D&D 5E Strategic-Level Fog of War Map Tools

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on running some campaigns that require the PCs to explore various areas to gain a sense of control of the situation.

Spoiler: Full Details If You're Interested

This is what I'm calling the "18th century Monster Hunters" game. I'd like to take 1750's New England and drop a Conjunction of the Spheres on the whole New World. So the PCs start off as capable frontierspeople in the New England town of Sleepy Hollow, then suddenly, everything's cut off from the outside world as monsters start rampaging. I'd be using the rules from Nations & Cannons (a 5E ruleset dealing with 18th century adventuring). So I'd like to start them off in Sleepy Hollow, and then have them start exploring out to nearby towns to see what the situation is there, and what can be done.

What I need to know is: are there map tools I can share with my players that I can reveal the fog of war at a strategic / operational level? So I can start off just showing a town, and everything else black, and as they choose to explore around the town, start showing stuff the PCs have found or visited?

Thanks!

 

[Quickleaf]

Yes there are several. Everything from VTTs to cloud-based campaign managers to graphics editing software to DIY scratch-off ink.

Are you playing virtually or physically?

 

[Sparky McDibben]

Yes there are several. Everything from VTTs to cloud-based campaign managers to graphics editing software to DIY scratch-off ink.

Are you playing virtually or physically?

Virtually, my good sir!

 

[Quickleaf]

Virtually, my good sir!

Ok, assuming you’re playing remotely and not gathered around a digital table/projector… Owlbear Rodeo is going to be the lightweight, free, web-based, easy to use option IMO. If you have more sophisticated needs you can advance to VTTs. I’ll let others who know more chime in on VTTs of preference. The other option is something like World Anvil (online database campaign manager with map function) which I believe - someone correct me if wrong - has fog of war functionality?

 

[Sparky McDibben]

Ah, that's the rub. See, Owlbear Rodeo is great and I love it for tactical gaming. But I'm talking about having a regional map out there that I can link my players to, and every week when they explore around, I can reveal more of the regional map.

 

[Quickleaf]

Ah, that's the rub. See, Owlbear Rodeo is great and I love it for tactical gaming. But I'm talking about having a regional map out there that I can link my players to, and every week when they explore around, I can reveal more of the regional map.

Yep, you can do that in Owlbear just fine - as long as you have your Regional Map from whatever software you've created it in (or whatever published map you have a .jpg, .jpeg, or .png of), you can upload it into Owlbear and use the fog just as you would with a dungeon, and share the link with players just as you would. Owlbear itself doesn't discriminate between an image upload of a overland map or a dungeon map – they're all just images.

Edit: Pretty sure Owlbear 2.0 remembers Fog of War changes on the map now.

But as I said, there are a plethora of options. I'll let others chime in.

 

[Oofta]

Sounds like you already have some sort of image file you just want to hide sections of? Paint.net let's you create layers, just make a "fog" layer over top of the map image that you erase. When you export your image file option of choice (i.e. jpeg) it flattens into 1 layer that can't be undone.

 

[Sparky McDibben]

These are great ideas!