Sean Winningham
Two years ago, I got interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Last year, I started playing and joined a few campaigns and one shots (as well as other tabletop roleplaying games, or TTRPGs). So this year, it was only natural that I started an interest in becoming a Dungeon Master (DM). Am I excited? Yes. Am I terrified? Also yes. Has that stopped me? No. Not yet, at least.
I’m in the midst of creating a D&D game to run online as a DM, and to try to lessen the learning curve myself, I decided to use a pre-made adventure, which are books that gives you resources and a story/outline to follow to run a game. I landed on running Lost Mine Of Phandelver, which is a popular one for beginners and the first adventure that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) released when the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons was released.
Because I purchased this adventure on D&D Beyond, the official digital resources site for Dungeons and Dragons, I was also drawn to their tools that they have for Dungeon Masters: Campaigns, Encounters, and Maps.
When I started my journey into the world of Dungeons and Dragons, one of the most helpful tools that was out there for me as a player was the D&D Beyond app. It allowed me to read the rules for free as well as walked me through the process of creating a character with relative ease on my own. So of course I wanted to check these tools out to see if they would be helpful for me as a Dungeon Master.
As I went through the tools, I found a lot of use for them but also found limitations that I am hoping that Wizards Of The Coast will try to improve in the near future.
Here are my thoughts on the three DM tools that they provide. I’ve also provided my walkthrough video below so you can see how the tools work and what they look like.
CAMPAIGNS
The campaign tool is a management tool for DMs to use. You can use it to invite players who have their character created on D&D Beyond, which will allow you to see their character sheet in one place. You can also add notes for yourself as well as for your players. And you can also share any content you own with your players so if you want them to have access to a subset of races or classes that’s from a specific sourcebook, they can have access to it without having to buy it.
The major limitation is that it’s still pretty limited. A dice roller isn’t available in this specific tool, which as a DM is almost a necessity to have. And although it’s easy to create characters from this page, you can only add one campaign to each character, which usually makes sense but if you’re trying to create a generic NPC to use for multiple campaigns, you have to duplicate them in order to make that work.
Overall though, this tool as a way to organize your campaign’s basic, higher level information works well – but it is probably not best used for something that requires a lot of detailed notes or if you are trying to create a unique world for your campaign.
| PROS | CONS |
| Very easy to add players to a campaign | Dice roller not available on this page |
| Provides a section to write notes, both for your players to see as well as “for your eyes only” | Not a lot of useful features on the app |
| Can create characters from scratch or with a premade template | Characters can only be added to one campaign |
| Can start with a few pre-made adventures | Does not integrate easily with the other tools |
| Can share the content you own with your players to use and access (specific tier subscription required) | Not ideal for detailed notes or world-building information |
ENCOUNTERS
A D&D game isn’t complete without combat of some kind (it’s pretty core to the game). So having an encounters tool like what D&D Beyond provides is essential to the game and a must-have for DMs. What D&D Beyond created is very versatile and impressive. You can easily add players’ characters to an encounter (as long as they’re part of the campaign in D&D Beyond), quickly add monsters from the world of Dungeons & Dragons, roll for initiatives for monsters and/or players, and then track not only the order but also turn and round numbers. In addition, DMs can roll attacks for monsters, pull up their stat blocks to see critical combat information, add a generic character with hit points (HP) and Armor Class (AC), get a challenge rating assessment (which tells you how difficult the encounter will be for your party based on their levels, ranging from easy to deadly), and make dice rolls on the same page as well.
With all of the benefits that encounters do have, there are some limitations. For starters, it doesn’t allow for a lot of cusotmization. If you wanted to add a group of 5 goblins but give them names for your campaign, that’s not possible (it does provide a letter-based identifier, e.g. Goblin A, Goblin B, etc., so that can be useful). If you want to create a unique creature by using an existing one as its basis (then adjust only a few things like HP or AC), you technically can do that, but you have to create it as a homebrew item, so it’s not something you can create inside the tool itself. Additionally, access to character information that is not a monster is virtually nonexistent in the Encounters tool, even if it’s a character that you’ve created; you have to open up the character sheet to look up attacks or change hit points. The dice roller is very handy to have here as well, but as a DM I am hada hard time figuring out how to set it so that the dice either rolls to just me or to the entire group (I did find out you have to right-click on the dice roll to get more options, so it’s possible but not intuitive). Encounters is also not something that the players can see, which generally speaking makes sense, but if you want your players to see initiative order, this tool doesn’t make it possible. Also, this tool doesn’t exist in the app, which is baffling because this seems like the tool that DMs would want to have and find useful in the app.
The Encounters tool is very useful and powerful at a basic level for new Dungeon Masters or for someone who wants to create just a baseline encounter but also have access to monster/creature stat blocks for combat. But doing anything beyond that is just not possible at this time. So if you’re looking for more customization, it’s either cumbersome to do or just isn’t available.
| PROS | CONS |
| Very intuitive | Lack and/or difficulty of customization with creatures |
| Quickly add creatures from D&D source books, adventures, and homebrew | Not available on the app |
| Add a generic player/creature to the encounter with basic information such as hit points and armor class | Cannot change hit points for characters, even ones you have created (can only do this in character sheet) |
| Can roll initiatives for both creatures and players | Setting dice rolls between public and private setting is not intuitive |
| Access stat blocks for creatures and roll attacks from it | Players can’t see initiative order from this tool |
| Get a challenge rating assessment of the encounter, from easy to deadly | Must be tied to a single campaign (although one can duplicate an encounter for another one) |
MAPS
What’s a D&D game without a map for your characters to explore? The Maps tool from D&D Beyond provides a really great starting point to quickly set up a visual map for your players to see the world that they are traveling through during their campaign. The map includes featuers such as Fog Of War (where the DM can hide parts of the map from the players if they want), a pointer to help highlight an area on the map, a ruler to measure distances (by single feet, not in increments of 5 feet), a drawing tool so you can show areas of effects (AoE) or anything else to show on the map, and a Token browser that allows you to add character tokens as well as existing creature tokens to the map. In addition, you can upload your own map to use or select from their basic maps offerings or any sourcebook you own that provides maps as well.
This map seems to really be ideal for in-person games or, again, for basic online play. The Maps tool lacks some functionality that many other VTTs have, such as built-in area of effects visuals. It also doesn’t allow for a DM to upload any of their own images (except for maps). So if you wanted to add a treasure chest or a horse pulling a wagon, that wouldn’t be possible with this tool (which does make sense given that uploading files would put them in the business of file storage that they may not want to be a part of, but it is still a limitation nonetheless). Additionally, the Encounters tool doesn’t seem to be integrated here at all. You can’t able to pull up your encounters to add creatures – you still have to do this manually, and you have to have the Encounters tool open on a separate tab, instead of having it overlayed on the maps tool itself. Finally, the dice roller tool is also not featured on this page either which means that you would still need to have a character sheet or encounters tool page open on another tab anyways to access this.
So overall, the Maps tool is pretty powerful for a basic map, but it’s only really ideal for basic functions, and it’s still curious why it doesn’t seem to incorporate with the other tools they offer. But this is still in Alpha so this could change in the future to make better use of its integration. As of now, however, it’ll do if you aren’t expecting a lot from a Maps tool or planning to have multiple other things open at the same time.
| PROS | CONS |
| Very intuitive | Very basic and limited; does not include features that are basic for other VTTs |
| A lot of basic functionalities such as Fog of War and drawing | Besides maps, does not allow for image uploads for other uses such as treasures or custom tokens |
| Use an existing map, a map from a source book you own, or upload your own map | Encounters is not integrated; cannot roll from this page and cannot add monsters listed in an encounter (must be added manually to the map) |
| Quickly add existing creatures and characters | Dice roller is not available |
CONCLUSION: WHICH TOOLS ARE A HIT AND WHICH TOOLS ARE A MISS?
Overall, these tools are truly ideal to help any DM get started on an official adventure from Wizards of the Coast. I do plan to use the Campaigns tool for my game since I’ll ask my players to create their characters with that tool. I’m still on the fence if I’ll use the Encounters tool or if I’ll opt into a different tool such as Game Master 5, but the Maps tool is still left to be desired so I will be opting out of this tool for the time being.
It is hopeful that since Encounters and Maps are in Beta and Alpha (respectively) that the tools may be improved to the point that will make me take a second look at them. But the lack of integration and customization makes it a barrier for DMs in the long run to use these tools with the exception of some use cases, such as new DMs, DMs needing something basic for their in-person games, or an official campaign that has pre-made features built into the tools already.
