Your Overworld Is a Dungeon

02 Sep, 2025

What if we stole all the advice about building dungeons, and applied it to building our "overworld?"

From Final Fantasy X

Points and Terrain

1. Build a dungeon.

   A. Concept: As described

   B. Research: As described

   C. Stocking: Replace "Extra" with settlement and "Monster & Treasure" with dungeon.

   D. Then come back here to finish out. The checklist is also useful towards the end of the process.

2. When you have twenty points, plot them onto a 6-mile Hexmap.

3. Add rivers, roads, and trails connecting most of the points.

4. Draw 3-4 barriers: cliffs, coasts, briars, massive artificial walls, etc.

5. Fill in terrain as is fitting.

6. Create a non-hex player-facing map, with "public information" visible. Generally this includes settlements, major routes and rivers, and at least 1 dungeon.

The Encounter Table

1. Create six encounters by pulling information from your points of interest.

2. Label them 1-6.

On an encounter, roll a d12, on 7+, roll on your favorite monster manual for the local environment.

Weather

Create a table of 6 weathers, and roll for the current weather when you start a campaign.

1. Stormy, Cracking Thunder, Pouring Rain
2. Cloudy, Windy, Fleeting Drizzle
3. Overcast
4. Sunny & Breezy
5. Sunny & Calm
6. Unseasonably warm.

The Event Dice

Rolled each day and night.

1. Encounter
2. Sign
3. —
4. Weather shifts down
5. Reroll weather
6. Weather shifts up

If weather goes off the table, bounce it one step back in instead, i.e. 0 becomes 2, 7 becomes 5.

#Referee