Great Ways to Make Use of a Variety of Existing Maps

[Deleted]

Vis a geographical map...

If you LIKE inventing and drawing up maps, then do that. If something is fun for you, DO IT!

If not, however, there are a TON of maps available. In fact you can find maps of other planets in our solar system modified with oceans.
www.visualnews.com/2015/02/09/moon-mars-oceans-look-like/ among others.

Also, though Dave Arneson's 'First Fantasy Campaign' is very expensive, Tony Bath's "Setting Up a Wargames Campaign" includes another equally viable approach to the "high level" stuff of how to set up kingdoms, royal families, et cetera. It's included in this volume:

www.amazon.com/BathS-Ancient-Wargaming-Society-Ancients/dp/0557111803

And stuff like that is really handy! If the dice indicate that Florin suddenly declares war on Guilder, well, you've just stirred up the pot of your world! Will your players hurry to rescue refugees from the war torn area? Will they smuggle arms and armor to one group or the other? Will they join a mercenary company? Will they run like holy Hell for someplace else?

[Mighty Darci]

These are really cool and it is giving me some ideas. Thank you!

[bravewolf]

When I first learned how to play D&D via Mentzer's Red Box at nine years old, we didn't have graph paper around the house. What we had in abundance were atlases, National Geographic maps, & road atlases. If the PCs were headed to a city, I'd grab an urban map; country, a rural map. I'd white out & rewrite names as needed. Hmmm