A map or two from a new member

[rpgmapmaker]

Well there is no right or wrong way to make anything on a "made up" map IMO... but I would start with looking at Google maps for a little while and see where we build out towns at... in terms of spacing and location.

There are a few factors when placing a town or city onto geography.

food/water sources
Population decadency
Time frame or technology level of the society
When the region was colonized... on said "time frame/tech tree"

If you have a society that is primitive and food is plentiful then there would be many small towns. This is one reason why there are so many small towns in the British Isles. If the population and tech level is higher then there is a congregation toward larger more spread out cities...

As in America the tech level and such lead to the colonies being based around larger cities near main ports for supply and so forth.

Of course there are many more things to consider but that should give you something to think about.

Note: If your map were based on a work fiction then some placement would be decided for you.

Something like this would be what I might do... this was quick so not perfect or a golden rule...



-Chris

[Jiawen]

As for the "too many" critique, I guess I disagree. The number of villages is just about in line with what there should be, from my research. If anything, the density might be too low -- but I can't work with a map much larger than what it is now.

rpgmapmaker, I've done quite a bit of research for this project already. I know pretty well what the land conditions, history, resources, etc. of the regions mapped are. I'm working on the map concurrently with a conlang or two, a fairly detailed history, climatology, etc.

It's actually really hard to find maps of medieval Europe that show how villages were distributed. I've got a few books that show, say, a small valley and its villages, or the settlements around a given town, but nothing that shows a larger scale. Lots of maps show the distribution of towns and cities, but few actually show smaller villages. (Then again, I'm not that great at doing research. I'm sure there are avenues I've missed.) The closest I've found so far is some maps of 17th century Nottinghamshire. Certainly not the period I'm aiming for (I'm going for approximately Norman Invasion levels of technology), but at least pre-industrial. And, I have to say, the distribution of towns on my map looks very similar to what I'm seeing on those maps.

I don't think I understand the additions you made. Are the red dots cities and the yellow dots castles? Please explain.

[Jiawen]

Thinking more about it, it still seems to me like the roads are the main problem. I didn't really design any major roads that lead from major settlement to major settlement, just minor roads that go from village to village, some of which incidentally happen to link up towns and cities. That feels like an area where I should put in some more work. It'd make it feel more naturalistic (at least to me) to put in major roads linking major settlements, then have more of the small paths be offshoots from those, rather than all roads being roughly equivalent. That would reduce the feel that all the roads are on a strict grid.

It doesn't necessarily match the history of the island -- there has never been a major conquering technological power with a love of straight stone roads, unlike England had with the Romans -- but still, major settlements are likely to be connected by larger, more solidly built roads.

[Midgardsormr]

Keep in mind that a road doesn't necessarily have to be "built." "The path is made by walking upon it," as the philosopher said.

[rpgmapmaker]

Okay... sorry for not explaining more. The red dots are Cities and the yellow dots are towns. But I do not disagree with you that there will be that many "small" villages in the world you have made. I do not have any real knowledge of the makeup of its population and such... but I think the majority of the "you need less" comments are based mostly on the scale and style of the map.

Also I agree that the roads give the world a "Borg" take over feel... and you are right that they should be focused on travel between the larger cities. each road should "hit" as many places as posible on its path.

Based on the scale of the map the roads to the villages (as well as the villages themselves) do not need to be shown on the main map.

Every map has a reason for being... some show overall land shape and general information, some elevation and topography, while others are a closer look at the human element. I think you might be trying to show too much in the same map... notice that in your own explanation of the map you neutrally saw the need to give several different zoom levels... and that is how a world of this depth should be presented. Here is a "quick" example of what I mean:




Again this is my opinion and more for ascetic purposes than informational... as you may have "game play" or other reasons for wanting to document where all the villages are on one map. I do not claim to be an expert… this is just my two cents.

P.S. please just know that it really is meant to be a castle layout in the lower window... hehehe

-Chris

[pyrandon]

Interesting conversation here! I've learned lots from the back and forth--and how nice we can all have an intellectual discussion about this important feature of fantasy cartography, learning from one anothers' expertise. Good job to all. Stop by my office & I'll distribute your gold star to you in person, as well as a laurel and hardy handshake.

[RobA]

Ha - "Kingdom of Template".

Like that

-Rob A>