Hexographer’s “Select Terrain to Use When Converting” Dialog

Just a quick heads up about a few Hexographer & Dungeonographer updates:

• Dungeonographer now also has an .exe version to hopefully make launching it on Windows machines easier.  A few people have reported problems.  Hexographer has had this feature for a few weeks.  It is available from the Dungeonographer (or Hexographer respectively) downloads page.
• Hexographer’s new “Convert Map” feature which tries to approximate the terrain of a new map based on a map being traced now lets you choose which terrain to use in the conversion.  Previously it would try to use all terrain and many terrain types would not apply for many maps. See the screenshot and note several buttons (farmland, hills, sea, etc.) are darker showing they are selected.  The conversion aspect of this feature debuted a few weeks ago.

The map conversion feature is in the free & pro versions of Hexographer.  The .exe launch is only for the pro version of Dungeonographer & Hexographer.  If you need the download link or any other help email support@inkwellideas.  (I believe I’m caught up but if you don’t hear back within about 24 hours, please send a reminder.)

Hiding all but one room in Dungeonographer

Recently there have been a few questions about how to edit a map created with Dungeonographer’s built-in random map generator.  So this article describes the reason and process.

To allow rooms to be shown or hidden, rooms and even corridor sections are all created as “shapes” instead of using the “floor tiles.” This feature allows you to share a map with players which only shows what they know.

To do so, right-click a room or corridor segment and a “Hide all but this room” pop-up menu will appear.  Select that and the rest of the map will turn black.  Right-click where another room or corridor segment is hidden and select “Show room/area” from the pop-up to show the next location.  (To show the entire map again, go to the “Options” menu and select “Show all Rooms/Areas”)

So how do you remove a room or corridor segment?  Go to the “Shapes/Rooms” tab on the right sidebar and choose the “Select Shape” button.  Next select a corner of the room or corridor segment.  Then press your delete key or click the “Delete Selected Shape” button.

Corridor segments have the walls drawn separately as lines, so to remove them go to the “Styled Lines” tab, click the “Select Line” button, click a line and press the delete key or “Delete Selected Line” button.

If you create your Dungeonographer maps using the “Shapes/Rooms” tab instead of the “Floor Tiles” tab, you’ll get this same ability to easily show/hide parts of your map.

Continuing a series of mini-battlemats… (Taverns were up last week and inns were posted a while back.) We have 7 medieval homes as battlemats.  A medieval home was a simple building with usually just a common room for cooking, eating and family time; a room for sleeping; and some had a room used as a workshop.  The outhouse was of course separate.

These buildings fit that basic premise.  Most of these maps have 2 single story buildings, but one is a two-level “townhouse.”  Each map does show simple outhouses where ever they could fit on the map.  In reality the outhouses would be further away and usually in a different direction. (Just cut those sections out and move them as needed.)

Feel free to use them for your game!  The Dungeonographer (.dgo) files allow you to edit them in Dungeonographer (including the free version), just right-click and “save-as.”  The thumbnail pictures themselves link you to 1″=5’=300dpi versions suitable for printing as battlemats at their original sizes:

Two-story house. Click thumbnail for full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Nice houses with workrooms/shops.  Click the thumbnail for the full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Two nicer houses. Click the thumbnail for the full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Two poor houses with dirt floors. Click the image for a full-sized version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

We’re continuing our series of Monday maps.  This time we have 5 levels (including a roof) for a caster’s or wizard’s tower.  The levels can be ordered in whichever way you want, but the kitchen level should be the main entry level and the nearly empty map would likely be the roof level.

Previously medieval homes were posted last week, taverns were up two weeks ago and inns were posted a while back.

Feel free to use them for your game!  The Dungeonographer (.dgo) files allow you to edit them in Dungeonographer (including the free version), just right-click and “save-as.”  The thumbnail pictures themselves link you to 1?=5?=300dpi versions suitable for printing as battlemats at their original sizes:

Dungeon Level. Click thumbnail for full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Entry Level. Click thumbnail for full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Guard/Guest Level. Click thumbnail for full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Living Quarters Level. Click thumbnail for full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Roof Level. Click thumbnail for full size version. Right-click Dungeonographer file.

Four Sample Tiles.

I recently collected several new floor tiles from the open clip art library, which is a great free (as in money and use, essentially public domain) resource.  I then made a number of variations to the graphics from the library and now I’m posting them for you to use.  (In Dungeonographer or in any other way/tool.)

Link to the zip file with the graphics.

You can add these to your Dungeonographer maps (if you’re using the “pro” version which lets you import graphics) with the following steps:

1. Just go to the “Configure Tiles” tab, then select “Add/Remove/Edit Custom” at the bottom.
2. In the popup, select “Add” from the drop-down.
3. Give the graphic a name, then select “Dungeon Fill” (it should be preselected)  in the “Category” drop down because each of these are icons used in that way. Check “Use Background” and select a background color.  (In case you use the simple/line-art graphics mode.) Check the “Use Icon” checkbox and browse to where you saved the graphics.  (Save them to your computer first and unzip them, of course.)  Set scale icon to 100% (we want these tiles to span the full size of the squares).
4. Then click save, and the icon should appear on the bottom of the “Features” tab.  (If it doesn’t just click the “Edit Map” tab and that Features tab sidebar should refresh.)

Happy New Year and Happy Mapping!

Our Monday Maps feature is still going strong! Both have cells underground. One features a spiral staircase so there may be several levels of cells.

Previously shops, town halls, temples, a wizard’s tower, medieval homes, taverns  and inns have been posted.

Feel free to use them for your game!  The Dungeonographer (.dgo) files allow you to edit them in Dungeonographer (including the free version), just right-click and “save-as.”  The thumbnail pictures themselves link you to 1″=5’=300dpi versions suitable for printing as battlemats at their original sizes:

Jail battlemat w/spiral stairs. Click the graphic for the full sized version, right-click and save this link for the Dungeonographer file.

Jail battlemat. Click the graphic for the full sized version, right-click and save this link for the Dungeonographer file.

This post shows a map for a 2-level guildhouse.  The main floor features a large meeting room, a bar operated by the guild, a storage room, and a couple of smaller meeting rooms. The upper floor has offices and two more small meeting rooms.

Previously a gatehouse, jails, shops, town halls, temples, a wizard’s tower, medieval homes, taverns  and inns have been posted.

Feel free to use them for your game!  The Dungeonographer (.dgo) file allows you to edit the map in Dungeonographer (including the free version), just right-click and “save-as.”  The thumbnail pictures themselves link you to 1″=5’=300dpi versions suitable for printing as battlemats at their original sizes:

Guildhouse main level. Click the image for the full size version.

Guildhouse upper level. Click the image for the full size version.

Use code “Holiday20″ for 20% off now through Dec 15th!

Shipping in time for the holidays!  Some Highlights:

DungeonMorphs: DungeonMorphs are  90 connectible dungeon/cavern geomorph designs. Each side of each 10×10 design has two corridors (at the same positions) leading off the design. So you may keep placing any two designs next to each other (and rotate them as desired) to make the dungeon level as large as you want! One set of cards has all 90 designs or 3 sets of 5 dice each with 30 designs per set are available.

Creature Decks: 5 card decks of 54 creatures on 54 cards! Plus a cover/checklist card and license info cards.  They come in 5 versions, The front of each has amazing art, while the back has stats/info for different game systems or system neutral:

• System Neutral: The back has system neutral information about the creature. (Strengths, weaknesses, allies, tactics, etc.) These cards are perfect for knowledge checks–if the player rolls well, give them the entire card or just read a few facts if they have an average result.  They are also great for GMs as they include information on each creature’s allies and enemies so the GM can better plan an adventure.  The cards also remind a GM of the creature’s battle tactics.
• 0e/1e Fantasy RPG: The back has classic 0e/1e RPG statistics for the creature.  The Labyrinth Lord/AEC rules are used, but these are easily converted to most other retro-clones of the most popular fantasy RPG.
• PF/3.75 RPG: The back of these decks has Pathfinder stats for each creature.
• Fate: Each card back lists the Fate stats for the creature: Concept, trouble, other aspects, skills, stunts, extras, options, physical & mental stress, size & scale.
• Dungeon World: All the stats for Dungeon World creatures are on the back of each card.

Encounter Decks: 56 Mini-adventure cards. These cards are designed to make many mini-adventures (a.k.a. side treks or hex-crawl stocking).  Simply draw a few until you get an mini-adventure that fits (has the setting you need).  Then draw more cards when you need a map or trap idea, plot twist or unusual treasure.  There are 2 decks–each has all different adventure outlines and maps.  Deck 1 has line art style maps, deck 2 has color maps.

Monster Stand-Ins: Get over 600 cardstock minis for under $30. Includes 32 stands & a matching PDF. Extra stands and an organizer box are also available. Or get just the PDF. The physical minis are a set of 600 creatures (300+ different images) printed on 100 4?x3? material similar to playing cards. Some creatures are an entire 4?x3? card, others are 2, 4, 8, or 9 on a card. For example, eight 1.5?x1? medium creatures fit on one card. The back of each creature is a silhouette of the front.

Cityographer: Cityographer lets you instantly create a city map and details (residents, store inventories & prices, etc.)  You can have the program do it all in one step, or run it in a step-by-step fashion and edit the map and details as you go. Or even hand-place each street & building.  Everything created is always completely editable. Map building icon sets for various genres are also available.

Hexographer: (Scroll down the linked page a bit) Hexographer is a map-making software program that allows users to create hex-style maps as well as town maps, battlemats and hex star-maps. It is built for making game world/area maps, so because unneeded options are not included it is easier to use than many other map programs.

Dungeonographer: Dungeonographer makes mapping a dungeon or building easy by re-using the same intuitive, highly praised user interface as Hexographer. It has hundreds of built-in graphics for floor types, walls, doors, tokens, furniture, and other “dungeon dressing.” A configurable random generator is also included!

Link to all products.

Many of these make great gifts for other players & GMs!

As many of you know, Cityographer and Dungeonographer are two sister-products to Hexographer.  They use largely the same user interface, but specialize in making maps of cities & villages or dungeons, caverns & building interiors respectively.

Both provide a bunch of cool features.  For example, Cityographer:

• Can automatically generate the city in a single step, or generate the city step by step, or place each road and building by hand.  The map is always fully editable in any case.  There’s no way to underestimate how great this is!!!!
• Automatically populates each building with information on each resident.  Further, if the building is a store, inn, tavern, etc, it will generate inventories and price lists in case the PCs stop by to look for an item.
• The data to generate the building info (names, prices, etc) is all customizable with a xml files.

Dungeonographer has these special features:

• Automatically toggle a map from a line art style to a battlemat art style.
• On export, create an image of the map in the “old school” blue color.  You can also make an isometric version by one checkbox.  This will rotate and squeeze the map appropriately.
• Make rooms GM-Only to reveal rooms step-by-step.

Go to our store and use the discount codes city35 and dung35 to get 35% of either.  Yes, you can use both codes.  (Just enter one, click the “update cart” button, then enter the other code and click “update cart” again.)

Inkwell Ideas Patreon Samples

A lot of changes and improvements are coming to Inkwell Ideas!  More details will be coming soon.  Today we’re announcing our Patreon campaign.

This will help us to continue to make improvements to our software programs (Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer and the Coat of Arms Design Studio) and make more icons & art available for the tools.  You’ll get new icons & art every month as well as other perks in exchange for your support.

We plan to offer 60+ icons in a collection, and we’re targeting one collection per month.  (We’ll do at least one collection per month.  We may create two collections in some months.)  Each collection’s icons/art will be about evenly split with icons for use with Hexographer, Cityographer, Dungeonographer and symbols for the Coat of Arms Design Studio.  You pledge per collection that we publish each month.  If you only use one of our programs, pledge just $1.50. You’re free to pledge more and get extra perks.  If you use multiple Inkwell Ideas programs  we ask that you pledge more, but pledges are on the honor system.

How does Patreon work?

Patreon is a way to directly support creative projects on an ongoing basis. Creators make things on an ongoing basis, and your pledge is taken each month based on how many creations the project made that month. You are also free to cap your monthly pledge so a project doesn’t suddenly make 100 items.  (Our monthly icon/art collections will count as one item. If we do make two collections in a given month, you would be charged twice, but this will not be common and you will be getting two sets of 60+ icons.)

If you’ve got ideas for additional things you’d like to see, please let us know!

As we announced a few days ago, Inkwell Ideas is starting up a Patreon campaign to fund additional icons and continued development for all of our software.  To show you what you’ll get, we will be releasing a few new sample icons for each program over the next few days. Each month we’ll put together at least one pack of 15+ icons for each of our 4 programs.  (60+ icons in all, and some months we may do two packs of 60+ icons each.)  Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools.  You can pledge at a level matching the perks you want and any number of our programs.

First up are these samples for our dungeon/building interior designer Dungeonographer:

Above, we have a scroll with a symbol, a skeleton token, a dark circular table, and a dark circular table with place settings.  This should give you an idea of the art we’re providing.  To use them in Dungeonographer, save them to your computers, then open a map in the program, go to the “Map Items” right sidebar, scroll down to the “import map items” button or the “mass import map items” button and follow the file chooser. But the are also PNG images, scaled so that 300 pixels = 5″, so you’re free to use them in general image editors or any programs that let you use PNGs.

We continue to preview new map icons & graphics for our Patreon project which will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio.  To show you what you’ll get, we’re releasing samples of a couple of icons for each set. The set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

Based on a survey of the project’s backers, for Dungeonographer we’ll have more monster tokens, ground tiles/textures, and medieval furniture.  Each of these options got a substantial amount of interest in our survey. Modern and futuristic furniture received fewer votes, so we’ll hold off on that.  One comment was a request for more rubble piles and destroyed door, so we’ll plan for those specifically.

Now for the previews:

Broken Wooden Stool

Honey color wood floor

Ghost Token (art by Keith Curtis)

If you’d like to support more of these graphics, please go to the Patreon page and make a pledge.

To use the graphics in Dungeonographer: Unzip these files to a folder on your computer.  Start/load a map.

• For using the icons as map items (most of these icons): Go to the “Map Items” tab.  Scroll down to the “Import Custom Map Item”  button or the “Mass Import Custom Map Items” button if you wish to import several icons at once. Use the file chooser to switch to the folder where you saved the icons and select them. They should then appear at the bottom of the list of icons on the “Map Items” tab.
• For replacing existing floor tiles: Go to the “Configure Tiles” tab (top left-center of the screen.)Scroll down to find the floor you’d like to replace. Use the file chooser “Browse” button on the far right of each row to replace the icon of any terrain or feature.  Click “Apply” to see the changes take effect.
• To add a new floor tile: Go to the “Configure Tiles” tab (top left-center of the screen.) Click the “Add/Remove/Edit Custom” button near the bottom of the screen. Choose “Add” Choose values for each field. Use the “Browse” button to find the new icon. It should now appear at the bottom of the list of terrain or features on the “Floor Tiles” tab.

October is almost up, and we’ve now finished the new art/icon packs for our Patreon project. It will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio.  The set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

See the thumbnails below and if you like our software and want to expand it with more options, please support the Patreon project.  Feel free to also use the art/icons in other tools as well.

Cityographer Icons (Click to enlarge.)

Coat Of Arms Art (Click to enlarge.)

Dungeonographer Icons (Click to enlarge.)

Hexographer icons (Click to enlarge.)

We continue to preview new map icons & graphics for our Patreon project which will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio.  To show you what you’ll get, we’re releasing samples of a couple of icons for each set. The set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

Based on a survey of the project’s backers, for Dungeonographer we’ll have more monster tokens, medieval alchemy equipment.  The monster tokens had our highest number of votes… and the alchemy equipment was a good suggestion made in our survey responses.

Now for the previews:

Table of alchemy equipment. We’ll have a couple more tables as well as the individual items.

Troll token.

December is half over already!  Good thing we’re half complete with our December Patreon icons.  These are new map icons & graphics for our Patreon project which will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio.  To show you what you’ll get, we’re thumbnails/contact sheets of the icons for each program. The set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

Today’s thumbnails are for the Dungeonographer icons we’ll release at the end of this month.  Join the Patreon to get them! Click the image for the full size version.

Dungeonographer December Patreon icons. (Click to enlarge.) Staircases, rugs, a desk, fountain, textures and tokens.

Contact Sheet of January’s Dungeonographer Patreon graphics. Click to Enlarge.

We’re well into January…   that means it is time to start posting thumbnails/contact sheets of our upcoming Patreon icons.  These are new map icons & graphics for our Patreon project which will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio. But the icons are transparent PNGs which should import into most image/map editors. They are sized so 300 pixels = a 5′ area, which is perfect fro 300dpi battlemats where 1″ = 5′.

To show you what you’ll get, we’re posting thumbnails/contact sheets of the icons for each program. The month’s full set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

Today’s thumbnails are for the Dungeonographer icons we’ll release at the end of this month.

Join the Patreon to get them! Click the image for the full size version of the contact sheet, but note that the images on the contact sheet are half the size of the final graphics.

Dungeonographer Patreon Graphics.

We’re continuing to post thumbnails/contact sheets of our upcoming Patreon icons.  These are new map icons & graphics for our Patreon project which will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio. But the icons are transparent PNGs which should import into most image/map editors. They are sized so 300 pixels = a 5? area, which is perfect fro 300dpi battlemats where 1? = 5?.

To show you what you’ll get, we’re posting thumbnails/contact sheets of the icons for each program. The month’s full set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

Today’s thumbnails are for the Dungeonographer icons we’ll release at the end of this month. Based on our patron’s survey responses, we created a number of new floor tiles as well as several monster tokens.

Join the Patreon to get them! Click the image for the full size version of the contact sheet, but note that the images on the contact sheet are 1/2 or 1/3 the size of the final graphics.

Dungeon Map Graphics. Click to Enlarge.

We’re getting close to the end of the month, which means it is time to start posting our Patreon icons.  These are new map icons & graphics for our Patreon project which will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio. But the icons are transparent PNGs which should import into most image/map editors. They are sized so 300 pixels = a 5? area, which is perfect fro 300dpi battlemats where 1? = 5?.

To show you what you’ll get, we’re posting thumbnails/contact sheets of the icons for each program. The month’s full set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

Today’s thumbnails are for the Dungeonographer icons we’ll release at the end of this month. Based on our patron’s survey responses, we created a number of new floor tiles as well as several monster tokens.

Join the Patreon to get them! Click the image for the full size version of the contact sheet, but note that the images on the contact sheet are 1/2 or 1/3 the size of the final graphics

April’s Dungeonographer Patreon icons. The set includes a second, darker version of almost all of these. (Click to enlarge.)

It is time to start posting our Patreon icons for the month!  These are new map icons & graphics for our Patreon project which will expand the graphics available for our software tools Hexographer, Dungeonographer, Cityographer, and the Coat of Arms Design Studio. But the icons are transparent PNGs which should import into most image/map editors. They are sized so 300 pixels = a 5′ area, which is perfect fro 300dpi battlemats where 1″ = 5′.

To show you what you’ll get, we’re posting thumbnails/contact sheets of the icons for each program. The month’s full set will have 15+ icons for Hexographer, 15+ for Dungeonographer, 15+ for Cityographer and 15+ for the Coat of Arms Design Studio. Plus, some icons can be used in multiple tools. Support the project for as little as $1.50!

Today’s thumbnails are for the Dungeonographer icons we’ll release at the end of this month. Based on a prior survey, this month’s icons have a theme: ship-board accessories. Thanks to artist/cartographer Keith Curtis.  Note that almost all the icons shown have a second, darker version.

Join the Patreon to get them! Click the image for the full size version of the contact sheet, but note that the images on the contact sheet are 1/2 the size of the final graphics. We’ll make a post through Patreon for supporters only at the end of the month with the actual icons.