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31 Days of RPG Map Gens (Updated)
Map Tools Generators Community Month of RPG Generators

31 Days of RPG Map Gens (Updated)

Duncan Thomson

Over at the rpg_generators subreddit I'm writing 31 days of Map Gens (link to the summary).

And here's all of them collected in one article!

Day 1 - Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator

For July I'm posting daily with map generators for your RPGs. Following on from last year's 31 Days of Gens.

Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator is a great place to start.

It has a mountain of features and options for creating new continents, including names by culture, biomes, canvas size, number of towns and which elements to show.

The maps can be edited and saved, parts can be regenerated and configured and style elements changed. There is also an option to use it offline with some reduced features.

It is continually being updated and also has a Patreon in the about section to help support it.

Day 2 - List of Free Fantasy Map Gens at Feed the Multiverse

Many tools for 31 days of Map Gens we've shared before and appear on many other lists.

One of those is a comprehensive list of Free Fantasy Map Gens at Feed the Multiverse.

It has sections on

  • Fantasy Country, Kingdom and Continent Gens
  • Free RPG Fantasy City Gens
  • fiction Planet / World / Continent Gens
  • Dungeon Crawl / D&D and Traditional RPG Dungeon Gens
  • Hex Grid Gens
  • Other Assorted Mapping Tools

Day 3 - Tavern and Building Map Generators

Today it's time for tavern and building maps, starting with inn and tavern maps at Inkwell Ideas. It has filters for different levels, cellar, privy and more.

More taverns at Here Be Taverns and each one having a multi-level map included.

Moving onto houses and Kassoon has a House Map Generator with options for House Size, Room Size, and Wall Width. It is in colour and includes furniture (with a toggle to control how much)

Then Watabou has a Procgen Mansion Generator and if you click P it will shift to a Floor Plan mode. On mobile click the mansion map and select 'Floor Plan' near the bottom of the options.

Paid Maps / PDFs / Decks

For paid decks and the like I found (at DriveThru RPG)

Day 4 - Space Sector Maps

Looking at maps of the stars for those sci-fi games.

First up is Sectors Without Numbers, which lets you configure and generate sector maps for Stars without Number (a popular free space rpg). Make it the size you want and get details on the entities within (planets, black holes, asteroid belts etc).

Second is SNW Sector Generator at Emichron, which also creates sector maps for SNW. It has a layout which includes worlds, npcs, corps, politics, religions and aliens. The code can also be forked on github to create your own version.

The Random Subsector Generator is another Hex sector generator, this time for Traveller. There are several ways to configure and generate your own maps. It makes pretty maps and can create png or jpeg versions.

Day 5 - Dave's Mapper

Today's map gen is Dave's Mapper, which is a tile based system for Dungeons, Side-View Dungeons, Villages, Caverns (and mixed caverns / dungeons), Cities and Sci-fi Ships

There are a variety of artists and styles and you can choose ones you want. Double clicking on an artist will create a map with just that artist.

Click on a map tile to rotate it, replace it or swap with another. There are also options for grids and map size.

Day 6 - Village and Hamlet Map Generators

The dedicated village map generators are

  • Medieval Village Map Generator by Kassoon with filters for farms, trees and roads. Extra features for supporters.
  • Village Generator by Watabou varying from hamlets of 3 to large villages of 1400. Filters for trees, elevation and fields.

And settlements generators which can create villages include

  • FantasyTownGenerator.com can make hamlets, villages and big villages (requires creating an account) . There are several filters for lifestyle, layout, races, landscape, religion, military and industry.
  • Fantasy Town Generator at Donjon with options of thorp, hamlet and village. Filters such as terrain and culture
  • Dave's Mapper can make tile-based Villages with a very different style than the others.

Day 7 - Island Map Where You Draw Terrain

Mapgen 4 is an island gen from Red Blob Games which is now 5 years ago.

It's a demo tool and limited in scope to islands.

What makes it noteworthy is that you can draw your terrain changes on for Ocean, Valley, Mountains and Water straight onto the map and it will morph the surrounding terrain to fit.

The source is available on github and there are several blog posts about the gen on the site.

Day 8 - Hex-based Browser Maps with Random Option

HexTML is a simple to use browser-based builder for Hex maps (squares tiles also available)

It has a random option which fills the current area with random areas of hexes (or squares). Type "random" in the Search or look under settings where there is a Generate button.

It's easy to modify the map and there are options for adding Symbols and hexes for Town and Dungeon. There is also a collaboration mode.

Day 9 - Donjon Maps - Dungeons, Treasure, Towns & Worlds

Donjon is known for many quality generators, including several maps.

Starting with the Fantasy Dungeon Map (or Random Dungeon Generator). There are also flavours for AD&D, d20 / D&D 3.X, Microlite20, Pathfinder 1E, D&D 4E and D&D 5E . Plus a Random Dungeon Wallpaper you can download.

Plus the Endless Oubliette of dungeon tiles.

Then there is a Treasure Map Generator with symbols and clues.

Moving onto world building Fantasy Town Generator creates settlements of various sizes with winding layouts.

The Fantasy World Generator makes a hex overlayed map with terrain, castles, cities and ruins.

The Fractal World Generator will make you a global map (with filters). The SciFi World Generator combines the map with stats of a planet.

Day 10 - Sea-Themed Map Gens

Sea and Naval themed map gens today.

Starting with Islands and Perilous Shores from Watabou which includes settlements and other points of interest. Mapgen4 also does islands and you can redraw the parts you want to change.

Azgaar's Fantasy Map Gen can also be used for sea maps. One useful feature is the "Heightmap" template which can generate archipelagos, shattered areas, atolls and other island.

Sea Settlements are easy with Fantasy Town Generator (coastal toggle), Donjon's Fantasy Town Generator (coastal toggle) and Medieval Fantasy City Generator (under Generate - Coast)

For Treasure Maps donjon has one and there is a Treasure Map Generator with more choices (not sure there are any random elements).

There is a paid map tiles set (at DriveThru RPG) for Docks and Canals. And another one forTropical Islands.

Kassoon also has a lot of Battlemaps with the Water tag (including some ships).

And I haven't found any fantasy ship map generators but did find a free Ship Maps pack

Day 11 - Sandbox Map Gen with Campaign Info at Hexroll

Hexroll is a standalone generator that creates a hex-grid map with various terrains and marked location.

You can also create a custom sandbox with filters for biomes, map scale, settlements, inns, dungeons and factions.

Each hex has details of adventure opportunities such as "Hill Giants", "Caverns of the Grey Souls" or "Village of Hogsfoot". Many also have an encounter table.

Villages have (lots of) details of people and places. Each Dungeon also has a map with (clickable) keyed encounters and descriptions. The Factions have a brief description, leader, members and collaborators and a base.

There is also a full list of NPCs, Rumors and Secrets!

Stats are old school D&D but could easily use D&D 5 creatures or another system.

Day 12 - This City Doesn't Exist

A Weirder one today. This City Doesn't Exist just provides an aerial photo of a fake city using real world data.

Use it in a modern setting, call of cthulu or some kind of vampire horror.

Day 13 - Cave Map Generators

For such a specific subject, there are quite a few Cave and Cavern Generators out there.

Day 14 - Twitter Map Bots from Mewo2

Delving into another world. Twitter bots publishing random maps all bade by @mewo2

We have @Unchartedatlas with named fantasy maps.

And @Metropologeny with settlements of all types and sizes.

And the possibly less useful (but noteworthy) Emoji Atlas

Day 15 - Map Generators of Watabou

Watabou is probably the best known map gen creator in the rpg space.

Best known for Medieval Fantasy City Generator which has options for rerolling parts of the city, what legends to display, city size, features to include and number of roads. Cities can also be viewed in City Viewer.

It's complemented by the Neighbourhood Generator and also has a companion generator for Villages.

Moving to larger scales there is the Perilous Shores which generates realms with a few marked locations. There are several options to show and hide elements such as cities, hex overlay and forest type.

Going smaller again there is a Mansion generator, which becomes very useful for some games when you discover the floor plan mode (like I did recently) by clicking "p". It can also be edited in Blueprint mode.

Going underground there is One Page Dungeon which creates a single level dungeon with a quick background and simple room notes. Notes can be rerolled, secret rooms hidden and water level increased.

These tools have all been combined into Procgen Arcana.

Watabou has many other tools, including a Fantasy Manor, Island Garden, and Sigil Generator.

Day 16 - Gozzy's Wilderness Map Gen and Similar Tools Request

If you want wilderness terrain / battlemaps then Gozzy's Random Wilderness Maps are you best option with choices for Foliage, Ruins, Stream, Path and Map Size.

In fact, I believe it's the only option out there for this sort of terrain (and it was first made in 2006).

So if anyone knows of other map generators for wilderness terrain/battlemaps (or decent collections of wilderness map tiles) leave a comment (or send me a message).

Day 17 - Maps of Kassoon. Dungeons, Houses and Villages

So one site which has upped it's map gen game in recent years is kassoon.

Let's start with the Dungeon Map Generator, which has numbered rooms with descriptions and mapped furniture. It has filters for level number of monsters, size and treasure. And an option for caves.

Then there are house maps which display shops, houses, manors and taverns.

And onto Hamlet Maps or Village Maps,

Finally there is a Map Maker for non-random options., And a collection of Battle Maps by several tags.

Day 18 - Space Map Tools - Ships, Systems, Worlds

I covered Space Sector Maps on day 4 and here are a bunch of more space map gens

Starting small there are tile maps for a spaceship at Dave's Mapper and an space vessel map gen at Curufea with text, grid, hex and blank hex versions.

If you are using spaceships as dungeons then the Space Hulk generator by lordfckhelmchen (for Wrath & Glory) might be of help

For Worlds there is Donjon's SciFi World Generator is your best option. There is also a Planet Map Generator with several technical looking filters.

For Star Systems there is a Vintage Star System Generator from Arkimedz (which is amazing). Roll for Fantasy has a Star System Creator with a Randomize option and ability to play around with the map.

Finishing big there are Star Maps with Fuzzwork. I think these are generating maps of the same group of stars but not entirely sure.

Day 19 - Watabou's New Cave Generator

Today's is easy as Watabou released a new Cave Generator!

Lots of minor variations with the key commands.

Day 20 - Map Tools List at D&D Compendium

For a list that keeps updated with Free and Paid Map Making Tools try D&D Compendium maps list.

Many of them are map editors but further down many map generators and other map resources.

These are also kept up to date so a great long term resource.

Day 21 - Quick Hex Map Generator

Something a little different today from u/Shieldice/. Original post at https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/tl3urt/world_map_generator_hex_maps/

In the author's words...

"This is a quick Hex Map generator I created from our Realm Fables books. Roll a D6 and D20 to generate a Hex Tile and copy the symbol onto your hex paper to create a varied map for your world. From cities to jungles. The D6 will change up each D20 tile to give further variation. Each rolled hex tile can start to build a story for the area you're mapping, such as a fungal forest beside a river, with a nearby town. How is that town effected by the fungal forest nearby, for instance? Hope it comes in handy!"

Day 22 - Map Generators for Fantasy Cities and Towns

The dedicated city map generators are

  • Inkwell Ideas's Random City Map Generator which lets you set the densities of east/west/south sections and how they are joined. It looks quite old school (in a good way). If you have Worldographer then that can also create really detailed random settlements. (there is a free downloadable version)
  • City Generator by Oskar Stalberg which will fill the screen with city streets as you click on areas (and will redraw bits too
  • Town Map Generator from Kassoon. Advanced filters are only available to premium users.
  • Probably the best known is Medieval Fantasy City Generator from Watabou. It's a work of art.
  • Very different is Chaotic Shiny's City Map Generator which presents an ASCII grid layout for each district with each having a keyed map of important locations.

And settlement map generators which can create cities and towns include

  • FantasyTownGenerator.com can make small towns, to cities (requires creating an account) . There are several filters for lifestyle, layout, races, landscape, religion, military and industry.
  • Fantasy Town Generator at Donjon with options of small towns to metropolises. Filters such as terrain and culture
  • Dave's Mapper can make tile-based Cities with a very different style than the others.

Day 23 - Battlemapp - 2D and 3D Battlemap Generators - slow to load 1st time

So today's Gen creates random battlemaps in 3d and 2d (and that's the free version).

BattleMapp on Itch takes a while to load first time (mine was about 2 minutes) but it's worth it.

On the right hand menu panel are three tabs including 'Map Generator' which is where the random magic lives (you might need to choose Generators option in tools menu with map icon). It has filters for season, map size, tree count, plant count, building count (I had to enter mine manually).

It also has options for building your own maps, dice rollers and other tools. The patreon version has a downloadable version and looks like Version 1.0 is still in development. The random dungeon option was disable for me currently :(

I think it's only the second map gen I've seen capable of doing random wilderness terrain!

Day 24 - Anvaka City Roads Generator

So today's is Anvaka City Roads Map Gen. It doesn't make random maps but does make unlabelled maps using roads of cities and towns around the world.

Larger ones take longer to load so here's the small town of Frome in the UK as an example.

Day 25 - Dungeon Map Generators Part 1

Web-based regular dungeon map generators...

Gozzy's has a Random Dungeon Map Creator with a wandering line style and random room style. Looks quite nice too with options for background colour and tile set.

Watabou has the One Page Dungeon which has some map notes (which can be rerolled), secret rooms option and an option for changing the water level

DunGen has a Dungeon Generator with high resolution and dynamic lighting available for patrons. There are options for dungeon size, multi-level and special rooms.

The newest one on the list is probably **Iron Arachne's** Dungeon Generator. It currently has no generation options but does produce a compact dungeon with name, terrain environment, detailed room descriptions, NPCs with treasures and threat levels for what it contains.

Myth Weavers has a Dungeon Generator with lots of options on how it should be generated including room count, percentage of secret doors and level. It also details the rooms with stats for 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons.

Donjon has one of the best known Random Dungeon Generators (fantasy version). It has lots of options for dungeon generation, layout and style, arriving with option of a Player's version without secret doors and the like. There are also versions (some with room descriptions) for AD&D, d20/3.X D&D, Microlite, Pathfinder 1e, D&D 4E and D&D 5E.

Fantasy Calendar has a tile-based Dungeon Generator which takes a while to download but looks really cool. It has a megadungeon option and option for mixing in caves

Dungeons TOME has a Random Dungeon Generator with option for entrance location. It includes secret doors and false doors. The output style is blocky but clean.

Day 26 - What are Your Favourite or Obscure Map Gens and Tools?

After 25 days of sharing tools it's time to see what your favourite map tools are.

What are your favourite tools and how do you use them?

Are there any tools you haven't seen mentioned yet?

Any pdf / map tile collections / decks or similar you'd recommend?

Day 27 - Spaceship Maps in the Spaceship Generator at Role Generator

I only just found a new Spaceship Generator at Role Generator which includes a labelled Spaceship Map (some with multiple decks) as well as a lot more detailed information.

Use it with the other Space Map Tools.

Day 28 - Blogs and Resources about Map Generators

A few blogs and resources related to fantasy maps and map generation

Here Dragons Abound - Exploring procedural generation and display of fantasy maps.

Red Blob Games has many resources on procedural map generation and the Red Blog Games Blog also.

Crooked Staff have a blog (and YouTube channel) with dungeon and cave tiles and gens info (thanks to u/efrique for the comment on previous post)

Mewo2 Talks alot about Generating Fantasy Maps.

How to code your own procedural dungeon map generator using the Random Walk Algorithm is a code walkthough in JavaScript.

r/proceduralgeneration has lots of people working on and knowledgeable about procederal generation on Reddit!

Day 29 - Dungeon Map Generators Part 2  - Other Variations

Dave's Mapper Side View creates a multi-level vertical map of a dungeon. Click on a tile and select a heart to build a map just in the style of that tile.

Donjon has an endless scrolling (down) Dungeon Oubliette using tiles and no other details.

Kassoon's Dungeon Map Generator is one I missed off the first list! Comes with lots of furniture and some room details too. It has an option to do caves as well.

Grid Sage Games has an old blog post about Procedural Map Generation for Dungeons (with source code examples) covering several roguelikes. I have no idea if there are better resources out there for this sort of thing!

Orteil has a basic Roguelike Dungeon Generator. with a different style to the others.

Combine Cave and Dungeon Map Generators

Dizzy Dragon's Geomorphic Dungeon Adventure Generator is a dungeon gen with a few caves. It's tightly packed and has room descriptions. Plus options for different dungeon algorithms and encounters. Oh and it also has a wilderness map option I've never seen before!

Inkwell Ideas has a combined Dungeon and Cave map Gen where you can vary the amount of caves.

Day 30 - Map Tools and Generators of Inkwell Ideas

A veteran of the map-making rpg scene is Inkwell Ideas.

First up is Worldographer, which has a downloadable Free version where you can generate or create hex-based World/Region maps, settlements, up to 5000 people population and dungeons (square grid). Plus a cosmic sector/subsector generator. The pro version has options for larger settlements, battlemap generation and more features.

Free online tools include a Random City Map Generator which has a clean style and different customisation to other gens.

There is the customisable Random Inn Floorplan Generator which is supported by rumours, staff & patrons and a menu gen.

A Random Dungeon Generator with some water features and options for how many caves you would like.

There is also a blog which covers their other map updates.

On the paid tools front they have DungeonMorphs which are connectable tiles in various formats including dice, tiles, fonts and books (I'm most interested in the Dice ones)

Day 31 - Final Map Tools and Resources. All the Rest

In no particular order (utility and quality may vary), tools still on my list are...

Map Creator at Roll for Fantasy (tile based continent/world creation)

Modern City Block Generator. Shows what shops, residences or buildings are in nearby blocks.

Chaotic Shiny Map Generator - creates regions and has a few filters (numbers based Ascii layout)

The Generic World Map (link to a post on r/osr)

Endless RPG Random Map Generator for D&D on Windows. Looks like other versions are also available.

Dungeon Alchemist - AI-Powered Map Generation on Steam (not cheap)

Axebanes Index Card Pocket Maps on DriveThru RPG

Map Decks on DriveThru RPG.

Nortantis Fantasy map generator (must have java 10 or later installed)

Expanding Frontiers Maps for a spaceship

Plus I had two interviews with map tool creators at Rand Roll during the month.

Interview with Tamzin and Matt of Untold Encounters (and Loke Battle Mats)

Interview with the Creator of Space Hulk Maps Gen

And welcome to recommend any last ones!

Future Months of Gens

I'll be doing more of these in the future. Next one will be Visual Generators (non including maps).

And other strong contenders include Solo, Space, Sea, Cyberpunk and Fantasy Cities.

Keep up to date here, on the rpg_generators subreddit or at my Patreon.

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