Creating Maps with Quick Map
- Derek Batting
Quick Map Basics
Quick Map allows you to quickly and easily set up a battle map with all your PCs and NPCs with just a few clicks.
Examples shown below use the Dungeons & Dragons 5e ruleset, Legacy - Baron theme, and a few asset packs found in our Store and/or in the Art Subscription.
There are several options to configuring how your party and NPCs are placed on the map. You can also drag and drop an already-created Encounter to have everything in that encounter places on your Quick Map, otherwise Quick Map will simply use all PCs and NPCs currently in the Combat Tracker. We’ll show all use cases below.
As with all assets, the maps created with Quick Map can be zoomed into, moved around, pinged, other assets can be added as additional layers, or drawing with the Brush Tool, effects can be added, etc.
Quick Maps can also be toggled in and out of all three modes: 2D (flat top-down), Free Camera 3D, and Token View 3D.
Asset
First, you’ll click on Assets button in the Sidebar to open the Assets window.
Click on the Images button to narrow down the images to map or tile assets.
Find a map or image you’d like to use for your Quick Map.
When the image Preview window opens, click the Quick Map button at the bottom of the window.
The Quick Map window is broken down into four primary areas: Asset, Encounter, Party, and Enemy formations.
The Asset section will display a small thumbnail of the image you chose from the Asset window.
Delete Item / Add Item
The little red circle with a white line is the Delete Item button. When clicked, it will ask for a confirmation to delete the image. Once deleted, it will turn to an Add Item button denoted by a green circle with a white plus sign. Clicking the Add Item button will open the Asset window to allow you to choose a new image.
Use As Fill
If you use a tile as your image, such as a cobblestone road, a path, tile flooring, or similar, you can set Quick Map to use that tile as fill. This will automatically create a map using the tile in the size you select: Small, Standard, or Large.
Tip: This feature works best with patterns that are easily repeatable without looking Copied/Pasted.
Examples in the Use As Fill section below are shown with three medium-sized humans, two medium-sized NPCs and one large NPC. NPCs are lined up across the top, and NPCs are clustered at the bottom in accordance with the Party Sheet formation. Each square is 5 feet, and one medium-sized actor takes up one square.
Small: Best for small skirmishes, tight spaces, close encounters, ambushes, and has a decent stand-off space and enough border to move back.
Standard: Best for larger, open areas, areas with lots of buildings or forest, etc. Plenty of room for interaction with ground-based as well as flying PCs/NPCs.
Large: Best for large groups, heavy combat with lots of units, combat with vehicles/ships, etc. Lots and lots of room on this map.
For larger maps, we recommend zooming in and maybe using Pings to direct your party’s attention to other players, enemies, or areas further away.
Encounter
The Encounter section allows you to drag a pre-created encounter to the Drag/Drop bar to bring every actor in that encounter onto the newly-created Quick Map. Leaving the Drag/Drop bar empty will simply populate the map with everyone in the Combat Tracker.
Drag/Drop an Encounter
To delete the encounter that was just dragged into the Quick Map window, click the red circle to the right of the bar. It will prompt you to confirm your deletion, then remove the encounter once confirmed.
Leaving the Party position and Enemy position as default, and clicking Submit to create the map with the encounter, would look like this:
All PCs in the combat tracker as well as all NPCs from the encounter have been added to the map as well as added into the Combat Tracker. NPCs are added as invisible by default so that PCs don’t automatically see new encounters added to the map.
If images used in Quick Maps have Line of Sight, lighting, ambient light, etc. already set up, it will be active and ready to go for the encounter. If not, this can easily be added to the map with the Image Controls on the right of the window.
Party / Enemy Formation
By default, all actors denoted as PCs will be placed along the bottom of the map as shown in the Party section below. Enemy NPCs in the Combat Tracker will be placed at the top.
Party and Enemy drop locations can be altered to fit the asset being used for the map.
In the Party window, you can move the location where the party will be grouped on the map. In the Enemy window, enemies will automatically not be allows to be dropped into the same space.
In the Enemy window, you can select preferred positions for enemies to be dropped. By default, enemies will be dropped across from the party in a single clump as denoted by the 1x.
In the following examples, we have four enemies in the Combat Tracker. We will test a few different drop position layouts.
Default: | |
Two drop points: Â | Â Â |
One drop point for each enemy: Â | Â Â |
Note: The examples above were created with a relatively small image. Placement of PCs and NPCs will be much more spread apart on larger images, while they will be clustered closer together on smaller images.
If Party members have not been added to the Party Sheet and placed into a formation, they will be added to the bottom of the map in a single horizontal line or clustered.
If Party members have been added to the Party Sheet in a specific formation, they will be added to the Quick Map in that formation.