Hex Design System
A downloadable tool
To use this project to design hex maps, you need to have the newly completely free Affinity software installed on your system. To create a basic map, only very minimal knowledge of Affinity is required.
This is an Affinity package that includes a blank 12x12 hex map and several icons to populate it, along with instructions to set up the grid and snapping. An orderly layer system is in place.
I use this system to create maps for Mythic Bastionland, and the icons therefore reflect the landmarks suggested in the game, such as holdings and Myths. The system uses abstract hexes to facilitate quick map-making.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Fix: v3 mapNov 11, 2025
- Affinity v2 and v3 versionsNov 08, 2025
- Hex-map, hexhog styleNov 07, 2025
Comments
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Had an idea that you could make a page that is many duplicates of the terrain types that is printer ready for folks who want to print out the hex map and then cut out individual terrain types to glue on.
agree that this is fantastic. Thank you.
Any suggestions for adding rivers?
Thanks!
There are two principal schools of thought when it comes to rivers: through-hex and on the borders. I experimented for a while with actual river tiles, but found this too disruptive to the overall design if the tile was otherwise "empty", and too much work to make vegetation overlays for every type of river tile (e.g., a river bend in a mountain region, forest region etc.) and cookie-cutter river tiles don't look very organic. And anyway, I am partial to the idea of having rivers along hex borders. So what I do is draw the river with a vector pencil on a fresh layer. I duplicate the two river bank lines, close the curve, fill with white and set the stroke to 0 on the duplicate. It's a bit fiddly and needs some adjusting around hex numbers, vegetation etc. but gives the most creative freedom. Maybe I'll come up with something more user-friendly in the future.
thanks!
Can’t believe there are no comments (at time of writing) because this is sick! Thanks for making these templates available; it’s cool to get a peek into your process. I was just revisiting your realm quickstarts today in preparation for some upcoming gaming and was happy to see you made 2 more after Sindraline!
Thanks for the kind words, hope you'll get a lot of mileage out of the template!