D&D battle maps are one of the funnest parts of D&D. Just looking at them is fun, finding them can be a tiny thrill, and making them is a delightful way to spend hours of time. Oh, and using them. I’ve used Midjourney to make D&D battle maps in the past, especially to make really large battle maps. That works great! ChatGPT was never that good at it, until now.

Recently, while playing through Sons of Gruumsh, I asked it to make a few maps, and ChatGPT did great. What was especially surprising was that I hadn’t really described what I wanted the map to look like, I just had the adventure text and some brief description of the areas.

First, it made this regional map:

This didn’t match exactly what I had in mind, but it’s really good nonetheless.

Then, you have this sub-regional maps, zooming down to the orc fortress in Sons of Gruumsh

I think I asked it to make a Dyson-like map for that last one.

These are pretty good, and totally playable. They are not perfect - obviously, a human needs a lot more control over them for both imagination and fidelity to what’s in your head. But, if you’re looking for some quick, more than good enough role playing, they’re great.

On the other hand, the battle maps are pretty perfect:

Again, these are not from the hands of a battlemap master. For me, they’re not chaotic and cluttered enough. I like a lot of junk and little stories in battle maps. That said, ChatGPT is really good at making D&D battle maps now and it’ll make playing D&D when I have the time more fun.