The Underdark Map and Free Printable Dungeon Tiles (Battle Tiles)

The Underdark Map and Free Printable Dungeon Tiles (Battle Tiles)

The Underdark Map and Free Printable Dungeon Tiles (Battle Tiles)

When I first started drawing the underdark campaign setting Lake of Spires maps the idea was just to provide a vast underdark map, now I have decided that having free printable dungeon tiles (battle tiles) of the same style maps would add a lot of value and enjoyment to the campaign setting.  I think if both the campaign setting map and the tiles used during combat are of the same style and personality it can go a long way to getting players into the flavor of the compaign.

The Underdark Map

One thing I have learned based on my own personal experience and from watching other campaigns is we all make the mistake and think we need this huge map covering thousands of miles but the reality is players generally do not go bouncing to great of a distance away from the core area of the campaign.  When I started drawing out the underdark campaign setting I kept that in mind, I knew I would not need to cover hundreds of miles if I gave them tons of interesting areas to explore and a proper theme to explain why things behaved the way they did.  The only issue to really consider when doing an underdark campaign in dungeons and dragons is you have to make sure your players have places to have a base of operation.  To handle this situation I am planning on several locations that may fit the player’s needs such as civilized areas, the slave market could be considered one of these locations but in truth it is more of an adventure prop than anything else.  The plan at this moment is to have a community maps out that lives in the spires above the lake, a dwarven stronghold and a drow city.  This is not to say that there won’t be a few small isolated areas that could fit the need as well but for now those are the ones planned that will tolerate outsiders.

Free Printable Dungeon Tiles (Battle Tiles)

The style and flavor of the underdark map is now well established in my opinion, the only task is to keep going forward with my release schedule of every Friday a new map panel.  I figure this to be a constantly growing area for a few years.  What it lacked though was an easy way for dungeon masters to bring that style into combat, this is where the dungeon tiles (battle tiles) come into action.  At first I was going to let others take care of this and wasn’t sure if I wanted to enter this arena but as I watched how things were going I felt the need to handle this myself.  Now the situation in combat will have the same flavor as the underdark map and I can make as many as needed.  At this time I figure there should be at least 200-300 dungeon tiles or battle tiles focused on the underdark maps for the caves and passages alone, this does not include the civilized areas which will get their own attention at a later date.

Random Dungeon Generator

At heart I am a programmer and with all these dungeon tiles I would be crazy not to look seriously into doing something I have always wanted to do, a random dungeon generator.  I will be using the dungeon tiles/battle tiles as a base for building the random dungeon generator maps, this way you will have the overall map and then be able to use the free tiles to put it into combat action.  This will also give dungeon masters a way to expand the underdark, well beyond what I envisioned and add countless hours to your game.  These are the kind of things I dream of dungeons and dragons needing when I consider good digital support for the game.