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Play ยท Maps

Fog of war, and tokens that know their creatures.

Drop in any image, choose a hex or square grid, and reveal the map as the party explores. Tokens link to Library creatures, and your players can follow the map live.

adventurebuilder.app
A forest battle map on a square grid, partly under fog of war, with tokens for four heroes and three enemies
Hex or squaresized to fit your image
Fog of warreveal and hide, in your own color
31 token iconseach with its own label and notes
Live to playersabout a second behind you

Every kind of map

Squares for the dungeon. Hexes for the world.

Drop in any picture and set the grid to fit it. Squares suit a cave, a dungeon or a fight at a bridge. Hexes suit a region, a coast or a long journey. Every map keeps its own grid, fog, tokens and drawings.

Square grids

For caves, dungeons and battle maps.

A dark cave map on a square grid, with four heroes by a campfire in the south-west and two cultists in the middle
Square gridGloamhollow CavernsA cave with a campfire at one end. The party is camped there, and two cultists wait in the central cavern.
A forest map on a square grid, with a stream, a log bridge, four heroes on the west bank and three enemies on the east
Square gridThornwick CrossingA log bridge over a stream. Four heroes hold one bank, and three enemies hold the other.

Hex grids

For regions, coasts and long journeys.

A coastal jungle map on a hex grid, with fog in the west, a measured route and labels for the village, an aqueduct and a ruin
Hex gridThe Verdigris CoastFog hides the western jungle. A route from Tern's Rest to the cave is measured at six miles a hex: five hexes, thirty miles.
A map of red cliffs, jungle and a harbor on a flat-topped hex grid, with tokens for a hollow, a temple and a harbor
Hex gridOchre ScarpFlat-topped hexes over red cliffs and a river delta, with a token on each landmark.
A map of a lake ringed by forest and mountains on a hex grid, with tokens on a village, a keep, a watchtower and standing stones
Hex gridTarnwater BasinA lake basin with a village, a keep and a watchtower, each marked with a token.

What it does

What it does, one piece at a time.

Any image is a map

Choose a picture and set the grid to match: hex or square, size, offset, columns, rows, orientation and map scale. Changes apply as you type, and one undo takes a typed change back.

  • Grid color and thickness are live, and the grid can leave revealed cells
  • Export a map as a file, or the whole map as a PNG
  • Pinch to zoom and drag with two fingers on a touch screen
adventurebuilder.app
The grid settings: hex size, offsets, columns, rows, grid kind, orientation and map scale, beside a hex map

Fog of war

Reveal and Hide paint cells in or out of the fog. Pick the fog's color and opacity, and move a cell cursor with the arrow keys when you would rather not use the mouse.

  • Fog sits above the map and below the grid
  • Undo and redo cover every paint
  • An unrevealed area is dim to you, and hidden from players
adventurebuilder.app
A cave map under fog of war: the cells the party has reached are lit, and the rest is dim

Tokens that know their creatures

Place a token, then pick one of 31 icons, a color, a size and a label, and add notes. Link it to up to twelve Library records, and each link gets Open, Tracker and Board buttons.

  • A token can stand for a whole group
  • It shows your portrait of its first linked record, on your map only
  • Resting the pointer on one floats its linked names and notes, never a stat block
adventurebuilder.app
The token editor: label, icon, color, size and notes, and a linked Bugbear that is on the tracker

Draw and measure

Measure a distance, add text, brush a freehand mark or draw shapes. Hold Shift to square a rectangle or snap a line to 45 degrees, and Alt to draw from the center.

  • Select, and Pan, keep their jobs apart
  • Space or right-drag pans from any tool
  • F fits the selection and 0 returns to 1:1
adventurebuilder.app
A hex map with a measured route of five hexes and thirty miles, and text labels, with the toolbar above

Show it to your players

Press Show players and the open map goes to the campaign's player link: tokens, drawings and fog, following your camera and your map switches. Stop showing takes it back.

  • Players see icons, never your portraits or a token's notes
  • One thing shows at a time
  • Players only watch: they cannot move a token
A player's phone showing a hex map with fog, a village and the party
The same map on a player's phone. See what players see.

See it work

Reveal it as they go.

Brush the fog away and the room underneath appears, grid and all. Players see the same map, about a second behind, with the fog at your own opacity.

With the other tools

Where the work goes next.

Good to know

What it does not do.

  • Maps stays your tool. Sharing a map is showing it, and players do not move tokens.
  • A token links to records by id and copies nothing from them.

Questions

About Maps.

Can my players move tokens?

No. Players only watch. They see the map, tokens, drawings and fog as you do, a second behind, and they never touch it.

Can I use my own battle map images?

Yes. Any image works as a map, and you set the grid to fit it.

Does it do hex and square grids?

Both. Pick the kind, the size, the offset, the number of columns and rows, and the orientation.

Which grid should I use?

Squares suit a cave, a dungeon or a street fight. Hexes suit a region, a coast or a long journey. Each map keeps its own grid, so one campaign can hold both.

Does it work on a tablet or phone?

Yes. Pinch zooms about your fingers, and a two-finger drag pans.

Can I take a map out?

Export it as a file to import again, or save the whole map as a PNG. Maps travel in your campaign archive with their images.

What do players see of a token?

Its icon, label and color. Never your portrait of its creature, and never its notes.

Do I need the player link to show a map?

Yes. Show players uses the campaign's player link, the same one the Combat Tracker uses.

Every question, for the whole app

Try Maps on your own campaign.

Fog of war, and tokens that know their creatures.