The great debate: do you name every single town or leave some blank?

Last month I was finishing up a map for my D&D campaign (a coastal region with four kingdoms) and I got stuck on the tiny fishing village in the corner. I spent an hour trying to come up with a name for it, then finally just wrote "Fisher's Rest" and moved on. But then I looked at a map from a published book I bought at a con three years ago, and they left half the hamlets unnamed with just a dot. On one hand, naming everything makes the world feel lived in. On the other hand, leaving blanks gives the DM freedom to improvise when players wander off the beaten path. What do you all do with those random hamlets and crossroads? Do you name your map down to the last farmstead or leave room for imagination?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryanburns1mo agoMost Upvoted

Wait, you actually bought a map at a con three years ago and you're comparing your homebrew work to it? That's wild.

the_simon1mo ago

Wild" is fair, but that map is the only one that got my players excited.