Make a master map of a constrained area like an island, a valley, a plateau, a big oasis, ECT...
Make a less complete player’s map. Give the players the map (maybe they have it from a patron, inherited it or have them find it on a dead body or in the hollow of a tree or something) and a reason to explore (they’re hopelessly lost in the wilderness and are trying to find a road back to civilization, the villain went that way, looking for Captain Fatbeard’s treasure or something).
Make sure there are places to go and ways to get there. There can be hidden paths and trails, shortcuts and hidden locations. Make notes on how long it takes to get from one place to another.
Add in some kind of completely hidden way to get around (like an underground canal, or teleportation network -who owns that shit? Are they guarding it? How do you get access to it).
Decide what/who lives where.
Are there factions? Make some up, whether they’re tribal groups, wizard minions or whatever.
Create encounter tables, decide on the daily number of encounter checks.
Think about weather, decide how you want to deal with that. (Example 1 on a d12 means a storm, maybe 2 means fog, maybe 3-12 mean everything is normal, whatever).
Make a bunch of small sites, like an abandon town (why was it abandoned? How long ago?) a ruined temple, a slave mine, vivisectionist tower, overgrown pyramid and/or vampire castle- whatever.
Start the characters seconds after they come across the map. Make them decide how they came to be there or got lost or whatever and how they know each other. Put something mysterious with the map (like an assortment of weird things that look like tuning forks, but are really sonic keys to different locations in the wilderness.)
Tell them a storm is brewing and maybe they should look for shelter.
Bang, you’re good to go.
Pic unrelated?
