Map Iconography Glossary

CritForge battle maps use standard cartographic symbols drawn from tabletop mapping conventions. This glossary covers every symbol, color, and indicator you'll see on your generated dungeon maps.

Room Numbers

Circled numbers appear at the center of each room in GM view. These are hidden in Player View so your players only see the map itself.

Numbering is continuous across floors in multi-level dungeons (Room 1 on the ground floor, Room 7 on the second floor, etc.)
Corridors don't receive room numbers -- only named rooms are numbered
Purpose labels (italic text near the top edge of a room, like "Armory" or "Throne Room") appear when you toggle room labels on. These help you quickly identify what each room is during play

Connection Types

Connections between rooms are drawn as symbols in gaps along the walls. Here's what each one means:

Symbol	Type	What It Means
Line with arc	Standard door	A normal door. The quarter-circle arc shows the swing direction
Line with arc + lock mark	Locked door	Requires a key or DC check to open
Dashed "S" mark	Secret door	Hidden from players. Visible to you at reduced opacity in GM view
Gap in wall (no symbol)	Passage	An open doorway with no door
Hatched rectangle	Trap door	A floor-level entrance, often leading to a lower level
Three vertical bars	Portcullis	A barred gate that can be raised or lowered
Two side-by-side arcs	Double door	A wide entrance with two door panels
Curved archway lines	Archway / Portal	An open archway. Portals also render as archways
Small barred rectangle	Window	A window opening in the wall

Secret doors only appear in GM view. When you switch to Player View, they vanish entirely unless you've marked them as revealed.

Locked doors show the lock indicator on top of a standard door symbol, so you can tell at a glance which doors your players need to pick or bash through.

Wall Styles

CritForge generates walls in different styles depending on the dungeon environment:

Architectural walls -- Clean, straight lines for constructed environments like castles, temples, and fortifications
Cave / natural walls -- Wobbly, organic outlines that look hand-drawn, mimicking natural rock formations. These use variable-thickness Bezier curves inspired by the Dyson Logos cartographic style
Mixed construction -- Some dungeons combine both styles. A dwarven mine might have architectural corridors leading into natural cavern chambers
Secret corridor walls -- Rendered as dashed lines at reduced opacity. Only visible in GM view

Wall outlines may include a stone-colored band fill to give them visual weight, especially in the parchment rendering style.

Furniture and Feature Icons

Rooms contain furniture and dungeon features rendered as small symbols or sprites:

Structural features:

Pillar / Column -- Filled circle
Pit -- Circle with crosshatch interior
Pool / Water -- Wavy-line filled area
Altar -- Stepped rectangle
Fireplace -- Rectangle with flame symbol

Furnishings:

Tables, chairs, beds, chests, barrels, thrones, and braziers appear as Kenney sprites (small pixel-art icons) placed within rooms based on each room's purpose

Terrain features:

Rubble, vegetation, water, and magical effects appear as textured areas or icon markers within rooms

Some features may render at slightly reduced opacity depending on the room's lighting and depth.

Tactical Overlay

The tactical overlay is a toggleable layer that adds combat-relevant information on top of the map. You can enable individual overlays independently.

Semi-transparent red rectangles showing each enemy's melee reach. These use grid-square (Chebyshev) distance, so a creature with 5 ft. reach highlights all adjacent squares, while a creature with 10 ft. reach covers a wider area.

Melee threats -- Red (standard weapon attacks)
Spell melee threats -- Violet (for enemies using melee spell attacks)
Creature footprint -- Darker red square showing the actual space the creature occupies

Ranged Zones

Amber dashed-border rings showing enemy ranged attack or spell ranges.

Cover Indicators

Cover zones highlight terrain that provides protection:

Pattern	Cover Type	Game Effect
Blue diagonal hatch	Half cover	+2 AC, +2 Dex saves
Blue crosshatch	Three-quarters cover	+5 AC, +5 Dex saves
Solid violet fill	Total cover	Can't be targeted directly

At low zoom levels, hatch patterns simplify to solid fills for readability.

Movement Range

Blue filled squares showing all cells reachable from a selected token's current position, accounting for movement speed.

Line of Sight

Blue-grey tint overlaid on squares that are obscured or blocked from the selected token's perspective.

Trap Zones

Traps show two distinct zones:

Trigger zone -- Violet crosshatch squares marking where stepping activates the trap
Effect zone -- Orange dotted-border squares showing the blast or damage radius

Conditions

Kenney icon stamps on affected squares showing active status effects (poisoned, frightened, restrained, etc.).

NPC and Enemy Tokens

NPC Tokens

NPCs appear as sprite tokens with a colored ring indicating their attitude:

Ring Color	Attitude
Green	Friendly
Amber/Orange	Neutral
Red	Hostile

At low zoom, NPCs simplify to colored discs matching their attitude color. At high zoom, you'll see the sprite plus a name label.

Hidden NPCs appear at 40% opacity in GM view and are completely invisible in Player View.

Player View shows all visible NPCs as plain white discs -- no attitude rings or labels -- so your players don't get meta-information about NPC disposition.

Enemy Tokens

Enemies appear as colored disc markers (using the map style's enemy color, typically red) with:

A type label below the token (e.g., "Goblin", "Skeleton")
A count badge if multiple creatures share the same position
Size scaled to the creature's footprint (Medium = 1 square, Large = 2x2 squares)

Enemy tokens are GM-only -- they don't appear in Player View.

Entry and Exit Points

Stairs

Stair symbols include directional arrows (up or down) and a floor connection label showing where they lead (e.g., "Level 2", "Cellar"). Multi-floor traversal shows a small circled number indicating how many floors the stairs span.

Dungeon Entrance

The primary dungeon entrance is marked with a distinct entry point symbol at the map edge.

Ladders

Ladders function like stairs but use a distinct symbol. They connect floors just like staircases.

Depth and Elevation

CritForge uses subtle color shifts to convey depth in multi-level dungeons:

Entrance level rooms appear at full brightness
Each level deeper progressively darkens the room fill by about 6%, up to a maximum of 35% darkening
Corridors are darkened an additional 10% beyond their room neighbors, making them read as transitional "less lit" passages

This depth tinting is automatic -- you don't need to configure it. It helps you and your players intuitively sense how deep into the dungeon a room sits.

Floor Tabs (Multi-Level Dungeons)

Multi-level dungeons show a tab bar above the map with one tab per floor. Each tab displays the floor's name (e.g., "Ground Floor", "Cellar", "Upper Floor").

The active floor tab is highlighted
Stair connections display labels like "Stairs to Cellar" so you can quickly see where vertical connections lead
Clicking a stair connection navigates to the linked floor and centers the view on the corresponding arrival point

Color Reference

A quick summary of what each color means across all map layers:

Color	Where You'll See It	Meaning
Cream / parchment	Room interiors	Floor fill (parchment style)
Dark charcoal	Between rooms	Void / solid rock
Brown	Wall outlines	Structural walls and door frames
Red	Tokens, threat zones	Enemies and melee danger areas
Violet	Tactical overlay	Spell melee threats, trap trigger zones, total cover
Blue	Tactical overlay	Cover, movement range, line of sight
Amber / Orange	Tactical overlay, tokens	Ranged zones, hazards, neutral NPCs
Green	Token rings	Friendly NPCs
White	Player view tokens	NPC markers (no attitude info)

Tips

Toggle overlays independently. You don't need all tactical layers on at once -- enable just threat zones for combat planning, or just cover for positioning analysis.
Use Player View before sharing your screen or exporting. It strips out GM-only information like secret doors, hidden NPCs, enemy positions, and room numbers.
Zoom matters. Some details (NPC names, hatch patterns, sprite art) only appear at higher zoom levels. If something looks like a plain colored disc, try zooming in.