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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 5825750" data-attributes="member: 3192">I take it you've used dungeon maps before for underground exploration. So my suggestion is you do the same for overland exploration and other terrain explorations as well.Square grids work well for DMs underground. They help in tracking movement speeds and ground covered. Most don't do this anymore, but Move: # squares used to represent the number of squares PCs could travel underground in a Turn (while mapping, important!).Hex grids work well for DMs above ground. They help in tracking the same kind of movement as underground only the time intervals are typically quite larger, everything from hours to 8 hour days, to forced march days can be broken down for ease. Fatigue factors in far more with long term travel, but describing surroundings isn't more difficult. Describing environment is just like a dungeon. When the terrain changes from grasslands to woodlands, or from natural cave to polished worked stone, relay the info to the players and have the new environment's appropriate statistics near to hand.  Travel lines underground are almost always corridors, while overland travel lines are almost always surface trails. The first makes trailblazing very hard, basically tunneling through a solid to go somewhere else. The other makes trailblazing relatively easy, though other factors still can create difficulty like vegetation, unevenness, slope, etc. However, almost all travel by characters will still be along paths due to ease. Trailblazing is hard, but it has it's pay offs. Taking the road may be a greater distance, but it's usually faster and safer overall.Encounters overland are like dungeons too. There are "rooms" or lairs where a certain percentage of the time the creatures will be living. There is also "creature territory" where Wandering Monster tables can help in figuring out who characters may Encounter when traveling through them. Just think of the latter here like a dungeon level. WMs are by regional/sublevel or level. Lairs are fortifications in these levels. Then use natural terrain barriers or unnatural constructions to divide each level and map them as is easiest for you. Treasure is usually kept on encountered creatures or in lairs, and then often with more secure and/or covert positioning (aka traps and hidden caches/pockets). Treasure value matters most here for difficulty, but encumbrance factors in as well. Hiding gems in a trapped chest or secret compartment is one thing, hiding a water barrel is quite another. Treants hide seeds in their boughs too, but not the pond they've gathered around. That is, of course, unless the water barrel or the pond take on greater value somehow.Tactics are going to be different overland, but not so much so. Enclosed spaces are easily sealed off, which can be good or bad depending upon what side one is on (aka sealed in). Surfaced spaces can use walls effectively too for fortification, but they work best in a ring if not a complete enclosure. Resources like air, water, and food are needed by most inhabitants, flora and fauna. Relatively immobilized fortifications are usually set up near these resources for ease and security (aka towns and cities).Relationship maps are another kind of exploration altogether, but these are often the most interesting explorations for many players. They give people, places, and things a sense of existence due to history. Neighbors know of each other, they have a past and current attitude and, almost always, trade with each other. Who's saying or doing what about whom may seem like idle gossip/rumor, but when this stuff may potentially relate to the spatial maps rather than the mind maps, it can quickly become more important to know.Insert adventure modules as desired and level appropriate. This is just like dungeons again, but with access to the more difficult (lower? higher?) levels requiring more difficult obstacles to overcome in order to reach them. For example, if the PCs can convince the bishop to divulge his shameful secret now, it would save the PCs from sneaking into the Enchanter's invisible tower and learning it later. Both overall challenges are about the same difficulty (the treasure being the same), but take different paths, so to speak, and expend different resources to get there.</blockquote>

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