Last updated on December 10th, 2025 at 03:10 pm
Calamus – Roleplaying Game Review
Calamus is a Roleplaying game from TrapStreet Studios, first launched in 15th January 2020.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 82+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Calamus Stand Out
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/
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Calamus is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 16th February 2024
Recent improvements include:
Some users were having issues with deleting tiles from their map staying deleted. This build should fix the issue moving forward. Also, this build fixes an issue for people trying to resubscribe.
Full patch notes: https://trapstreetstudios.com/theCalamus/patchnotes
Download & Availability
Calamus is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Let us preface this by saying we dont leave reviews. Im not even involved in social media nor have we ever been – in our opinion it only serves to cut out the human element. With that out of the way let us begin. Ive been playing AD&D for over 30 years and Ive explored most of the relevant apps out there. Hands down, this one is, in our opinion, one of the best. As far as the complaints regarding the implementation of subscriptions, people dont stop to think about the time and effort the developers put into maintaining the app. Yes, the options available in the free version are limited but nowadays thats the norm. In this case, a 1-year subscription costs $29.99 which works out to be less than $3.00/month. That being said, if you are someone who looks to create your own scenarios and battle maps, the variety of unlocked content made available makes it well worth the cost. If you are someone who prefers spending less time customizing, you have the option to create randomly generated rooms. It just depends on how much time you choose to spend creating your map. We will say we felt there was a small learning curve to figuring out some of the mechanics but it didnt take long to grasp. As far as any complaints about customer service, the negative reviews couldnt be further from the truth. We had a complication regarding our subscription so obviously we contacted the developers. We received a response and resolution to the issue in less than 24 hours. The way we see it, you cant ask for better customer service – especially in this day and age. 5 out of 5 stars and deservedly earned.
If your looking for an easy map maker to throw some maps together this is perfect, but since the free mode it has gone downhill, there are things locked that shouldnt be, torches, bookshelves, a lot of the plants. The wall selection is. Bad, it only has cobblestone, wood, and brick (locked without subscription), and the floors are okay, theres plenty of options, except you cant use the dock without a subscription, even tho Ive used it before, and where are the desert themed items, you have tomb things but not anything related to the most notable tombs ever? And no steering wheel or crows nest without paying, we know you need to get money to keep your app running but we would much rather watch an add every 30 mins than try to fight with not having a steering wheel or torches in our pirate ship, and dont even get us started on logging in, we like the concept or having a rune password, but once we put it in it shouldnt freeze and not let us in, and final thing, when we save a map that has water, when we go in to crop it to make print it on to pages, the water turns a light blue instead of the color we need, if you could fix these problems this game could easily rival any map making software.
We downloaded this app yesterday and played around with it, we need a way to make maps for our d&d campaign's with friends so we downloaded this app to hopefully make it easier. We will say it's a lot easier than some websites we have visited (probably because we are on mobile) but our problem with it is that every couple of second this app makes us re-type our password, sometimes we can't even place a couple tiles because right after we typed our password it asked us to again, we checked the reviews to see if this was a problem for other people and sure enough it was. The developers reached out to them and told them they would fix the problem but that was 3 year's ago, it's not quirky and unique to give us a runes password if you make us typenit in every 2 second's, we mean it seems like the whole point of the game isn't the maps it's just your password. If you like sliding your finger across the screen a lot of times in a minutes this is the app for you.
We literally cant do anything because these stupid pop ups keep happening. Its the same few pop ups over and over and its ridiculous. Dont bother with this app.
We had a bug and they were able to repair it and give us a new download in less than three hours. Great art for map making. Great customer service.
Rune swipe password doesnt feel convenient or secure, and must be entered quickly which is not helpful or accessible. App crashes as soon as we got to the menu and tried to click something. Interface has broken text formatting with words crammed overlapping on other words.
The art is nice, and the concept is great, but the app contains bugs. After a few minutes of placing tiles, the program would seem to freeze; closing and reopening the app shows that it had continued placing tiles without showing us. Since the map is saved with every tile you place, theres not much worry about losing loads of progress all at once, but its pretty inconvenient. The selection is decent, but we wouldnt pay money for it after the 7-day trial ends. Our recommendation is Dungeon Painter Studio on Steam if youre not bound to an Apple device. It functions in the same way as this program, but has way more tools and choices. Plus, its not subscription-based.
We used to have a subscription but canceled when our we took a break from the app now that we're logging back in won't let us do anything unless we buy the subscription again.
We can make maps quickly and on the go w this! However, im having an issue where the map wont save properly, tiles go missing randomly :(.
Ive been having issues downloading maps, we have reached out to support multiple time including uninstalling and reinstalling and no solution. Support has been no help and wont reply and at this point it isnt even worth it as much as we were enjoying it.
We really wanted to like this but it just doesnt work. It doesnt seem like you can pinch and pull to look at the map from different zoom perspectives. The erase button is in a completely different menu area. We keep trying to go to the settings (gear) icon but instead it takes us to a subscription ad that we cant navigate away from. Theres a forced password system for some reason. Who needs to hide their dnd maps that much?! Youre locked out if dial away from the app for too long. We think the design would work on PC where there is a larger viewing area, but it just doesnt work at all for iphone because its not designed with the user in mind + how people use their phones. Cute interface and you could tell a storyteller made it, but it needs to put effectiveness over artistry. Put all the gear and runes stuff into another app and simply just make this one work.
We dont really write reviews, but this game was so disappointing we had to share. The passcode idea is cool, but the tabs do not work. No matter how much we tap the icons, they dont budge.
From the screen grabs, and pictures Ive seen, as well as the finished maps it looks like a very cool app. But we had it for a few days and it would never stop loading. Never got to do much of anything. So we got rid of it.
Never makes it past the original loading screen.
Im a person that doesnt like app purchases/subscriptions but otherwise 5 stars :).
We downloaded it for the free trial. This is a virtual tabletop to play D&D type games online with friends. What this brings to the table is it is cross platform, working with PC and mobile. There arent much in the way of mobile VTTs out there. We already use Roll20 and Tabletop Simulator for free and for a one time cost, so to us its not worth paying a monthly subscription for this. Thus, we didnt much check out those features. What we did enjoy was the map making portion, where you can make battle maps or dungeons and then export them for use in other VTTs. They have a nice palette of icons to make maps and tokens with. We did notice if we made medium or large size maps there was a significant slowdown on our iPad Pro. But for a set piece battlemap or breaking a dungeon into chunks of smaller areas (20×20 squares or so) it worked perfectly. Not worth the subscription in our opinion, but we would pay a one time cost if they made a program that was just the map maker.
If you play every weekend, at the least, without fail then a subscription might make sense. If youre an adult with things like a job and family, then the crazy-chaotic mess that is todays world means youd pay every month for something you wont use. That makes it a waste of money for the majority of its market, and eliminates the app as a viable candidate, altogether. A one time price is a must for this kind of app. Granted, decent map makers are rare. Even more so, anything like a usable VTT, especially on mobile. But just because youre the only store in town, it doesnt mean you get a blank check. People just go to the next town.
We found this app and it was just what we were looking for. Unfortunately none of our players have been able to use the app and when we tried as well it wont work. When creating a new account after entering a password it seems to load endlessly.
We basically just downloaded this to make maps, and so far we really like it a lot. We love the art style used for everything and after playing around with it to make a basic map, its easy to use after you get the hang of the weird menu layout. Now on the the issues we have with it. While there is an okay selection of things to chose from, as we were able to create a tavern with what was on hand. It still felt rather limiting with what was offered. We would like to see a bit more verity with this. We want to be able to make underdark maps and there is a bit to be able to make them like lava, crystals, and chasms…. But no fungi? That is a main staple of the underdark. So that really bummed us out as its more work on our part to incorporate them into the maps Ive spent a lot of time trying to make. The biggest gripe we have with this is, how do you download saved maps? Theres no way to save them to a device of any type. We want to be able to save our maps with out having to screenshot them and have to edit them just to get a whole map. Unless that is something you get with the subscription. We dont know as we just downloaded it. Id be willing to pay for a subscription, only if there was much more of a verity of items to chose form and you could save your maps to a device.
It a good app, we were able to make what we wanted and with ease, but we dont understand why someone would make a free app, then add a subscription service to use it. When we first got the app we thought it was gonna be fun to be able to build maps for our campaign, but after the 7 day trial we were disappointed in having to pay to use it again.
We payed for the app and now its asking for an subscribtion.
We cant even get into the app. Whenever we sign in and put in the runs, we wait two hours until we get kicked out, can you help us.
When we downloaded the app we had many of our maps on it and played it for a long time and loved it, but after a month of it being idle we got back on and signed in and found out that it had forced us to be signed up for the subscription which we did not want and we could not use the app anymore. Please fix this and we may use it again.
Please, add more content. This is great.
Love the idea still learning things. Why does it freeze when we try to add players and also when we join how do we start playing.
The app seems pretty good if youre willing to go with a subscription.
Im sorry but you need to change the rune thing it makes no sense what so ever you should just make it a type in password or at least let us tap it instead of swiping this app looks good but we cant even figure out how to get it please change this.
About every time we try to do something the game keeps locking itself and we have to enter our passcode… Gets really annoying.
The biggest problem with the app is the subscription. We dont know what it is with apps these days but every app wants you to do a subscription. This is a very big problem and we can not recommend this app because of that fact. 2/5.
Fantastic app for dungeon creation.
Great and gorgeous map making and Im still learning even now. Things seem a bit hard to learn but Im getting better and better with it.
We think there is a lot to love here. The graphics are quite nice. We havent tried to join a game yet, but… Our main perceived drawback is figuring out how to use the app in the first place. Im in the free week trial, and Im making our way through a very slow learning curve. Admittedly, Im not very tech savvy, but is there a simple tutorial? Can maps be exported as pdfs? Printed? We feel like this app could be a DMs dream come true if we could just learn how to use the features.
Im not trying to mean or anything. Just the truth. We found this app pretty much unusable for us. The text is incredibly small. The menu screen swipe function just doesnt work well, so we were trapped on the first part we went to. But the biggest turn off for us for us was the rune password thing, we didnt know what it wanted us to do so when we touched the screen trying to figure it out we picked some random tunes and have no clue what our passcode is now. We really think this could be something good, we will gladly give it another try and re-rate it if these things are worked out.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.70.401
- Size: 46.09 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: TrapStreet Studios
Last updated: 16th February 2024 | Genre: Roleplaying | Developer: TrapStreet Studios