How to Design Maps for Sandbox Campaigns (Part I - World Map)
This is the first article on How to Design Maps for Sandbox Campaigns.
Designing a sandbox campaign presents unique challenges to DM’s, mostly due to the vast flexibility afforded to players who may venture wherever they decide. Today, we will delve deep into how to design and create sandbox campaign maps. So deep that there will be four articles on the subject.
Structure
I'll take you from the initial concept to preparing different sandbox campaign maps your players will encounter during a session in your sandbox campaign.
We will will follow these main steps:
Creating a World Map
I will add to each of the steps what's important in every one of them and what type of structure I use for creating them. I will explain the main design philosophies for each step and its process. Also, I will show the tools necessary for each of these steps and how to use these maps in your sandbox campaign.
Tools we will use designing each map
I'll be using a couple of tools for each of the steps:
World Maps - Inkarnate
Region Maps - Inkarnate + Greenshot
Hub Maps:
Watabou Town Generator (Basic)
Watabou + Inkarnate (Intermediate approach if you want some time to spare)
Watabou + Inkarnate + ChatGPT & CustomGPT(Advanced approach for additional quality of life additions, but not necessary)
Dungeon Maps:
DungeonDraft (Basic)
DungeonDraft + Inkarnate (Advanced)
DM Tool for Organizing and Running These Maps- LegendKeeper
How I use these tools will be found next to each step and will provide some approaches that could suit you personally.
So, my fellow cartographer, let's begin.
1. World Maps
In this article we will go through making a similar world map…
World Maps are essential for DMs to grasp the big picture and define the type of world in which your campaign is set.
Even though it's the first step, and it's not the most crucial map type, but its creation leads to the most important map type creation - Region Maps. The reason is that the players will not use World Maps the most often, but a good World Map is a founding block for everything else.
So, what are the most important things when creating the world map?
1.1 Story & Conflict
When creating a sandbox campaign world map, it's essential to remember the story you want to tell to your players and the conflicts that might arise in your world. At this stage, asking yourself what type of stories and conflicts will be in your world will inform you of what kind of themes you will tackle, which in turn will be used to shape your world. For this stage, we should have an abstract idea of the campaign you're going forward with. But there are a couple of essential things to keep in mind:
1.1.1 Don't separate conflicts
Conflicts emerge from the clashing cultures, kingdoms, factions, and their disparate motivations. At this stage, don't start separating these conflicts. For example, "There's four continents of Dwarfs, Elves, Humans and Dragonborn who live in isolation". Conflict arises from the friction of motivations, so don't design a world map that fundamentally diminishes the possible conflicts in your story.
1.1.2 Campaign adventures and world map design.
When thinking about the story and conflict, think about the adventures you want to have. For example, if pirates are your main idea, the map should include areas such as islands and jungle environments, which should influence the type of world map you make. Consider this when designing the world map since this variety should flow according to your campaign. For example, If you start in the middle of the map but the pirate adventure is somewhere else, the traversal to that point might be frustrating for you and your players.
1.2 Themes
When creating a World Map try to anchor your map design around a central theme that could inspire the layout of your world map.
For example, for a theme: "There's the Last kingdom that remains among Chaos. Chaos which surrounds it divides this society, slowly creeping into the kingdom itself. Feelings of Isolation, Paranoia curse these lands".
This example would instruct me to design a fractured world map, leading rivers into the last kingdom, a "hive city" climbing to heights since there's nowhere else to go, filled with high towers and multiple walls around it.
Central themes should provide you with plenty of inspiration to help you to understand what type of world map you should you create.
Creating the canvas for your sandbox campaign
1.3 Map shape and size
Your stories, adventures, themes, and the magnitude of conflicts within your world should shape the design of your world map. Knowing the previous points should help you with the world's borders, which will be helpful when separating the world into regions.
At the beginning you will not be able to figure out every idea you want to experience from the start, nor should you. Some areas will need to be redesigned in the future according to your new ideas or the developments in your story.
Having that in mind let’s come up with what kind of cultures, religions, kingdoms, and factions will be in your campaign which will inform you how to separate the world into zones.
1.4 Religions & Cultures
Religions and Cultures tells us the beliefs of each world map area you design. More importantly what type of stories and characters will be found there.
For example, one of the area believes in god-responsible warfare and artistic expression, which might influence the creation of an aggressive culture region renowned for its beautiful yet macabre architecture, its soldiers fighting, reminiscing of a deadly dance, or plundering art of other cultures, almost like art collectors of this world world.
1.4.1 Influence on Stories and Beliefs
Knowing Religion & Cultures is helpful because it is a good indicator of the culture's size, possible factions that could be found in these cultures, and what surrounding areas you could create to invoke more exciting conflict for your players to explore.
For example, to create a counter to the last culture example might be a culture that believes in peace and ascetic lifestyle, which militaristic art collectors types might not consider as "cultured" enough to be conquered by them. Or a perhaps a culture that share similar traits in different ways like a expert craftsmen clan who believe that it is better to be dead than be subjugated by others and would go to war with them if the need arises.
1.5 Kingdoms & Factions
At this stage, the cultures and religions you have should inform you where certain kingdoms or factions should be on the world map, providing an exciting conflict between one another. The trick is some ideas how these kingdoms interact with one another.
For example, some kingdoms will be more significant and more robust due to the weaker neighbors, or some will be smaller due to some idea conflicting heavily with lacks in something compared to other kingdoms.
Even though Factions might work better in region maps, if the faction carries significant importance in your campaign, factions like these might influence the look of your world map.
For example, a main evil faction of a Cabal of Evil Wizards that spreads a devastating magical plague could heavily impact the look of your world map.
1.6 The Wilderness
It's good to have some extreme environment zone in your map that will give you a small breathing room in your world map design. The problem with these areas is that they don't bring too much inherent conflict between other kingdoms and provide a more challenging exercise of worldbuilding to make them more believable.
For example, isolated monks living in unreachable ice lands would need additional worldbuilding about their lives and conflicts to be an engaging place for your players.
Now, having all of the initial ideas for (1.1) Story & Conflicts, (1.2) Themes, (1.3) Map Size, (1.4) Religions & Cultures, (1.5) Kingdoms & Factions, and (1.6) Wilderness let's start bringing all that together for creating a world map and separating the world zones.
1.8 Tools and Process
For World Maps, I'll use Inkarnate. There are a couple of other tools, such as Wonderdraft. However, Inkarnate is the better choice for this task since it has many styles and relatively efficient tools to make the map look natural and detailed.
1.8.1 Map Borders
The points mentioned from 1.1 to 1.3 will influence the world canvas. At this stage, I suggest not focusing on the details too much but on the shape and size of the map because we will add additional details in the later steps.
1.8.2 Separating the World Zones
Let's separate the World Zones using the points from 1.1 to 1.6. After completing this step, save and clone it since it will be useful later for you as a DM to navigate the story conflicts moving forward.
1.8.2.1 Notable Approach - Fog of War
If you struggle with concrete ideas, having a fog of war on some areas you are unclear about is a viable approach. If that's the case, focus on the known places, concealing the unknown parts with clouds, unfinished map parts, etc.
1.8.3 World Map - Region Names
When zoning the world map at this stage, add some details if they come to mind, icons of nature, some rivers, maybe a mountain, but keep it as barebones as possible.
1.8.4 Detailing the First Region for World Map
At this point, we have almost everything we need for the bigger picture, and from this point on, I will focus on detailing the first region for the world map more where my campaign will start. Not to be mistaken with the Region Map, this will only include the main locations and nature for this region, but not all of the details that will be found in the region map.
1.8.5 World Map - Biomes
After you detail the first region, I suggest creating the biome for your world afterward, showing what temperatures there are. Biomes avoids the future problem of having a snowy location next to volcano lands, which might require some work to make it believable with worldbuilding.
At this point, it depends on how much magical influence you will have on your map design. Perhaps there's a good reason for it, but again, this will require more believable worldbuilding and work, which is better left at later stages.
1.8.6 World Map - Placeholder Details.
After this point, it depends on how much detail you want to add to your map. Still, it's better to focus on one region and pile on more details because potential story flexibility becomes more rigid with more unambiguous details you add to the world map.
Now, if you don't want to give your players a half-baked map, add the main capital, maybe some town icons, in the rest of the map to spark your players' imagination.
1.8.7 World Map - Placeholder Nature Details
Following the last point, we detail the rivers, mountains, and other natural aspects to create story chokepoints(More information about it Region Map design, Part II). Not to the extent where everything is detailed, but instead, trying to make a nice-looking map to give to your players. This is because we will update the World map as our campaigns progress, and we will figure out more information when creating Region Maps.
1.8.8 Updating your World Map
At this point, you have a perfectly viable world map for a campaign to show and explore the details of it through your sandbox campaign. However, as we delve deeper into the following parts (How to Design Maps for a Sandbox Campaigns Part II), we will see how world maps influence your Region Maps.
After you complete the region map, its details and design might influence the current world map look, and you should update it as you progress through your campaign from time to time.
1.9 Finalization of World Map
Finalizing the World Map is an everlasting task if you want, but if you want to create a consistent map, it will be finalized when all of the regions of your world are completed. If your world is small, it might take some time, but it could be a life endeavor if you plan to run D&D for the next 50 years.
But what's important to note here is that World Maps are primarily helpful for you as a Dungeon Master. A well-designed World Map is crucial for creating consistent and coherent Region maps, ensuring a seamless flow throughout your Sandbox Campaign. The world map will be a canvas where your campaign can have space to grow and progress through. However, it will not be as valuable to your players as region maps, which will help entice them and help you design your story and encounters.
Let's see how we can create and design our Region Maps to influence your World Maps and Sandbox Campaign.
