Is dungeon alchemist for me?

[Skulleater]

Hey all! I've been researching a good way to display maps for d&d sessions and dungeon alchemist along with foundry support sounds pretty good!

However, I don't know ANYTHING about foundry. My plan is just to create maps and to put creatures and players on those maps to visualize a scenario.

There don't have to be any interactions, as long as I can move the creatures and players. I saw that dungeon alchemist only has a few free npcs and creatures but nothing special. What would be my best option if I want to make maps with dungeon alchemist and then use them for my d&d sessions?

[kalnaren]

So you're talking about two fundamentally different application uses. One is a map maker, the other is a virtual table top (VTT).

On the VTT side, you've got a LOT of options depending on your use case. At a basic level, most will display a 2D map, grid, and allow you to add tokens to that map (players, NPCs, monsters, etc.). Simple ones like Owelbear Rodeo are easy to use and have basic functionality. In ones like that you get no automation, you'll need external character sheets, etc.

On the other side you've got VTTs like Foundry Virtual Tabletop (FVTT). Foundry is highly developed with a ton of features, and even more available through addon modules. It includes heavy automation (automatically calculates whether or not something hits, automatically applies bonuses, allows you to roll from the character sheet, etc). and also has 2D map and token support. It also allows you to set up things like walls, line of sight, fog of war, and lighting on the 2D maps.

It's in the virtual tabletop you'll be adding creatures and NPCs and players and the like. NOT in the map maker. Almost all virtual table tops will let you import a picture of a map to use.

The map maker is you other application. This is a program independent of the VTT. You use it to make your static elements on the map that aren't going to change (walls, roads, ground, scene dressing, etc.). You then export this as a graphic image and load it into the virtual table top.

Dungeon Alchemist allows you to export walls and lighting data with the map (as a separate file) to load into Foundry if you want, which means you don't have to manually do that in Foundry. Dungeon Alchemist also allows you to export animated maps (trees swinging in the wind, fire, etc.), but that's a little more involved.

Now, to answer your question:

Dungeon Alchemist will allow you to throw together an acceptably detailed map fairly quickly, but is likely going to involve some degree of manual work to make the map good and make sense. Out of all the map makers I've used, it's also the easiest and fastest to get from the "new map" to "export map" stage. All map makers have a learning curve but Dungeon Alchemist's is actually pretty low, especially for a 3D map maker.

Having said that, Dungeon Alchemist isn't the only map maker on the market. Dungeondraft also has Foundry export ability and is also quite easy to use, but it's 2D only. I personally use Campaign Cartographer a lot, but it's a CAD program with a very steep learning curve. It is however extremely powerful.

In conclusion I think Foundry VTT + Dungeon Alchemist is a good combination, especially if you want detailed maps and don't want to spend a weekend making them. Both are solid programs that do different things. If you don't want the functionality both have to offer you've got other options for both virtual tabletops as well as map makers.

So remember:

A map maker is used to make a static, 2-dimensional graphic image of your map..

The virtual table top loads the static image, and you use it to add tokens, monsters, NPCs, and the like.

ALL map makers and virtual table tops have a learning curve. Full stop. Some are larger than others, but they all require you to spend some time to learn how to use them.

[Kyde]

If you want to get into this with as little $$$ as possible, *I think* Owlbear Rodeo is still free and I used DA maps with it with no trouble.

[kalnaren]

Maptools is also free.