If dungeons and towns are where the little, game-changing moments occur in D&D campaigns, then the overworld creates the story around them.
Overworld maps in D&D (and other TTRPGs) serve a different purpose than towns or battlemats, but they’re no less important to the overall game. They’re all about the big picture and create the unique elements that make up the world the players inhabit. Mountain ranges separate kingdoms, and wide-open fields create battlegrounds.
We’ve often received messages from DMs struggling with overworld maps. It’s usually because many approach D&D overworld map building the same way they'd approach a dungeon or town, but overworld maps need different thinking. Let's talk about what makes them work.
Before You Build: Start With Story, Not Geography
When you open the Dungeon Scrawl mapmaking tool, it’s easy to jump right in and start creating rivers, mountains, you name it. (It’s also easy to build them!) But do you know the story behind the world? In a great D&D map, your story should inform your design, not the other way round.
For example, if you’re running a pirate campaign, you’ll need islands, harbours, and coastal settlements. If it's about the last bastion of civilisation surrounded by chaos, then you might want a more fractured landscape.
The most common go-to is to separate conflicts geographically. We've seen world maps where each species lives on its own isolated continent, which makes sense in the moment, but can quickly kill interesting cultural friction. Think about the real world; conflict comes from proximity and competing interests. Put your factions near each other where they can clash, trade, and form uneasy alliances.
Let Geography Tell Stories
Once you’ve built your story out (even just a bit), you can create terrain features that support it:
Mountains are Barriers
Mountains are natural barriers. They separate cultures and create distinct regions. Plus, they force travel and trade to move through specific passes (great for combat!) Don’t scatter mountains randomly. Think about what they're dividing and what stories emerge from that division.
Rivers are Lifelines
If you have a river, you’ll find people. And more often than not, you’ll find multiple people groups competing for those resources. If you have a major river running through your map, it immediately creates economic and political significance that plays well into the story.
Forests, Deserts, and Wilderness Create Challenge (and Opportunity)
Think of your forests and deserts as places where your party will find adventure and danger. A huge forest could be home to Wood Elves who aren’t happy about visitors. Or the desert may look empty, but it holds ancient ruins ripe for dungeon delving.
Coastlines Create Trade (and Invasions)
Coastlines are unique, and like rivers, often create places for cities and villages to spring up. They often play host to the wealthy due to commerce, but are also vulnerable to attack and invasions. Each terrain type creates natural storytelling opportunities. The key is knowing what your story is and how those different areas can play into the experience. But, as always, don’t be afraid to create a region just for the sake of it!
Regions vs Borders
Another common frustration that comes with large overworld mapmaking is how to set up borders. Our tip? Don’t let yourself obsess over precise political borders. For instance, in pre-modern settings, borders were usually vague and constantly shifting based on who was in power.
Instead, think of creating boundaries through regions… areas with distinct characteristics. You can define your regions by their traits and who lives there. For instance, you could create the Iron Mountains where dwarven clans mine. Or add in the Whistling Plains, where nomadic tribes roam.
Keep variety in your regions. If every area looks identical on your map, your world may start to feel a bit bland. The same goes for how you position your people. Consider cultural and environmental factors together. You can create some great intrigue and conflict with your regions, but you’ll also want to make sure that where people and resources are makes sense!
Work at the Right Scale
You’ll find, as you play various campaigns, that overworld maps often exist at multiple scales.
World Maps
World maps will show continents and major geographical features. They're great for the DM to understand the big picture, but usually are too zoomed out for use in specific gameplay actions.
Region Maps
A bit smaller in scope, region maps show the area your campaign takes place in, often no more than a few weeks' travel across. These are far more useful for play and show specific landmarks beyond large features.
Pro tip: Don't try to make one map do both jobs. Your world map can be evocative and inspiring without including every village. Your region map should be detailed and practical without trying to show the entire world.
A Note On Travel
While we’re looking at scope, here’s a tip on travel. On your overworld map, you’ll find that how players get to different destinations can be just as important as the places themselves. Make sure you draw your major roads with intentionality and that they follow the terrain logically.
Creating notes on distance and time-to-travel can help. But rather than putting down exact distances in miles or kilometers, think in terms of “days of travel.” A single day's journey between towns feels more manageable.
And if there’s danger along the route, make sure to note that on your map as well, perhaps as a note from intrepid explorers who have come before. They could “leave notes” of alternate routes or specific dangers to be aware of that you can use in your gameplay.
Here Be Dragons…
One more tip for D&D overworld map building: you don’t have to detail everything.
Think back to old maps from the real world. In places where explorers and cartographers had not yet surveyed, they’d place “Here Be Dragons” as a way of saying “We don’t know what’s here yet.” This same concept can apply to your D&D overworld map.
Rather than trying to fill in every single detail, leave some blank spaces for potential adventures. Is there a mysterious island out there nobody’s ever set foot on? Maybe an uncharted valley that’s rumored to hold ancient ruins? You won’t know until you go! As you leave these areas open, you’re giving yourself and your players the opportunity for new and exciting discoveries.
Ready to Build Your World?
Your first overworld map doesn't need to be perfect. In fact, it shouldn't be! You can start small, and as your story evolves, you can expand and add new regions, terrain, and features as needed.
You’ll find that your players are great aides in building out the world. As they explore and play in your world, let them have some creative license to guide the ideas. You can then go back to your Dungeon Scrawl map and add new content as the story progresses.
Ready to build your new overworld? Head to Dungeon Scrawl and start building for free right now! Once you’ve built your world, share it with our community on Discord, and let’s inspire one another!