Modern Maps tips and tricks

[Midgardsormr]

For modern maps, I prefer a vector approach, with Illustrator or Inkscape. Modern life is far less about the terrain that a fantasy or historical map tends to show, and wayfinding is much easier, but there is a lot more information to be had. So a very textured, satellite style map is less useful than something that looks more like a typical road atlas.

While designing, I like to think a bit about the history of a city in order to do something interesting with it. Did it spring up around a railway line? Gallup, NM is stretched out along mostly one side of a rail line. The expense of creating crossing points in a relatively poor community limited growth north of the rails for many years. Did the original city planners try to orient the city at 45 degrees to the cardinal directions? They did that in Denver, so the center of town is twisted in relation to the rest of the city. Some of the neighborhoods in that area have peculiar 5-way intersections where the suburbs met the old city.

I haven't done a lot of this kind of map design, and I don't think I've ever carried a city map out to completion. Usually I just scribble it on a piece of notebook paper and use it only for very general reference, or I use a real-world city and just use Google Maps in-game. I usually try to keep actual locations rather vague so that nobody can call me on an inconsistency later!

[Vinoex]

One thing I've done in GIS is use a historical map as the background image for the data I'm trying to show. Basically, you just get a high resolution scan of the historical map and geo-reference it on a few known points. It will not be extremely accurate, but it does make a pretty map.