Easy Regional Maps

Here's an easy way to make regional maps. You'll need 9 pieces of blank paper. If you can get them 3-hole punched, it's better. The first thing to do is label the maps. The first sheet is the center map - label it CENTER somewhere on the page. After that, everything is labeled by compass points. Label one NORTH. Another SOUTH. Then one EAST and one WEST. Then label the other pages by the other compass points. NORTHWEST, NORTHEAST, SOUTHWEST, SOUTHEAST. Lay them all out on a table with the center in the middle and all of the others around the middle sheet by their respective compass points. North at the top, South at the bottom, you know the drill...

Your scale could be just about any: "1 inch = 1 mile" up to "1 inch = 10 miles". I wouldn't go any smaller than that because then you lose the details and everything is just a pinpoint. On an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet, 1 inch to a mile gives you 8.5 miles by 11 miles per sheet, 1 inch to 5 miles is 42.5 miles by 55 miles, and 1 inch to 10 miles is 85 miles by 110 miles. It just has to be big enough for you to visualize and understand and small enough to fit your region into the mapping area.

Your starting point is the center sheet. This is where the adventurers begin. Draw on it how you like but you'll probably want to make a Map Key or Map Legend if you use symbolic imagery on the map. Or you can just write the name of the location in large or small lettering. For example, you can write the words MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAINS or THE DARK FOREST or LAND OF EVIL across three different sheets this way. Or just Halflingshire, Spider's Lair, Ancient Crypt or Dragon's Peak or whatever in one small corner of one sheet. And just keep adding locations until you've got what you want. You can put a dot where a small location is. The maps don't have to be pretty - the players should never see this map. This is for the DMs use only. You can even use colored pens or pencils to show green for a forest or grasslands or blue for water, etc...

Then when you have it all drawn or written out or even left parts blank to fill in later, you can put these in a binder and have your adventure ideas in the binder with each map sheet where they belong. Then, if you have an NPC merchant that moves around a lot, you can move his or her information to a different map sheet and the players/characters can catch up with the merchant at a later time. It's also helpful for moving monsters around if there's an invasion or exodus or some such.

Flesh out each section of the map with campaign information and you can be ready if your players move off of one map sheet and onto the next.

You can even photocopy these sheets and put background information on the photocopies such as: "the Elves built here before the Goblin War" or "this is how far the flood came" or "the Battle of Five Leaders was fought here".