Is there such a monster?

[Graeme Brown Winnipeg]

I didn't realize this would start such an interesting conversation. By no means to I underestimate the complexity of true map-making - nor am I looking for a push-button program that makes a real map. I was just wondering if there was something that would create terrain to give me an idea of what is doable or not. At present, though, I do not invest as much time in my map, except as ideas come to me. It builds as I write. In past, I have tried to draw a full-up map and it ends up being unrealistic, because I don't know some of the basic principles of map-making. I was hoping that software might generate something so that I could use it to learn and then modify to make it realistic or as I'd like it. When all is said and done, I'd be taking the generated model and hand-drawing something else, using it as a reference. Many fantasy writer's, for example, take maps of the world and modify it in shape so it looks different, but it's geographic forms are believable.

Anyway, thanks for all your replies. I will check out some of those links as time permits and stop in here again.

[Wirelizard]

I didn't realize this would start such an interesting conversation. By no means to I underestimate the complexity of true map-making - nor am I looking for a push-button program that makes a real map. I was just wondering if there was something that would create terrain to give me an idea of what is doable or not. At present, though, I do not invest as much time in my map, except as ideas come to me. It builds as I write.

Real cities don't get built all at once either, as the famous saying concerning Rome goes.

In his introduction to the Map of Ahnk-Morpork, British author Terry Pratchett says something to the effect of never planning the city and not thinking it was mappable, until he realized that real cities get put together more or less the same way, except instead of authorial whim or the needs of the plot, real cities are shaped by economics, the occasional fire or other disaster, the whims of rulers, that sort of thing.

Maybe keep a sketch map of your nominal city around (or a series of maps), and rather than trying to force the whole thing out at once, come back and add to it a bit at a time, fill in a few details, that sort of thing?