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The aim is to turn D&D virtual tabletop Maps into "a simplified, streamlined version of what we wanted to do for Sigil," according to Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks.
Drawing a blank on Sigil? I don't blame you. This was an all-singing, all-dancing 3D virtual tabletop that felt like a cross between the two-dimensional D&D Maps system and Baldur's Gate 3 (complete with video game-style effects to jazz up your sessions of the best tabletop RPGs). However, just a few weeks after it was soft-launched into early access, a significant percentage of its development team got laid off. Fast-forward to October last year and Sigil was officially dead. We may not have seen the last of its ideas though, at least not according to Cocks.
"What Sigil got right was having this really cool, immersive tableau to be able to create on," Cocks says when I bring up the ill-fated software during our interview covering everything from D&D to video games. "I think where Sigil kind of went maybe south was the system requirements were way too high, and the way it was designed, it couldn't handle too many objects in it, unless you had, like, a crazy high-end gaming rig [...] We made the painful decision to stop the project, but it didn't stop our aspiration to build a really fun kind of map experience. And so what Maps is going to do is take a lot of those same concepts, but do it in 2D – do it on a browser based system that you could run on an iPad, you could run on a low-end Windows PC. And I think what you'll find over time is we will give you more opportunities to customize the avatars that appear on it, stickers that can be interactive, and maps that you can put up and customize."
As someone who loved the idea of Sigil but felt it'd been shoved out into the world before it was ready, I'm glad we're not completely abandoning its better ideas. Having Dungeon Master notes or a sourcebook's location/encounter descriptions within Maps would be incredibly helpful, for example, as it avoids the need to keep switching between tabs. Similarly, a simplified, Baldur's Gate-esque action bar for players was a pretty solid idea. The "clickable actions within a character sheet" aren't always the most user-friendly, especially for beginners, and it can be a hassle finding what you need.
What do you think? Would you prefer Sigil's ideas get left in the past, or are you hoping some live on? Considering how Cocks also says that "you should expect more" crossovers for D&D, it feels as though there's plenty to discuss in the community right now.
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