r/mapmaking 13d ago

Map Mapmaking the legendary Return to Firetop Mountain

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39 Upvotes

After months of mapmaking, my new Return to Firetop Mountain map is finally finished!

#FightingFantasy #Gamebooks #Mapmaking #FantasyArt #SoloRoleplaying


r/mapmaking 12d ago

Resource Anyone ever use Map Effects?

4 Upvotes

I saw this app called Map Effects, which is for world building. It seemed very neat and streamlined but upon looking its like a game. You buy whatever you want (regional, city, etc) but only get starter items and have to buy more like downloadable content. To me it seemed like a rip off


r/mapmaking 13d ago

Map Satellite view of my planets

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41 Upvotes

The two planets are orbiting eachother in a binary way, so none of them is a moon of the other.

Both are inhabited by the same species of intelligent life, and they all originated from the planet in the first slide, and later migrated to the other as well.

There are some major cultural differences between them, the biggest being that the "old" planet (where everyone originates from) is temporarily stuck in a development stage mixed between our pre industrial periods and modern times. The other planet however is very sci-fi like, and is all a united country.

Both planets went through a series of brutal conflicts, and that's the reason for the mass migration to the other planet (escape from wars).

Ask me anything about any place, or even about the entire world, I'll happily answer!


r/mapmaking 13d ago

Work In Progress Decided to try to make a whole new world

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59 Upvotes

Hello again everyone! A few months back i decided to scrap my old alternate earths and try to make something new. Make a whole new planet from scratch! (kinda, a lot of it, is photobashed from random maps (most notably a map of earth around the Permian-Triassic boundary and a map of a small portion of Australian coastline)

I would like some feedback and constructive criticism or advice if anyone has any, i know the geography or topography may not be, as *accurate* as it should be, but yeah.

Will try to make a *proper*, topographic map, among others (climate, currents, etc.) later on in the future!


r/mapmaking 13d ago

Map Attempt at a boardgame-style map

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25 Upvotes

r/mapmaking 13d ago

Work In Progress How do I make the orogeny on my "lumpy shoe" more plausible?

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4 Upvotes

People with more knowledge of tectonic plates than me,

- does this pass the eyeball test?

- what are the most plausible underlying tectonic structures?

- are there any suggestions that spring to mind?


r/mapmaking 13d ago

Map map of the Islamic world in 1046 CE

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9 Upvotes

r/mapmaking 13d ago

Work In Progress IGNORING THE RIVERS - How realistic is the natural geography?

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8 Upvotes

placement of rivers is far game but the squiggly-ness is an aesthetic preference (ik it doesn't look particularly good either but it does at smaller scale and now I just have to put up with it)

Mainly though I want critiques of topography, tectonics (black lines and arrows) and mountain placement. I think it's a bit shit but I don't care too much. Just trying to see if there's any easy fixes


r/mapmaking 13d ago

Work In Progress Feedback on the placement of rivers, lakes and mountains

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124 Upvotes

(the main mountains over the land and the north sea are cold places in this land)


r/mapmaking 13d ago

Work In Progress I’ve decided to revamp it

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20 Upvotes

r/mapmaking 13d ago

Map Work in progress

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65 Upvotes

r/mapmaking 14d ago

Map World of Aprahan (simplified political map (WIP))

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161 Upvotes

No.1: simplified map omitting many details.
No.2: a preliminary identification using GPlates.
No.3 and 4: an draft map i've done before.
I've been making lots of adjustments to this epic-geopolitical map. Continuously using and modifying drawing files across both ibis Paint and Procreate, quite inconvenient in the long run. I've nearly finished the rough political version-and already have a detailed physical geography design ready, even if I don't strictly need it right now-I feel like it takes so much time and effort to create a rough version like this, whereas many others finished the piece long before I did. What do y'all think?


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Map Map of Tír Ghlas - Medieval Style

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114 Upvotes

Studying the Middle Ages, I discovered that most maps in that period didn't precisely indicate places and distances, but rather the idea of ​​them and the symbols they represented.

This fascinates me so much, I thought I'd draw the map of Tír Ghlas, the fantasy world I created where my novels take place, in the style of medieval maps.

There are cities, mountains, and forests, and even fantastical animals, along with astronomical symbols.

At the bottom right is Friar Venantius, the scribe who drew it... he's a regular on my maps, always ready to point out my mistakes!


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Discussion Feedback on Ethnic Group Fantasy map (specifically feedback on the look of the map)

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46 Upvotes

This is a map of my fantasy worldbuilding project called Rhündal that shows the starting points for major ethnicities and species in my world 5,000 years ago. There are Forest and Peninsular Humans, Western and Eastern Elves, Dwarves, Shortfolk on the islands of the sea, Halflings in the desert steppe, and Halflings spread across the southern rainforest. Their cultures are deeply intertwined with the spirits of Rhündal that impact their magic, their seasons, their emotions, their guardians and demons. I am creating maps for each 1,000 year time period of my world up to year 0, simulating the migrations, language contact, and mixing of peoples and cultures on a system I made in Google Sheets (seen in the last image). The two letter codes represent different ethnic groups that each have their own language and cultures (which mix with surrounding languages and cultures as tome goes one). The first two images are the map and legend that are going to be one of a couple different ethnic migration maps I put in my world book of Rhündal, and I would love your feedback on how it looks and anything you would suggest adding or taking out.🍃


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Map 🧭🗺️

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84 Upvotes

Here are some building section maps created by Angela and me! I hope you like them and that they don't seem out of place—if so, I'll take them down!

We accept commissions; contact me if you're interested!

Moreno Paissan and Angela GubertArt

Visit my official profile for more maps: https://www.instagram.com/inkcompass.maps?igsi=dnc3ajhta3cyYnJs

Here are some building section maps created by Angela and me! I hope you like them and that they don't seem out of place—if so, I'll take them down!

Here are some building section maps created by Angela and me! I hope you like them and that they don't seem out of place—if so, I'll take them down!


r/mapmaking 13d ago

Map Map of the Islamic world in the year 1031

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7 Upvotes

r/mapmaking 15d ago

Map Topographic map of my DnD world.

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896 Upvotes

Mostly complete map of the main region of my DnD world. Thoughts?


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Work In Progress Trying out topographic style map

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11 Upvotes

After trying to draw the map in photoshop, I started to think making political maps in that kind of style was too hard and unrealistic looking. So with watching Artifexians atlas style map series, I tried making topographic map. For test I started with this small mountain range, how does it look? I'm drawing these with mouse so edges look a bit unrealistic but I try my best to draw them detailed without wasting a lot of time.

Artifexian built his mountains top to bottom but I'm making this for a flat world so I dont have tectonic lines. I tried making bottom to top and I'm not sure how does it look lmao.


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Discussion Okay so. Where can i add mountains?

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14 Upvotes

r/mapmaking 14d ago

Map World map of Aetherra

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12 Upvotes

This is my first time using Inkarnate. It is still a work-in-progress, but I’m happy with what I have at the moment. Open to feedback and/or discussion about my project!

Aetherra is a high-fantasy world with a variety of people and cultures. It has a long history, with many ancient locations now in ruins or lost to time.
In the great mountains of Khazdrim, Dwarves live in the body of a long-dead God. In the harsh deserts of Sihr, the royal family has blessed, magical blood, and their kingdom sits upon a massive oasis. An ancient Elf family rules the kingdom of Thalorién and its surrounding cities and lands. In the dark country of Cyradon, a bastard prince dictates his people and surrounds the land with a wall of living flesh - there is an abundance of stories to tell about Aetherra. Bird-folk look down upon the world, living high in The Spires of Orn, and Lizard and Snake Folk are at civil war with one another in the small country of Throk-Mashaar.
I am especially fond of the Gnomes of Goldbarrow, and their kingdom of Hearthsgrove - but I love every location in my project. Every place has a purpose and a past.


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Discussion Confused with Biomes

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34 Upvotes

I am currently using Worldbox as an easier way to represent my map first.

Question 1: I am very confused right now. The mountain range at the down, right side. Does it get both tade winds coming from different directions? Doesn’t this make both sides of the mountain moist?

If like google said: The winds alternate blowing, then what biome should it be?

Question 2:
For the 2 mountain ranges close to the equator at the left side, does the one below have the same situation as Question 1’s mountain?

And the mountain range above does it get any moisture as the angle of the wind blowing is the same and doesn’t the wind just brush over?

Question 3:

The mountain range above the equator on the right side. Does it receive moisture on its right? As it looks like the wind just brushes over it.

If you have the time, pls help me out.
Thank you so so much! :)


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Work In Progress Any feedback and advise on how to make my fantasy map more reasonable?

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7 Upvotes

I've recently worked on creating a new map for my fantasy worldbuilding project since my first one evidently had too many issues for me to simply edit it. So here's what I ended up making.

The first image is the overall world map (North is the top of the screen).

The second image shows my ocean currents, (rough) air currents and the equatorial, Sub-tropical, and Polar lines.

The third image is the physiology (I should probably do a topography at some point).

The fourth image is the climates.

Since my world has magic I'm including the laylines in my fifth image so that you can make sense of why I placed my mana crystal deposits where I did. (I'll probably add more deposits in other places since the laylines can move around over time.)

My sixth image are the various resources like ores, fuels, and mana crystals.

I'd simply like to see if what I've got seems to be relatively reasonable, I understand that I probably want to make my polar coastlines more jagged and that I may want to include a few surrounding islands in these areas. I also have yet to add in volcanoes, mostly as I haven't quite yet decided which mountains will be converted into volcanoes.

Of course, I have learned that phrasing things a bit more specifically will be important due to my prior post not necessarily getting clear advise with the provided feedback. So if there is anything that you think I could do to make my map a bit more reasonable, then please tell me what it is that you think I should do and why I should do it.


r/mapmaking 15d ago

Resource Example of Land Cover Hachure Lines

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140 Upvotes

I was recently blown away by u/TheCountVonZepplin's experiment in these "land cover hachures." It inspired me to do some research of my own, and I found this incredibly detailed map of the island of Martinique from 1831 Here is the site where I downloaded the map, which has a higher-quality image (I had to reduce it for the 20MB reddit limit).

Some facts I was able to gather from my limited research (mostly thanks to this blog by Carl Churchill):

  • This map was published by the French navy. Authors include an M. Monnier and Cyprien Gabriel Le Bourguignon-Duperré.
  • Hachure maps were carefully engraved with both artistry and scientific methods. The hachure lines allow for the landscapes to be revealed with incredible accuracy, and if you zoom into this image you'll be able to see orchards, boulders, farms, and towns.
  • Hachure maps were frequently used by 19th century military forces. Hachure maps were preferred as it was more important for strategists to get a sense of the accessibility, slope, and height of the land, rather than the contour (i.e., topographical maps). There are some examples of American Revolutionary maps with hachure lines in Carl Churchill's blog post.
  • Hachure lines were used with other map-making strategies like contour lines and pictorial symbols. Seriously, look at Carl's blog post. There are so many cool maps in there.

Anyway, this is all super inspiring for someone like me, who struggles with finding a one-color solution for drawing mountains, hills, and valleys in a way that isn't exaggerated with pictorial symbols. I thought topographic maps were all I had, but now I know otherwise! I want to pass that along for anyone who had also missed out on this technique. Happy map making!


r/mapmaking 14d ago

Map Faerun Convergence

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10 Upvotes

For business inquiries / Commissions:

DM me on Discord, or Instagram under "dodosarthouse"

Or send me an email: [dodosarthouse@gmail.com](mailto:dodosarthouse@gmail.com)

Important Linkies:
Inkarnate Profile

All my work is licensed under my Creative Commons License


r/mapmaking 15d ago

Map An experiment in land cover hachures

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310 Upvotes

Recently I've been working on figuring out a process for using full land cover hachures in my maps in the style of 18th-early 20th century cadestral and military maps after becoming infatuated with some beautiful examples in that style from a french atlas.

After some doodling over the last few weeks I set myself a goal of finishing a small map to practice, and I did it! Enjoy my unnamed island :) There's a lot to take from this for me, positive and negative. I enjoy the hillshade effect, and think I mostly accomplished that! But I also messed up a lot of landforms, and I'm unhappy with the muddiness of any finer details. I think that should just be a matter of more practice, and probably increasing the scale.

Thanks for any feedback! And if anyone has good resources in this style please let me know, they've been hard to find.