Using the Battle for Wesnoth Map Editor for Fantasy Hex Maps

Some of you may be aware of a lovely game called The Battle for Wesnoth. That game has a map editor, and it turns out you can use it to make hex maps for roleplaying games. I don’t really know how it compares to other mapmaking software, but it has the advantage of being both completely free and fairly simple to use.

Here’s how it works!

Making Hex Maps with The Battle for Wesnoth

Before you do anything else, you’ll need The Battle for Wesnoth, which isn’t a problem because it’s free. The latest version can be found here.

Once you have it installed, follow these steps.

1. Open the map editor

First, open up the game and click on Map Editor.

2. Set a hotkey for taking map screenshots

Next, you’ll need to set a hotkey for taking full map screenshots since that’s the only way (I think) to get a PNG or JPG of your map. There’s no map screenshot hotkey set by default, so you’ll have to set it up manually.

While you enjoy the title screen music, click on File > Preferences. Click on Hotkeys (marked with a little graphic of a dude in red holding a giant key), and scroll down to Map Screenshot.

Select “Map Screenshot,” click on “Add Hotkey,” and type whatever key you intend to use.

I used “Ctrl + Shift +m” since I was bent on using the letter M without messing up other hotkey bindings.

3. Generate a new map

To get going creating your own map, go to File > New Map (or hit Ctrl + m). You’ll be prompted to set a width and height (in hexes) for it. The map I made for this post is 20 wide by 10 tall, but you can use whatever size best fits your application.

4. Show hexes

To show hexes on your map, click on Map > Toggle Grid (or hit Ctrl + g). The grid will now be visible.

5. Start painting

The paintbrush tool (in the bar on the right) sets down terrain. Just select the tile you want from the bottom right (you can scroll through it or filter it by terrain types) and paint away! What’s really fun is how the terrain will often morph based on how much of it you have in one spot, such as how individual mountains become full-blown ranges or massive peaks when you bunch them together.

Tip: You’ll notice that you can also select an option for multiple hexes if you want to paint large swathes of the same terrain. Those options are just above the tiles.

Some snowy mountains in the middle of a verdant field. Circled are the paintbrush tool and terrain tiles.

6. Take a screenshot

You can save your map, but it will save it as a .map file in the game’s folder. To get a PNG or JPG, hit the screenshot hotkey you bound in Step 2 (make sure your cursor is off the map when you do so!). It will prompt you to give it a name, but it won’t ask you where to save it.

7. Retrieve your map

In Windows, screenshots of your map will be saved in your Documents folder:

Documents > My Games > Wesnoth 1.14 > Screenshots

Nab it from there and stick it wherever is most convenient for you.

Tips and Tricks

There are a few extra tricks you can use to improve your map.

Labels

You’ll notice in the same area as your paintbrush is a little flag. Officially, this tool is used to set starting positions for different players, but you can use it to add labels if you wish. Just click on it, hit Add at the bottom, and type in whatever label you want (as long as it’s only one word).

Then click wherever you want that label on the map, and it’ll mark that tile with it.

Circled are our makeshift “label tool” and the button that lets you type something completely unrelated to player positions.

Alternatively, you can use GIMP’s text tool (which is what I did above) if you have the skills for that.

Embellishments

One of the terrain filters is Embellishments. Most of these items can be put on top of other terrain without clearing it away, making it good for adding a little more variety to your map.

Keeps vs. Castles vs. Villages

The Battle for Wesnoth has keeps, castles, and villages. Each will fill up an entire tile, which makes them a little funny looking on a zoomed-out map. That said, you can probably find some cool uses for them if you’re working on a more local scale.

Villages are little huts, houses, and the like. Pretty self-explanatory. Castle tiles are walled off hexes, and keeps are basically elevated castle tiles. If you play the game a little, you’ll learn the difference between them pretty quick.

Combine with GIMP or Photoshop

The map editor is a powerful tool for creating lovely looking hex maps, but you might want to add some embellishments that this software simply doesn’t offer. For that, you can easily load it into GIMP or Photoshop and throw some map dressing onto it.

Tutorials for GIMP and Photoshop are well beyond the scope of this post, of course, but if you already know how to use them, they offer an easy way to create the perfect map without your having to paint everything by hand.

Have fun!

That about covers the basics. The best way to learn any software tool is to play around with it, so go ahead and have some fun!

Questions? Comments? Random gamemastering advice? Let me know in the comments? Also, feel free to share this around wherever. All proceeds go toward devising a fitting punishment for whoever forgot to put the “w” in “Fenwood.” Really.