D&D Beyond's Maps Have Gotten A Lot Better, But There's Still A Big Caveat
The Maps feature on D&D Beyond is currently in alpha, but it's already seen a lot of progress as a good way to run games online. Although it's perfectly possible to play without any maps at all, having a proper layout for exploration and battles can make the game a lot more intuitive. D&D Beyond's Maps come with some upsides that are hard to find elsewhere, but there's one complication that makes deciding whether to commit to it a bit tricky.
Introduced as an alpha feature in September 2023, Maps integrates directly with the official D&D Beyond platform that houses digital versions of published books, character sheets, and more. It didn't arrive fully formed, however, missing a number of key features like rulers and a robust fog of war system. Although the tool is still in alpha, it's been getting consistent updates, and it's now on a level where most dungeon masters could probably feel reasonably comfortable using Maps to run adventures.
The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks are introducing a lot of quality-of-life changes, with some especially simple fixes to long-term annoyances.
recently participated in a play session of a adventure that made use of D&D Beyond's Maps, and there's a lot to appreciate in the current iteration. Some features added in recent months simply make life a lot easier for dungeon masters, like the ability to pause games to allow for private set-up of things that players don't need to see. is also releasing multiple digital versions of maps in new books, providing variants that show or hide information for the DM's sake.
The biggest come-up for combat probably lies in the addition of more tools for measurement. A basic ruler is an important one for figuring out diagonal ranges, but Maps has also added slightly more complex tools to determine the radius of spells and the reach of conical attacks. Everything's simple and responsive, and the lack of overall clutter makes it easy to find the right tool without fumbling around in obtuse
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