Random Game Map Maker
January 28, 2015 7:17 PM   Subscribe

Dave's Mapper automatically generates tiled RPG/adventure game maps by recombining tiles submitted by artists, with a pile of customization map generation options. Have fun and be inspired, or submit your own tiles.
posted by Jimbob (14 comments total) 62 users marked this as a favorite
 
Man, this is tons of fun and extremely helpful.

I drew a lot of dungeon maps as a teenager and being a draftsman at heart, I loved it. Still, I've been dreading trying to come up with the dungeon that my players found a map to in the 5th Edition D&D starter set adventure. Mainly because, as a grown up, I feel like not only does there have to be a reason for it to be there, e.g. it's a monastery temple to a forgotten god, but that reason puts constraints on the layout and structure. There has to be a worship area, cells for the monks, kitchen, storage, et cetera. Even if those constraints are all self-imposed, it's made what was fun as a kid into a chore I've been putting off.

This lets me just cue up a reasonable, interesting layout, easily replace any tiles I don't like, and then come up with a story that suits the layout rather than the other way around. I'm super excited to stock the dungeon I just put together.

Thanks for posting this, Jimbob.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:37 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]


I don't quite grasp how the restocker works? There doesn't seem to be any of the items appearing on the map.
posted by tavella at 8:43 PM on January 28, 2015


I don't quite grasp how the restocker works?

Ditto. I think this is still a work in progress.
posted by Jimbob at 8:46 PM on January 28, 2015


I would have loved this when I was nine. Drawing those things took forever and we couldn't afford the good kind of graph paper either.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:50 PM on January 28, 2015


Oh, you are a life saver. I've been pretty frustrated by some of the other map generators out there recently and I'm just not good at making them myself. I will be using this super soon.
posted by Caduceus at 7:02 AM on January 29, 2015


I feel like not only does there have to be a reason for it to be there, e.g. it's a monastery temple to a forgotten god, but that reason puts constraints on the layout and structure.

One of the most identifiable features of the maps for games I run is, inevitably the players will ready themselves for combat, open up a door off to the side of a room, and find the setting-appropriate equivalent of a toilet. This has happened so many times, it's kinda a running joke, but I'm just like "hey, even evil mages bent on world destruction have to take a shit somewhere".
posted by tocts at 7:02 AM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love Dave's Mapper! Along the same lines, I have used donjon's tools extensively when prepping and running games in D&D-type systems. They have a really great dungeon generator for 4e D&D that will give you thorough random encounters, room dressing, and more.
posted by majuju at 8:08 AM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


Some old school analog random dungeon generation techniques:

Random Dungeons from Buckets O’ Dice
Five-Die Dungeon Generation

How to Host a Dungeon makes a game of designing the dungeon itself.
posted by Zed at 10:16 AM on January 29, 2015


I wonder if anyone has taken it to the next level, ie., use a large high resolution monitor/TV as the playboard and have a real-time revealing map with fog of war - while still using miniatures for the tactile feel?
posted by porpoise at 6:49 PM on January 29, 2015


porpoise: “I wonder if anyone has taken it to the next level, ie., use a large high resolution monitor/TV as the playboard and have a real-time revealing map with fog of war - while still using miniatures for the tactile feel?”
Kinda… Digital Map Projection "Cube" for Tabletop Role Playing Games
posted by ob1quixote at 7:00 PM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


Tavella and Jimbob, it's just a random stocking inspiration thing at the moment, but I have some tools for dropping icons onto the maps in the works. If I can't get something working and usable by April, I'll at least push that development branch to the mapper's GitHub repo.

Thanks for all the kind words, and feel free to drop feedback to me at dave@davesmapper.com!
posted by davmillar at 7:29 PM on February 1, 2015


Thanks for the info, Dave! I really like the feature where you can choose a square and redo the whole map with that specific artist.
posted by tavella at 7:19 PM on February 2, 2015


porpoise: “I wonder if anyone has taken it to the next level, ie., use a large high resolution monitor/TV as the playboard and have a real-time revealing map with fog of war - while still using miniatures for the tactile feel?”
The Daily Dot featured a more recent iteration yesterday that utilizes the Roll20 system.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:19 AM on February 3, 2015


Oh man, this is really great. Thanks for dropping by to say hello, davmillar.
posted by cortex at 9:31 AM on February 3, 2015


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