A D&D Beyond Maps alternative with lighting and your own maps
Maps is the virtual tabletop that comes with your D&D Beyond account. Since September 2025 it has been free for every DM to host on, it reads characters and monsters straight from D&D Beyond, and if you bought an adventure there, its maps come with the tokens already placed. For a table that lives on D&D Beyond that is hard to beat. People go looking for an alternative when they hit three edges: there is no dynamic lighting and no walls or doors, uploading your own maps needs a Master Tier subscription, and it only does D&D. RollQuest is a browser VTT with all three on the free plan.
The short version
D&D Beyond Maps: free with content you own, official, integrated with your D&D Beyond sheets and books. Fog of war, an initiative tracker, shared dice. Your own maps, homebrew monster tokens and custom token art need Master Tier at $5.99 a month. No lighting, walls or doors.
RollQuest: browser-based, free for the whole table including dynamic lighting with walls and doors, fog of war, your own maps, 5e and 5.5e character sheets and a combat tracker. GM tools on Starter and Pro, from $3.99 and $8.99 a month billed yearly ($4.99 and $9.99 month to month). SRD content built in; no licensed books.
Where RollQuest is the better choice
Dynamic lighting, free. Draw walls and doors on any map, place lights, and each player sees what their character can see. (A torch that travels with its token comes with Starter.) Maps has fog of war the DM reveals by hand, and dynamic lighting isn't on D&D Beyond's public roadmap.
Your own maps, free. Upload a map from any artist or generator: 500 MB on Free, 10 GB on Starter, 25 GB on Pro. On Maps, uploading your own map is a Master Tier feature.
A map builder. On Pro, paint a map in RollQuest (rooms, floors, doors and props) and use it as a scene's background, then draw its walls on the board for lighting. Maps has no builder; you use the maps in your library.
Not only D&D. The board, dice, fog and lighting run any system, and the sheets cover six: D&D 5e and 5.5e and four games of RollQuest's own. Maps is D&D, and specifically the D&D you own on D&D Beyond.
Between-session tools. A campaign journal with a linked wiki, cards and decks, playlists and rollable tables on Starter. Maps is the table; the rest of your prep lives elsewhere on D&D Beyond. Players can also open their character from the RollQuest dashboard and roll from it with no game running.
Where D&D Beyond Maps is the better choice
Your library is already there. Adventures you bought on D&D Beyond arrive with their maps, tokens pre-placed and monsters from the books. RollQuest ships the SRD, not licensed Wizards content.
Characters you already made. Every D&D Beyond sheet works as it is, with every subclass and feat from the books you own. RollQuest sheets are built in its own builder from SRD rules.
Official. Wizards builds it, and new books arrive ready to use. Nothing breaks when D&D Beyond changes, because it is D&D Beyond.
More browsers. Maps runs in Firefox and Safari as well as Chrome and Edge. RollQuest needs Chrome or Edge.
Free if you are not uploading. Hosting with owned content costs nothing. Free on RollQuest is also a complete table, but if you already pay for Master Tier for other reasons, Maps is included.
Side by side
| Feature | RollQuest | D&D Beyond Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Runs in a browser | Chrome or Edge | Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge |
| Cost to host | Free; Starter from $3.99/mo, Pro from $8.99/mo | Free |
| Upload your own maps | Free, 500 MB | Master Tier, $5.99/mo |
| Dynamic lighting | Free, with walls and doors | No |
| Fog of war | Free, token vision or manual | Manual reveal |
| Character sheets | Built in, 5e and 5.5e (SRD) | D&D Beyond sheets, with the books you own |
| Licensed adventures | No | Yes, from your D&D Beyond library |
| Monster tokens | SRD monsters | Basic-rules monsters free; the rest from books you own |
| Combat | Battle Mode, free | Initiative tracker, free |
| Dice | 3D physics dice and dice designs, free | Shared digital dice, free |
| Other systems | Any on the board; sheets for six systems | D&D only |
| Map builder | Pro | No |
D&D Beyond prices checked October 2026. RollQuest's "from" prices are billed yearly (Starter $4.99 and Pro $9.99 month to month), and founding prices are locked in for early subscribers.
Moving between them
Players keep their D&D Beyond sheets for reference and rebuild them in RollQuest's guided builder, which takes a few minutes each at any level. Maps you bought on D&D Beyond are licensed there and stay there; maps you own as images upload to either. Many tables run both: sheets and books on D&D Beyond, the battle map on RollQuest.
Frequently asked questions
Is D&D Beyond Maps free?
Yes, since September 2025, for hosting with content you own. Uploading your own maps, homebrew monster tokens and custom token art need Master Tier at $5.99 a month.
Does D&D Beyond Maps have dynamic lighting?
No. It has fog of war that the DM reveals, with no walls, doors or token vision, and dynamic lighting isn't on D&D Beyond's public roadmap. RollQuest has it on the free plan.
Can I use my D&D Beyond characters in RollQuest?
Not by import. Rebuild them in the guided builder. The SRD covers the core rules, so a subclass that only exists in a book you bought will need entering by hand.
Is Sigil closing?
Yes. Sigil, Wizards of the Coast's 3D tabletop, shuts down after 31 October 2026. D&D Beyond Maps is not affected. For 3D minis, the nearest option is Talespire; for a 2D map with lighting, RollQuest.
Can I run both?
Yes. Keep sheets and books on D&D Beyond and run the map, lighting and combat on RollQuest. Nothing on either side stops you.
Try it
Free plan, no download: app.rollquest.io. Or see how RollQuest compares with Roll20 and Above VTT, or every VTT we've compared.