I tried something new in my D&D game tonight with an online battle map. I haven’t messed with it before since Roll20 felt a little too complicated to learn and teach others, but D&D Beyond just rolled out the alpha version of their Maps feature. I learned about it yesterday, watched their 20-minute product release video, and immediately started playing around. It’s got a lot more features that can be added in the future, and they have a whole roadmap, but right now it’s already simple and very easy to use.
We tested it for combat tonight and I think everyone appreciates the visual of seeing where the monsters and their companions are. I certainly preferred it to tracking on my own and trying to accurately describe each time. I’m going to try to have virtual maps prepared for combats I can anticipate in the future from here on out. Luckily there’s no shortage of online D&D maps that more talented people than me have created so I can tap into those libraries. I’ve started a collection after going through a rabbit hole of maps this morning and some of them definitely inspired new settings and potential plot hooks.
But just having a basic grid is sometimes all you need. Anyway, it got me excited to play more D&D and keep testing this out!
With Love,
Natalie