I've just had to replace my PC. The good news is that it's going to be a lot easier to do this blog, no more messing around with phone, tablet and borrowed laptop. The bad news is I've lost my copy of Dundjinni.
Regular readers will know I'm a fan of Dundinni, a software suite for designing battlemaps for role playing games. I've printed out floor plans for adventures such as the classic Night's Dark Terror way back in the 90s. More recently and in an attempt to get more use out of the printing, I've made floor tiles using printed off Dundinni maps such as these sewer tiles I did fairly recently. Of course, there's been no need for physical battlemaps or tiles this last year, but I have drawn maps for our online game using Dundjinni too. But now I need a replacement.
A bit of research suggested two modern equivalents, Inkarnate and Dungeonfog. Both use a 'freemium' model, but Inkarnate seems to have more assets in the free version and the premium version is cheaper. Both programs are still having new content developed and both seem to have an active community.
I tried Inkarnate first, and the free version convinced me that it was worth at least a year's subscription ($25 at the time of writing). I created a battle map for the online group just using the free version, and I'm now working on a map of the island the game is set on.
What do I think of it? Well, things have changed in the 20+ years since I bought Dundjinni, or tried to work out how to use Campaign Cartographer. It's much more instinctive, and I'm enjoying trying the various tools to see what I can make. I'll add my island map once its finished and I will certainly try making more tiles using Inkarnate images as a base as well.
One thing it doesn't seem to have is much in the way of instructions. Back when I was buying discs (and before that, floppy discs) there was usually a thick handbook, now it's all online. I found the following video very helpful when trying Inkarnate out.
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