Hexmaps with Lego
Lately, the draw of the hexcrawl has been calling to me, but I hadn't quite figured out how to do it with Lego—until now. As it turns out, it's very straightforward. With two of the polygon-shaped 2x2 piece (#51739) and a simple 2x2 jumper tile (#87580) to hold them together, you have a basic hex. The best part? It’s fairly cheap—just 10 to 20 cents at the time of this writing.
Now, obviously, I didn’t stop with simplicity alone. I added slopes, plants, and varied the colors, but the overall hex design remains very simple.
I’ve left at least one space in each hex for an open stud. That way, the party can be represented by a Lego minifigure—an excellent use for those old Heroica minis! Of course, any kind of party token or representative piece would work. The idea is to track the party’s location on the map at a glance.
What's a Hexcrawl?
A hexcrawl is a great way to handle exploration or overland travel in a TTRPG. Players travel a set number of miles per day, and each hex can represent whatever distance you choose. For my setup, I created a 12x12 hexagon-shaped map on a 48x48 light bluish gray baseplate. Each hex represents 6 miles of terrain, meaning the entire board covers 72 by 72 miles of explorable space!
Players must stock up on rations and supplies, then head out from their base of operations—be it a camp, town, or fortification—and embark on quests. Since each hex takes time to cross, players are limited in how far they can travel each day. This is where the rations and supply management minigame comes in! To reach a quest location, they must first traverse the wilderness, and that’s the fun of a hexcrawl: it’s not about the destination—it’s about the friends you make along the way.
Not all terrain is easy to cross. Some hexes are more dangerous, meaning players must roll for encounters more frequently, increasing the chance of delays—or entirely new adventures! If a player chooses to spend time exploring, the game master can have them roll to see if they discover anything of value. This is a great tool when you’re improvising or don’t have specific content prepped.
Transitioning to Encounters
Once a party stumbles into either their quest objective or a random encounter, then it's time to get the handy dungeon terrain out and tell the rest of the story. Whether you use dungeon tiles, printed maps, or my handy Lego Ultimate Dungeon Terrain, your players will be wowed and immersed.
Or, just build the map and let theater of the mind do the rest! It's really up to you!
Lego Hex Variations
The possibilities for different hex types are numerous but for the most part, I've stuck to roughly ten types. They are as follows:
- Swamp/Marsh
- Forest
- Foothills
- Town/City
- Grassland/Farmland
- Hills
- Rough/Rocky
- Mountains
- Arid Hills
- Arid Plains
There are many more combination for hex designs but these are the ones I used for now in the map above. Snow, desert, cursed lands, and jungle would also be easy to make and adapt - maybe I'll do a board with those next!
Final Thoughts
Building hexmaps with Lego has opened up a whole new layer of tactile fun and creativity in my tabletop games. It’s a blend of exploration, storytelling, and good old-fashioned brick-building, and I’ve loved every part of it. If you’ve been curious about running a hexcrawl or just want a new way to visualize your world, I highly recommend giving this a try. It’s modular, expandable, and endlessly customizable—just like a good adventure should be.
If you don't want to go through the trouble of buy a bunch of Lego, I totally get it. I've been making my TTRPG maps on Inkarnate. I don't mean to plug the site but I've had a lot of fun building maps there and playing around with ideas for content. I feel like a map is a really inherent part of any story, as they are more or less a compendium of stories in and of themselves. I made this really cool Hexmap that was the inspiration for the Lego map above.
