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Thread: My first world map - please critique

  1. #1
    Guild Apprentice ritalee76's Avatar
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    Wip My first world map - please critique

    I'm creating a world for our table top d&d game...

    Been using photoshop since forever but this was a whole new adventure! LOL



    I still need to add aging to it...

    And a name for my little world.

    And probably a million other things I'm not thinking of.

    Your help is greatly appreciated!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by ritalee76; 07-12-2009 at 06:54 AM.

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    Guild Apprentice ritalee76's Avatar
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    The original is big enough to cover a tabloid sized paper 11x17. Will go to office depot to print up a big one for everyone at the table.

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    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    I like it, have some rep for posting your first map.

    Some of the good:
    - Really big map, interesting to look at.
    - Colors work well together.
    - Interesting land shapes and symbols.
    - Nice way to do mountains.
    - Excellent choice of fonts. Would love to hear which fonts you used...

    Some critique:
    - Most of the rivers seem to start on lower ground? In the real world most rivers start in the mountains.
    - There's some black spots near coastal regions and I can't understand what they represent. Near the "White Wasteland" label for example.
    - I am not sure if the tree symbol is the best choice for this map. It doesn't look bad, but I think there could be tree symbols that looked better in this particular map. It might also be the size, the trees are pretty big.
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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    This is quite nice, and I pretty much agree with everything Gandwarf already mentioned regarding any critiques.

    Looking forward to seeing more.
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    Guild Artisan töff's Avatar
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    You might consider some various terrains such as deserts, swamps, and grasslands. People always put mountains and forests but leave everything else bare.

    It's a really good map, I dig the country shades.

    Estuaries, though. Not too bad, but not brilliant. And this is not the first time I've seen those "shore outline" double (or triple) lines, which don't help the estuaries at all. I need to start and Estuary Police. Problem is, I don't know what to enforce. All I can do is complain :\

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    Guild Journeyer altasilvapuer's Avatar
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    I'd have to agree with most of what's been said, so far, but I also have a slight nitpick about the nation borders.

    The border of a nation usually follows major landmarks - whether they're natural like rivers and mountains, or artificial, like lines of longitude or latitude or something.

    Here, most of your borders are near rivers, but don't follow them, and it causes things to look strange. If there was active fighting there, causing the accuracy of that border to be somewhat in question, then I could maybe see it, but that would probably be better served by some sort of mix of the two neighboring colours (maybe hashed lines of alternating colour or something) indicating a contested area.

    Other than that, great first map!

    -asp

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    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by töff View Post
    You might consider some various terrains such as deserts, swamps, and grasslands. People always put mountains and forests but leave everything else bare.
    This is good advice, but make sure you don't overdo it. Maps can get crowded quickly if you lots of different landscapes in it.
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

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    Guild Artisan töff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gandwarf View Post
    don't overdo it. Maps can get crowded quickly if you lots of different landscapes in it.
    That's true. Everything in moderation.

    But I also want to point out that an RP map especially wants such features for adventuring. If it weren't for RP, you wouldn't need them at all, really.

    I see some slight green shading here & there, and some sandy shading around some coasts that might be intended as beaches. But I think it has to be played up and maybe even labelled. Your players will love you for it.

    But yeh, moderation. You don't have to fill all your space.

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    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    For me, the biggest issue is a contrast in styles. The side view towns(in nice pencil style drawings) don't match with the tree symbols which are solid black and neither of those match with the top down mountains. You have a good start here, but IMO, need to do some clean up work to synchronize the look of the map as a whole.
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    Guild Apprentice ritalee76's Avatar
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    Thanks all for the feedback! I've added some terrain and some trade routes and am looking for some better trees... If anyone knows of a good place to find map-worthy tree brushes, let me know!

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