How to create a sandbox suitable for a campaign, in 3-4 hours, step by step

 1. Roll 3d6 on this chart for Climate, Elevation and Humidity of the region

Latitude/10	Climate	Elevation	Humidity
0	Tropical	Sealevel	Inundated
1-2	Subtropical	Low	Humid
3-4	Temperate	1k ft/ 300 m	Dry
5	Boreal	2.5k ft. / 1000 m	Semi-arid
6	Subpolar	5k ft. / 2000 m	Arid
7-9	Polar	Treeline	Super-Arid

        ex: I roll a 3 (Temperate), a 2 (Low), and a 4 (Dry)

2. Cross reference this chart to find biome, this is the default biome of the map

        ex: Temperate and Dry gives me Woodland

3. Draw a Hex Flower of 7 hexes in the middle of the paper

4. Draw the borders with a thicker line

4. Write a H in the center hex: this is the Safe Haven

5. Roll the Terrain of this region

d10	Terrain	Effect
0	Rocky
1	Cliff/Canyon
2	Wetter	Shifts Humidity one row down and adds a (d8) 1-2 Nothing, 3-4 Pond, 4-5 Fed by a Spring, 6-8 with a Stream
3	Thicker Plants	Thicker Vegetation also shifts Humidity one row down, but water source is ground water/rain
4	Flat
5	Lower Ground	Go one row down on the Terrain and Elevation tables. If the Elevation drops to Sea-level, 2in6 chance that a large body of water is found (sea or lake).
6	Sandy
7	Mountain Chain
8	Higher Ground	Go one row up on the Terrain and Elevation tables
9	Rolling Hills

        ex: I roll a 10, which gives me Rocky Terrain 

6. Draw the Terrain and Biome on the map, or color it accordingly

    If you don't know how to draw it, google "[biome/terrain] from above" and try to copy the textures that you see

7. The rest of the regions will have 2 different kind of terrain per region

    

    Roll 1d10 for Terrain and 1d6 for how many hexes it covers, 2 times, and draw them on the paper, thickening the borders

        ex: First terrain, I roll 2 (1d10) and 5 (1d6). A Wet Forest covers 5 hexes

              Second terrain, 4 (1d10) and 4 (1d6). Flat Terrain, biome stays our default, which is

              woodland

    

              Reroll if a new kind of terrain doesn't pop up

8. Thicken the borders of the 2d6 region

9. Randomly place a Lair and a Waypoint

    

    Waypoints are structures that allow people to teleport from one to the other once they're found

    and repaired

    They can also store objects in dimensional pockets that are available in any other Waypoint

    Lairs offer shelter to whatever monster controls the territory

    

        ex: The region is 9 hexes big, so I roll a d9 (d10, rerolling 9s) for the Lair and then a d8 for

              the Waypoint. I roll a 7 and a 1 and I place them on the map

10. Mark them on the map with a L and a W

11. Repeat steps 7-10 going clockwise around the central hex flower until it's surrounded. Remember to have a new kind of Terrain pop up in every region.

12. Make the map even

13. Draw coordinates

14. Place Features

      There are 6 Features

      Roll 1d6 and then the coordinates and place a Feature in that hex, signaled by a roman

      numeral

      Reroll if there's already a Feature, a Waypoint or a Lair in that hex

      If it ends in a region that was not fleshed out yet, roll the Terrain for that region    

      If you roll a Feature that is already on the map, roll a d6 again

      If it's a new Feature, place it on the map and draw a Path between the new feature and the

      one already on the map

      

      If it's an old Feature, draw a path between those 2 Features

15. Drop a d4 on the map

      It will point to 3 directions

      If there are any Paths in those directions, starting rom the Haven, draw some Paths from the

      Haven that lead to those Paths

16. Flesh out the monsters and the Features around the map. I like to use Spark Tables for

      inspiration

      

      Features could be landmarks, loot, hazards, wonders, machines, architecture, events, etc.

Thanks to Dave Lombardo for the idea of Waypoints, the author of the blog 9and30Kingdoms from where I stole the tables and the admin from r/mapmaking that uploaded that biome chart on Imgur

Stay tuned for my rules for travel that leverage this kind of map