D&D Beyond Maps will be the best way to play online

Dungeons & Dragons fans often joke that the hardest part of the game isn’t surviving battles against high-level monsters but aligning the schedules of different adults. Even Baldur’s Gate 3 joked about this in its epilogue. 

Distance also plays a huge factor in determining when a group can play, which is why many people use online tools to help them play tabletop RPGs. While anyone can put on a webcam and play D&D, it lacks the tactile experience of being around the table, where you can roll dice and push minis around a map. 

To this end, Wizards of the Coast is working on Maps for D&D Beyond. This is a service that lets a DM and multiple players use an interactive map that works in tandem with the character sheets & dice rolling of D&D Beyond to allow you to play online.

While Maps is still in Alpha, Dexerto had a chance to try out the latest version of the software, using an adventure called “The Lost City.” This adventure is appearing in the Quests from the Infinite Staircase anthology, which will be released on July 16. 

The next two sections of the article will contain mild spoilers for parts of The Lost City adventure in Quests from the Infinite Staircase.

Going grave robbing in The Lost City

The basic setup for Maps is that each player is connected via their character sheet on D&D Beyond, where dice rolls can be done digitally and shown to everyone. The DM invites everyone into a Maps session, where players can put down their character tokens from a drop-down menu.

For this adventure, we were already on the third level of The Lost City adventure, so we had been dropped into a room in the middle of a tomb. The players could only see the 3×3 squares room, which had a door and a few decorations, such as a multi-colored coffin. 

The player can move their token at any time — it’s not restricted by the DM, nor is it locked to the “grid” that makes up most D&D dungeons. This brings a surprising amount of character to online play, as character positioning can be important in a dungeon.

Case in point, when I decided that my Rogue would open the multi-colored coffin, I moved my token next to it to demonstrate my action. Meanwhile, all the other players were quick to move their tokens to different sides of the room, on the off-chance that something nasty was inside. That way, it would just be my character taking the hit. 

Once we were ready to leave, we opened the door and found a corridor beyond. We peeked out, giving the DM a chance to rub away the fog of war using an eraser that’s oddly satisfying in a way only PowerWash Simulator fans can appreciate. This method means the DM can only remove relevant pieces rather than dropping whole rooms onto the map. 

Adventuring tools of the trade

As we explored the tomb, we eventually ran into trouble: a group of skeletons that didn’t like people entering their homes unannounced. The DM had already set the five skeletons on the map and was able to turn them visible when they appeared. 

When combat begins, that’s when rules come into effect, and things like distance start to matter.  In Maps, there’s a Ruler on the sidebar which you can use to measure distance. This is the ideal way to determine things like movement and reach, especially as it doesn’t need to strictly be locked to a grid. If you’re unsure if your character can run to a specific spot with their current Speed, the Ruler tells you the distance. 

D&D players need more than a single line when it comes to measuring distance. Anyone who has played a spellcaster knows how annoying it can be to work out AoE for spells like Shatter, Fireball, Cone of Cold, or Wall of Fire. This is also true for DMs, who often need to work out things like breath attacks for dragons.

Along with the Ruler option, Maps has a feature that works out AoE patterns, showing them on the screen for everyone to see. In our case, we ran into an Ankheg, which has an Acid Spray attack in a 30 x 5 line. The DM was able to drag and drop this effect, showing which players were hit by the attack. 

There are also different overlays available, such as red squares and circles, which can used to show temporary effects that don’t appear on the original map. Let’s say the players set fire to a building (as they often do); you can put a red overlay on the map to show the fire growing each round. 

Death to cartography

One of the most unpleasant tasks a group can force on a player is the mapmaker. Sure, some people excel at it and love keeping track of the dungeon, but plenty of others hate it, and if a player is nominated for that role, then it will affect their experience, as they have to draw while they play.

With Maps, not only is the actual map unfolding before you, but players can add their own touches to it. There’s an option that lets a player Ping a location, causing a red flash to appear where they’ve clicked, like a multiplayer video game. This means if they’re talking about going to a specific room, they can drop a Ping and show everyone where they’re talking about.

Not only that, but there’s a line Ping that lets you draw a route on a map, which appears as a glowing red line. This can be used to demonstrate a route. We used this several times in The Lost City, as our dungeon was a labyrinth. When I needed to suggest a specific path through the catacombs, I could Ping a line to show everyone what I was thinking of.

The DM can also make use of these highlighting tools to quickly demonstrate areas of interest to the player. A top-down map doesn’t always represent everything that an adventuring party would notice, so the DM can outline anything important. 

Players can also leave permanent markers on a map with the drawing function. This allows you to draw notes on the map using your mouse pointer or touch screen. With this function, you can leave easy visual reminders in dungeons with lots of rooms. That being said, it can be harder to use if you’re on a laptop trackpad. 

In our playthrough, we were only shown part of The Lost City, but we were reassured that DMs can input their own custom maps to be used with Maps. This is a vitally important feature for all of the homebrew DMs out in the world, so they’re not locked to the maps from the existing campaigns. 

Maps has opened a doorway to online D&D

When it comes to D&D, I’m blessed to have local players who are willing to make the commute to my games. As such, I haven’t had much interest in online games, even during lockdown, as it’s always felt “off” to me. 

Playing with the Alpha version of Maps was an eye-opener for me. When these features are combined with D&D Beyond’s character sheets, they made for the experience that was closest to actually being on a tabletop.

Unfortunately, there’s still no release window for Maps. The service is still in Alpha, and only those on D&D Beyond’s Master tier can try it out. The fact that it lacks a date means it almost certainly won’t be available for the launch of the new Player’s Handbook in 2024. 

When Maps does make its final release, then it will be my go-to for online D&D. While it might never match the feel of tabletop play, it’s as strong a substitute as I’ve played so far.