Battle Map Generator

Generate tactical battle maps and multi-room dungeons for your D&D 5e encounters. The Map Generator focuses on single-room fights and connected dungeon complexes — not overland or region maps. For world and region-scale maps, see the World Map Generator and Region Map Generator.

Quick Start

1. Navigate to Generate → Map Generator
2. Pick a Location Type — the tactical context for your encounter
3. Choose a Scale — how large the area is in feet and grid squares
4. Set a Map Name and add any terrain features or world context
5. Click Generate Map (or press Cmd+Enter / Ctrl+Enter)
6. Review the result, then click Save to Library

Step 1 — Location Type

The location type sets the tactical framing for the map. Choose the one that best matches your encounter.

Multi-room types: Dungeon Room, Cave System, and Building Interior support generating multiple connected rooms in expert mode. Each additional room uses one generation credit.

Step 2 — Scale

Scale controls the physical size of the map in feet and grid squares.

Step 3 — Map Details

Required

Map Name (required)

A clear, evocative name for the location. Examples: "Collapsed Aqueduct", "Throne Room of the Iron King", "Goblin Warren Entrance".

Optional

Party Level (optional, 1–20)

Sets difficulty expectations for encounter and trap scaling. If your campaign is linked, the campaign party level pre-fills this field.

Terrain Features (optional)

Add specific features for tactical variety. Be descriptive — the more context, the better the output.

• "Collapsed pillars providing half-cover along the north wall"
• "Shallow river crossing, difficult terrain, waist-deep"
• "Hanging cage over a 30-foot pit"

World Setting (optional)

Select a biome, geography, and climate to give the AI environmental context. Influences terrain descriptions, material choices, and atmosphere. Leave blank for a generic setting.

Map Template (optional)

Choose from pre-built layout templates that set room topology, feature placement, and connection patterns. Templates give a structural starting point the AI then fills in.

Cultural Flavor (optional)

Apply a cultural overlay — Imperial Roman, Feudal Japanese, Viking, and more — that shapes naming conventions, architectural details, and atmosphere. Cascades from your campaign settings if linked.

Campaign Link (optional)

Link the map to a campaign to automatically pull in the party level and associate the result with your campaign content.

Multi-Room Dungeons (Expert Mode)

In expert mode, multi-room location types (Dungeon Room, Cave System, Building Interior) expose a Room Count slider and a Theme Note field.

Room Count: Sets how many connected rooms to generate. Each room uses one generation credit. Trial accounts are limited to 5 rooms; Solo and Pro accounts support up to 20.

Theme Note: A short description of the dungeon's purpose or inhabitants. Examples: "Cult of the Ashen Flame hideout", "Abandoned dwarven forge overrun by goblins". The AI uses this to set room purposes, stocking, and descriptions.

What You Get in a Multi-Room Dungeon

Each room includes:

• Room purpose — entrance, guard room, shrine, treasure vault, and so on
• Stocking type — empty, encounter, trap, or special
• Read-aloud text — 2–3 sentences of sensory description, safe for players to hear
• GM notes — Investigation/Perception DCs, hidden details, lore, and tactics
• Connections — directions, locked doors, and secret passages with detection DCs

The dungeon summary shows total rooms, stocking breakdown, and secret passage count.

Room Stocking Distribution

When auto-stocking is active:

• 30–40% Empty — exploration and rest areas
• 40–50% Encounter — combat scaled to party level
• 10–20% Trap — environmental hazards
• 10–20% Special — puzzles, NPCs, unique features

No more than two consecutive combat rooms are placed. Dungeons with three or more rooms include at least one guaranteed safe rest room. The final room is always an encounter.

Multi-Level Dungeons

Multi-room dungeons support up to 3 floors connected by stairways. Deeper floors use thematic room purposes -- prison cells, ritual chambers, and natural caverns replace the guard rooms and storage areas found on upper levels.

1. Set the floor count in expert mode (1-3 floors)
2. Generate -- the AI creates each level with appropriate room purposes and stair connections between floors
3. Switch floors using the floor tab selector at the top of the battle map viewer

Stair connections are marked on each floor and indicate which level they lead to. The floor tab selector highlights which level you're viewing.

Wandering Encounter Tables

Dungeon maps with 3+ rooms auto-generate a wandering encounter table scaled to the dungeon's theme and party level. Open the Encounters tab on any battle map detail page to view the table.

Each table uses a d8 with 6 combat entries and 2 non-combat entries:

• Combat entries include creature name, number appearing, CR, disposition (hostile, patrolling, negotiable, etc.), read-aloud text, GM tactics, and optional loot
• Non-combat entries cover environmental events (cave-ins, rising water), social encounters (prisoners, messengers), and exploration events (trap resets, inscriptions)

Roll in session. Click the Roll button to instantly pick a random entry and resolve the number appearing. The result card shows the full encounter scene -- read it aloud, check the tactics, and run the fight.

Party Marker

Track where the party is on any map with the party marker -- a gold heraldic shield shape, visually distinct from all circular map pins.

1. Right-click anywhere on the map
2. Select Set Party Location from the context menu
3. The shield appears at that position and persists between sessions

Each campaign has one party marker. Moving it on any map updates it across your campaign.

POI Types for Dungeons

Battle maps support these point-of-interest pin types for annotating your dungeons:

Place these by right-clicking the map and selecting the POI type. They appear in GM view only -- player exports hide them automatically.

Puzzle Rooms

Rooms with a "puzzle" or "special" stocking type in multi-room dungeons auto-generate theme-aware puzzle content. Check the GM Notes panel for the puzzle description, solution, and hints. Puzzles draw from the dungeon's theme -- a fire-themed dungeon gets brazier puzzles, a crypt gets inscription riddles.

For standalone puzzles, use the Puzzle Generator.

Print and Export

Style Presets

The map renderer supports five visual styles. Switch between them in the export settings dialog:

GM and Player Versions

The Export Map dropdown offers four print options:

• PDF (Print view) -- full GM version with all annotations, secrets, and enemy positions
• B&W Print -- ink-friendly grayscale version for the GM
• Player Version -- hides GM notes, secret doors, trap locations, enemy positions, and quest markers
• Player B&W -- player-safe version in grayscale

Use PDF with Settings for full control over paper size, orientation, grid visibility, and color mode.

Layout Variety

The dungeon layout engine uses seeded randomization so no two dungeons look alike, even with the same settings. Room sizes vary by purpose -- a throne room is larger than a guard post. Scene-type overrides and shape variation keep layouts fresh across repeated generations.

What Gets Generated

Single-Room Maps

• Map name and metadata
• Terrain features with tactical properties (cover, difficult terrain, hazards)
• Grid configuration and dimensions
• AI-generated description

Multi-Room Dungeons

• A dungeon container grouping all rooms (up to 3 floors)
• Individual rooms, each with read-aloud text, GM notes, tactical notes, and terrain features
• A spatial connection graph -- directions, secret passages, locked doors, and descriptive text
• Stair connections between floors with linked floor labels
• A wandering encounter table (d8, combat and non-combat entries)
• Auto-generated puzzle content for special/puzzle rooms
• A dungeon summary

Generation Credits

All maps: 5 GP flat (any number of rooms)

Credits are only charged on successful generation. If generation fails, nothing is deducted.

Tips for Better Maps

Be specific with terrain features. "Difficult terrain along the west side" is weaker than "flooded tiles along the west wall, ankle-deep water, difficult terrain". The AI uses your feature descriptions as constraints.

Match scale to encounter type. Standard (50×50 ft) covers most combat scenarios. Use Tight for chokepoint fights and Large or Huge for set-piece battles with ranged combat and movement.

Use party level for multi-room dungeons. Without it, encounter difficulty scales to a neutral baseline that may not fit your party.

Provide a theme note. A one-sentence description of who uses the space dramatically improves room coherence across a multi-room dungeon.

Save before editing. Generated maps are not auto-saved. Click Save to Library before closing or navigating away.

SRD Compliance

All generated maps use SRD 5.2-compliant content. Trademarked creature names, spell names, and setting-specific locations are blocked automatically.

• Use "tentacled psychic aberration" instead of Mind Flayer
• Use "aberrant eye creature" instead of Beholder
• Avoid named WotC locations (Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, and others)

Related Documentation

• World Map Generator -- Overland maps with biome zones and political borders
• Region Map Generator -- Area-scale maps with landmarks and roads
• Encounter Generator -- Balanced combat encounters to place inside dungeon rooms
• Puzzle Generator -- Standalone puzzles and riddles
• Random Tables -- Stocking tables and loot for dungeon rooms
• PDF Export -- Full export options and paper size settings