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The 6 Great Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps

The 6 Great Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps. As we all know, battles are the art form of every TTRPG campaign. And whether you’re playing offline or online, battle maps make the battle more fair, enjoyable, and visually appealing.

While you can practice your abilities and create your own battle map for the next campaign session, you can easily download a good one that matches your requirements.

We’ve gathered a short list of our favorite battle mapmakers to help you prepare for the upcoming campaign. But, of course, you can also spend more time planning other parts of the adventure as the DM.

1. Afternoon Maps

Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps

Neil of Afternoon Maps, another long-time Patreon mapmaker, has over 2,000 supporters and over 200 unique maps to pick from. On Afternoon Maps’ website, you’ll find a good range of free versions of his maps.

If you’re looking for something along those lines, his art style is slightly darker and grittier than the others. The battle maps are reminiscent of oil paintings, and the grids are cleverly incorporated into most of his artwork. Afternoon Maps is the way to go if you’re a DM looking for a grimmer art style with immersive grids.

Neil also gives commentary on good encounters to run on his battle maps if you need some inspiration for the next session. But those exciting and unique variants are behind a subscription fee. So if you enjoy his art, feel free to support him.

2. Crosshead

Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps

Since 2018, Bert of Crosshead Studios has been creating maps on Patreon, offering high-quality maps for as low as $1 per month. You can pay more to access more versions and better perks, or visit Crosshead Studios’ website to download free maps.

Over 3,000 patrons love Crosshead’s beautifully gridded map style, vivid colors, and intricate interior. Like most battle map creators, Crosshead uses a comical map-making style but blends it with a pure realism that might give your campaign a wonderful but severe experience.

This website has roughly 50 maps ranging from general landscapes to one-of-a-kind lava-filled final boss maps. To help give better context to what the maps contain, you can also find a few maps labeled with numbers.

The majority of map-making artists use Patreon as a kind of crowdfunding. However, if you’re an artist looking for an alternative to Patreon to crowdfund your work, we’ve detailed some options for you to consider. Great Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps

3. Cze and Peku

Best Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps

Cze and Peku have been named the ultimate mapmakers of all time. This map-making pair generates stunningly gorgeous and practical TTRPG adventure maps. Their maps number in the hundreds and cover practically any adventure area or scenario imaginable.

Czepeku provides excellent value for the low price of $5 a month. If you only want the free maps, there’s an Imgur website where you can download 50 of them.

Czepeku also develops animated maps for higher-tier patrons; all of their art is already VTT-ready. Patrons can also vote on which maps are produced every month.

They’re also collaborating with adventure creators Borough Bound to create fleshed-out environments using their maps so that you can have whole towns with maps for every section of it.

4. Neutral Party

Alex of Neutral Party is a dungeon master and artist with over 3,000 monthly patrons who support his maps. Alex has mastered constructing non-specific battle maps of generic adventure locations, giving his fellow DMs the ideal tools for random encounters in open-ended D&D games.

On Neutral Party’s Patreon page, you may find 20 free posts ranging from city gates to desert ruins and an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere. You’re sure to find something useful for your campaign there. You can also receive versions of every free map you see by joining a membership tier.

Neutral Party’s maps are usually environmentally rich, allowing your players to take advantage of various cover and environmental factors for a creative approach to battle.

As an added benefit, Neutral Party is courteous of DMs who play in person, instructing them to print their maps.

5. 2-Minute Tabletop

Ross, Australia’s leading war map artist, created 2-Minute Tabletop. He is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) Patreon mapmakers, with posts dating back to 2015. He has around 2,500 monthly patrons for whom he generates maps and tokens.

2-Minute Tabletop maps are endearingly rustic and cartoonish, making them suitable for games for younger players. He creates maps in a cut-and-join style, often distributing them in portions for patrons to fit together in their games.

His free content can be found on the website of 2-Minute Tabletops. It includes maps, tokens, and assets you can use in your games. If you appreciate what you see, please consider supporting him by joining one of his subscription tiers. Subscribing to his Patreon will grant you access to various asset packs that you may use to create your battle maps.

Also, 2-Minute Tabletop is a terrific place to start if you’re an aspiring artist. His asset sets make it easier to work on your projects, and he also provides tutorial films on creating maps in Photoshop.

Some of his videos, though, maybe too complex for total beginners. See our recommended strategies to help you get started with Photoshop for more Photoshop groundwork. Great Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps

6. Dynamic Dungeons

If you’ve ever wondered if animated battle maps existed, Dynamic Dungeons not only answers the question but also it for free. Dynamic Dungeons is the first Patreon maker of animated dungeon maps, giving looped animated maps that can be played on a tabletop screen.

Go to Dynamic Dungeons’ public posts (Patreon) and download the free animated battle maps. Unfortunately, VTT-supported animated maps are not available for free without subscribing to the $5 tier. However, the $1 tier includes a JPG version for VTTs.

VTT is an abbreviation for virtual Tabletop, and it is simply an online platform where you can play tabletop games with people worldwide. Roll20 is an excellent illustration of one of these.

The maps of Dynamic Dungeons are created in a more realistic 3D model-esque art style. These maps also include weather effects like fog and rain, adding realism to your D&D game. The maps also include looping sound effects for a more immersive experience, eliminating the need to go out and locate sounds.

Support Map Artists That You Love on Patreon

While acquiring fantastic free art for your games is excellent, if you have the money and love the art you see, please support the artist. Your contributions could help ensure that they produce more content like it in the future.

That being stated, download all the maps you’ll need and prepare for your session. We are confident that your players will be ecstatic to see the stunning new maps you have in store.

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