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RPT Newsletter #1,182 | Encounter Mapping Software - 3 Tips For Choosing The Best One

Stephan Hornick

Community Goblin & Master of the Archive
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Borderland Explorer
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Encounter Mapping Software - 3 Tips For Choosing The Best One
From JohnnFour | Published November 29, Updated December 3, 2021

Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #1,182


Brief Word From Johnn
A great conversation came up in the monthly Wizard of Adventure chat Saturday on what encounter mapping software to choose.

(Wizards of Adventure who could not make the call, here’s a link to the recording.)

From DungeonFog to HexKit to Campaign Cartographer, and a bunch of others, how do you pick?
Because it’s not just about spending your hard-earned gold pieces on an encounter mapping solution.
It’s also about investing time into something you want to produce actual results for your campaigns.
In our busy lives, no one wants to waste themselves on red herrings.

The following is a simple framework I laid out in the call to help you narrow down your choices faster.
It’s not a scientific framework.
But it’s derived from a past life as a technical illustrator and graphics creator. And from personal experience playing with a lot of mapping tools over the years.
I hope you’ll find this framework helpful when choosing your next encounter mapping software.

(Also, I’ve started adding reader tips to the newsletter now. Today I’ve got some great old school encounter challenge tips for you from RPT GM Gwydion. Scroll to the end to read.)


Three Types of Encounter Mapping Apps
I put mapping software into three buckets based on how a GM thinks and creates:
  • Drawing
  • Painting
  • Scrapbooking
Let’s explore each one to see how it might map to you, pun intended!


Bucket #1: Do You Like to Paint?
If you enjoy painting, then you understand “area control of a canvas.”
You also understand that each stroke is permanent. A card laid is a card played.
If we think of maps as information, then as a painter you see your maps as zones, swathes of functions or features, and patches of information and effect.
While digital tools allow layers for easy separation and manipulation of information, your painter worldview doesn’t rely on that to make sense of your info.
You also see canvas and brush more holistically and in terms of how things blend together and layer for effect.
You mix pigments, explore within the frame, and aim for an overall experience.
This is all generally speaking, as a metaphor for what kind of mapping software you might enjoy or grok most.

For, in this category, I put all “pixel painters.”
In a pixel painter, like Photoshop, Gimp, Wonderdraft, and so on, you’re using a digital brush to lay swathes of pixels onto a canvas.
You use brush styles and thickness, along with the eraser, to paint your encounter maps.
In general, this makes for fast map creation but less granular control.
You also can draw more abstract maps with fuzzy boundaries.
This approach supports gridless combats well too.

Now, Photoshop and similar apps are powerful, and they cross the three categories I’m laying out here for you today.
The main intent with this bucket is, when you encounter a map app for the first time, and you have a painter’s mindset, look first to see if it lays down pixels via brushes and fills.


Bucket #2: Do You Like to Draw?
On the other end of the spectrum we have object-oriented mappers.
What I mean by that is, you grab an object like a room, cave, furnishing, or symbol of any kind, and drop it onto the canvas and manipulate it in isolation.
Unlike painting where your map is a whole and blended piece, drawing turns your map into a bunch of things or objects.

If you are familiar with CAD, Adobe Illustrator, Google Slides/PowerPoint, or other vector-based software, then you’ll be comfortable with RPG mapping software that offers similar features.
The reason I liken this to hand-drawing is you become very concerned with edges.
In vector software you manipulate the size, shape, and position of map elements by selecting edges and using a tool, applying an effect, or dragging your mouse to change a specific aspect of the object.
This can overwhelm painters and scrapbookers who just want to compose a single wonderful piece in broad strokes, to continue the metaphor and puns.

I’m in the drawing camp though.

I love the specificity, level of control, and amount of detail I can put into encounter maps via objects because I have my own special approach to using maps to increase challenges, make encounters interesting, and build cool stories.

Well, I say it’s my own special way — maybe you have the same methods and techniques — I just haven’t found anything similar online or in books anywhere.
The downside to being a drawer is it takes longer to build maps.
You get picky about placing things.
It takes extra clicks or taps to manipulate stuff to how you want.
And you start fiddling more with layers, alignments, and ordering.
I find this satisfying, and contend that if you enjoy drawing you’ll end a vector type app too.


Bucket #3: Do You Like to Scrapbook?
In our final grouping, we have the tilers.
Tile mapping software lets you pick a styled hex or square, and in point-and-click or brush-stroke fashion, lay down the elements you want on your map.
You don’t manipulate the stuff on the tiles like you would in a vector or “lines” app.

Instead, you can size, rotate, and style things at the tile level.
You have libraries of tiles, choose the specific one you want to lay down next, cue up its attributes, and then paint.
In this way, I see tilers as being a hybrid of drawing and painting.
But I also see it appealing more to anyone who likes to assemble collages and groupings of things in fairly quick fashion.
For example, one of my favourite tilers is Hex Kit. Choose your theme. Pick a category. Select a tile. Spray it around your canvas.
So I believe if you enjoy scrapbooking, then you’ll love tile-based RPG mapping software.
 

Stephan Hornick

Community Goblin & Master of the Archive
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Borderland Explorer
RPG Mapping Software Recommendations
There are many, many choices out there. Below are a few I’ve used and so can make an informed recommendation.
If you enjoy a mapping app not listed, please hit reply and let me know the name and what bucket you think it best fits it.
I’ll expand the list and send it out again in the future for all GMs to benefit. Thank you!


Painters
Wonderdraft and Dungeondraft by Megasploot.
These are part-tilers, part drawers, and part painters. I think they’re excellent.
If you put a d20 to my head though and told me to choose, I’d put them in the painter bucket because how you lay down the objects is like wielding a brush.
Dungeondraft is more of an encounter builder, but I’ve found Wonderdraft (world mapper) great for encounter maps too, so list both here.
Donjon Dungeon Generator and Fantasy Town Generator. Not sure where to file these, actually. But they’re painters to me because you set a few values and an entire canvas spits out.
Following the same logic, I put watabou’s awesome random generator mappers in this category: Medieval Fantasy City Generator, Village Generator, City Neighbourhood Generator, One Page Dungeon Generator, and Perilous Shores Generator.
Inkarnate is a beautiful world mapper, that can also double as region or area encounter mapping software.
DunGen is another random dungeon map generator. One click and you’re done if you don’t need fancy.


Drawers
DungeonFog. A web app brimming with features and a great library of objects, patterns, and textures so each encounter map can look different.
Campaign Cartographer and its cousins from ProFantasy. This is a full-featured fantasy CAD app and it makes beautiful maps. Steep learning curve if you are new to this type of map-making approach, but there are guides and a strong community for support.
We are lucky to have Platinum Wizard of Adventure @Monsen in the RPT forum.
He wrote the official manual and tons of other articles and documentation for Campaign Cartographer and has offered to answer our questions in this CC3 AMA thread at the RPT forum.
Dungeonscrawl. This is more of a pixel-based editor, but with cross-overs in other buckets.
Flowscape I have limited experience with, but it creates great-looking 3D images suitable as player handouts or VTT use.
Cityographer. From the creator of Worldographer.
Dungeon Painter Studio. So the name contradicts me here, but I feel you’re working a lot with edges and objects, and that mindset pays off the most with this app.
Fractal Mapper created by NBOS, a former Roleplaying Tips sponsor, is a lot like Campaign Cartogpher. I used it for years.


Scrapbookers
HexKit. I supported the Kickstarter and it’s a fantastic and simple hex-tile mapper.
Dave’s Mapper. One of my favorites for a quick map when I don’t want to finesse something.
Gridmapper by Alex Schroeder is another favourite. Web-based, old school, free, and simple. Get a link to save or edit your map to use again anytime.
Hextml. Browser-based. It’s come a long way since I first checked it out in early 2020.
Mipui. Free and open-source. Click and drag.
Dungeonographer by Joe over at Inkwell Ideas is a solid tile mapper as well.


Happy Mapping
There are a ton of choices out there for RPG mapping software.
It can be hard to choose which one meets your needs and preferences best.
As you check out each mapping app, consider if it’s a match as a painter, drawer, or scrapbooker.
This can at least help narrow things down for you.
And if you have mapping software not mentioned in this article, please drop me a note and share, along with what bucket you think it best fits. into Happy mapping!
 

Stephan Hornick

Community Goblin & Master of the Archive
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Borderland Explorer
Great Collection, Johnn! I am surely a Drawer when I take many motives and put them individually on the canvas in photoshop and copy & paste them over and over, right?


Borderland-Map-V15-0415.jpg
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
@Stephan Hornick To me that's "tiling" and therefore scrapbooking. You initially draw your sites, but then you copy & paste over and over.

To me, that speaks to you enjoying Dave's Mapper more than CAD. But this is a simple model and real life is more complex. The bottom line is you draw maps in a way that's fun to you so it doesn't feel like work and you keep doing it.

Awesome map by the way! Just fantastic.
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Here's a follow-up tip by RPT GM Galen:


Gridmapper by Alex Schroeder is another favourite. Web-based, old school, free, and simple. Get a link to save or edit your map to use again anytime.

Alex also has a generator for Gridmapper that's great to use for 5RDs (or larger, or smaller).
You can manually specify parameters for all sorts of formats for maps (hex or square) here, or more specifically you can generate random dungeons with 5 rooms, 10 rooms, or 20 rooms (or use the first link to specify a custom number of rooms... the urls are all the same format).

Advantage of using the first link to pick a number of rooms is that you can also say 'no rooms with pillars' and 'generate caves' as other options. When you generate explicitly instead of randomly it just fills out the text box at the top of the page based on the parameters you provide. At that point you'd hit Generate Map to see a render.

The advantage of using the random links is that it's random and you can just keep hitting refresh for a new map.

The best part is whatever is generated is editable back in Gridmapper (assuming square).
 
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