The arena map generator draws a fighting arena on five-foot squares. An oval sand floor, somewhere between 65 and 75 feet across, sits inside a low barrier wall. Around it the stone stands rise in four to six tiers, cut by stair aisles and filled with a crowd. At either end of the long axis a gate tunnel runs through the stands, closed at the sand by a portcullis. The patron's box, under a striped awning, juts out over the floor on one side. Opposite it is the beast gate, a barred pen at the edge of the sand. On the floor are two or three hazards and pieces of cover, and sometimes a victor's statue in the middle. Every landmark is numbered and keyed.
How the arena is drawn
The floor and the stands are concentric ovals, sized from each other so the proportions always look like a real amphitheatre. The gates, the box and the beast gate sit on the four points of the oval, the way they do in every arena from Rome to the Forgotten Realms, so the fighters come in from the ends and the patron watches from the side.
The hazards are picked from a list and placed on the sand with two rules. They never overlap, and they never block the lane between the two gates or the space in front of the beast gate. That way the opening charge always has room to happen, and the hazards come into play once the fight spreads out. The sand is raked in rings and stained where earlier fights went badly.
What's on the sand
Each hazard changes how the fight plays. The spike pit is a hole full of stakes, so shoving someone into it ends the fight early. The chained post has a creature (or a fighter) chained to it, with a dashed ring showing how far the chain reaches. The fire trench is a line of burning oil that splits the floor in two. The broken columns are the only real cover on the sand. The trapdoor leads into the tunnels under the floor, and the weapon rack is where the unarmed get armed. The victor's statue in the middle is cover too, and somewhere to climb.
Using it at the table
Arenas turn up in gladiator campaigns, prison breaks, tournaments, trials by combat and any city with a bloodthirsty ruler. The patron's box gives you somewhere for the villain to sit, the crowd gives you a reason for the fighters to show off, and the beast gate gives you a second wave whenever the fight is going too well. It works with D&D 5e, Pathfinder and any other fantasy game on a grid.
Free SVG and PNG downloads
Both formats are free for your games, streams and published adventures. The PNG is a 1920-pixel render ready for Roll20, Foundry or Owlbear Rodeo, and the Print button gives you a black-and-white sheet for the table. The SVG is the vector original: open it in Inkscape, Affinity or Figma to add hazards, change the awning or fill every seat. Everything on the map is drawn by our own code, so there's no attribution to carry and no asset licence to read.
What it won't do
It draws the arena at fight level. It doesn't draw the cells and tunnels underneath, the city around it, or the fighters. For the tunnels, roll a dungeon map and connect it to the trapdoor and the gates; for the city, a city map.
Name the champion, then send them in
The fighter name generator and the barbarian name generator name the arena's champions, and the minotaur name generator names whatever comes out of the beast gate.