Here goes the (not so) silly question! Sizes and dimensions!

[jfrazierjr]

So perhaps a good "rule" is precision wherever possible, but without compromising aesthetics. Yes, for a fantasy map that does make sense. And, and Redrobes points out, it also depends on the scale of the map. If I'm drawing a city map, I should be precise with a river width. But in a world map, that same river could also be very small or not be there at all. Giving undeciphrable information is not to give information at all, so perhaps some things may be omitted for the sake of clarity.

Yea, but with a fantasy map, I would not sweat it to much. remember, people have existed for thousands of years with nonstandard measurement units, until the past few hundred years or so. Again, unless you are working on a topographical map, I would say just be roughly approximate unless it REALLY matters to the story(say, for example "miners" trying to dig into a vault with the police barracks on one side and a river on the other... can't stray more than a couple of inches either way or your toast....

Also, nice thought, jfrazierjr, with the travel time routes, but I think that would only work with organized routes. Otherwise, one still needs to convert travel time depending on travel method. Still, a map that shows the "standard" routes would be cool.

Lukc (and Redrobes, if he is the author), is there any chance a digital copy of the map could be linked here somewhere? Would love to see it!

Heh.. yea.. like perhaps hand drawn notes or something. Some of the past Challenge entries (several years old) have concepts like this. I would high encourage everyone to look at the past challenges, they are a goldmine of inspiration.... I can't remember who did it, but someone(2-3 years ago) did a map while was as much journal as map and it was totally freaking hilarious, and in multiple handwriting from the point of view of the characters where they got a map from someone, and traveled to the locations and found out stuff was not quite as presented on the map....

[Morgan]

Yea, but with a fantasy map, I would not sweat it to much. remember, people have existed for thousands of years with nonstandard measurement units, until the past few hundred years or so. Again, unless you are working on a topographical map, I would say just be roughly approximate unless it REALLY matters to the story(say, for example "miners" trying to dig into a vault with the police barracks on one side and a river on the other... can't stray more than a couple of inches either way or your toast....

Yes, I wrote wherever possible, but I meant accuracy with "groups of features", and a good degree of approximation towards the general scale. For example, if river A is half a mile wide, and river B is a mile wide, I'd want to draw river B twice as wide as A, even if their widths are not in scale with the full map. So I get the information that B is wider that A even with a quick glance, but I'll never need to really measure it.

Heh.. yea.. like perhaps hand drawn notes or something. Some of the past Challenge entries (several years old) have concepts like this. I would high encourage everyone to look at the past challenges, they are a goldmine of inspiration.... I can't remember who did it, but someone(2-3 years ago) did a map while was as much journal as map and it was totally freaking hilarious, and in multiple handwriting from the point of view of the characters where they got a map from someone, and traveled to the locations and found out stuff was not quite as presented on the map....

Thanks for the hint! I will definitely go and dig in older threads. I'm very curious, especially for the journal map you've talked about!

[Gidde]

Heh.. yea.. like perhaps hand drawn notes or something. Some of the past Challenge entries (several years old) have concepts like this. I would high encourage everyone to look at the past challenges, they are a goldmine of inspiration.... I can't remember who did it, but someone(2-3 years ago) did a map while was as much journal as map and it was totally freaking hilarious, and in multiple handwriting from the point of view of the characters where they got a map from someone, and traveled to the locations and found out stuff was not quite as presented on the map....

It was Coyotemax. God I loved that map. The challenge thread is here, but the last WIP and the finished map thread attachment are both missing

[Morgan]

Oh, my! That is sooooo cool! :O