Travel speed across the world map is determined by the sectors it's comprised of. In Fallout Tactics, the player character's location is marked by radiation trefoil, and no tracing is available. The length of these lines indicate the player character's speed - the longer they are, the more time it takes them to travel through that particular sector. In Fallout and Fallout 2, the player character's location is marked by a red cross icon, and the path is traced by line strokes. To move the player character across the map, they have to click at any area they not currently at. When stationary, the player character's location is marked by an icon in an inverse pyramid, clicking on which takes them to the location they are currently at, which does not have to be a specially designated location - the player character can make stops anywhere on the map to perform actions such as exchanging or selling equipment, changing or reloading weapons, or administering drugs to themself or one of their companions. In Fallout Tactics there is a total of 26 locations and 29 random encounters. In Fallout 2 there is a total of 21 locations. In Fallout there is a total of 12 locations. When they leave a location with intent to travel to another one, they are presented with the world map. The world map's primary function is to enable navigation for the player character's travels.

In Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics, the world map is a top-down view of the landscape, divided into a matrix of square-shaped, equally sized sectors.

New vegas world map