Highly detailed, complex, and customizable maps.If you’ve been around the map-making table before and are looking for an upgrade, Wonderdraft is a great option to level up your skills. Note that there is less of a community around Wonderdraft and fewer available tutorials, so if you get stuck, you might be out of luck. This allows for far more artistic finesse than a mouse or trackpad. If you’re artistic, you’ll be happy to know that Wonderdraft is compatible with Surface Pro and Wacom products. The ability to set a custom grid size is perfect for setting scale, an important element in determining a story’s scope. The landmass generator is a great place to start mapping out your homebrew setting. Wonderdraft takes the basics of a map-maker and expands on them with new tools for more experienced cartographers.
Or wherever it is you’re actually exploring. Wonderdraft is the more organic software, focusing on making high-quality maps of your whole world. $19.99 one-time payment, $10 per additional asset packĭeveloper Megasploot has taken the concept of Inkarnate and run with it, making two great platforms. Wonderdraft The featured map image from the Wonderdraft home page. It’s beginner-friendly and offers a lot, even without the Pro subscription. It's a huge time saver for anyone trying to balance game night duties and real-world responsibilities. The best part of the Pro subscription is that it unlocks the ability to clone and edit maps published by the community. The lack of a snap-to-grid function for placing items makes building city maps or interiors a lot more difficult than making region or world maps. The Pro subscription unlocks a lot of art assets and map slots that aren't needed for most GMs. With that said, Inkarnate has its limitations. There are also active communities on Discord and Reddit with people sharing their work and asking for help. Inkarnate’s official Twitch channel hosts weekly developer streams where they highlight new updates and ways to use the program. The brushes and art assets are all high quality even at the free tier, making the simplest maps look stunning.īecause of its long history, a strong community has built up around the platform. Its user interface will be familiar to anyone who has used image editors like Paint or Photoshop, and it’s simple to learn for those who haven’t. Since 2013, Inkarnate has been the go-to map maker for writers, worldbuilders, and game masters of all kinds. Inkarnate A regional map made with Inkarnate from the official Inkarnate Map Gallery.įree to try, subscription $5/month, $25/year These four programs are best suited for bringing your world to life. A good world map will not only give them the lay of the land but also entice them with the promise of adventure over the next hill. The world map is the first impression most players will have of your campaign.
As a Game Master, there’s no better way to capture the imagination of your players than with maps of your world, dungeons, and battlefields. From the inside covers of fantasy books to the map screens of video games, maps are visual gateways into fantastic worlds. If there’s one thing guaranteed to spark the excitement of any adventurer, it’s a map.