Looking for some critiques of my map

[Obsidiax]

Hey guys, pretty straight forward thread, I'm planning my very first large-scale campaign thanks to finally living near a group of friends who are interested in playing regularly.

Since this is my first time making a large map rather than something to be used for a one-shot I could really do with some feedback on the functionality of the map, especially concerning travel times and scale. The map is intended to be a set of islands rather than a large continent or world map but I would like it to last us for a very long time, though I suppose the freedom of planning a set of islands rather than a world map is that I can always expand by adding more islands or larger continents if more content is required.

I've added markers for cities and villages that I feel would be in specific locations such as fishing towns being near cities by the sea and trade towns being at crossroads or province borders however I intend to give the players a copy of the map and tell them to mark unique locations (that I improvise) such as small hamlets or manor houses etc as we play.

So with all that out of the way, here's the map.

[Falconius]

It's a pretty cool map, I really like the terrain features you've drawn. If I had to guess from the features and spread of towns, I'd think that main island is roughly the size of Ireland, or maybe a bit smaller. I find that I have to know the scale I'm working at before hand when I map, so I might suggest you just choose something, even arbitrarily, but more likely in terms of the travel times you want to achieve, and then work from there. This might help you with travel times: http://orbis.stanford.edu It's an interactive map of Roman travel times that someone here linked to a while ago in the resources forum.

[Obsidiax]

I honestly didn't put a lot of thought into the scale (probably a mistake) I just started drawing and then decided that I didn't want an enormous amount of travel time. The idea was to create something that isn't exactly large in terms of size but has a lot of depth so the players will be finding things quite frequently.

Perhaps I should upscale it or try creating a larger island for the players to explore further into the game.

[Abu Lafia]

Hi Obsidiax and welcome to the Guild! I agree with Falconius, the hand drawn terrain looks really great. The general shape of the islands is good too, but in my view, the coastline looks a bit too pixellated and the circular bays to regularly shaped (like gnawed by mice or so ) compared with the lovely smooth terrain. Btw., what software did you use to make the non hand-drawn parts?

[Obsidiax]

Hey Abu Lafia thanks, glad you like the hand-drawn parts, they were a lot of fun to do.

I made the whole map in photoshop, the main islands were still technically 'hand drawn' they were just done with blotchy brushes that create irregular shapes - these ones in fact https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGYEqQshfIQ

[Robulous]

Very nice start. Great shape and detail, I particularly like the travel-time scale, that's interesting. One odd thing, the outer glow shadowing makes it look a little like it's floating above the background, perhaps not make it quite so dark.

[Obsidiax]

Thanks Robulous, glad you like it the travel-time scale is really for utility since the map's going to be used for a Runequest Campaign, I'll need to be able to tell the players how long it will take for them to go from one city to the next.

Also as a bit of an aside (and as future reference to myself) I've just measured the map at it's widest points and it would take around 24 days to walk top to bottom and 27 days to walk east to west at its widest points so assuming the characters are walking for about 8 hours a day at 4mph that would be 32 miles a day.

So the map is very roughly 768 miles tall and 864 miles wide, making it a little bit taller than Britain and almost three times as wide.

[jpstod]

I like the simplicity and Lack of to much details. It appears more like a old map than a newer detailed map would be. I like to add details later also on a different map.
A City can be detailed later on a different map. I use Myinfo to track Campaign details so I can easily add Maps to it. I can Map a Region then add City Maps, then add Structures..a Simply click and I can pull up each Map. and Not change the Originals. An Added plus it that I can also add a Description and detail outside of the Map.

[Serpe]

Wonderful map!
I agree with the others about the beautiful hand drawn terrain.

Being really picky I could point to the island borders that look darker than the terrain, you may try to lighten them and see if the result looks better.