BattlemapDB

Terms of Service

Last updated: 11 September 2026

_Amended 11 September 2026: added private maps (section 4d), with related wording in sections 4, 5, 8 and 10._

1. What BattlemapDB is

BattlemapDB is a free library of battle maps for tabletop roleplaying games. Creators upload maps and choose a licence that tells everyone else what they may do with them. Anyone may browse and download.

We charge nothing, we run no advertising, and we make no money from your content. There is no paid tier, no commission on downloads, and no advertising network anywhere on this site. We do not sell your uploads, your account information, or your browsing behaviour.

2. Who may use this site

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account or upload anything. By creating an account you affirm that you are 13 or older.

We do not verify age. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we will delete that account and its content.

You may browse and download without an account. You need an account to upload.

3. Your account

  • You are responsible for what happens under your account, including keeping your password private.
  • You must verify your email address before you can upload anything.
  • One person, one account. Creating additional accounts to evade a ban, a rate limit, or an upload quota is a violation of these terms.
  • We may suspend or permanently close an account that violates these terms. Section 7 describes the one case where that happens automatically and permanently.

4. What you upload — the upload agreement

Every time you upload a map to share in the library, you are making the following statements, and you are responsible for their accuracy:

  1. You own the rights to the map, or you have explicit permission from the person who does to license it in the way you have selected.
  2. The map does not infringe anyone else's copyright, trademark, or other rights.
  3. You have the authority to grant the licence you selected, and you are granting it.
  4. The map is not unlawful content, and specifically is not child sexual abuse material.
  5. If you tagged the map as Handcrafted, no generative AI tool contributed to the artwork. If a generative AI tool contributed in any way, you must tag it as AI-assisted.

Do not share work that isn't yours. Sharing someone else's map in the library — including a map you bought, a map from a subscription you pay for, or a map you found online — is the single most damaging thing that can happen to a library like this one, and it is the one thing we do not forgive. See section 7. If you want a map like that to hand for your own games, keep it private instead — see section 4d.

4a. Licences are irrevocable

This is the most important thing on this page, so it is stated plainly:

A Creative Commons licence cannot be taken back. Once you publish a map under a licence, every person who downloads it under that licence keeps those rights permanently. If you later change the licence, delete the map, or close your account, that does not undo the rights already granted to people who downloaded it before.

Changing a map's licence affects only people who download it after the change.

Choose your licence deliberately. If you are not sure you want to release a map under an open licence, do not upload it.

4b. AI-generated content

Under current US Copyright Office guidance, images generated by AI generally cannot be copyrighted. Maps tagged AI-assisted therefore carry no licence at all — there is no copyright to license. They are displayed as "AI-generated, no copyright claimed."

Tagging AI work as Handcrafted is a violation of these terms and may be reported.

4c. Maps you did not make from scratch

If your map is based on, traced from, or built out of someone else's work, you need that person's permission, and their licence must allow it.

You may not upload a modified version of a map licensed CC BY-ND or CC BY-NC-ND. Those licences forbid distributing edited versions, and no licence you select can override that — the permission is the original creator's to give, not ours and not yours.

4d. Private maps

If you have an account, you can keep a map private instead of sharing it. This is for your own use — for example, a map you bought or subscribe to and are not permitted to share, stored here so it is easy to reach at the table.

  • Only you can see it. When you are signed in, your private maps appear to you alongside the library, marked Private. Nobody else will ever see one listed, in search, on your creator page, or through the API, and nobody but you can open or download it.
  • It carries no licence. Keeping a map private grants nobody anything, so items 1 to 3 of section 4, which are about licensing, do not apply to it. Item 4 does.
  • You must have the right to keep your own copy. Only store a map you obtained lawfully, and only in a way the terms you obtained it under allow.
  • A private map stays private, permanently. It can never be made public, shared in the library, or offered for anyone else to download. Do not give other people access to your account to reach it.
  • It is still scanned. Private maps go through the same automatic safety scan as every other upload, and confirmed child sexual abuse material is handled exactly the same way. See section 8.
  • We may still remove it in response to a valid legal notice (see the Copyright / DMCA page), or if it breaks these terms.
  • Deleting your account deletes your private maps, whichever choice you make for your shared maps. See section 10.

Private maps are a convenience, not a backup service (see section 11). Keep your original copy.

5. What we do with what you upload

We store your map, generate a thumbnail and a preview of it, display it in the library, and let people download it under the licence you chose. We generate a plain-text credit line for it.

A private map is stored, previewed and scanned the same way, but shown only to you, with no licence and no credit line.

Every upload is scanned automatically before it is published. If the scan cannot complete, your map stays unpublished until it can — see section 8. We do not publish anything that has not passed that scan.

We strip embedded metadata (including EXIF, which can contain GPS coordinates and camera details) from images before storing them.

6. What you may do with what you download

Whatever the licence on that particular map says. Every map's page states its licence in plain language, links to the full legal text, and gives you a ready-made credit line.

If a map is licensed NonCommercial, do not use it commercially. If it is NoDerivatives, do not publish edited versions. If it requires attribution, credit the creator — the credit line on the map's page is there so this takes one click.

If you are unsure what a licence permits, read the full legal text linked from the badge. We provide plain-language summaries as a convenience; the legal text governs.

7. Copyright infringement — one strike, permanent

This site has a zero-tolerance policy for copyright infringement. One upheld report results in a permanent ban. There is no strike count and no second chance.

A report is "upheld" only after all of the following:

  1. An administrator reviews the report;
  2. You are notified and given 5 business days to respond or dispute it (weekends and US federal holidays do not count against that window);
  3. That window closes without a successful dispute, and the content is removed.

At that moment, the account and the IP addresses associated with it are permanently banned. This is a first-offence permanent ban, deliberately.

Full details, including how to file a report and how to file a counter-notice, are on the Copyright / DMCA page.

8. Content safety

We scan every upload — shared or private — against known-content databases before it is made available. This is automatic and not optional.

If the scan service is unavailable or inconclusive, your upload stays unpublished until a scan completes successfully. We would rather make you wait than publish something unscanned.

Confirmed child sexual abuse material results in immediate removal, a permanent ban, and a report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as required by law. Uploading such material is a criminal act and will be reported as one.

9. Reporting content

Any user may report a map for copyright infringement, an incorrect AI/Handcrafted tag, sexual or adult content, harassment, or spam. Reports go to an administrator.

Do not abuse the report system. Filing reports in bulk to harass a creator is itself a violation of these terms, and the report flow is rate-limited.

10. Closing your account

You may delete your account at any time. We will ask you to confirm by email.

When you delete your account, we remove your email address and authentication record. For your uploads, you choose between:

  • Remove them — your listings are unpublished and removed from the library; or
  • Keep them, anonymously — your listings stay in the library, reattributed to a generic "deleted user" handle.

Private maps are always deleted, whichever you choose. There is no library listing to keep.

Either way, the licences you already granted remain in force for everyone who downloaded before the deletion. That cannot be undone by anyone, including us. See section 4a.

We retain the minimum records needed for legal compliance — see the Privacy Policy.

11. Availability and disclaimer

This site is provided free of charge and as is, with no warranty of any kind. We do not guarantee that it will be available, that your uploads will be preserved indefinitely, or that any particular map will remain accessible.

Keep your own copies of your work. We take backups, but this is a free service run by one person and it is not a backup service.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss arising from your use of this site, including loss of data or loss arising from another user's conduct.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If we make a material change, we will note it on the site. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

13. Contact

For copyright and DMCA matters, use the contact information on the Copyright / DMCA page — that address is monitored for those notices specifically.

For everything else, use the contact form on the site.