The initial research

[Blather]

Just started receiving my Profantasy software today. Looks like I got everything but the Campaign Cartographer 3 disc, of course. That will not arrive until Monday of next week.

@Hai-etik: Thanks for the info. GIS sounds a little more in-depth than I need to go. As this project is currently for my own personal use and not public. I will probably not get that far. The elevation map is more for me as a DM/game referee. Being somewhat familiar with what differing climates occur at elevation it is more of a storytelling tool than needed for the verisimilitude of the world. I do however love the tutorial you have given. If I were a more technically minded individual I would give it a try.

If I understand correctly, Fractal Terrains is one of the types of noise generating programs you are talking about. Part of my plan is to get the general outline of the world completed. Block off the varying terrain types and then use FT3 to build the noise map. I have had a few suggestions as to how to use the noise map and an image editing program to generate a basic contour map.

Coming SOON!

I will start doing some more hand drawn outlines for scanning tomorrow and will start posting some general information as the terrain types develop.

[Blather]

Here I have done the first hand drawn map layout. This contains the basic outlines of land masses. I plan on using this map to stage out some of the larger details of the world. This would include mountain ranges, major rivers, canyons, volcanic activity as well as the various climates.