Hello all, my name is Richard. I'm a long time role-player and designer and I've been in the off and on process of designing my on fantasy game/world for nearly a decade.

I would like to be pointed in the direction of places to learn about the stuff that goes on the map. The mountains, the forest, the rivers, lakes, jungles, hills, deserts, etc. Essentially the geography and the terrain. I've done a brief bit of searching on here and I've found some good stuff on how to "make" that stuff but ya see, I'm a photoshop professional - I've used it for nearly 13yrs both personally and professionally. I know how to make stuff, I'm an artist by trade and I have the chops to make it look elegant (something I'd help others with by the way).

What I need is the reason? I don't know enough about basics of geography to have it make sense - even for a fantasy world. I may create the most beautiful map ever but if my rivers don't flow from the right places or in the right directions (I know, they flow down), then its a bit off. Is it plausible to have cold mountains in the south? Can the dwarves trade with nomads if the dwarves come from mountains and nomads from deserts? That means, can i put a desert next to a mountain range?

I dont need tons of heavy detail about plate tectonics and magnetic reasoning for the tides but just some accuracy. Either a post or some links that can break it down efficiently. Sort of "geographic accuracy for fantasy maps 101" would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all and hello. I'd be glad to help out on the design end of things.