Diversified fantasy map

[Lukc]

Ad 1: Well, details ... depends. If they're too small or not there, you don't have to map them. If they're unimportant to what you're trying to convey, you don't have to map them. If they're small locations, just use an icon like a triangle, asterisk or something similar - like in tourist maps where points of interest are indicated.

Ad 2: Symbols - this depends on scale and flavour. There's nothing wrong with drawings, just as there is nothing wrong with using simple icons (circles, squares, triangles) or just plain old dots. If the scale is very large, using just dots will convey that and leave the map uncluttered. You can always draw little cities to give flavour to the map, though to my mind it may be unnecessary.

Ad 3: Symmetry. Well, again, a matter of choice. The mountains are just abstract representations that say "here be uplands" while forests abstractly state "here be dense vegetation". I don't think they need rescaling, it's an aesthetic choice how large you want to depict them! For a sense of scale, a scale bar, a border or a graticule/grid would be a simpler solution than redrawing the mountains.

Ad 4: I don't think it looks like a map for 3 villages, to me it looks like quite a few large islands surrounded by shallow seas and straits.

Ad 5: Ok!

[Methusalem]

Yo hi,

I did what you said. Do you have an idea how I could draw swamps? I want a mystical swamp on one of the smaller island with the prison ... so it will look scary.

Now I have another problem. Should I draw streets or not? I did it before ... but there I had a lot more cities and finally it looked totaly crazy.

I saw that "Schwarzkreuz" just indicate some main roads ... he never connects all cities etc.

In this map I had first all border lines drawn but it made the map look wrong ... so now I decided to give little hints with just little borderlines.

I guess here is a tutorial for labeling cities etc., right?

I think I also need some structure for the papereffect ... some thick lines or something.