Category: The Best Free DnD Battlemaps with System Agnostic Adventures

Download the best free DnD battlemaps with system agnostic one shot adventures! My realistic, grimdark fantasy battlemaps are high resolution and each one shot was written just for its map, should plug-in to any fantasy setting, and includes an easy-to-use hook to get your players started on the quest.

My best free DnD battlemaps with system agnostic adventures are ready to upload into VTTs like Roll20 (and are less than 5MB so should work on a free account), Foundry, or Fantasy Grounds and come as an ungridded 72ppi .JPEG file you can right click to download. The reason our VTT maps are ungridded is because the VTT software drops a grid over them when you play 🙂

If you’d love a printable version of any of my best free DnD battlemaps with adventures, my premium maps include files formatted for easy home printing in A4 .PDFs, as well as A1 or A0 poster files you can have professionally printed at stores like Staples or Office Depot. You can grab these in my great value battlemap bundles, as well as buy individual maps on DriveThruRPG. My premium maps also come formatted as 300ppi .JPEGs without watermarks for VTT use, and if they have a system-agnostic adventure written for them it’s included in an adventure .PDF document.

Free TTRPG Battlemap – Trackless Fens Treetop Bridges

Click image to download a free TTRPG battlemap of these Trackless Fens Treetop Bridges, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

While travelling along the boardwalk in a swamp, you hear hoarse cries from a woman and some men, begging for help. Catching sight of them you see four people tied against a large tree with rope as thick as your fist. Their lower halves are submerged in the water, their clothes torn and caked in mud. Smaller ropes tying their wrists dappled in blood.

When they see you they beg you to help them. They woke up here after passing through a village and eating dinner at the tavern, their possessions gone. They have no idea where they are or why, but urge you to hurry as they’ve been awake for hours.

By the time you make it off the bridge and down to where they are a snake as thick as a man and longer than the group combined emerges from the swampy undergrowth. Its tongue flickers out of its mouth as if it can already taste its next meal.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Once every year a nearby village drugs passers through, before tying them up unconscious as a sacrifice to the gigantic snake. They’ve been doing this ever since they realised how, if the snake overeats, it sleeps for the rest of the year.

Originally the villager’s own small population was the animal’s prey. Their children would disappear from the village, or travellers through the swamp would never return. Since they started their annual sacrifices, though terrible, far less people die.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of these Trackless Fens Treetop Bridges, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

May 30, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Infernal Arena

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of an Infernal Arena, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

A wizard will pay you a small fortune to travel into the plane of fire. There you will acquire a magically enhanced flaming dagger from a djinn Lord. The wizard says he wants you to do whatever is necessary to get it, before opening a portal for you. You will, of course, be paid AFTER you have acquired the goods and returned to the material plane—adventurers are notorious for taking gold and, ahem, leaving.

When you step through the portal, you arrive at the entrance to a giant obsidian castle and salamander guards surround you. They escort you to the djinn Lord, who says that to receive the dagger you must first defeat his champions in the arena.

If you defeat them, the greatly pleased djinn applauds loudly from his throne above the arena as the wizard steps out of the shadows behind him. The djinn thanks him for his contributions, saying the gladiators have performed as promised. He hands the dagger to the wizard, who grins before teleporting back to the material plane.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? The wizard has sold your party as gladiators in exchange for the dagger, without telling you.

If you try to kill the djinn, he will summon a fire elemental to fight for him. If you defeat that, he will cast invisibility and attempt to flee (he was previously trapped for many years and will vehemently resist it happening again).If you negotiate with the djinn he will be reluctant to release his best champions yet—unless of course you recover an item of even greater value from the wizard. Something he’s had his eyes on for a while now… If you agree to recover it for him, the djinn will open a portal for you, after branding you magically so he knows where you are until you fulfil your deal.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of an Infernal Arena, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

May 22, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Frozen Maw Pass Ambush

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of the Frozen Maw Pass Ambush, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

Hired as guards for a merchant caravan, you travel through an icy pass in the mountains only to find your way is blocked by the remnants of an earlier caravan. The two horses lie dead in the snow and are being torn apart by two different monsters.

You hear yelling from a nearby tree on one of the rocky bluffs, and see a man clinging to the high branches. Another, different monster is prowling around its base, trying in vain to get to him. He shouts at you not to kill the monsters, explaining that they’re his family and they were only polymorphed into the creatures by a tainted potion. They don’t remember who they are, but the effects will wear off in a couple of hours.

Until then, he begs you to restrain them, not kill them.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? The man, his wife and children were transporting their alchemical wares to sell at seasonal markets. But the carts went over a large log that had been buried by snow, which jostled the volatile crates and caused an explosion.

Some tainted polymorph potions splashed onto the others, but the man was already crouching looking for a snack in his rucksack when the blast went off which is how he avoided the substance.

If you try to get past the monsters or move the wreckage off the road, they’ll attack. If the monsters are killed, they turn back into a woman and two young boys—twins, about ten years old. The man will weep over their bodies, then try to stab you with a dagger while yelling at you and crying.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of the Frozen Maw Pass Ambush, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

May 15, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Raider’s Ruined Temple of the Lost Ark

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Raider’s Ruined Temple of the Lost Ark, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

You are hired by a recruiter in a tavern to unlock an ancient chest at the recently-discovered ruins of a temple. It is sealed with magic, as well as physical locks, so their excavation team needs someone’s who’s good with the arcane arts, as well lockpicking, to open it. If you succeed, you’ll receive handsome payment.

They guide you through the mountains to the rest of the excavation team in the temple. Only, once you arrive, you are greeted by three dirty men seated at the entrance—who the guide doesn’t recognise.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? After the guide left to recruit the help the excavation needed, bandits took over the site. The group of historians hadn’t expected to be attacked in such a remote location, and only had two guards with them.

The bandits have locked the historians up in two tiny cells, which are very uncomfortable for a team of about 10 people. In the meantime, the outlaws have been going through the excavation’s food stores while trying to unlock the chest.

The excavators told the bandits that they hired some people to open the chest, and upon seeing your party they will guess you’re the team. The bandits tell you that they have a new deal for you, and that if you help them open the chest they’ll give you a share of whatever’s inside.

Will you help the bandits, leaving the excavators as prisoners, or will you risk your life to save them?

The chest itself is made of brass, with gold bindings, and has melted into the stone beneath it. It radiates warmth and is hot to the touch. There is spiteful fire djinn trapped within, and if released, he will emerge with a flaming sword and thank you for freeing him. However, he will not return to his realm empty-handed after such a long time; when he returns, his castle will need sprucing up, and to do that, he needs slaves.

As you were kind enough to release him, he will spare you. But, depending on which group has survived, he will demand either the bandits or the excavation team be handed over to him as slaves… If you refuse to give either of them, he’ll attack.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of Raiders Ruined Temple of the Lost Ark, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

May 8, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Underdark Fungal Village

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of an Underdark Fungal Village, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

While traveling through the Underdark, you are kidnapped by dark dwarves. You wake up in a small, stone cell. Everyone is stripped of their possessions, but left with their underclothes—all except one party member, who is completely naked.

An old green dwarf is locked in there with you. He mumbles to himself constantly and pokes you with a stick if you come too close. If you try to talk to him he’ll babble gibberish (something about seagulls), but will get aggressive if you try to take his stick.

The dark dwarves take each of you away one by one, walking you up thin stone corridors and wooden walkways overlooking a bottomless chasm filled with glowing mushrooms. When you arrive at a large alchemist’s station, they throw a handful of powder in your face, before returning you to your cell.

Everyone’s powder had different colors, and within a couple of hours their effects begin to show:

– One party member is relaxed and happy; carefree.

– Another is unable to stop laughing. Everything is hilarious, no matter how mundane.

– Someone else sees eyes watching him at the corner of his vision, but whenever he turns to see, they’re gone.

– One adventurer is absolutely fine, except he keeps talking to someone called Pawl (who clearly isn’t there).

– Yet another has had their mind opened to the fourth dimension, and now knows with utter certainty that his free will is an illusion. An interdimensional being is controlling their every move…

– Lastly, someone’s accent has been inexplicably changed to a foreign one.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? The Duergar live in this Underdark settlement, harvesting the glowing mushrooms and processing them into a powdered drug that they then traffic. They have tested new drugs on you, by mixing novel combinations of substances in with the powdered mushrooms.

If you don’t do something, they might keep you there forever; testing new substances on you until your mind breaks, like the old green dwarf’s—and perhaps, even then, they’ll continue to run tests with the more… deadly substances.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of an Underdark Fungal Village, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

April 30, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Mindflayer’s Lair

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Mindflayer’s Lair, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

While walking the city streets you’re approached by a portly man wearing a black coat and leather gloves. He seems a little nervous as he approaches you, but quickly explains that his master has sought you out from far away and wishes to have dinner with you at the best tavern in the city; The Ocean’s Bounty. He wishes to discuss an incredibly lucrative business arrangement that requires someone of your particular skills…

Before leaving, he tosses you a small coin purse that jingles with the sound of gold and gems, claiming you’ll receive an even larger purse should you join them at dinner.

When you arrive at the tavern the portly man is waiting for you at the door. He invites you in, but the tavern’s completely empty—apart from a shadowy figure close to the fireplace, sitting in a large wooden chair engraved with the likeness of an octopus.

They motion you over, and as you approach you see he is a man of pale complexion, with a jewelled necklace and large, gem-encrusted rings on his hands.

Once sitting, he begins discussing philosophical topics such as free will, eventually getting around to his need of experienced sell-swords for a thesis he is in the midst of creating. He is researching mindflayers, creatures of malicious intent, domination and selfishness.

He thinks these creatures are not inherently so, but that the elderbrain takes away their free will by passively warping the minds of those that sleep within its domain; causing them to crave dominion over others at all costs. But to prove his theory, he needs you to infiltrate a colony and dispose of the brain so that he may study the results via one-way scrying devices. In return, he will pay great riches, including rare magical artifacts.

WHAT’S GOING ON? The man who has hired you is not what he seems, if you search for information about him around the city you will find he is a wealthy benefactor to many noble charities, and owns many properties around the city including the tavern called The Ocean’s Bounty. What you will not discover is that he is a mindflayer in disguise. He wears a powerful magical amulet that changes his appearance so that he may walk among humans, as well as a plethora of other magical rings and items.

The strange thing about this mindflayer however, is that he is not like the others. He acts with kindness and concern over what is moral, and he wants to know why. Why do his brethren all act in unison with their desire for dominion, but not him? Is he just an aberration? A freak within his own species, or is there more to it? What is free will, truly?

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of a Ruined City of Chained Horror, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

April 22, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Darrowmeer Burial Grounds

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Darrowmeer Burial, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

An unnatural fog has descended on the township of Darrowmeer after their burial grounds were desecrated by grave robbers and while the robbers were dealt with the mist remained. You’ve been tasked with entering the burial grounds with a priest to reconsecrate the mausoleum, however the priest is concerned that this action could cause the dead to briefly rise from their graves in anguish and attempt to stop the ritual.

When you enter the mausoleum, you’re greeted by five ghostly figures hovering over broken tombs, they introduce themselves as Lady Jane, a cleric and worshiper of the light, The Red Duke, a fighter and renown knight, Silvia Greenbarrow, a druid of the sacred grove, Elmeth Zigoth, a famous wizard and Jarnock, ranger of the great reachs.

Each offers to assist you in your goal of reconsecrating the mausoleum but will not work with the others, during this time of talk they jest with each other and boast about their personal prowess and achievements during their life.

Each ghost will offer you a unique boon while the consecration in progress which are listed below:

Lady Jane will assist in the consecration which will cause holy damage to any undead that enter the mausoleum every turn, and change your weapons damage type to holy.

The Red Duke will empower you, increasing your critical range and damage for each enemy struck down.

Silvia Greenbarrow will grow large blossoming rose bushes covering up to 10 squares with sharp thorns that cannot be passed through, any who try take slashing damage.

Elmeth Zigoth will grant you a random arcane symbol based off the result of a D4 each turn that grants different effects:

1. Double your movement speed and gain flying.

2. Triple your movement speed and jump height.

3. Double your movement speed, you may move through walls and enemies as if you were a ghost.

4. You may teleport up to double your movement speed, teleporting does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Jarnock will summon animal spirits to assist you in your battle, healing your wounds and increasing your resilience to damage as well as environmental effects.

When the consecration begins just as the priest feared, the undead begin to rise, dozens, perhaps even hundreds clamber from their moist graves and shamble towards the mausoleum. You’ll need to hold them off and protect the priest for five rounds.

After this time the consecration is complete and a large pillar of light will project high into the sky from the peak of the mausoleum breaking away the mists and allow the sun to shine once more, at this very moment all remaining undead fall to the ground defeated.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of a Darrowmeer Burial Grounds, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

April 14, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Alkali’s Ruined Temple Refuge

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of Alkali’s Ruined Temple, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

You have been paid by some mercenaries to assist them in ousting a group of western soldiers from an ancient temple emplacement on behalf of the King of the Eastern Kingdoms. Only, when you arrive, you don’t see the armed military outpost you were expecting. Instead, you find the ruins of a temple, filled with improvised tents and dirty men, women and children.

If you talk to them, you learn that they’re not rebels, and that this place is known as Alkali’s refuge. Alkali is a cleric who started healing those of either side of the war; both western and eastern soldiers, as well as peasants. They claim it’s a neutral zone, and that their only mission is peace.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Before this war started the Western King and the Eastern King had arranged their children to marry. But upon meeting the Western King’s son, the Eastern King decided that he was too weak and overly-sentimental to marry his daughter and called the marriage off.

Slighted, the Western King declared war. But now the Eastern King is winning, and peasants in both kingdoms are suffering. The Western Prince, abhorred by the violence and grief the war was bringing, founded this refuge; using his gifts as a cleric to heal soldiers and peasants on either side of the conflict.

The Eastern Princess, unlike her father, fell in love with the Western Prince upon meeting him, and secretly fled to the refuge to join him. Unfortunately, because of this, the Eastern King now believes that the Western King’s forces have kidnapped his daughter.

If you don’t kill the inhabitants of the refuge, the Prince and Princess will go to their parents and beg to be married, for they truly love each other. The Kings, doting on their children, will agree that the war is now needless and taking a toll on their people. As such, they will allow the marriage to go through with their blessing, returning peace to their kingdoms.

Should you choose to kill everyone in the refuge and succeed, however, Alkali will miraculously survive through making a pact on his deathbed with an evil god. He may return later as a necromancer, with his fallen love risen as a banshee.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of Alkali’s Ruined Temple Refuge, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

April 7, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Temple of the Frozen Heart

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of a Temple of the Frozen Heart, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

Decades ago the god of light vanished abruptly. Without his blessing, clerics could no longer heal wounds or ailments. Lifespans shortened and pain increased. The mortals, desperate, began turning to plants and minerals to compensate for what had been lost—but it wasn’t the same and the world descended into darkness.

An old crone tells you about a prophecy regarding a group of heroes who will return the broken heart of the god of light, banishing the shadows in the mortal realm. She tells of its location within a great vault, high up in the mountains, only accessible by a frigid river.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? The god, upon seeing a mortal woman he loved dying of old age, gifted her immortality and eternal youth so that they could live together, always. But, after hundreds of years, she claimed she couldn’t take watching those she loved die anymore. He never listened to her pleas, so eventually—desperate—she took her life when he was away, leaving him only a letter and a white rose.

Heartbroken upon discovering her, he removed his heart and chained it away in what was once his temple. It has since frozen over with ice and become uninhabitable, as it is filled with an aura that makes those within it feel intense sorrow and despair. You can find the letter, the frozen rose (perfectly preserved), and her body, all sealed in the sarcophagus his heart rests upon.

After removing his heart, the god went into isolation far, far away from where he sealed it. He doesn’t feel anymore, and has become cold and uncaring to the problems of the mortal world. He no longer gifts his clerics the ability to heal, believing that all mortals die anyway, regardless of what he does—so why heal them at all? Their existences are fast, brutal, and gone within a blink. And besides, when those lives are extended beyond their natural course, mortal minds are so fragile that they break…

You have to bring his heart back to him to restore the balance, but first you must claim it. As it has been so long since it was abandoned, terrible creatures have inhabited this place, things which feed off negative emotions. Once inside you need to make checks to continue despite the crippling feelings, while fighting off the shadowy monsters that have devoured all those who failed to retrieve the heart.

If you succeed, you need to figure out how to heal the broken heart before returning it to him. But how will you heal the heart of a god? And can you survive the despair it brings?

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of a Temple of the Frozen Heart, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

March 30, 2021
Free TTRPG Battlemap – Tagami Village

Click image to download this free TTRPG battlemap of Tagami Village, then keep scrolling for the detailed adventure prompt written for it.

After a weary day of travel, you arrive in the small farming village of Tagami. Children frolic around the town battling each other with short bamboo swords, while elders converse with older peasants hauling rice grain via wheelbarrows. Kindly folk, they invite you in for the night and feed you soup with rice, vegetables and fish. Soon after, you head to bed for some much-needed sleep.

Sometime after midnight a loud noise outside wakes you up. Investigating, you find three well-armed men standing over an elder who has been pushed to the ground. The armed men are demanding rice and dried goods, but the old man apologizes and tells them that the villagers have already given all they can spare last time they came. That, if they were to give any more, they would surely starve.

The largest of the armed men gives the elder an ultimatum. Either the village collects the necessary food for them in the next week, or his group will make them regret it.

If you engage the men they’ll lie to your face; claiming the army has requisitioned the food. But in actuality these men are deserters turned bandits—and only a small amount of the greater gang. If you fight, the men will attempt to flee and return to the others, or die in combat. If this happens, all the bandits will return in three days. But, if you allow the bandits to leave without conflict, they will only return in seven days, as earlier promised.

Once the bandits have either left peacefully, fled, or been killed, the elder will beg you to teach his people to fight like you do or—at the very least—help protect the village when the bandits return.

If you choose to help teach the villagers to fight, you may teach them any skills you know at base level, as well as grant one villager per three days one level in whatever class you are.

When the bandits return, depending on your efforts to reinforce the town and what you’ve taught the villagers will determine your success in driving away the deserters.

If you’d enjoy more maps like this free TTRPG battlemap of Tagami Village, Luke and I are currently offering 520+ battlemaps for $39. It’s your chance to have a great deal on some of our most popular battlemaps! With over 520 total maps, we guarantee that is something here for every GM—no matter what genre or setting you prefer, from grimy dungeons to beautiful overgrown ruins.

Paying just $39 rather than full price saves you over 96%! Take a look at all the extra maps you can download with one click here.

March 23, 2021