I have tried various map making software packages throughout the years. All of them had their pluses and minuses, but all of them seemed to require considerable ramp up time. I tried Inkarnate, Wonderdraft, and DungeonDraft to name just a few. All of them were ok, but still left me searching the internet for battlemaps instead of building my own. The amount of ramp up time to get proficient just seemed to be too much. A lot of detailed work was required to get the quality maps I wanted.

At the time I was also playing almost exclusively on Fantasy Grounds and these map making applications required additional steps top use the maps online in Fantasy Grounds. All of these things led me to resort to buying published maps from Mike Schley, published adventures, or in the Fantasy Grounds store.

Recently with my Middle Earth campaign, I was led to explore map making applications again. Although the Middle Earth Role Playing modules are excellent, usually the maps are the weakest point. The maps are in black and white and usually have no grids at all. Playing in-person with DnDBeyond also opened up other opportunities being able to upload any images to use for maps.

I recently saw a demo for Dungeon Alchemist and was intrigued. The maps you could generate were high quality and also allowed for three-dimensional viewing. Probably the best feature was the wizard like generation of a variety of rooms like castles, mansions, taverns, and crypts to name but a few. The learning curve was not onerous and I was able to create stunning maps within an hour of test driving.

The clincher was the ability to export images for use in DnDBeyond and for use with the following VTTs:

• Foundry Export
• Fantasy Grounds Unity Export
• Roll20 Export
• Above VTT Export
• Universal VTT Export

Finally I had found a map making application that was easy to learn, use, integrated well, had wizard functionality, and a wealth of assets and effects.

I was further blown away when I discovered a huge online community/catalog for maps and map assets others have created. It provided a wealth of downloadable content to help generate ideas and make your maps even better. This also includes over three years of online issues of Cartomancer Chronicles with featured maps, assets, tips, and tricks.

So if you haven’t found the right map making software like me, check out Dungeon Alchemist on BlueSky and Steam.

https://bsky.app/profile/dungeonalchemist.com

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1588530/Dungeon_Alchemist