Maps

[Tombowings]

When you sit down to make a map, where do you begin. I've always had a problem with this part of world creation, anyone care to lend me some advise?

[Kindling]

I generally start with a map of a real-world place, not necessarily once that I relate to the fantasy place I'm mapping, and then modify it until it suits the mental image I have.

For example, the world map for my setting is an extensively modified version of the Balkans.

[Tombowings]

Thanks for the advise...now to find a location....

[Midgardsormr]

It depends on where you want to start from.  If I am building an entire world at once, I start with the geology: where are the continental plates?  How do those form the mountains?  Where do the rivers run?  Then I move on to the climate: where will the dry and wet lands wind up, based on latitude and relation to the mountains?

Sometimes, though, politics drive the map.  My current project, Imperial Vendria, started with the political details, and I had to base my map on the descriptions I'd already written.  For that one, I started with a very rough sketch of where each nation would be and the features I had specified for them, then I drew in a rough coastline and sketched in the mountains and rivers, again based on my descriptions.  From there I was able to place the cities and other features reasonably, although my climates are not realistic.

The sketch then turned into the final map: http://www.bryanray.name/queen/img/map.png (warning: enormous image!)

That's not an entire world, of course.  It's just one continent; the rest of the world doesn't matter to the game, so there was little reason to detail it.  

If you want to really dive into the mapmaking, cruise by the Cartographers' Guild and ask some questions there.  You'll get far more advice than you could ever use!

[the_taken]

I start by making a big blob using really old paint and sticking that art item on a cork board. Then I grab some darts and start pulling names of what I need and associating them with the darts. If I need a coastal city, I'll make a point on the edge of the blob closest to where the dart landed.

[Tombowings]

I start by making a big blob using really old paint and sticking that art item on a cork board. Then I grab some darts and start pulling names of what I need and associating them with the darts. If I need a coastal city, I'll make a point on the edge of the blob closest to where the dart landed.

This wins for best idea EVER!

[the_taken]

A word of caution: It's a hit and miss system.

[SDragon]

I had a method for making maps in Photoshop 7, and it presumabley would work in later versions, too. It's been a long time since I've been able to use PS7, but I know I have the method written down somewhere. I used it (along with some nifty finishing touches) for the map for Fiendspawn, but most of the effects were ruined once it got posted on here...

[Sarandosil]

I make the maps in photoshop, but I start them off with a pencil on some blank paper, and basically draw random, closed shapes. I generally fill about half a page of paper this way, and then after I've done so I look at all the shapes I've drawn and see which ones or which cluster could vaugly look like a bunch of islands or a continent, and then recreate it in photoshop.

[Elemental_Elf]

It depends on whether I'm making a map out of the blue or making a map for a setting I have already written a little about. If its the former, I tend to draw large blobs in Paint or Photoshop and slowly refine them into a landmass. If it was the latter, than i begin by drawing out the coast lines, rivers and mountain ranges for the places I have written about. Often I will have a vague concept of where I would like the map to go, other times I let the map tell me what it wants to do. Most of the time its a little of both.

Also, I think knowing what you want the end product to look like is always a good start. Meaning if you want an antique looking map, don't go and draw a topographical map. The same is true for a modern map, in that you shouldn't use little triangles to represent mountains, either do a topographical map or a very bright and colorful map that eschews most geographical details except for coasts, rivers and lakes.

Having that in mind will save you many headaches down the road :)

[Poseptune]

In the past I would make a pencil map of the coast and then scan it into a computer format. Then I would use a paint program to fill it in.


Now I use this fractal generator. With it I make a continent that I think fits the setting. I save it off, and bring it into a paint program to fill it in. I like the fractal generator because it gives me a lot of little islands off the coast that I wouldn't have made drawing it by hand.

That is how this map started out:

[spoiler=Map] [/spoiler]