On Hex size and mapping

Part of making a game map, particularly one for sandbox play, is figuring out what the scale of the map should be.  Once that is done, then you can figure out what size hex grid to overlay.  (sometimes those are the same thing)  Sometimes you want the hexes to be a standard for maps of that scale, and some times you want a hex size linked to a game more closely.

Zak S. has a great post here about how to calculate hex size. (caution, site is frequently NSFW)  He suggests that using the formula H = DN - P(DN) is a way to calculate the size of a hex for your map. [where H is hex size, D is distance in a day, N is number of days without incident, P is percent chance of an empty hex, and DN is again Distance in a day and Number of days without incident]

If you are drawing your map out by hand, I find this site to be very useful.  You are able to create your own PDF of hexes, and then you can print them whenever you need a new map page.  There are other interesting papers there too, such as square graph paper, polar paper, and even music paper.  The Cornell Graph paper looks to be useful for dungeon drawing and keying for instance.

Anyway, just musing a bit on maps for the Monday A-Z post.