Crafting Through Cartography

Be it the realms of Arda, Night City, The Nameless City, or the Sword Coast, every story, narrative, or D&D campaign needs a setting to take place in. One world-building tool that personally helps me world-build and brainstorm are maps! Maps provide a visual aspect to writing and can be as wild as you want while being relatively simple. Let me tell you how to make your own fantasy map. 



A method I like to use is the dice method in which you throw down dice on a piece of paper and use this as a foundation for the land you want to create.  


Next, define your landmass work on the coasts and add some interesting land features like coves peninsulas, gulfs, and maybe some islands.   


Add some mountains or hills. you could use the dice method for this as well. after you put down your mountain/mountain ridges then put lakes/wetlands at the bottom of a group of mountains and maybe some rivers connecting said lake to the mountain and from the lake into the ocean.


All done! Now you know the easy steps in creating a map. Remember maps don't have to be completely made up you can use preexisting maps of already existing places but this can change based on the setting of your story and make minor adjustments to fit your narrative. If you feel like it, do some research on land formations and features. The world is full of wonderful vibrant or dreary environments and taking an example from real life can help you develop a more in-depth world. 

Comments

  1. Abel MitchellFebruary 5, 2024 at 12:07 PM

    Cool and interesting content, I like how you showed the different steps in creating a fantasy map!

    ReplyDelete

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