Software Alternatives & Reviews

Inkarnate VS Owlbear Rodeo

Compare Inkarnate VS Owlbear Rodeo and see what are their differences

Inkarnate logo Inkarnate

A free-form map editor for role-playing games, focusing on overland and continental maps.

Owlbear Rodeo logo Owlbear Rodeo

Owlbear Rodeo is an attempt to make a web app to run tabletop encounters without the complicated setup process needed for other VTTs.
  • Inkarnate Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-12
  • Owlbear Rodeo Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-29

Inkarnate videos

Inkarnate Review (2020)

More videos:

  • Review - Wonderdraft - Inkarnate Killer? (map-making app review)
  • Review - Inkarnate - Let's Make a Fantasy Map! (free version)

Owlbear Rodeo videos

Owlbear Rodeo for the Lazy D&D Dungeon Master

More videos:

  • Review - Owlbear Rodeo VTT
  • Review - Using Owlbear Rodeo: Tokens

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Inkarnate and Owlbear Rodeo)
Game Engine
68 68%
32% 32
Maps
83 83%
17% 17
Gaming
45 45%
55% 55
Mapping And GIS
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Inkarnate and Owlbear Rodeo

Inkarnate Reviews

The Best Map Makers For 2022
There is a free version of Inkarnate but the paid version unlocks a massive library of graphics and is not very expensive— just $25 per year.
10 Best Sites Like Roll20 Alternatives For Tabletop Gaming
Inkarnate also supports fantasy races. A whole of maps is also provided for the ease of the user.

Owlbear Rodeo Reviews

We have no reviews of Owlbear Rodeo yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Inkarnate might be a bit more popular than Owlbear Rodeo. We know about 307 links to it since March 2021 and only 209 links to Owlbear Rodeo. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Inkarnate mentions (307)

  • CC0-licensed fantasy map brushes based on historical cartography
    Adding to the other answers, there are also -besides Photoshop, Gimp, etc- specialized tools to draw fantasy maps. The site mentions Wonderdraft [0], but there are a bunch of others though not all of them support using external brushes. Some other tools in this space may be Watabou's tools [1], Azgaar's tools [2], Inkarnate [3], Mapforge [4], or quite a few more which you can find links to in this list [5]. Again:... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • [PF2E][FoundryVTT][Saturday][CST-12:30PM][PAID] -|- Experienced GM seeking both new and experienced players! Explore a personalized fantasy world that is slowly changing as the Planes Converge! -|- [3-week trial period at (5$) per session. After that it's just (10$)!][2/5 slots open]
    Two, it incentivizes me to be best I can be, as I can as well as enabling me to more easily afford things like Dungeondraft or Inkarnate to create custom maps or battles for you guys! Also I kinda need more food money lol. Source: 10 months ago
  • Mapping Software
    Inkarnate for pretty, colourful maps. Has free and paid tiers. Source: 10 months ago
  • Temperate rainforest
    Erm. What do you mean? Like a map maker kinda deal that lets you place all the plants + details? Inkarnate allows users to make detailed maps of that extent. Source: 10 months ago
  • Blank Map/Grid Asset
    As a side note - I have been using https://inkarnate.com/ and it has a lot of cool features for making maps. The Portrait or Landscape options with a 10x13 or 13x10 grid is pretty similar to the hero kids grids and prints well on regular letter sized paper. There's also a huge gallery of maps created by others you can browse through for ideas. There's a pretty limited free version to play around with but if you're... Source: 10 months ago
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Owlbear Rodeo mentions (209)

  • I want to print battle maps of the internet
    Use something like owlbear.rodeo. It's free, fairly easy to use, and works on most all devices (laptops, tablets, and mobile). Run the DM version on your laptop, and have one of the players cast the map to a TV. Other players can use their own devices to move their tokens. Source: 5 months ago
  • [Online][EST][5e][Any skill level][LGBTQI+ friendly] One-shot for 3+ players: Investigate Mossrock Tunnel.
    Hello there! I'm a DM looking to host a one-shot for a group of people on Thursday, around 8 est (Can be earlier or later, depends on the availability). It'll be hosted over Discord, and we'll be using owlbear.rodeo to play. Source: 9 months ago
  • Interactive RPG tools?
    The way it breaks down specifically for me goes something like this: - fillable PDF form? Google sheets or VTT character sheets - collaborative notebook? Google docs or VTT note applet - world map? No idea for a moveable world map, but I use WonderDraft for regional/global cartography, and I quite like it. I upload the maps I make to the VTT of my choice. - whiteboard for battlemaps? Most VTTs have a built in... Source: 10 months ago
  • Tips for Online Play?
    Roll20 isn't terribly performance intensive, what seems to be the problem when you've tried? Maybe try not using dynamic lighting if you're using maps that support it. There are a few similar options like owlbear.rodeo that are newer and might use more efficient webcode but I don't think you're going to be able to do much better then unless the DM wants to share a webcamera with the zoom session and just move... Source: 11 months ago
  • (online)(5e)(Thursdays 6pm est)Need One More Player, Session 0 this Thursday
    Hello, I will be running session 0 for a upcoming short campaign this Thursday, and then we will meet every week after that at the same time for about 3 hours per session for about 5-7 weeks. We will be using discord for voice, and owlbear.rodeo for maps. Source: 11 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Inkarnate and Owlbear Rodeo, you can also consider the following products

Dungeon Scrawl - A dungeon scrawling tool by ProbableTrain

Foundry Virtual Tabletop - A self-hosted, modern, and developer-friendly roleplaying platform.

donjon.bin.sh - Freely accessible online collection of random generators for tabletop games.

Roll20 - Roll20 is a suite of easy-to-use digital tools that expand pen-and-paper gameplay.

Campaign Cartographer - Campaign Cartographer is the leading map making software for games (RPGs, miniatures and wargaming).

D&D Beyond - Official online toolset for Dungeons & Dragons tabletop gaming