Uncovering the Best GM Friend Alternatives for Your RPG Campaigns
GM Friend is a popular free online hex map maker tool, beloved by many for creating intricate hex maps for RPG or DnD hexcrawls and Westmarches style campaigns. While effective, game masters and players often seek out alternatives for a variety of reasons, whether it's for more advanced features, different art styles, or enhanced collaboration capabilities. If you're looking to diversify your map-making toolkit or find a GM Friend alternative that better suits your unique campaign needs, you've come to the right place.
Top GM Friend Alternatives
Explore these excellent map-making tools that offer compelling features and functionalities, making them great substitutes or enhancements to your current GM Friend experience. Each provides a unique approach to crafting the perfect virtual tabletop environment.
Tabletop RPG Map editor 2
Tabletop RPG Map editor 2 is the successor to ANAmap, offering an online grid-based map editor focused on simplicity, making it an excellent GM Friend alternative. This free web-based tool provides robust mapping features, perfect for quickly sketching out battle maps or world regions without a steep learning curve.
Mipui
Mipui stands out as a strong GM Friend alternative due to its online, grid-based map editing with a significant focus on simplicity and real-time collaboration. This free, open-source web platform allows all edits to appear instantly to other viewers, making it ideal for collaborative campaign planning. Its features include mapping, master details forms, real-time collaboration, and tile and tile-map editing.
DJ's Dungeon Mapper
DJ's Dungeon Mapper is a user-friendly map-making tool for creating grid-based maps directly in your browser. As a free web-based GM Friend alternative, it's perfect for quickly designing dungeons for computer games (dungeon-crawler, RPG) with online publishing capabilities, offering intuitive mapping features.
donjon.bin.sh
donjon.bin.sh is an expansive, freely accessible online collection of random generators and tools for pen-and-paper role-playing games, including robust mapping functionalities. While not solely a map maker, its comprehensive suite of tools makes it a valuable GM Friend alternative for GMs seeking integrated resources for their campaigns, all available on the web for free.
ANAmap
ANAmap is an online grid-based map editor for role-playing games, emphasizing simplicity. As a free web-based tool, it provides straightforward mapping features, making it a direct and easy-to-use GM Friend alternative for those who prefer a no-frills approach to map creation.
Dungeon Maker Sketch
Dungeon Maker Sketch allows you to create hand-drawn style maps for your favorite tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons (DnD). This commercial software ($), available for Windows, helps save time in map creation, offering unique artistic mapping features as a distinct GM Friend alternative for those seeking a more aesthetic, traditional look.
Ye Olde Map Maker
Ye Olde Map Maker enables you to design and print RPG game maps on any device, with thousands of maps instantly available for use. This commercial web, Android, and iPhone platform offers a convenient GM Friend alternative for GMs on the go, providing vast resources for map inspiration and creation.
Eigengraus Generator
Eigengrau's Essential Establishment Generator is a powerful procedural city generator designed for tabletop gaming. This free, open-source, web-based, and self-hosted GM Friend alternative offers unique features like procedurally generated full descriptions and Pathfinder compatibility, focusing on generating rich, detailed settlements rather than just maps.
Hextml
Hextml is a comprehensive campaign management tool for tabletop RPGs that doubles as a map drawing tool, supporting both hexagonal and square tiles. This free web-based GM Friend alternative excels with features like online collaboration, real-time collaboration, and team collaboration, making it ideal for groups working together on campaigns.
PaperDungeonMaker
PaperDungeonMaker is a simple, free online tool that randomly generates tiled dungeon maps for tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Its focus on quick, randomized mapping makes it a practical GM Friend alternative for GMs who need instant inspiration or a quick dungeon layout without extensive manual effort, available on the web.
Each of these GM Friend alternatives brings something unique to the table, from collaborative editing and open-source flexibility to specialized map styles and robust campaign management. Explore them to find the perfect fit for your next RPG adventure, ensuring your players always have an engaging and visually appealing world to explore.