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

Good stuff :)

I'd love to see copy/paste functionality of tokens in Maps. For one, it would probably be slightly faster when placing multiple standard monsters. But it would be ever more useful when trying to populate multiple renamed monsters without having to rename each one (or create a homebrew just for that purpose). For instance, if I want to use the "bandit" stat block but call it a "ruffian" on the map, I'd like to place one "bandit," rename that one to "ruffian" and then copy/paste to quickly add 7 more. I'm admittedly new to the platform, so if there's already a way to do this that I'm not aware of, I'm all ears!

Can you make an option to resize the tokens 

The single most important feature that would cause me to immediately switch to D&D Beyond’s VTT is robust dynamic lighting.

On Roll20, dynamic lighting allows DMs to preconfigure maps using a dedicated lighting layer. This includes walls, doors, windows, light sources, player vision, and darkvision. For my tables, this is non-negotiable. It significantly improves player immersion, reduces in-game workload for the DM by eliminating manual fog-of-war management, and creates a stronger sense of exploration and agency.

An ideal evolution of this system would be AI-assisted placement of walls, doors, and windows, with full DM control to edit and refine the results. One pain point in Roll20 is wall deletion. When a wall segment is removed, the entire traced path is deleted. If a single five-foot section is incorrect, the DM must redraw large portions of the map. Segment-based editing in five to ten foot increments would be a major quality-of-life improvement.

Audio support is also critical for immersion. Music should be easy to manage and categorized by use case, such as ambient travel, tavern themes, combat, tension, and emotional moments.

Additional features that are less critical but still valuable:

• A player-to-player text chat or messenger, allowing tactical discussion, idea sharing, or casual interaction while the main table audio is occupied.

• Quick drag-and-drop or copy-paste functionality for both DMs and players to pull rules text, abilities, or sections from books directly into the VTT for personal reference.

• Support for creatures in disguise, with tokens that can instantly switch between false and true appearances. This should integrate with vision rules such as truesight, allowing players to see the real form when appropriate.

• Built-in voice chat with optional voice modulation tools.

• Automated weapon and spell animations for attacks, hits, and damage resolution.

• Fast, intuitive condition management, especially for DMs controlling multiple creatures. Roll20 macros allow batch actions such as applying conditions to multiple tokens, rolling group initiative, group attacks, and group saving throws. Comparable or improved tooling would be essential for efficient combat management.

Dynamic lighting and encounter automation are the foundation of a modern VTT. Without them, immersion and efficiency suffer. With them, D&D Beyond could quickly become a best-in-class platform for both players and DMs.

Doubt Maps will ever hit foundry level but I currently use AboveVTT as it's the closest to using DDB with a map tool that does what I need and is still easy to use. First two are my biggest but here are my top 10:
1) Maps Fog of War is honestly terrible. I won't use a VTT where I have to use Microsoft Paint style tools to do FOW. Need automatic use of individual players sight with a setting to remember what has been seen a setting that only shows what they can actively see.
2) Maps is missing walls/doors/windows. I like how AboveVTT has the ability to even have locked and secret doors.
3) Dynamic lighting and audio we can control the range on is big for immersion
4) Adding notes on monsters, doors, or even hidden tokens has been huge for me in AboveVTT. I have hidden numbers with the text from the book so I can focus on the VTT and not changing tabs or needing a second screen to read info of a room.
5) Seeing each others personal DDB dice rolling on the map makes it fun to collect digital dice
6) Editing tokens icon, size, name, HP, AC etc should be available and quick
7) AoE overlays that can do the spell damage calculations
7) Conditions that the encounter can track and utilize automically when possible. Also hovering over them should bring up the rule for that condition.
8) Multiple options for displaying HP to players if we want
9) Locking to a grid with a toggle for those who don't want it
10) Unless I'm missing something as this feels to important to not already be a feature, allow my screen to be the DM version of the map while everyone else sees the player version

For things Maps is doing better, I love the stickers system and hope it gets expanded. Quickplay is a good start to speeding up prep. I love all the pre-prepped ones in AboveVTT with the walls already set, doors ready and monsters in their places. Then I just add a few notes and modifications and I'm good to go.

I guess I’m too old because as soon as I put my age in it denied me lolol

As a DM, for me, maps is the simplest VTT out of all of the other ones out there. There are some features that need to be added but don’t over do it like Roll20, making it feel like you need to take an entire day to learn how to use it. A balance of simplicity while still having a large amount of tools that the community wants is hard to do. I also really hope we can get a dedicated app for maps in the future. I’m sure it isn’t easy to do, otherwise everyone else would be doing it but if you could figure out how to make that work, I think you’d be ahead of the curve. At the very least, I would love to see some support for running maps through browser on iPad. I find it runs fairly well but not isn’t very polished, might be a stupid request but I have found my iPad Pro is my best companion over a Mac or Windows laptop. I may be alone here but I’d still like to put it out there. Thank you for all your hard work. 

Great work this year. My top three would be resizing tokens, dynamic lighting, and altitude tracking.

that is outdated, 2014

I would like to have more dynamic tokens.  Specifically, the ability to customize or swap the token portraits and scale the token's size.  For instance, when I want to put Rudolph Van Richten's token in the map, but he is disguised as Rictavio, it's inconvenient when maps show Van Richten's very obvious face and name for all the players to see.  So, I have to put a generic commoner token down and edit the name.  Which is "fine," but of course, if I add the token to the combat tracker all the attributes are wrong.   When a play casts Enlarge or uses an ability to increase their size, it'd be good if I could scale up/down their token size on the map.  Likewise, when the druid uses wild-shapes it'd be nice be able to indicate that somehow.  Currently, for the druid I am hiding the player's original token and adding a new animal one.  But that kind of messes up the initiative tracker.  Finally, the ability to show active condition indicators beneath the player/creature portrait would be a nice add. 

 Nice to see folks talking about adding support for PBP!

 Thanks @WOTC_Zac! I use VTT maps nearly every weekend! I like the ease of use and love being able to drag drop campaign characters directly onto map.
All the other options available in other VTT software can be grand, but I prefer and need simplicity. I get 30 minutes to hour of prep time, and this system allows me to get it done.

One of the things that would help simplify during game is a separation of core content from non-core, legacy, and 3rd party content. The ability for the shapes placed on board to be given hit points would be nice for things that don't come as stamps or monsters. For example, I needed a giant beehive for an adventure and that would have done it. The ability to rename monster tokens and select an alternate image for when an adventure says something like this is a goblin boss but has bone devil stats.

I want to see an upgrade in your search functionality. Searching for things on the website sucks, and the top results are almost never what you're looking for unless you know exactly what the page is called. Even then, it will often have the 2014 rules at the top when there are 2024 rules available for that entry. I don't own every book, but I own enough that I don't remember exactly what all I have and having to check each individual book in the filter is tedious. I would love a toggle that just says "owned or shared with me."

The two main practical notes I have regarding maps are:

1. We need a way to denote elevation of the tokens, (i.e a flying creature is 30ft off the ground)

2. A way to attach two tokens together. For those mounted on beasts, that way you move one token, makes it move both

 I mean, if you're looking for feedback...Really enjoying maps. I play with people live and use the spectator mode to show my pcs at the table the map. I move their tokens around for them when we are doing tactical combat. It's pretty niche, but I would really like the Drakewarden ranger from Fizban's to get a token for the drake they summon, even if it's just a generic looking one like the ones for the sidekicks.  

As...not a programmer, I also feel like it should be pretty easy to put in the ability to add text.  This would make it easier to label big overland maps as the PCs discover stuff. We can use the draw tool, but I'm god awful at writing with a mouse, lol. 

Last but not least I would like the ability to upload custom stickers. It would massively increase the usefulness of the generic maps.  I'm not sure if there's a storage issue or what. The stickers you have are cool, but not very useful unless you're doing something very specific...

I like the maps, but a lot of creatures are behind a subscription, I used to be able to play with companion monsters duodrone and monodrone for my players but now it's locked

"2. A way to attach two tokens together. For those mounted on beasts, that way you move one token, makes it move both"

Have you tried grouping?  It might do what you want.

Can you confirm that it's suitable to provide maps feedback through the forums now? It might be worth a dedicated category.

Quote from Perringaiden >>

Can you confirm that it's suitable to provide maps feedback through the forums now? It might be worth a dedicated category.

 Yeah, this.

0. Early and Often

You used the phrase “early and often” twice in your post. I hope that’s the case.

1. No AI in Maps

Actually, no AI. Fix Search instead.

An AI rules assistant is a really bad idea. The chances that this will be implemented in a useful way are near zero.

Instead, what you need is just plain old well-implemented search. “Search Everything” annoys me every time I see it. Every time. I never want to “search everything”.

2. Fix the Basics

Maps needs to be bullet-proof. An example where it’s not . . . you can’t remove a token from combat and re-add it.

Another. The DM needs to be able to edit initiative.  And ideally AC and just about everything else.

3. Implement the Rules

Every 1st level character should work in Maps. Many don’t. Take the Alert feature. The only way to implement that is to delete the both characters’ tokens and re-add them, then edit initiative.

4. Basic enhancements

I’ve seen the same things over and over:

• custom stickers

• fog of war tools

• change size of token

• elevation indicators

• status indicators

I see these mentioned over and over in Maps feedback.

Thank you and looking forward to an even better Maps!