Drawing fantasy maps

[ichabod]

I used to think that maps should be objective and detailed, but these days I think it is fine to be vague and sketchy like real historical maps. First it is hella lot easier to make them then, and secondly it gives freedom to add and alter small details if future development warrants such.

Another vote for keeping it simple. I was also kind of artsy in high school, but moved away from it in favor of games. I got a book on drawing FRPG maps, and managed to make an okay map for part of my game world:

Is it great? No. Is it sufficient? Yes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Pangea?

I like the map.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Another vote for keeping it simple. I was also kind of artsy in high school, but moved away from it in favor of games. I got a book on drawing FRPG maps, and managed to make an okay map for part of my game world:

View attachment 356546
Is it great? No. Is it sufficient? Yes.

It looks great!

 

[ichabod]

Pangea?

I like the map.

Yeah, and thanks. IIRC, it's not really Pangea, but a mashup of recognizable continents that approximates Pangea. But I thought it looked like a good map for a fantasy realm.

 

[Cadence]

The University library has a display on Scott in Scotland, and these two maps of Edinburgh in the late 1500s (so probably not too far off from much D&D, just swap the guns for magic). Thought they were nice examples of what might be out there if the players went looking for a map, instead of doing actual pacing things off and cartography themselves.

[Thumbnails for ease of scrolling. Click for big views.]

 

[Desdichado]

I've been a fan of hand drawing maps ever since I first saw Christopher Tolkien's maps in the front of my Ballantine Lord of the Rings books with the Darrell K. Sweet covers. I've attempted to go digital, but unless I spring for a Wacom tablet (and even then, I dunno) it'll never happen. No digital tool that I've used gives me the flexibility of hand drawn on paper with Pixma Micron art pens. All of them do some things very nicely, but there is always some kind of hole; I want some kind of feature that I can't quite figure out how to do. I liked Inkarnate for a while, but I could only approximate what I wanted, not exactly make it.

I admit that's a hassle that I still have to go scan them after I draw them, but at the table that doesn't matter very much. And I also admit that some features are tedious and time-consuming to draw by hand that would be quick and easy with software.

But I might just be showing my age. When I started drawing fantasy maps, the idea that you could render them on a computer was still years away from being taken seriously.