I'm trying to find a program or in-browser software to create dungeon maps. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just the generic draw up the floorplan of a dungeon and to be able to place monster tokens, player tokens, and trap tokens on the map. I want to be able to hide the monster tokens and trap tokens until the players come across them. I don't care about exporting the map, but I want to be able to move the players and monsters around the map. Anyone have anything they use that can do this, or knows of something that can do all this? I prefer free stuff, but I am willing to pay a small price to be able to have all these features.
MapTool by RPTools. I swear by it and now that you can manage all rolls in D&D Beyond that takes a large chunk of macros out of the equation. You could use roll20 but you can only hold 100mb with the free version. Thats too little space for me. MapTools you get the full thing for free because it is open source. Its awesome if u spend the time to learn its basic features. Which doesnt take long.
For creating battlemaps, there are tons of options out there, I use DungeonDraft, which is not yet finished (beta), but it is the one I liked the most. It has a unique style that I like, but it seems that it is also what turns some people away form it.
Dungeon Draft looks really cool. Never saw it until I looked this post.
the only issue I have with software like that is actually using it to play.
Meaning I run my games with miniatures and for me combat works great on a 1 inch grid. Unless you have a plotter you are not going to print out a lot of combat maps, or your going to be printing them out and taping them together unless you happen to have a plotter.
What you really need is something that can generate grids that you can mark up with specifications for the places on the map. All the fancy stonework and enhancements are nifty but you will spend a lot of time making it look good for only what may be a few minutes of use.
Don't take me wrong, this looks like beautiful software, but spending that much time on cosmetics really takes away from the important part, making it interesting and challenging.
I am a little bit of a hypocrite this. I am probably going to get this and design places my party goes to over and over. But for weekly encounters I am still going to draw it out on a hex pad
There is a game called Divinity Original Sin. It is not 5e based, but it has a design creator component
There are dungeon generator tools out there where you can specify the size of your dungeon and it will generate a grid with traps, encounters, secret door, encounters.
I am spoiled as I am GIS Technician and I can use my GIS Software to create encounters in 1" x 1" and print them on 36' wide paper.
Meaning I run my games with miniatures and for me combat works great on a 1 inch grid. Unless you have a plotter you are not going to print out a lot of combat maps, or your going to be printing them out and taping them together unless you happen to have a plotter.
What you really need is something that can generate grids that you can mark up with specifications for the places on the map. All the fancy stonework and enhancements are nifty but you will spend a lot of time making it look good for only what may be a few minutes of use.
Don't take me wrong, this looks like beautiful software, but spending that much time on cosmetics really takes away from the important part, making it interesting and challenging.
Well it depends on what you are doing. Some people like printing out pretty battle-maps. And you don't need a plotter for a single battle-map. You don't have to spend a lot of time on it -- that's one of the nice things about DD. If you're just doing say the interior of an inn you can be done in half an hour, unless you're super picky like me.
Mostly though, I think DD is useful for people who play online, and use a VTT like Roll 20, Foundry, etc. For instance, there is an auto-import module to Foundry that sucks in the DD export and automatically sets up doors, walls, etc (it doesn't do a good job with windows but oh well). And since we play virtually and have no miniatures, I like having the visual of the nice map for the players. I think it helps a lot and so far they have said so as well.
But if you are in person, you can just use miniatures and pencils or pens for walls, quarters for table tops, and things like that.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
There is also a high end program Called Campaign Cartographer with a Dungeon Designer add on. It is put out by ProFantasy Software. But it cost about $60 for the base program and the two most popular add on's. (Dungeon and City building). The main problem is the level of complexity. It will take a while to learn it to a high degree.
I have not tried CC but I have heard that it's complex. Plus it is based on CAD and I detest CAD.
DD is super intuitive and very easy to learn. It also has lots of free assets available on CartographyAssets.
I created my world using ArcGIS. I am pretty good at CAD as well. I think I would only use on of these programs for something that is more of permanent fixture.
Not the most intuitive, but once you get the hang of it you can make great looking maps in a short amount of time. It took me maybe 20 ish minutes to get comfortable with all the tools and maybe another 15 to call myself competent.
Note: It runs in your browser completely free, and you can download the maps into multiple different formats.
Hi all,
I'm trying to find a program or in-browser software to create dungeon maps. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just the generic draw up the floorplan of a dungeon and to be able to place monster tokens, player tokens, and trap tokens on the map. I want to be able to hide the monster tokens and trap tokens until the players come across them. I don't care about exporting the map, but I want to be able to move the players and monsters around the map. Anyone have anything they use that can do this, or knows of something that can do all this? I prefer free stuff, but I am willing to pay a small price to be able to have all these features.
MapTool by RPTools. I swear by it and now that you can manage all rolls in D&D Beyond that takes a large chunk of macros out of the equation. You could use roll20 but you can only hold 100mb with the free version. Thats too little space for me. MapTools you get the full thing for free because it is open source. Its awesome if u spend the time to learn its basic features. Which doesnt take long.
and a very simple solution: https://shmeppy.com/
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
+1 for DungeonDraft.
It just actually did make it out of beta, I think... it is on 1.0.0 now, if I recall. But even while in Beta it was awesome.
The designer, Megasploot, is amazing at creating UIs.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Ooh! Exciting! Got to download it right now :)
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
Dungeon Draft looks really cool. Never saw it until I looked this post.
the only issue I have with software like that is actually using it to play.
Meaning I run my games with miniatures and for me combat works great on a 1 inch grid. Unless you have a plotter you are not going to print out a lot of combat maps, or your going to be printing them out and taping them together unless you happen to have a plotter.
What you really need is something that can generate grids that you can mark up with specifications for the places on the map. All the fancy stonework and enhancements are nifty but you will spend a lot of time making it look good for only what may be a few minutes of use.
Don't take me wrong, this looks like beautiful software, but spending that much time on cosmetics really takes away from the important part, making it interesting and challenging.
I am a little bit of a hypocrite this. I am probably going to get this and design places my party goes to over and over. But for weekly encounters I am still going to draw it out on a hex pad
There is a game called Divinity Original Sin. It is not 5e based, but it has a design creator component
There are dungeon generator tools out there where you can specify the size of your dungeon and it will generate a grid with traps, encounters, secret door, encounters.
I am spoiled as I am GIS Technician and I can use my GIS Software to create encounters in 1" x 1" and print them on 36' wide paper.
Well it depends on what you are doing. Some people like printing out pretty battle-maps. And you don't need a plotter for a single battle-map. You don't have to spend a lot of time on it -- that's one of the nice things about DD. If you're just doing say the interior of an inn you can be done in half an hour, unless you're super picky like me.
Mostly though, I think DD is useful for people who play online, and use a VTT like Roll 20, Foundry, etc. For instance, there is an auto-import module to Foundry that sucks in the DD export and automatically sets up doors, walls, etc (it doesn't do a good job with windows but oh well). And since we play virtually and have no miniatures, I like having the visual of the nice map for the players. I think it helps a lot and so far they have said so as well.
But if you are in person, you can just use miniatures and pencils or pens for walls, quarters for table tops, and things like that.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
There is also a high end program Called Campaign Cartographer with a Dungeon Designer add on. It is put out by ProFantasy Software. But it cost about $60 for the base program and the two most popular add on's. (Dungeon and City building). The main problem is the level of complexity. It will take a while to learn it to a high degree.
I have not tried CC but I have heard that it's complex. Plus it is based on CAD and I detest CAD.
DD is super intuitive and very easy to learn. It also has lots of free assets available on CartographyAssets.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
+1 to the dungeon draft. Easy and quick to make maps. plus easy to get assets or add your own to it.
I created my world using ArcGIS. I am pretty good at CAD as well. I think I would only use on of these programs for something that is more of permanent fixture.
Truthfully I prefer the gallery examples of DD over CC
+1 to DungeonDraft.
I'm learning to use the program right now and I have been really impressed with it.
Plus there is a nice Community Created Content where you can find free assets to enhance the maps.
https://deepnight.net/tools/rpg-map/
Not the most intuitive, but once you get the hang of it you can make great looking maps in a short amount of time. It took me maybe 20 ish minutes to get comfortable with all the tools and maybe another 15 to call myself competent.
Note: It runs in your browser completely free, and you can download the maps into multiple different formats.
Keep your friends close, and enemies closer.