Briefly, on hexgrid maps

(this post was written in July 2025 but backposted into February 2025 so the winter doesn't look quite so empty)

To note: I am not speaking about worlds/settings here, only about maps and even more so about the grids over said maps. Most beautiful map can have a boring world, and sketch on a napkin could be for the most beautiful setting.

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I both like and dislike hexes as a mapping grid. Here is a summary for posterity as to what and why.

What

I like hexgrid maps which are either
– just small like this:

map template by Mason Masteka

– even smaller but really dense, like this:

Gnolune map by Jedediah Berry

 
– medium-ish on a smaller side but have really weird contours (additional plus if with weird unique tiles), like this:

map made using Hex Kit from Cone of Negative Energy

– big, but basically a handmade map with some hexgrid patterning taken into consideration: you can remove hexgrid, change lines a little and it would appear to be just a regular map instead:

Map of HotSpring Island, by Jason Thompson

 

Map of Midsummer Land, by Dyson Logos

- and 17-hexes hexflower (because it is a hexflower, and it has drift mechanics):

Map from Buccaneers of the Big Black

I don't like hexmaps like this:

Hexmap of USA from Reddit, by u/deleted

Why

1) Usually the benefit of hexed grid is in a quick calculation of distances during hexcrawl or a similar overland travel – equidirectional 6-way of travel with hexgrid is much more comfortable for a day to day navigation than dealing with the diagonals on a square grid. But I don't do hexcrawls so hexes lose this part of their appeal. 

(On some positive note is that if one is building a hexmap by manually rolling hexes through some convoluted hexmap generation, 1d6 die for hexes is much easier to have at hand than 1d8 for squares)

2) Another benefit of hexes is that if the map is created to fill a hexgrid (instead of a hexgrid simply layered over an existing map) the map looks much more organic than the map built to be filled with square tiles. There are nice sense of believability in curled coastlines, peninsulas, bloby mountains and islands if they are set to hexes instead of squares. It is easier to approximate real-world maps in hexes as well, as the real world rarely follows straight angles regular to squaregrid.

3a) By itself the hexgrid isn't exactly easy on the eyes, and it is visually more busy than square grid; for me it creates more mental strain in trying to navigate it, especially if the map in question is very big as in some examples above:

hexgrid vs offset squares (which are also a bit like hexes) vs squares

3b) Usually every hex on a hexgrid has to be numbered individually, with number taking precious space from graphics, while a square map can use A-Z and 01-N on borders to leave more space in a tile itself. It is possible to number hexes on hexmap borders too, but it isn't as quick or intuitive to navigate through zigzagged hex-based lines as through the square grid.

border-numbered hexgrid vs squaregrid; where is the dot?

3c) As a consequence of both above, if the map is using simple repetitive tiles (such as "Hexmap of USA" from Reddit above) the cognitive load adds to the sheer boredom of a mass of unremarkable tile graphics, and it is easier to be lost in number of hexes, which is why I don't like huge hexgrid maps made out of same 8 tiles. Square grid + boring tiles results in, at the very least, less obtuse to navigate map.

4) With squares there is no dillema if to use flat-top hexes or peak-top hexes.

5) Square tiles, even if very simple, can have a nice old-videogame feeling to them, and I don't get the same sense from hexgridded maps:

Map made with Polykromia16 tileset