The Road Ahead: Join Our Journey to Improve the Maps VTT

As a dm, i love the maps vtt, the only wish is that there would be a better selection from the stickers, more to choose from.

As someone that has been a forever Dm for the majority of my time playing Dungeons and dragons all the way back to 2ed edition, I have three big reasons I use VTT's now.

1) Much easier to get groups put together and keep a time schedule online then in person. (being able to put uploaded battle maps into folders and re arrange their order after they are loaded would be a huge quality of life)

2) What i would like to see and reasons i went to VTT's in the first place is a dynamic Lighting system even simple ones.  I would love to see DnD Beyonds Vtt use player vision into fog of war or Into lighting either work. That makes way less work for both player and DM, We both know exactly what they can see. More complex ones allow for walls and corners but that is a luxury not a need really.

3) A big ask is being able to edit token size on the fly within the VTT. Example a player uses Enlarge/reduce on their fellow player. I would like to be able to make the TOKEN a large token right there on the spot.

A side update would be nice to measure and move at the same time.

Overall DnD VTT has been wonderful and the updates over time have been nice. Would be wonderful to see these keep coming, and see DnDbeyond's VTT be my goto VTT. 

I really like the VTT, its ease of use has made it essential to my group's sessions for the past year or two its been out. 

Personally I would like some HP bars, dynamic customization of tokens (For stuff like enlarge/reduce, for example), some additional overlays for tokens to indicate conditions maybe, and of course, virtual dice on my virtual tabletop. 

Some initial thoughts:

1. Please, please, please, please, I'm literally begging you, no so-called 'AI'. Not for anything. Ever. I would literally pay money to specifically not have AI 'features'.
2. Not sure what magic is required to pull this off but I've read that other VTT's allow you to 'cast' a player map to a screen whilst maintaining a DM view on your own screen. This would allow people to use the VTT at a physical table and that would be marvellous.
3. Basic features common to most VTT's whilst keeping this one simple to use. Too many VTT's are so complex and convoluted creating a huge barrier to entry. If people want that, they have a myriad of other options. I think that keeping this one simple, straightforward, functional and accessible is important for the hobby in general, not just this site.
4. Proper grid movement (lock minis to grid). I think this is gonna be a common request. Have it togglable if there are enough people who insist they don't want it but I think if you did a survey, most people would say they want it. It's pretty core to every VTT I've ever seen as it makes everything so much easier.
5. Area of Effect templates. It'd be amazing to be able to pull up a spell and click on its AoE entry to give you a moveable, low opacity AoE template which you can lock to a grid intersection that then mathimagically tells you who is affected by it as per AoE miniatures rules.

Also, in the Get Involved form linked in the article there's a question about the age of players with no option for, "Mixed." It's only younger, older, same-same, or "I don't know."

Quote from Frendili >>

Honestly the encounter tool is better in every way then maps and I wish you would focus on that instead.

Quote from Raequon >>

Please stop tying EVERY tool in to maps. Make them available in maps, and out of maps. many of us need an encounter builder without the entire maps shell, for example. We would like a rules consultant, but don't need maps. Stop trying to funnel everything through maps. Funnel it through DDB, and make it work with maps for those who need maps, but work without for those of us who don't need maps. 

I play in person with a digital tabletop. Maps will never be my choice of VTT for that as it's online only and I don't want to deal with loading, wifi is down, etc. But I do need a great encounter builder. Which we had before you moved it all into maps. 

Make me a tool similar to https://obsidian.md/, but designed for DND from the ground up and use THAT as a hub for maps, encounter builder, etc. Stop making Maps the hub. 

I want to add my voice to those expressing frustration that parts of D&D Beyond, especially the Encounter Builder, have been abandoned in favour of focusing on Maps. I realize that updating the existing Encounter Builder isn't monetizable, but at least just doing the bare minimum and updating it to 2024 rules would go a long way toward rebuilding the goodwill this site has lost with many of us.

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Did I mention ease of use?

So I have been a primary DM and just recently a player pretty much every week since may using the MapsVTT. Currently my set-up is my notes are on obsidian to flip through them, then I have 3 tabs open on DnDBeyond, the campaign page to check my players pages, the Maps VTT and then a page to quick search if I need something. Before play time prep usually happens in obsidian and a map maker like Inkarnate.

My issues thus far:

1. sometimes is I have multiple DnDbeyond tabs open and a monster attacks within the VTT the roll does not appear in my log, However, my players see it.

2. When using overlays such as the shapes which we currently use for emanations, sight and spells we cannot select the token underneath without having to the overlay out of place

3. Selecting things sometimes accidently highlights the whole page which requires a refresh.

4.Not Major but annoying, when selecting the fog of war it never remembers what it was selected last, so end up painting fog of war back on.

Things I'd like to see:

1. overlays, allow them to function on a layer system where they can sit behind the tokens and drawings. Or allow in conjunction to the coloured rings an emanation overlay connected to the token in which you can set its size and only moves if the token does. Additionally, allow multiple,  a way to hide the overlay and possibly a way to have it reduce fog of war.

2.Codition rings, we have the 16 colours or whatever there is but having dedicated ones for the conditions and a way to have that set the condition on the character sheet would be nice. As well as allowing the colours to be used for Hex, Hunters mark, vex, slow, etc.

3. Have a toggle for snap to grid tokens.

4. Allowing advantage or disadvantage on monsters auto roll initiative from the combat side bar for Surprise etc.

5. Allowing DMs ruler to be visible to all players.

6. Having a way to set up another map without having to pause the session and just having the players have a blank screen, show the last instance before pause.

7. Allow party inventory to be accessible on the DM end from the campaign page or within Maps.

8. Have an option for the player to roll to DM but secret from players and for the DM to roll specifically to one player, instead of only self or everyone.

9. Having full statblocks available within the vtt tab

10. allow tokens to be scaled, Enlarge / reduce

11. Sound board with common dungeon noises as well as the ability to add custom.

12. Fog of war improvements / dynamic lighting. 

13. A way to place hidden monsters from the statblock menu.

Additional things that I think would allow dndbeyond to be definative tool for dnd.

1. Dedicated map maker akin to inkarnate, the current quickmaps and stickers are very limited in its apllication.

2. Notes system which allows for the ease of recalling things in your library, magic item hover over descriptions, statblocks, entcounters, homebrew all baked into your notes.

Yep, Yuan-Ti Priest and Stonemelder are two that won't load for me. It's possible it could be that those are from shared content rather than stuff I own? I thought they were third party but they are in fact ToA and PotA. Other blocks load up fine; not those ones. 

Color rings are heard, but I'm sure you're thinking the same thing I am, a real condition tracker would be great for players to hover over and remind themselves what they are instead of referring to conditions on the sheet. 

Also, I mentioned this on Discord, but Avrae integration as a rules lookup engine base would be great. You've already got it all in a searchable database!

Quote from AKADDK >>

Some initial thoughts:

1. Please, please, please, please, I'm literally begging you, no so-called 'AI'. Not for anything. Ever. I would literally pay money to specifically not have AI 'features'.
2. Not sure what magic is required to pull this off but I've read that other VTT's allow you to 'cast' a player map to a screen whilst maintaining a DM view on your own screen. This would allow people to use the VTT at a physical table and that would be marvellous.
3. Basic features common to most VTT's whilst keeping this one simple to use. Too many VTT's are so complex and convoluted creating a huge barrier to entry. If people want that, they have a myriad of other options. I think that keeping this one simple, straightforward, functional and accessible is important for the hobby in general, not just this site.
4. Proper grid movement (lock minis to grid). I think this is gonna be a common request. Have it togglable if there are enough people who insist they don't want it but I think if you did a survey, most people would say they want it. It's pretty core to every VTT I've ever seen as it makes everything so much easier.
5. Area of Effect templates. It'd be amazing to be able to pull up a spell and click on its AoE entry to give you a moveable, low opacity AoE template which you can lock to a grid intersection that then mathimagically tells you who is affected by it as per AoE miniatures rules.

Also, in the Get Involved form linked in the article there's a question about the age of players with no option for, "Mixed." It's only younger, older, same-same, or "I don't know."

So for #2, you can actually currently do that with the DBB VTT! I'm doing it for my session tomorrow and I just tested it out on my TV. There's two main steps:

First, open the map you're running and start the session. You can then hit "Spectator View" (in the bottom right), which will open a new tab that shows the map from the player's perspective (i.e. opaque fog of war, no hidden monsters). This tab will update in real time exactly like how it works for players. You want to drag this tab out to form a new window that can be moved around independent of the tab with the DM view map.

Next, make sure your computer is hooked up to your TV/display. This can sometimes be done via casting (Win + K on windows devices) or with an HDMI cable. It should default to "mirroring" the same screen on both your computer and the TV. Now, open Settings > Display (this is also where you can find wireless devices to cast to). If you change the setting from "mirror" to "extend", it treats the two screens separately and you can have different windows on each screen. You can now drag the Spectator View window off the side of your screen and it will appear on the TV screen. Maximize the window, put the map in fullscreen, and voila!! You can see and mess with the DM side of the map on your private computer screen while the players look at the TV and only see what they should. Really simple and quick once you know how to do it and have your computer settings set up.

Very impressed with Maps, but there is still a lot of work ahead. Some key features I am dying for:

• Edit token's avatar images. Most monsters have the default silhouette image of their creature type, and it can take the immersion out for my players.
• Overwrite token's AC and Ability scores just like you do for HP.
• Change the size of the token into the different sizes of the map (small, medium, large, huge, etc). This is to consider effects like the Enlarge/Reduce spell or when Goliaths or Armorer Artificers want to scale up or down.
• While the coloured borders are a temporary solution to displaying conditions, I would like to have labels/icons that can indicate the different conditions on each token. Heart icons for Charmed, Scared face for frightened, stars for stunned, etc.
• Some spells that summons creatures on the battlefield are not available as Monsters. Summon beasts, Summon undead, etc. is difficult to keep track of if their statblock is not available. Could summons also be added as tokens in the future?
• More Stickers! The ones that are already available are fantastic, and we can't have enough of them! But also on top of stickers, you could also consider adding magical effects, like Conjure Animals, Spike growth, and Cloud of Daggers in as well. The temporary fix for now is using overlays, but adding the actual visuals of a spell would also make it much more immersive to my players.

I've been using Maps ever since the Dungeon Master's Guide '24 released, so I'm glad to hear it's still aiming to improve!

It's definitely my preferred VTT because of how convenient it is to roll from the monster stat blocks. Some things I think may be neat:

1. Toggle snapping onto a grid. I have players on their mobile devices who rely heavily on grids, and it's a small quality-of-life feature we'd love.
2. Condition markers. If characters are poisoned, paralyzed, etc. Some little icons indicating what they're affected by would help tremendously.
3. Representing size changes. Goliaths can enter Large Form, or players can cast Enlarge. It's very limiting when we can't adjust the token size.
4. A marquee tool for fog-of-war. Honestly, just erasing makes for poor presentation. I sometimes end up erasing too far or accidentally exposing a room, whereas being able to select a large rectangular shape, such as Owlbear Rodeo's, is simple and quick.

 Hello @WOTC_Zac!

Thanks for taking the time to engage directly with the player base - this is a huge and positive step forward in my eyes.  I know you won't get 100% agreement from everyone here (which is half the fun), but it's great to see you're interested and listening.  Long may it continue.

My two (or three) desires on the Roadmap are:

1. Tracking movement.
If I use the distance tool, it shows me exactly how far it is from one token to another location on the map.  But when I drag the token to move it, it is guesswork.  Could we not have a toggle that allows drag-distance to be shown when you move?

2. Minimal Automation
I know this is a big one.  I think it would be a huge QOL improvement to enable very high-level automation in combat.  What do I mean by that?  Nothing more complex than allowing a token to target another and then click an attack/spell/whatever.  Do some very basic maths and indicate if the attack hit or missed.   Then, when damage dice are rolled, allow one click adjustment of HP.   

I know D&D is a game of Interrupts, so fully automating is a huge task - and might well be outside of the desires of this VTT, but very basic hit/miss/damage automation would be a big step forward for me and would be enough to make me move to Maps from Foundry.

3. More Persistence
This is really minor, and I suspect it will never get approved, as I think it would have a big impact on the number of servers you would need on the back end. I would love it if Maps sessions hung around longer, especially when the DM wasn't present.  Why?  I play a lot of PBP games and would love to be able to use Maps as the VTT for them, but as soon as I log off the Maps session dies, and my players can't access it.

Anyway, most importantly great to see this high level of transparency from the team, regardless of your direction.  So keep it up!

Cheers
Blakey

This openness from the team is absolutely brilliant. Thank you.

I use the the VTT in conjunction with my physical (minis and terrain) table. I try and mirror what the players can see in front of them on the screen in front of me. I also they use the built in tools to build the encounter and track initiative and HP.

Would love to contribute more thoughts following the survey.

Hey! Been dming a campaign purely through DND Beyond for the past year with a group of 7 players(I am okay you do not need to send help), it is based in the Forgotten Realms, specifically Waterdeep in 1499dr. The tools available and quick resources have made things very smooth, but I have a few requests/complaints/comments regarding VTT.

The ability to build our own maps inside of the software would be HUGE, I'm not sure if this is planned or not, but it would cut my costs down and make everything I do for DND come from one website instead of multiple.

VTT in its current state is buggy, especially with 7 players in a lobby. Visual artifacts, maps crashing and not updating for players is a constant issue.

Thanks for the hard work!

Hey zac welcome.

What I would like to see again is to be able to buy content a la carte. Since that has been removed I have stopped buying and supporting.

Hopefully new minds can make the stubborn old owners see

I DM Adventurer's League at our FLGS and Maps has been an immense help since investing in a digital screen for the players and myself to place minis. Just the amount of ink saved on printing custom maps has paid for the screen already.

I would echo the comments on Fog of War, it slows play down a little having to get the right brush size and not accidentally reveal something. Having a dynamic line of sight reveal whereby I move a token on the screen representing the lead party member to reveal line of sight would be immensely helpful. 

This is maybe a pie in the sky, but on the DM view, perhaps a function could be added for Published Adventure modules where a button on the map could be clicked by the DM to reveal a sidebar showing the relevant description to read to players, notes etc. As matters stand, I have Maps open to clear Fog of War, another window with the adventure itself, and a printout of the DM version of the map noting which area is A1, A2, A3 etc so I can refer to the correct notes. A feature like this, clicking as you navigate could help streamline that process and feel more integrated.

A visual Initiative tracker to share on the Spectator view would be handy. I run my games in person, using Maps on a digital screen, so I have the option of physical trackers, but if I could have this in Maps, I could cut down on physical items to take to and from sessions, while still allowing my players to see when they are next up, and plan their turns accordingly.

This is a minor one on the wishlist, but tokens for vehicles. Sometimes, a good chase sequence or a ship to ship combat at sea or Wildspace encounter could involve vehicles manouevring at considerable distances, but still requiring a level of visualisation. While I love running some of these as Theatre of the Mind, and I do bring physical minis to run on a generic map, something like this could be handy for digital only encounters to help DMs visualise this.

I would love it if D&D Beyond allowed players to make Bastion maps connected to character sheets.