/r/mapmaking
/r/mapmaking is participating in the Reddit Blackout. [For more information, see here.](https:redd.it/1476ioa) If you're looking for a community of map makers to discuss and work with on creation, check out this Discord server. It's not officially affiliated with /r/mapmaking, but if you follow their rules you'll find a great community.
Maps have been around for centuries- they help us know what cultures were aware of in terms of their neighbors, other lands, and so on. Map making continues today, as we map other planets, the bottom of the seas, and continually produce high quality maps here that measure various aspects of culture, demographics, and geography.
If you would like to participate in our discord chat, please go here.
If you would like to contribute to our wiki, please go here.
If you like r/mapmaking, you might like:
Both professional maps and ones you draw yourself are welcome, as are fantasy maps.
/r/mapmaking
My final draft for the western hemisphere of Costasinar.
Hello Friends!
I'm working on a fantasy world and have been making the map using methods from several extremely amazing worldbuilders (Artifexian, WorldbuildingPasta, Worldbuilding Corner, and Madeline James Writes please check these lovely people out if you haven't already). Part of my idea is to have a world with a large ocean full of sea farers and communities, so I wanted to have lots of islands, and I want to know where the best trade routes and fishing spots would be. I have a plan for a story with mermaids and pirates so my oceans are verrrrry important.
I love the landmasses I've created and I'm really excited to get to the climate mapping but keep going back to the ocean and wind currents as well as pressure to make it more defined so that I don't have whole swathes of my map that are just unmarked. I was wondering if a more savvy world builder could give me any helpful tips they might have to making my currents more realistic, or let me know if there's one's I'm missing or even if I'm on the right track. I will also include other images I've created to help show my thinking process, if you have any helpful tips for any of the images I post please feel free to let me know. I'm always happy to learn more and I feel like I've hit a personal wall with what I've been able to figure out based on the videos and articles I've watched/read.
ITCZ - Red (July) Blue (January)
Plate Tectonics - I am using Wikipedia's elevation scale to mark the mountain heights
January Wind Currents, Pressure & On/Offshore Winds
Part of the reason I'm including these extra maps is to show the results I've gotten with the currents I've drawn. If you have any questions for me as to my process please feel free to ask. I appreciate all of the suggestions and advice in advance.
Got inspired to create a more cartoony style map.
Tell me what I should improve upon and give your opinions
Map of the First setting of my book. It is merely known as the Northern Plateau, if it had a name it was lost to time.
This is different from my WIP a day or so ago. Added paths taken and named the big mountain range that's supposed to encircle and more or less act as the foundation for the North. All the names are in the language of the people of this region (which I'm slowly putting togerher.)
Anyway, would love feedback and if anyone has any questions or thoughts feel free to comment or DM!
It takes about 6 months to go from the far south of the island to the far north. Considering you can't go in a straight line and there's a big forest in the middle, I think it makes sense.
Total population is about 5 million souls, 3-3.5mil in Endlár alone.
This is still a work in progress.
Sorry for funny orientation
A map of the provinces of the of the Illyrian empire in 1683 ( no relation to the balkans ), the most developed nation on the planet as wel as being the leader of technological advancements in every sector, bosting technologies primarily from our 1880’s as well as having an abundance of steam powered road vehicles and radio devices
Hello, I have a real life location that I THINK I like. What I want to do, is establish a few things. Districts, and scale. I have no idea how a city works, and my biggest fear is creating something stupid. If you look at the old Cyberpunk 2020 map... it isn't exactly super complex. Basic sharp angles, one detailed section, that's it. Isn't even super accurate to it's real-life location. It's gets a lot of things done... but it also leaves out a lot of core details. I essentially want the player to be able to imagine the scale of the city, but also be able to acknowledge how different places of the city feel. I was actually wondering if there are any city builders that allow for the importing of real world geographic data, so essentially a basic road network could be laid out over it? There's also a big hunk of land fill near the edge, that I'd have to pretend exists. I want it to actually feel like it's at a real place. If you walked there, you could go "omg, this is the exact cordinates of the [Insert building name here]!"
Highways and subways are also kinda scary. I love that "overdesigned, hard to navigate" American road system look. Roads on top of roads, buildings building around roads, and levels to get lost in.
I'm just really afraid of making a poorly built location, and a bad history to top it off.
This world is meant to be a bit more on the storybook whimsical side of things, instead of pure realism. Still, curious to hear what you think about it.
It’s for a campaign I’m planning to run where the players have to get from Hither to Tither to Yonder, while dealing with the evil wizard Archibald, who is trying to remove the whole world from his map. He attempts this by using time magic to send parts of the world back to before the big bang (which causes the universe to rupture and split apart). The world itself is made up of old folktales, myths and stories.
PS. All the place names are derived from Dutch adages. I have tried to find an appropriate English translation for each of them but did not always succeed. If you know better place names derived from English adages, please tell me :)
Hello, I wish to draw a map of a fictional nation that I've created but I'm not sure what tools I could use for it. Usually I'd just put a map in Krita and edit it but currently I have no mouse and my graphic tablet doesn't work so I was hoping to find some software for it, but don't know where to start with that. I've seen some but they didn't really fit what I need.
This nation is set on our Earth, in Africa, and its border consists of several parts of Angola and Namibia. I was hoping for a way to include the relevant provinces and delete the rest of the countries, being left with my map for mine, but the only apps that I've found are either solely for fantasy maps or only allow you to place markers on top of a map. Any help?
I'm looking for anyone who can provide me with insight on how large I should be drawing rivers at the scale I'm using and or a smaller scale, and just how many you could realistically see when looking at a map of that scale.
I recently got into map making and have gotten to the point where I've placed down my mountain ranges and set climates zones, but when moving on to placing rivers and lakes , I find myself second guessing how big it should be and how many I'm placing down. I'm worried that when I start working on my map at smaller scales I'm gonna end up with rivers that are either too big or im gonna have too many large ones.
I've looked all over for advice on how to place rivers but all I see is the same general points and nothing on how large or how many there should be. I've attached an image of what I've done so far and the scale I'm looking for help on, and any advice or tips you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Hey yall, I'm working on creating a custom map for a DnD campaign centered around colonialism, pirates and the age of exploration. I've come up with a couple different maps using the rice tracing method but I'm just not getting the results that I'm envisioning. What I'm trying for is essentially a MUCH larger Gulf of Mexico with a peninsula at the mouth, and islands scattered about inside. Any tips on how to make it realistic?