What’s inside

One SKILL.md (the playbook) + one starter template. A preview:

Fantasy Concept Map

When to use

• You are writing a novel or running a tabletop campaign and need a map your readers or players can actually navigate by
• A game pitch needs a world map that shows regions, factions, and travel routes at a glance
• You are worldbuilding and want to test whether your geography makes sense: where are the mountains, why is the city there
• A classroom or workshop needs a fictional map for a geography, storytelling, or game-design exercise
• Your story's characters keep traveling impossible distances — you need a map with a scale to keep journeys honest

Workflow

1. Set the world's rules (input: story or game premise → output: world brief)
   Write down what the map must show: the land's shape and size, who lives where, what the climate does, and any rule that bends geography (floating islands, a sea that freezes). One page of rules is enough. Every later decision — mountains, rivers, roads — must follow from this brief, not from decoration.
2. Sketch the landmass (input: world brief → output: rough coastline)
   Draw the coastline first, in broad shapes: one or two continents or an archipelago, plus the seas between them. Keep it rough — the coastline is a sketch, not a satellite photo. Decide the map's scale now (for example, one inch = 100 miles) so travel times stay consistent later.
3. Place terrain, then settlements (input: coastline → output: terrain + settlements)
   Terrain first: mountain ranges where plates would collide, forests where rain would fall, deserts in rain shadows. Settlements follow the terrain — cities at river mouths and crossroads, villages near farmland, outposts at passes. A city in the middle of a desert with no water source needs an explanation in the brief, or it moves.
4. Draw routes and landmarks (input: terrain + settlements → output: finished geography)
   Connect settlements with roads, sea lanes, and any special routes (portal paths, airship lanes) the world uses. Add landmarks that matter to the story: ruins, towers, border walls, battlefields. Every route needs a reason — a road exists because people travel it — and a rough travel time in the legend.
5. Add the legend and consistency pass (input: finished geography → output: approved map)
   Build a legend for every symbol on the map, a compass rose, and a scale bar. Then audit the map against the brief: do rivers run downhill to the sea? Does every region have a name? Can a reader trace a journey from A to B without teleporting? Fix the geography that breaks the rules before calling it done.

Output spec

Template preview

Fantasy Concept Map — Template

Build the map from the brief, not from decoration. One map = one world, one scale.

World brief (one paragraph)

{What the world is, who lives there, what bends its geography — e.g. floating islands, a sea that freezes in winter}

Landmass: {one continent / two continents / archipelago} Scale: {e.g. 1 inch = 100 miles} | Climate rule: {e.g. wet west coast, dry interior}

Regions

Settlements (each placed for a stated reason)

Routes & landmarks

Legend (every symbol on the map)

• {Symbol} = {meaning}
• {Symbol} = {meaning}
• {Symbol} = {meaning}

Compass rose: [ ] | Scale bar: [ ]

Consistency check

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