The actual interesting stuff is more rare than Mr. Clean with hair. What I'm going for here is a little bit of "this is not to scale" - but more like a map for a RPG world. It's not really intended to look realistic, and that's cool. It's more intended to be a tool for illustrating story elements, rather than an actual map. I've also considered that the "distance" in the image might not be that reliable; I don't want the characters to worry too much about whether or not they can see a dragon. A: Depending on the nature of your game world, you can set up an event for everyone to gather and see where the main threat is at any given time. A bit of in-character dialogue is helpful to get the sense of the threat as well. While the idea of having your player characters "fly" to a dragon attack seems nice, such an action does require more prep work than people tend to want. Maybe allow the characters to have limited flight (as in using an in-flight restroom, not like a jetpack that flies off on its own). As for the positioning of that dragon and the camp, think of it as a giant map. It's easier to look at one area than the entire map at once, since the world can be huge. The location of the camp needs to be relatively safe, of course. The way this is done in games is the same way it's done in real life: geography, and the terrain's properties in terms of natural defense. For example, a good location would be somewhere with nearby cliffs or mountains, or high rocky landform, so a dragon can't snort at the characters and spew fire. But then you have to look at how a big red dragon can fly there and not crash or burn into it, and it still has to attack the camp in order to get its meals. One good way to do this is use the idea of a "bush" in a map-like way, as in having a big hill or a rock formation at a point in the map. This can be used by a party to hide behind as well as to look down on the enemy. If they hide on top of a nearby rocky crag, they can shoot down on the enemy and take out their archers and soldiers quickly. On the other hand, this allows the enemies to shoot at them. Think about what your enemies can do: shoot from a distance? Send archers to scout? A big part of the game is knowing what your enemies can and can't do. This comes from gathering intelligence. You may already know these little details about your monster as well. For example, your dragon attacks at night when it is warm or needs to hunt food for warmth? It could be waiting for prey, or for one of those big fat ogre brontes (who can eat anything) to get close enough for it to attack. But again, a well made map is a helpful and interesting thing. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with the vague idea of where the attack will take place. Look around in the world and see what you see that looks promising for a dragon attack. A: This question reminds me of something I read in the "GURPS - 4e Core Rulebook." In it, it talks about a method for using a map, or other medium (like a poster), to illustrate encounters and give the players context. If I recall correctly, the key phrase is "GURPS as the game of maps." Specifically, after introducing GURPS, and what it is about, the text introduces another item, a map. The map can be anything, but is most often a 1:1 (or 3:1) representation of a space in the world. For the story at hand, the GM would draw (or pick) a few key locations in the area that the party is in, or about to go into. Each location has a number on it, indicating what type of event it represents. Usually these are positive events, although the GM can add a negative to a location. When the players meet the GM's chosen events, they are "faced with a choice." Often, the GM is playing with the players' knowledge of the world, by giving them information that they might already have. The system for these encounters are fairly simple. The player receives an amount of "points" based on the challenge presented to them. These points allow the player to take certain things. They can, say, use their ability, or roll with the effects. When the roll is used to determine outcomes, the character does a specific thing. The idea is that this is a real life roll, and can be judged by any reasonable measures (including success and failure). The key phrase, to me, was "GURPS as the game of maps." At first I thought it was a new GMing tactic or method for using maps, but that was not the case. The GM "picks" a map and hands it to the players. Then, by having events (positive and negative) set in these areas, the story can take a specific direction. The end result of the encounter can then be resolved by the GM using different methods. These include, but are not limited to: 1) a roll on success, 2) making the players perform a task for the good of others (and the success or failure of that task), 3) the GM telling the story (which will often involve him doing something for a greater good), 4) the GM making a challenge roll (using their own resources to overcome the challenge), 5) the players' resources overcoming the challenge by their own actions (possibly after help or information from the GM), 6) the GM has an NPC (or creature) assist the players by providing some resource. The system is very flexible, but can lead to some very interesting outcomes. Also, in answer to your question on events, not all events are good or bad. Even a good event could be viewed as a negative thing by a PC. Consider that the PCs are in the middle of a war, with a few friendly villages. One of the villages is attacked by bandits, and is almost completely destroyed. A nearby village attacks the bandits, but then a party of wizards shows up and destroys the village. Both groups survived, but their lives might be very different. In GURPS, there are good events, neutral events, and bad events. What it is important to do is give the players as much information as you can to make their choices feel real and fair. In a typical GURPS game, the players should not know the result of the rolls. For the GM, it is a way to keep things interesting. The GM can also give events a positive or negative modifier (the modifier is added to the character's total) so that if their characters are not well-prepared, they won't be in a great position to succeed. A: The "best" way would be to let the players see the dragons, but that's not going to be in a role playing game. Unless there's some special circumstances, it's more likely that your players will see the dragon when it comes to attack the camp. If you don't want to limit the player to just see the dragon, another way you could go about it is to add some details about the environment. There are ways of presenting the information you need and also avoiding having too much information at the same time. For example, using the distance as a cue in some way would help the players understand where the dragon is. Let's say you have a certain number of maps. Have them spread on a table, each player picks a map. The maps are all roughly the same size and have the same distance and scale. Players who are farther will have bigger maps. Draw arrows (possibly with different colors) in different directions from your current location to each of the maps. Some people will start to find the same points on the maps and realize there's something there. However, if the players notice that they're drawing all the lines at the same location then there's going to be a problem. The way around that is to have your environment be consistent to each one. A big tree could be a good start. Draw arrows, the "big" tree will have big arrows pointing at the place where the dragon is. When they get closer, they will notice that the tree is bigger than the arrows that were drawn before and then there will be an explanation or more arrows pointing to the map. But at the same time, don't make the environment too obvious. For example, a group of trees and some trees that have been burned by fire. It's easy to "see" that those are likely to be dragons in a story that uses dragons. Make the "burned" trees more obvious by drawing arrows