Bastions offer a unique opportunity for D&D players to build their own home base for research, crafting, lucrative business opportunities and more! While Roll20 offers a beautiful sheet for tracking your Bastion’s development, Dungeon Scrawl let’s you visualize your base, expand it with continuous changes, and prepare for when the action follows your adventurers home!
Dungeon Scrawl is a free, browser-based map-making tool designed to help you quickly create simple, grid-based dungeon maps. It stands out for its simple layer-based map builder, customizable grids for perfect room alignment, and export options for high-quality downloads or exports to Roll20. You can find it on the Roll20 website under the tools menu, or directly at DungeonScrawl.com.
We are currently hosting a Dungeon Scrawl Bastion Building Contest where you can win a Roll20 Prize Package — read this and then head over there to show off your own creativity.
To get you started, here are three key tips for using Dungeon Scrawl to build your Bastion.
How to Draw Maps
To start drawing your map, select your preferred shape from the tool bar and outline style from the left menu. Then click and drag your shape to the desired size. You can even select whether you want the outline to be smooth or rough. When drawing your Bastion, the grid in Dungeon Scrawl even helps you size your facilities appropriately.
How to Use Layers
Because Bastions develop with players as they progress, separating elements into layers can help you organize/hide elements without losing your work and plan for possible expansions. You can use layers to build your Bastion out while accounting for future plans as you unlock new options at future levels. Just hide the layers that aren’t active yet by clicking the show/hide button in the layer section. Dungeon Scrawl also allows you to save your progress and reimport the file to your browser. This is a very useful tool because it allows you to open the file and make changes as you spend gold to expand existing facilities and add new Special Facilities along the way.
How to Export into Roll20
Once you’re ready to use your map into Roll20, all you have to do is go to export in Dungeon Scrawl, select the area of the map you want to focus on, and click the button. Then open a new scene in your campaign on Roll20, select to the Map layer and drop in your Bastion map. When prompted, select “adjust size” to import your file perfectly aligned to the grid. Next drag and drop your party onto the map and prepare them to roll for initiative!
Just like that – BAM, your Bastion is ready for action, downtime, or any SIMs style hireling basement battle royales you desire. Whatever your dream Thieves Guild, Barbarian DreamHouse, or Eldritch Estate looks like, Dungeon Scrawl and Roll20 are the perfect tools to help you realize it.