Vorpal Board vs Calamus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Vorpal Board
Connect to a tabletop gaming system for remote play with friends and family. Stream your game table and scan components for an immersive D&D or board game experience from anywhere.
- Remote game night facilitation
- Table streaming
- Component scanning
- Dungeons & Dragons support
- Board game support
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Vorpal Board makes it easy to reclaim game night no matter where your family and friends are. Want to play board games or D&D remotely? This companion app enables you to connect to the Vorpal Board system using a combination of table streaming and component scanning which is perfect for tabletop and role playing games.
Calamus
Create expansive battlemaps with hand-drawn tiles for tabletop RPGs. Design custom character tokens and host real-time games where players can move their own pieces. Engage in robust chat, sending messages as yourself or any in-game token.
- Create large battlemaps
- Dozens of hand-drawn tiles
- Custom PC, NPC, FOE tokens
- Host real-time games
- Player character movement
- Robust in-game chat
- Send messages as tokens
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The Calamus is a companion for tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder, that allows you to create huge battlemaps utilizing dozens of hand-drawn tiles, create custom PC, NPC, and FOE tokens, and host games in which players can add and move their own characters in real-time. It also features a robust chat, in which you can send messages as yourself or any token you have in play, publicly or privately. You can find our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy here: http://trapstreetstudios.com/theCalamus/tos/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Vorpal Board at 4.4 against Calamus's 3.3. Vorpal Board also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and review sentiment (56% vs 33%). Calamus's advantage is ratings volume (83 vs 15) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Calamus sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Vorpal Board asks for nothing beyond the download.
Vorpal Board holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Calamus has 83 ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 56% of Vorpal Board's written reviews are positive against 33% of Calamus's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Vorpal Board | Calamus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (15 ratings) — better | 3.3 (83 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 55.6% of reviews — better | 32.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 15 | 83 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 46 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | James Lang | TrapStreet Studios |
Customer experience
Vorpal Board
Calamus
Bugs and requests
Vorpal Board
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Calamus
Reported bugs
40 issues- No undo option
- Walls erase when removing objects
- Rune password login issues
- Water turns light blue when saving/cropping
- App repeatedly asks for password
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- Pop-ups are disruptive
- Download issues
- Support issues
- Map saving issues
- App crashes
- Broken text formatting
- Tabs do not work
- Program freezes while placing tiles
- Login issues after canceling subscription
- Pinch and pull zoom doesn't work
- Erase button in wrong menu
- Forced password system
- Locked out if away from app for too long
- Not designed for mobile user experience
- Maps don't save properly
- App never loads
- Never got to do much of anything
- Non-functional, never makes it past loading screen
- Monetization model kills it
- Forced subscription after idle period
- Limited variety of items
- Cannot download saved maps
- App asks for subscription after payment
- Free app with subscription service
- Too complicated login process
- Freezes when adding players
- Rune password is confusing
- Subscription is a big problem
- Keeps locking, requires frequent passcode entry
- Slowdown on larger maps
- Text is incredibly small
- Menu screen swipe function doesn't work
- Cannot figure out rune password
- Slow learning curve
- No simple tutorial
Requested features
18 requests- Add undo option
- Improve Apple Pencil support
- Add more assets like columns
- Add desert themed items
- Add steering wheel and crows nest
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- Add fungi for underdark maps
- Allow watching ads instead of subscription
- Fix water color issue when saving/cropping
- Improve login process
- Add more variety of items
- Allow downloading saved maps to device
- Implement a one-time purchase option
- Add more content
- Change rune password system to typed password or tap option
- Add more VTT features
- Provide a simple tutorial
- Allow maps to be exported as PDFs
- Allow maps to be printed
In-app purchases
Vorpal Board
No in-app purchases
Calamus
- Calamus Player Only$0.991 Month
- Full Version - Monthly$2.991 Month
- Calamus Monthly Subscription$3.491 Month
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- Full Version - Yearly$29.991 Year
- Calamus Yearly Subscription$39.991 Year
- All Epic Token Icons$0.99
- More Tokens Slots (6)$0.99
- Full Roommaker$1.99
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- All Epic Token Rings$2.99
- Player Enhanced Version$2.99
