Map Tools and Assets for Supers Gaming

As mentioned in a recent post about my investigation of virtual tabletop options, COVID has forced almost all of my gaming over the last year and more to take place online via virtual tabletop software like Roll20 and more recently Foundry VTT. Having opened that particular Pandora’s box, I suspect I won’t be closing it. As much as I look forward to sitting around a table chatting and eating pizza again, virtual dice-rolling is likely to remain a staple of my gaming even after in-person sessions become realistic once more.

I’ve been running a D&D campaign in Foundry that’s a largely home-brewed setting with some published material grafted in here and there, so I’ve been spending some time searching for decent images to use as online battle maps. Keeping in mind that I also want to eventually run some Mighty Protectors or even Traveller sessions at some point, I’ve also been watching for more modern or Sci-fi style images for use in those future campaigns.

There are lots of mapping tools, mapping components, and map-maker Patreon accounts out there. The bad news for supers games is that the vast majority of these are focused mostly or entirely on fantasy maps; the good news is that because of the popularity of more-modern-setting games like Call of Cthulu, various cyberpunk-ish offerings, etc., the situation doesn’t feel quite so lop-sided as it does for minis.

This page will focus on resources for creating your own maps; a follow-up will talk about sources of pre-made maps. As with the pages on traditional and 3d printable minis, the goal here is to focus on offerings besides fantasy that are likely to be appropriate for a supers-themed game – which can of course span lots of genres. Fantasy-themed offerings are simply much easier to find, so they won’t be the focus here.

Rolling your own

There are a number of software packages available which are dedicated to creating visually appealing maps for fictional worlds – so many, actually, that this page will largely focus on the most full-featured and best known ones. (A more complete list can be found here). They lean heavily toward fantasy maps, but usually support textures, colors, etc. that can easily be used in more modern or alien settings. In addition, there are often sets of modern items available as add-on assets, either free or commercially.

Wonderdraft is geared toward geographical rather than battle maps; if you want to build a world for your heroes to visit or an island archipelago that hides a supervillain’s secret lair, it may be worth a look. Price is a one-time $29.95 purchase.

Dungeondraft is Wonderdraft’s sister project and very popular as an inexpensive and easy to learn tool for designing battle maps of dungeons, castles, outdoor scenes, and the like. It doesn’t include any explicitly modern or SF elements, though some creators have made custom asset packs available (see below). Its one-time purchase cost is $19.99.

Inkarnate is an online app that began as a world and regional map builder similar to Wonderdraft, but has recently added a battle map editor (in beta as of this writing but usable). While again mostly fantasy oriented, there are facilities to upload custom assets and it does by default include some train/railyard and steampunk themed assets. There’s a limited free version, and the pro version goes for $5 per month or $25 per year.

Campaign Cartographer is the heavy-hitter, swiss-army-knife map-making tool of the bunch. It’s been around for a long time, has lots of asset packs available, and is tremendously powerful if you can figure out how to make it do what you want. The trade-off for its flexibility is its complexity, with an interface that’s somewhat dated and harder to learn than those of the other, simpler products. The basic software is $24.95 but you’ll likely want at least the “Dungeon Designer” add-on that’s geared specifically toward floor plans and possibly one or more asset bundles at around $20-25 each.

Dungeon Fog is another online map-making tool; this one includes a number of cyberpunk, sci-fi, and modern assets. A limited free version is available; pro version cost is $4.99 monthly or $49.90 annually, with “On Demand” 1, 3, and 6 month options falling between those price levels. As of this writing, a more powerful tool called Project Deios is in early Alpha testing.

MapForge is another recent map-making application available in free and paid (one-time $37) versions. It differs from the others listed here in that it’s built around the concept of building your map by arranging pre-made sets of place-able tiles. There are a good number of modern & SF styled tile sets available for free from their site.

Chronos Builder is a newer battlemap-making application similar to the fantasy-oriented Dungeon Alchemist but with SF, Victorian, cyberpunk, and other non-fantasy assets.

Arkenforge is a mapmaking tool with a large library of assets available. It’s primarily designed for in-person gaming and has lots of animated assets for that, but its maps can be exported for use in print and VTT. Fantasy or SF starter packs are available at $35, with additional asset collections ranging up to about $30 each.

Your assets on the line

Whether you’re using a full-featured map application or a simple paint program to build your maps, you’re probably not going to want to custom-draw every shed, school bus, and bathtub… not unless you possess both time and talent in vast quantities. Fortunately there are vast quantities of pre-made icons and graphics resources available to help fill your need for map details.

Keep in mind that many mapping applications use a custom format to load in assets, so depending on the app, you may need to use an import or conversion tool to add items that aren’t already mapped to the correct format.

Many of the providers of mapping programs above provide additional assets for sale; some offer marketplaces on their sites where individual creators can sell custom assets. Usually, though, there are lots more available elsewhere.

The easy and obvious source is Google! A simple search such as “modern map assets” will turn up links to Reddit discussion threads and Pinterest posts sharing asset resources. Searches on DeviantArt turned up some asset results as well. In addition, sometimes scanning forums dedicated to specific games will yield links to shared user- or community-created images, such as this example of free SF assets I found linked from a forum dedicated to a Star Wars game.

The Roll20 Marketplace is a good source of paid map assets, usually in the form of “tiles” which can be used in that VTT. If you use a different VVT or want to print your maps, though, be careful when purchasing asset packs to check whether the author has marked them as downloadable – otherwise they’ll be difficult to use outside Roll20. Most items seem to cost $4-5.

DriveThruRPG sells assets as well; a search on, for instance, “modern map assets” brings up 250+ results at a variety of price points.

CartographyAssets.com is just what the name suggests – a large collection of items packaged in both generic form and specifically for some of the mapping tools listed above. Some are free, many are for sale at various prices.

2MinuteTableTop is another great resource for assets created by the team running a Patreon project of the same name. Some modern, SF, and Sci-fi items among the fantasy collections. Many items are free or Pay What You Want.

Arthos Library – the “Modern Mondays” series of posts on this site contain mostly full maps, but there are some vehicle and other assets scattered among them, particularly in the posts about military camps and bases.

Patreon and Kickstarter

There are a number of talented map-makers regularly creating full themed battle maps; a few of those also release asset packs to use in your own efforts. As with the Minis pages, because of the fluid nature of Patreon/Kickstarter projects I’ll be posting summaries of these below as comments, hopefully with updates as I come across new ones. In many cases the Patreon projects mentioned here are priced on a per-map-set or per-asset-set basis rather than a flat monthly fee, so you lose nothing if nothing gets released.

In most cases the Patreon projects featured here are slanted toward fantasy and only sometimes release maps that cross into other genres; in some cases it may be worthwhile if there’s an associated online store to simply pick and choose items from there rather than go for the Patreon option.