digital maps: how to add them to your games

This is a free content map that is offered by Dynamics Dungeons (www.patreon.com/dynamicdungeons).

Hey fellow D&D friends! As you know, we at Heroes B&B have the pleasure of gaming with D&D groups throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. And as you might guess, these groups have their own homebrew campaigns and then reach out to us on a regular basis to experience a different level of D&D immersion. Our gaming set-up, which features multiple monitors and multiple GMs, allows us to get deeper into the fantasy realms that our adventurers experience.
One key aspect of that experience is digital encounter maps, which we show on one of the two monitors that are constantly in play during our events.
One question we’re often asked is where we get our digital maps from. The answer is two fantastic sources, each of which are available on patreon.com for you and all gamers at a reasonable monthly rate.
Our two digital map resources are:
* Dynamic Dungeons (https://www.patreon.com/dynamicdungeons): This is a comprehensive offering of a variety of environments, from forest, ocean and underdark scenes to more specific locales, like castles and graveyards. Highly recommended!;
* Animated Dungeon Maps (https://www.patreon.com/animatedmaps): Another site offering a variety of different environments, although smaller in number than Dynamic Dungeons. These maps provide more of an artistic feel vs. Dynamic, which more closely matches a real-life picture vs. these almost painting-like impressions. Animated does provide some unique offerings, including their series of maps that show structures on fire.
Do we have a preference for one digital map source over another? Not really. We enjoy providing both options and their growing libraries to our gamers.
To host these digital maps on your flat-screen TV or monitor, you’ll need two additional items:
* A thin plexiglass sheet that can be placed on your TV. The plexiglass will ensure your miniatures or dice don’t scratch the monitor. We’ve had these sheets cut to fit our monitors at local hardware stores. Don’t worry about making the plexiglass sheet thick – something fairly thin will work fine.
* We also purchase adhesive “dots” – a sticky, small round adhesive – that you can place on the corners of the plexiglass so this sheet doesn’t lie on the actual monitor itself. Again, you’ll find these at local hardware stores.
One warning to our GM friends who go this route: The detail in these digital encounter maps is quite extensive, meaning you’ll have to be prepared for your gamers’ likely enviromental questions, from the height of large boulders to the oft-asked “is this door locked?”
To which our response, said with a toothy smile, is “Do you try?”

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