A virtual tabletop from D&D Beyond may very well be in the works.
With the pandemic forcing many D&D groups to the meet online, players and DMs alike have had to iron out the specifics on how to transition their games to the virtual space.
- See also:
Online tabletops like Roll20, FantasyGrounds, and Astral offer the ability to construct battlemaps to be inhabited by PCs and monsters (and terrain, and traps, and cover, and all that good stuff), but as GameRant’s Zackery Carnley wrote on Tuesday in his aptly-titled article Dungeons and Dragons Needs an Official Virtual Tabletop, D&D players are all over the place when it comes to which system to use.
Carnley argues that, with so many new players joining the ranks of D&D vets thanks to the game’s recent spotlights in pop culture, D&D “deserves its own, official, dedicated virtual tabletop.”
Well, as far as official online toolsets go, all eyes are on D&D Beyond.
For those not in the know, D&D Beyond offers virtual versions of all of the D&D 5e sourcebooks, modules, and more, and acts as a homebase form many campaigns’ character sheets and DM notes.
But it doesn’t have its own virtual tabletop. If it did, it stands to reason that D&D Beyond would become the default place to host online sessions, given that most will already have a D&D Beyond tab opened in the first place.
But whether or not D&D Beyond plans to create (or is potentially already working on) their own VTT is still largely up in the air.
Most recently, a follower of the online toolset’s Twitter account asked exactly that in response to a livestream announcement. On February 11, Falcone (@Feybol) asked “Is there any playable grid for dndbeyond being prepared in the foreseeable future? If you say no I won’t be happy ever again, but don’t feel obliged to answer otherwise.”
D&D Beyond’s answer proved hopeful to those of us who would like to see something similar:
“Our team would love to offer a virtual game space in the future!”
Our team would love to offer a virtual game space in the future!
— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) February 11, 2021
Here’s hoping that the optimistic response wasn’t just to stop Falcone from a future devoid of happiness, and that there already is a VTT being worked on, yet just hasn’t been announced yet.
We can dream, after all.
- See also:
