Map the land around the dungeon and town.

Gygax suggests “sitting down with a large piece of hex ruled paper and drawing a large scale map. A map with a scale of 1 hex = 1 mile ... will be about right for player operations such as exploring, camping, adventuring, and eventually building their strongholds. Even such small things as a witch's hut and side entrances to the dungeon can be shown on the map. The central features of the map must be the major town and the dungeon entrance.” – EGG

Tasks

• [ ] Get a sheet of hex paper. Draw the following items on it. Name anything worthy of a name. If you don't feel comfortable drawing, lots of hex-mapping programs are available! I’m fond of Hex Kit by Negative Cone of Energy.
• [ ] One large settlement (define large however you like)
• [ ] Two other settlements (camps, larger or smaller towns, a keep, the home base of a fantasy race, etc.)
• [ ] One major terrain feature (covering at least three hexes)
• [ ] One mysterious site for exploration
• [ ] One dungeon entrance – at least!
• [ ] Key your map. The easiest way to do this is probably to number the hex rows and letter the columns. This will give you coordinates to reference. Note down the names of places and terrain types using these coordinates or write them directly on the map.

Regarding Scale

If your hex paper contained 23x14 hexes, a scale of 1 mile to 1 hex would represent an area equal to 322 mi2 – about half the size of greater London. A 1:6 scale would represent 12,432 mi2, roughly a third the size of Ireland. You may be tempted to ‘go big’ but the goal is to define one area in which characters can adventure. You don’t need to map the whole world. Scales any larger than 6 miles per hex should be dismissed out of hand. There will be time to draw a larger scale map in week 5. A lot can be done with just a few hexes!

Extra Credit

• [ ] Pimp your map. Stain it with coffee, burn the edges a little, or add some color. This will make your map feel like a real document and/or give it some presence at the table.

• [ ] Create a random encounters table. Make a 2d6 table (11 slots numbered 2-12). Put the least dangerous/most common encounters in the middle of the table and the rarest ones at the top and bottom of the list. Consider making a few of the encounters interesting NPCs. I also suggest including adventure hooks, like “2d4 goblins looting the corpse of a dead noble” instead of just writing “2d4 goblins.”

  

Example