Dungeons & Dragons Reveals First Look at New Virtual Tabletop Service, Playtest Date Revealed

Players will get to test out Dungeons & Dragons' new virtual tabletop service later this year. During today's D&D Direct, Wizards of the Coast revealed a new look at its upcoming virtual tabletop service, which is designed to facilitate virtual D&D play. The new service basically looks like an interactive video game, with 3D miniatures, customizable 3D landscapes and buildings, and animated effects for spells and attacks. We also saw an example of the service's integration with the D&D Beyond character builder, which appears to only require a link to a D&D Beyond character sheet to "port in" a character into the virtual tabletop service. The video also highlighted that there will be a community marketplace aspect to the service, with third-party providers able to make and share (and hopefully sell) their own creations on the service. 

The Dungeons & Dragons virtual tabletop service is allegedly a priority for Wizards of the Coast, who has sought to further monetize D&D beyond the release of books. While virtual tabletop services have long been a part of TTRPG play, this new service seems to be looking to add a much more polished system to the game while also being directly under Wizards of the Coast's control. This year's OGL debacle, which saw Wizards attempt to "de-authorize" the legal framework used by creators to make third-party material compatible with D&D, was driven in part to create a separate VTT policy that would have provided Wizards' VTT service with an advantage by banning things like animating D&D spells. Wizards eventually abandoned these plans after widespread community outrage, but many look at this new VTT service with immense skepticism.

The reveal, which came during a D&D Direct presentation that aired today, was light on specific details such as price point or subscription cost, but potential users will have the ability to test the service later this year during a public playtest period. Hopefully, we get more concrete details about the service soon.