The 6 Best Patreons Offering Free D&D Battle Maps

We all know that battles are the heart of any TTRPG campaign. And whether you’re playing offline or online, battle maps help make the battle fairer, more fun, and more visual.

While you can test your skills and create your own battle map for the next campaign session, you could just as well download a really good one that will meet your needs.

We’ve compiled a small list of our favorite battle mapmakers so that you can equip yourself for the next campaign. And you, as the DM, can spend more time preparing other parts of the adventure.

1. Crosshead

Bert of Crosshead Studios has been making maps on Patreon since 2018, and it offers quality maps for as low as $1 per month. You can pay more to get access to more variations and better perks, and you could also visit Crosshead studios' website to get free maps to download.

Crosshead has over 3,000 patrons who love his neatly gridded map style with bright colors and detailed interior. Like most other battle map artists, Crosshead takes a cartoonish style of map-making but combines it with a clean realism that could give your campaign a magical but serious experience.

On its website, you’ll find about 50 maps ranging from general environments to unique lava-filled final boss maps. You can also find a few maps labeled with numbers to help give better context to what the maps contain.

Most map-making artists use Patreon as a crowd-funding method. If you’re an artist who would like to crowdfund your art with something other than Patreon, we have outlined some alternatives to Patreon you can check out.

2. Afternoon Maps

Another long-time Patreon map-maker, Neil of Afternoon Maps, has over 2,000 patrons and more than 200 unique maps for them to choose from. You’ll find a good selection of free versions of his maps on Afternoon Maps' website.

His art style is a bit darker and grittier than the others if you’re looking for something along those lines. The battle maps are uniquely reminiscent of oil paintings, and the grids are creatively integrated into most of his art. So, if you’re a DM going for a grimmer art style with immersive grids, Afternoon Maps is the way to go.

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

3. Neutral Party

Alex of Neutral Party is a dungeon master and artist with more than 3,000 patrons who support his maps on a monthly basis. Alex has mastered the craft of creating non-specific battle maps of generic adventure settings, giving his fellow DMs the perfect set of tools for random encounters in open-ended D&D games.

You can find 20 free posts on Neutral Party's Patreon page ranging from city gates to desert ruins and an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere. You’re bound to find something that works for your campaign there. And, of course, you can get variants of any free map you see by joining a subscription tier.

Neutral Party’s maps are always environmentally rich, allowing your players to use all kinds of cover and environmental features to their advantage for a creative approach to battle.

As an added bonus, Neutral Party is considerate of DMs who play in person, giving them instructions on how to print their maps.

4. Dynamic Dungeons

If you were wondering if animated battle maps existed, then Dynamic Dungeons not only answers the question with a yes but also answers with a free yes. Dynamic Dungeons is the pioneer animated dungeon maps creator on Patreon, offering looped animated maps you can play on a tabletop screen.

Go to Dynamic Dungeons’ public posts (Patreon) and download the animated battle maps available to you for free. Unfortunately, you can’t get VTT-supported animated maps for free without subscribing to the $5 tier. But the $1 tier will get you a JPG version for VTTs.

VTT stands for virtual tabletop, and it’s essentially an online platform you can play your tabletop games with people over the internet. A good example of one of these is Roll20 .

Dynamic Dungeons uses a more realistic 3D model-esque art style to create the maps. Some of these maps even contain weather like fog and rain, lending even more realism to your D&D game. The maps also come with looping sound effects for a better atmosphere, so you don’t need to go find sounds to provide more immersion.

5. 2-Minute Tabletop

Australia’s number one battle map-maker, Ross, is the artist behind 2-Minute Tabletop. He is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) map-makers on Patreon, with posts going as far back as 2015. He has over 2,500 patrons, who he produces maps and tokens for on a monthly basis.

2-Minute Tabletop offers maps in an endearingly rough cartoonish style, ideal for games for younger players. He has a cut-and-join approach to maps, often distributing them in parts for patrons to piece together in their games.

You can find his free stuff on 2-Minute Tabletops' website. It contains maps, tokens, and assets you can use for your games. If you like what you see very much, don’t hesitate to support him by joining any one of his subscription tiers. Subscribing to his Patreon will give you access to many asset packs you can use to create your own battle maps.

Also, if you’re an aspiring artist, 2-Minute Tabletop is a great way to begin your journey. Not only do his asset packs make working on your stuff easier, but he also releases tutorial videos on how to create maps using Photoshop.

However, some of his videos may be too complex for complete beginners. For more Photoshop groundwork, you can see our recommended techniques to help you start learning Photoshop.

6. Cze and Peku

And the ultimate map-makers of all time award goes to Cze and Peku. This map-making couple produces breathtaking TTRPG adventure maps that are beautiful and functional. Their maps range in the hundreds from almost any adventure terrain or scenario you can imagine.

Czepeku is definitely a lot of value for the low, low price of $5 a month. But if you just want the freebies, there’s an Imgur page from which you can download 50 of their free maps.

Czepeku also produces animated maps for patrons of higher tiers, and all their art is already prepared for VTT use. Patrons also get to have a say on what maps they will produce on a monthly basis.

They are also teaming up with adventure creators, Borough Bound, to create fleshed-out worlds with their maps, so you can have entire cities with a map for every part of it.

Support Map Artists That You Love on Patreon

While it’s nice and all to get beautiful free art for your games, if you have the money to spare and love the art you see, then support the artist. Your contributions could go a long way to making sure they produce more stuff like that.

That said, download all the maps you need and gear up for your session. We are sure your players will be excited to see the lovely new maps you have in store for them.

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