Project Sigil, the virtual tabletop / 3D digital sandbox platform, has been in development by Wizards of the Coast for a while now, and some more insight into how it’s going was given to fans during this year’s D&D Direct.
Shown off during the presentation, Project Sigil features comprehensive map and building creation systems, enabling DMs to build dungeons, taverns, and other structures piece by piece and to scale should they wish. DMs can also utilise sound effects and visual effects to bring their creations to life.
Additionally, players and DMs alike can create custom 3D minifigures, and particularly useful in the case of player character figures is the ability to update them at any time in order to reflect changes in gear and clothing.
For those who don’t want to, or don’t have the time to, create everything themselves, Sigil comes ready-built with modules, which centre on locations such as graveyards and caves and are designed to take a few hours to play through each.
Project Sigil also has the capability to utilise 2D monster tokens in order to allow DMs to utilise monsters from D&D’s past that don’t have 3D figures, as well as to utilise custom monsters via 2D images. Hypothetically, Wizards claim, Sigil should be compatible with systems that aren’t D&D.
Although they’ve built the system for PC and it’ll be released there first, Wizards claim that they wish Sigil to be available on mobile and consoles, although there’s no word on when this will be possible.
The sandbox is planned to be available to try for free, seemingly with multiple levels of purchase options available, giving you more or less in-system content. Those with D&D Beyond accounts are able to sign up for the closed beta now, which will launch in Fall.
Additionally, it was announced that fans who preorder the 2024 Digital and Physical Core Rulebook Bundle will receive a gold dragon minifigure to kickstart their collections within Project Sigil. You can read more about those books here.
I’ll be honest, this is where my enthusiasm for the system left me – whilst I understand it’s a business and Wizards want to make money, Project Sigil seems to be heading down the proverbial ‘packed with microtransactions’ road, and this honestly feels really disappointing to me, because it otherwise looks great.
What do you think of Project Sigil? Would you even bother to get it – especially given that it seems geared for microtransactions – or will you just keep playing on a physical tabletop? Let us know in the comments below.