Maps

One of the things I enjoy most about creating a campaign is drawing maps. Back in the day it was of course done with pen and paper, but lately I've been experimenting with doing it digitally, which has a lot of advantages and very few draw-backs. It is a lot easier to edit digital maps and with the use of layers, you can very easily use the same map file for both DMs and players. Just make sure to have all the DM information in layers that can be turned off and on as needed. The only draw-back I can think of, is that sketching comes more natural with pen and paper (at least to me). I have borrowed a Wacom pen and tablet from a friend (I really need one of those for myself), which makes a lot of difference, but I am still not quite used to using it yet.

As I remember it, I made some awesome maps back in the day. Unfortunately all my old maps are gone now, vanishing in one of many storage cleanups or moves, so I started from scratch. Fortunately I found the brilliant Cartographer's Guild forum and by browsing through a lot of their great tutorials, I have gotten a good start on digital map-making.

I started out with making the world map shown above, but quickly realized it didn't quite fit the look I wanted for my maps. I am more partial to a hand-drawn look (even when doing it digitally) and the "realistic" satellite look didn't really fit my vision. So I went back to the drawing board and decided to do a regional map instead. I decided that I didn't really need to know how the entire world looks, as the PCs wont know that either. I am also a firm believer in not doing more world creation than necessary, so I wont be worried about the political situation half a continent away from where the PCs start.

While I wanted the PCs to start in a fairly rural area, I also have plans to do some urban adventuring, so I created the Great Bay, around which several city states would give plenty of opportunity for political intrigue and urban gaming, while still having lots of rural and wilderness areas. I have hardly started on this map and I am still working on finding the right look for mountains and forest. I know where they are, I just have trouble getting them looking right.

At the same time, I have drawn up the town of Silvershore, which I intend to be the PCs' home town, or at least their starting point. I am quite happy with how this looks, but there are a few points, that doesn't quite work out as I wanted and it will probably be changed a bit before long.

I am also working on various other maps to try out different techniques and scales, including a wizard's tower and several dungeons and encounter maps, but for now those are supposed to be unknown to the PCs, so I can't post them yet.