World Map Generator

Generate sweeping overland world maps for campaign exploration. World maps use Voronoi tessellation to create natural-looking biome zones with rivers, landmarks, and road networks that your players can explore.

Quick Start

1. Navigate to Generate > World Map
2. Describe your world (optional) -- a free-text note the AI uses to shape names, regions, and flavor
3. Choose a World Archetype (High Magic Empire, Gritty Low Magic, Island Kingdoms, etc.) or write a custom concept
4. Pick a world size (Pocket World through Epic Scale)
5. Choose a layout archetype -- how landmasses are arranged
6. Decide on a campaign hook -- generate one, connect to an existing plot, or skip
7. Fine-tune details -- world name, region count, biomes, and landmarks
8. Click Generate World Map
9. Review the generated map, then Publish when you're happy or Regenerate for a fresh version

Generation Wizard

The wizard walks you through five stages. Each stage collapses when completed, showing a summary you can click to edit.

Stage 1: World Archetype

Pick a theme that defines the tone, magic level, and technology of your world. There are 17 archetypes available, with 5 featured up front:

Click Show all archetypes to see the full set, including Fallen Civilization, Magic Industrial, Political Intrigue, Spirit World, Age of Exploration, and more. Or choose Custom World and describe your concept in your own words.

The optional Describe your world text field (up to 500 characters) lets you give the AI additional direction -- for example, "A frozen continent locked in eternal winter, ruled by warring frost giants."

Stage 2: World Size

The region count options automatically scale with your chosen size.

Stage 3: Layout Archetype

Choose how landmasses are arranged:

Skip this step for a random layout.

Stage 4: Campaign Hook

Optionally tie the world to your campaign:

• Generate arc -- the AI creates a campaign hook woven into the world
• Connect plot -- link to an existing campaign or plot
• Just the world -- skip the hook, just generate geography

Stage 5: Details

Fine-tune the specifics before generating:

• World name -- leave blank for the AI to name it
• Campaign -- assign to a campaign for organization
• Region count -- Sparse, Standard, or Dense (scales with world size)
• Biomes -- toggle which terrain types appear (Forest, Mountain, Ocean, Desert, Tundra, Swamp, Plains, Volcanic). Pre-populated based on your archetype.
• Landmarks -- toggle which points of interest to include (Capital city, Ancient ruins, Sacred mountains, Underground realm, Coastal ports, Contested borderlands, Magical anomalies)

A token estimate shows the approximate generation cost before you click Generate.

What Gets Generated

Each world map includes:

• Biome zones -- distinct terrain areas (forests, mountains, deserts, tundra) with Voronoi-based natural boundaries
• Zone names -- AI-generated names that fit the archetype and theme
• Rivers and waterways -- flowing between terrain types
• Landmarks -- cities, towns, ruins, and points of interest
• Roads -- connecting settlements via minimum spanning tree routing
• Landmass masks -- for coastal and island settings, defining coastlines
• Scale bar and compass rose -- cartographic decorations
• Legend -- showing biome/terrain entries and ocean areas

Map Styles

Switch between visual styles using the Layers panel (top-right corner):

Toggle parchment texture independently with the scroll icon in the header toolbar (shortcut: P). When switching to Print mode, pins are automatically hidden for clean handouts and restored when you switch back.

Layer Controls

The Layers panel (top-right) provides fine-grained control over what's visible on your map. All toggles are grouped into two sections.

Map Overlays

GM Overlays

Your layer preferences are saved to your profile and persist across sessions. Player-Safe View always resets when you close the tab.

Interacting with Your World Map

Right-Click Context Menu

Right-click anywhere on the map to open the context menu with these options:

• Stage Encounter -- place a combat, social, or exploration encounter at that location
• Add Map -- create a child map linked to that spot
• Add Custom Pin -- place an annotation pin with a custom label and type

If you right-click on an existing pin that links to a child map, you'll also see Navigate to drill into it.

Staging Encounters

The encounter staging picker presents three categories:

After picking a category, a name auto-populates based on the category and nearby location. Edit it to fit your campaign, then click Stage Encounter to place the pin, or Save as placeholder to mark the spot for later.

Adding Child Maps

Right-click and choose Add Map to create a child map. From a world map, the available types are:

For each type, name the map and choose a creation method: Generate with AI, Upload Image, or Drop Pin (mark the location now and generate later).

Drill Down to Region Maps

When you choose Region as the child map type with Generate with AI, a slide-out panel shows all the context inherited from the parent world zone:

• Biome and climate from the parent zone
• Neighbor biomes for border blending
• Roads that intersect the zone
• Region name from the parent zone
• Inherited landmarks from the world map (with checkboxes to include or exclude each one)
• Estimated dimensions based on the zone's area

Review and adjust this context, select which landmark types you want, then generate. The resulting region map feels like a natural part of the world.

Zone Panel

Click any zone label on the map to open the Zone Panel -- a slide-out with two tabs:

Overview tab:

• Description -- add or edit a description for the zone
• GM Notes -- private notes never shown to players

All edits are saved automatically. Zones you've edited are marked as GM-authored.

Generate tab:

• Shows the zone's biome, neighbor context, and estimated dimensions
• Lets you generate a region map directly from this zone -- same workflow as "Add Map > Region"

Region Coverage

When you've generated region maps from world zones, toggle Region Coverage in the Layers panel to see highlighted outlines showing where each region sits on the world map. You can also hover over a region's pin to see just that region's coverage outline.

Zone Editing

Double-click a zone label to rename it inline. Press F2 when a zone is selected to start renaming.

Player-Safe View

Toggle in the Layers panel (shortcut: V). When active:

• Hidden zones, landmarks, and roads are filtered out
• Secret paths are automatically hidden
• Safe to share your screen with players

New Geography vs. Regenerate

The header toolbar offers two ways to get a fresh map:

New Geography (Free)

Click New Geography (shuffle icon) to re-tessellate the Voronoi zones with new boundaries, rivers, and terrain features -- all without spending credits. Zone names get procedural replacements. After shuffling, an AI Polish Names banner appears offering to have the AI refine the procedural names into thematic ones that fit your archetype (costs a small credit).

Each shuffle is saved to an undo stack (up to 10 steps). Click Undo to revert to the previous layout.

Regenerate World (Credit)

Click Regenerate World to create an entirely new world from scratch using AI. This costs 1 generation credit and saves the current version as a snapshot you can restore later.

Version History

Click the Version History button (clock icon in the toolbar) to open the version panel. This shows all saved snapshots with timestamps. Click Restore on any version to revert to it.

Publishing

Maps start as Drafts. Click Publish to lock in the current version. After publishing:

• Older draft snapshots are trimmed to the 3 most recent
• You can still regenerate -- it creates a new draft
• Published maps show a green "Published" badge

SRD Compliance

World maps use generic archetypes (High Magic Empire, Gritty Low Magic, Island Kingdoms) -- never trademarked WotC settings like Forgotten Realms or Eberron. The guardrails block trademarked setting names and unicode variants.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Tips for Best Results

• Use the theme note to give the AI a strong creative direction -- "A shattered continent of floating islands above a toxic sea" produces much more distinctive results than leaving it blank
• Start with a layout archetype that matches your campaign -- Archipelago for naval campaigns, Pangaea for overland quests
• Use New Geography (free) to explore different zone layouts before spending credits on Regenerate
• Click zones to add descriptions and GM notes -- this context carries through to region maps generated from those zones
• Toggle Region Coverage to see how your drill-down region maps relate to the world at a glance

Related Documentation

• Region Map Generator -- drill-down maps for individual regions
• Map & Dungeon Generator -- battle maps and multi-room dungeons