for some reason isn't loading properly for me.
Tokens
Fog of War
Draw Tool
Map Loader
These are just the ones that have popped up to me as I've been using the maps app for my game. Overall, I really like this product, and do hope it doesn't get *too* bloated -- lightweight and easy is needed! --- but even so, there's still some features it needs. Thanks for all the great work!
I didn't even think about token resizing and ran into it last session! Good one!
We need DM notes and a way to make the DM map device specific along with everything you just mentioned! I use my phone for my DM stuff and I launch the campaign map on a tablet. It sends all my DM rolls across and I have no way to leave notes or mark Traps without the party seeing them.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
I have been using the alpha for a few months now. That being said, there are a few things they must add to compete with Roll20 and such. 1st its the tokens. They are just not good. I expected the dnd licensed version of a VTT to have way better minis. Plus you cant upload any as far as monsters go and not all monsters have a token. 2nd, they NEED a soundboard that can connect to Spotify for background music. Or at least be able to upload your own music so the whole party can hear it THROUGH dnd beyond. They also need to add a soundboard for sound effects and whatnot. Also if they could add a way to have items and objects on the tokens menu. Like tables and carts and horses and things like that. Because at this rate it’s not ass good as Roll20. They just aren't there yet. However all their problems and where they fall short are all fixable. Now for the pros they do have nice map layouts and they are very clear maps and i love that you can upload maps. They just need to really focus on making it feel more like a tabletop and less like a map art gallery. I also do love the simplicity of it. I wish the dice rolls were more animated instead of a classic number in a chat bar thing they got. I wish everyone can see a dice roll across the screen. However as the dm i just use my own dice and encourage my players to use real dice too. Gives us the feeling of playing irl. But yeah thats about it off the top of my head. I do have high hopes though. Now if wizards of the coast can team up with dungeons deep dive VR THAT would be revolutionary.
I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet but having tokens for traps would be really helpful. I was trying to figure out how to add a pit trap to a custom map. If there was a token that I could just add to the area and then hide it until it was activated that would be really simple.
I have given up on the maps feature. Development has been so slow. I feel like most the devs are working on the 3D VTT and maps are an afterthought.
Most of the updates are along the lines of "we've added more maps!" Which is fine, but this product isn't usable for my game until there's an initiative tracker.
I don't expect this to be as full featured as Roll 20. I like the idea that it's integrated with Beyond, and I like being able to use one system for everything.
As it stands I'm in a very difficult position.
- The Beyond Maps feature doesn't include an initiative tracker. We tried it. My players hated it.
- The devs keep making changes that break the Beyond 20 extension, and have closed all lines of communication with the dev. So my players get frustrated when they try to make rolls and they aren't sent over to Roll 20.
- Beyond has legit the best character sheets, so my players don't want to give up Beyond.
I am really disheartened by the situation, and am about ready to give up on DMing. Every choice I make is wrong.
I would love to move everyone over entirely to Beyond and just be done, but an initiative tracker isn't even on the roadmap.
I agree the initiative tracker would be nice. I like that the system isn't bloated like Roll20 or Foundry but it can stand to have an initiative tracker.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
One thing we really need is annotations for the map. This will expand on the experience with my players so they can make notes on the map to keep track of who/what/when/where things are in the world. I hope you are working on this. This would make my life exponentially better as a first time DM.
I had been using the Inititive tracker from the Encounter tool in a seperate tab. It would be nice there was a widget on the Maps that would refelct it, but it's easy enough to just have those windows side by side. The only downside is the players can't see the order easily. (I guess I don't see this as a game-breaking ommission becuase we managed to play a good 40 years offline where the inititive order was just something the DM scribbled onto a scrap of paper behind their screen when combat started. It would be nice to have, but it doesn't feel essential to the *map* tool.)
I see your point and agree in a lot of ways. When I first tried to use the Map tool in my games I just pasted the initiative order in the Discord and figured my players could follow along.
They hated it. It led to a whole lot of "Oh is it my turn? I lost track of where we were at."
With the initiative tracker in Roll 20, they can see exactly how close their turn is. They know I'm aggro about having a plan for your turn, so they know how close they are to needing to have something ready.
My players legitimately complain about very little. I am a very lucky DM.
This is one thing that is a big deal to them. They like seeing an initiative tracker. 🤷 I feel like I need to make it happen if I can.
I agree that we don't want maps to become bloated like R20 and Foundry. It's simplicity is it's redeeming quality. I do, however, feel like an initiative tracker would be widely used.
With the 2024 rules out now. It says if grids are made they should be 5 foot per square. Is maps going to to match that so that it is seamless?
Would be nice or I hope that there will be a map building tool that accompanies this once it's finished. Or at least a specific existing one that is compatible with D&D Beyond Maps.
Having had a brief play around with the maps, the only thing that is currently stopping me using this over OwlBearRodeo is the Fog of war.
I like to prep the map prior to playing so that i can remove the fog of war room by room at a simple click (OBR) vs (DnDB) using a freehand tool which means i may accidentally show a hidden room etc.
That and being able to resize tokens on the fly. Everything else looks really promising. If the above FoW was implemented i really wouldnt need OBR at all and everything i need would be in DnDB.......
Keep up the great work!
Snappable grids, Please! That's the only reason I am using OwlBearRodeo over this. Add grids and I switch! Keep up the great work!
I would like a token called Trap or something to keep hidden so I know without looking at another maps that they stepped on a trap tile. I have tried to "Homebrew" one, but it doesn't seem to come up on anything after I created it.