Hello everyone, here today to talk about the map making process for Nalalii, the medium sized island that the new Dicelocke campaign will be taking place on.
This is the fastest map I've ever produced, and I'm quite pleased with it considering it only took me 4 days to make it! You can see here the map progression at the end of each day, with the first image being the first day, and the last image being the final version.
The process goes something like this
Mountains FirstThese define much of the shape of our land, along with the hydrology which I'm coming more and more to believe is the most important part of map making. Mountains form our backbone, they tell us where the high ground is, they imply low ground, and they give us the key visual landmarks that in-world characters who don't have access to satellite photography or modern mapping would use to travel around.
In this map, the placement of mountains (and forests) is key to some navigational principles. See, in this setting there is a rather large perception filter over the central mountains. This filter doesn't block the mountains from view, but it does trick the viewer's brain into thinking they're a background detail. For that reason, we need lots of other mountains nearby so that a person using a mountain as a landmark could easily get it confused with a different mountain. Wherever you are, you're going to be able to see at least 3 ranges, all of which are forested to some level. The deeper into the woods you go, the easier it is to get lost and turned around, and the more likely you are to use one of the non-filtered mountains as your landmark. Obviously this magic doesn't make a ton of sense from an overhead point of view, but from a boots-on-the-ground approach, it's fantastic.
Rivers and Lakes NextFiguring out how the water flows is the next most important thing. Rivers mark the low points in the ground and help define where things can grow, what things are inhospitable, and where settled civilizations are likely to arise - everyone needs fresh water.
However, you don't need the exact location of rivers. You need their general idea. So you'll see that i have pretty loose rivers right up until the end of it. Lakes, similarly, help give shape to the land, and can be used to denote large, low, flat areas.
HillsI botched this step. Normally I like to do hills around this point in time, but I took a look at this map and said, "nah, I don't need no hills". Then after I placed my woods I said, "oh, I really could use some". Kind of a pain, slowed me down, but overall it worked out.
Forests & SwampsNow that we have all the elevation and waterways settled, it's time to do forests. Forests form where there is enough rainfall or groundwater to support lots of plant life, so we put them near mountains (which are places of higher rain fall compared to their surroundings), along coasts if the wind patterns are right, and along well hydrated soil areas - like swamps, lakes, and rivers.
Swamps are essentially shallow lakes where life can thrive, so we place them in places where there are low spots, or when rivers meet bays or seas from a low enough angled approach. Swamps are a very fun biome to work with. You can't quite boat about them, and you can't quite walk about them, so they hide all sorts of stuff, they get in the way of PCs, they're a pain to explore, and they can have all sorts of fun critters!
I tried something new with swamps this time. I'm not sure if I like the ones on the coastline, and I might actually change that before we run the game, but I do really like the one in the middle of the valley.
Grasslands & DesertsThese biomes are ones of exclusion. They are where the water is not. Grasslands get some rainfall, but not enough to be forests. Deserts get little to no rainfall. Sometimes these areas form in depressed basins where if the rain cycles shifted they could become lakes. In the real world, there are some deserts that do become temporary lakes every few years and then dry out again.
These biomes get both a little symbol to tell you what you're looking at, and coloration of the ground to really sell the quantity of life. Deserts I tend to do in reds and brows. Grasslands in yellow or beige, forests in green, jungles or rainforests in dark green, and swamps.... I'm still figuring out how to do them.
I hope you enjoy the maps and the campaign!
gl hfNeal / Koibu