Dungeon Designer 3 - Creating Maps of Dungeons and Caves

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Dungeon Designer offers several pre-made templates for a quick start. Each of these templates boasts a dirt background and a pre-made grid, which is ideal for making maps for any type of grid-based miniatures game.

In the Dungeon menu, several features allow for quick creation of rooms, hallways, walls, floors, and caves. In addition, underground lakes can also easily be added by using the Default Water tool. With these tools, any texture can be added either by hand or using the drawing aids to create curved rooms, straight-edged rooms, or even a mixture of both.

A menu of pre-fabricated icons makes placing rugs, symbols, and items into dungeons and caverns extremely easy, and the wide variety of graphics that come with the program allows for a lot of variation between maps.

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One of the best features of DD3 would be the Sheets and Effects tool, which allows the user to separate different graphical elements of each particular map. This allows the cartographer to organize different layers of the map and manipulate individual details or groups if need be. The DD3 tutorial suggests that users should not add effects until at least fifty percent of the map is done. Effects add load time to the entire map and can slow performance a great deal, especially if the cartographer has a computer on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to system requirements. The end results are quite pleasing to the eye as

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Maps created in DD3 can be printed at a precise scale. For example, one inch equals five feet for any Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast out there. The floorplans can also have a hex or square grid overlay on the map, making gameplay easy and module designs a snap. Tools for creating secret doors and hidden passages are also readily available. Last but not least, the Sheets and Effects tools makes creating a game master’s version of a map incredibly simple. The user only needs to turn off the game master’s layer to print a player’s version of the map.

Obtaining the program was quite simple. I downloaded it from ProFantasy, registered it, and began the installation process. I ran into a kink because the program required the .NET Framework, and a specific version of it, to work. After a few attempts at solving the issue myself, I finally went to ProFantasy’s technical support section on their website and solved the issue within minutes. Installation went off without a hitch after following the directions on their site. When I wanted to install a second copy on my second computer, I had no problems receiving a response from their technical support team as well.