I have been working on a new map, Grayhaven, for a fantasy game world and my first posting to the site.

I am looking for a good compass rose that I could use on the map, if anyone has some good options they could point out. I was also thinking about putting a nautical bearing line overlay over the sea areas or a map grid overlay over the entire map with latitude/longitude lines but was getting concerned that the map was getting rather busy, again suggestions would be most welcome.

I have also tried hard to think about how the weather patterns that impact Grayhaven. The storms come in from the west and dump their water as they rise over the Dragon Spine and Blackrock mountains ranges. This accounts for the fertile soils and plentiful river beds in the west all dumping their water into the Bay of Fortune and the arid and desert like climates in the east and the drier lands in the southeast.

The narrows is an interesting area, with low land areas and a very shallow sea floor. During extreme tidal conditions Grayhaven becomes connected with the mainland allowing the dangerous creatures from the mainland wildernesses to easily cross the narrows land bridge. Forcing the inhabitants of Grayhaven to build a series of walls to protect their homeland. I would have prefered a waterway, such as a river, to dump water into the fens, but that does not fit with my ideas for the area. I am thinking that the fens are fed from underground aquifirs and from the high tides that wash over the lands making the water in the fens brackish. Does this seem reasonable?

Also if anyone has some good tips for converting color maps into gray scale images that are easy to read, but still retain most of the detail,for printable handouts please let me know.

I welcome your feedback, comments, and critiques.

Thanks,
Brad

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Created in Photoshop and Illustrator.