Areas & POIs

Written By Pollution

Last updated 2 months ago

Areas and Points of Interest

Areas and POIs are how you turn a flat map into a living world. Areas define the big regions (districts, forests, tunnels), while POIs mark specific locations your players can visit (inns, dungeons, shops, landmarks). This guide walks through creating and editing both, using AI to help, and working with the map toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

Creating and Editing Areas

Areas are large shapes on your world map that group locations together

Add a new Area

  • Open your world, then go to the Map tab

  • Use the toolbar at the bottom and click the + button

  • Choose Add Area (Draw) to freehand a shape, or Add Area (Rectangle) to place a clean rectangle you can adjust later

  • Click on the map to place or draw your area

Set Area details

  • Click the Area once to select it. The Edit Area panel appears on the right.

  • Fill out:

    • Name – What this region is called in your world.

    • Type – Choose the category that best fits (district, region, dungeon, etc.)

    • Description – A lore-style overview of what this area is and why it matters

    • Appearance – How it looks and feels on the ground (architecture, atmosphere, terrain)

Factions and Monster Spawns

  • Faction – Assign a faction that “controls” or is most associated with the area

    • The faction color will tint the area on the map and change the border color

  • Monster Spawns – Add monsters that can appear in this area

    • Click Add Monster, choose a monster, and set a spawn chance and rate

    • These settings influence random encounters and where Franz pulls monsters from when generating fights in this region

Cover Image & Map Image

  • Cover Image – The main art used when players view the area

  • Map Image – An image that appears on the world map that can be seen while players are traveling

Using AI for Area Text and Images

You can have AI generate descriptions, appearances, and images for an area all at once

  • Click the AI button on the Edit Area panel

  • In the Generate With AI window:

    • Describe the area in plain language: what it’s for, who lives there, what it looks like

    • Toggle Generate Cover Image and Generate Map Image on or off depending on what you need

  • Click Generate

The AI will overwrite the Area’s Description, Appearance, and any images you selected to generate, so it’s best to use this at the beginning or when you’re okay replacing existing content.

Adjusting Area Shapes and Appearance on the Map

Area shapes are fully editable so they can match the exact outline of streets, tunnels, or natural borders

Select vs. reshape

  • Make sure you’re using the Select tool (arrow icon) on the bottom toolbar

  • First click on an Area to select the shape, you can drag it around the map or resize it

  • Second click on the same Area while still in Select mode to reveal polygon points around the border

Editing the polygon

  • Drag existing points to line the border up with streets, rivers, or edges of terrain

  • Click and drag on the border (between two points) to add a new point and refine the shape

  • Use this to carve out irregular districts, follow cliff lines, or trace the edges

  • Click twice on a point to turn the polygon red and delete if you need to remove one

Visual tweaks with Faction & Layer settings

  • Changing the Faction changes the Area’s color on the map

  • You can also use Map Layer Settings (see the toolbar section below) to:

    • Hide area images

    • Show borders only

    • Temporarily hide or lock Areas while editing characters or POIs

Creating Points of Interest (POIs)

POIs are specific, visitable locations like inns, towers, caverns, or shrines.

Add a new POI

  • On the bottom toolbar, click the + button

  • Choose Add POI, then click where you want it on the world map

  • A pin appears and the Edit POI panel opens on the right

Set POI details

  • Name – The location’s name

  • Type – Select a POI type (Inn, Dungeon, Town, etc.)

  • Description – What this place is, who runs it, and why it matters to the story

  • Appearance – How it looks when the party arrives

Factions for POIs

  • Assign a Faction if the POI is controlled by a particular group. This helps Franz understand who owns or influences the location and makes faction-based storytelling easier

Cover & Battle Map Images

  • Cover Image – The art that shows when you open the POI

  • Map Image – The battle map for in game movement and encounters at this location

Using AI to Build POIs

Just like Areas, POIs can be built quickly with AI

  • Select a POI and click the AI button on the Edit POI panel

  • In the Generate With AI window:

    • Describe the location in plain language: what it’s for, who lives there, what it looks like

  • Click Generate

Map Toolbar Overview

The toolbar at the bottom of the screen is your main control center for editing Areas, POIs, and tokens. From left to right:

  1. Select Tool (Arrow)

    • Click this to select and move Areas, POIs, characters, and monsters

    • Use this when you want to click once to select an Area, then click again to edit its polygon points

    • Hold spacebar while using the left click in order to pan

  2. Box Select Tool

    • Drag a box on the map to select multiple tokens or POIs at once

  3. Pan Tool (Hand)

    • Click and drag to move around the map without selecting anything

  4. Plus Menu (+)

    • Opens a dropdown with:

      • Add Area (Draw) – Freehand draw an Area

      • Add Area (Rectangle) – Add a rectangular Area

      • Add POI – Place a new point of interest

      • Add Character – Drop a character onto the map at the clicked location

  5. Trash Can (Delete)

    • While selected, clicking on any Area, POI, or Character will delete it

      • Don’t worry about making a mistake, deleting anything completely requires a confirmation

  6. Measure Tool (Ruler)

    • Click and drag to start measuring

    • Shows distance for walking and distance in kilometers on world maps, helping you judge travel times and ranges

  7. Zoom In (+)

    • Zooms the map in

  8. Zoom Out (–)

    • Zooms the map out

  9. Fit to Screen (Box icon)

    • Zooms and pans to show the entire map, centered in your view

  10. Focus on Active Character (Crosshair icon)

    • In a campaign: centers the camera on the current player character’s position

    • Outside a campaign: centers the camera on the middle of the map

  11. Map Layer Settings (Gear icon)

    • Opens the Map Layer Settings panel with three tabs: Areas, Characters, and POIs

Map Layer Settings

The Map Layer Settings panel lets you control the visibility and interaction of different layers so you can focus on what you’re editing

Areas Tab

  • Hide – Toggles visibility of all Areas

  • Lock – Prevents Areas from being accidentally moved or edited while you drag POIs or characters around

  • Hide Image – Hides Area map images, leaving only faction colors and borders

  • Border Only – Hides both the image and faction fill color, leaving just the outline of each Area

Characters Tab

  • Hide – Shows or hides all character tokens on the map

  • Lock – Prevents character tokens from being moved or edited

  • Hide Image – Hides the portrait art inside each character’s token bubble while leaving the token itself visible

POIs Tab

  • Hide – Hides or shows all POI pins

  • Lock – Locks POI positions so you don’t accidentally drag them

  • Hide Image – Hides the small image associated with each POI pin, if one is displayed