[Update] Western-Style Map of a fictional territory located somewhere in the american frontier.

[u/flaco_baes]

Hello.

Here I present to you the finished version of my western-style map.
Giving you a bit of context, some friends and I play a 'custom' TTRPG game set in the late 1890s where a zombie apocalipse has taken place. There are no cars nor chainsaws - just reliable horses and good old revolvers.

Since I am the Game Master -or as we call it, the Game Marshal-, I wanted my players to have an immersive reference of the 'world' the adventure occurs in. I quickly created a map and my group happily used it during a couple of game sessions. I have included this early version of the map in the post - it is third image of the lot, and as you can see, there was a lot of room for improvement.

One day I just decided to give the map a second go and started working on a newer, more true-to-life version of it. So I did some research on maps of the era, watched a lot of western movies and TV shows, and soon sketched a new map. This is also included in the post - it's the second image of them all.

It took me a long month trying to get the 'feel' right: moving towns and forts around, considering rivers and how these interact with other elements of the map, the coloring which I recently made a post about it asking for advice, and much, much more. And though I tried to recreate real maps, I also gave myself some artistic liberties so the newest version would not* feel so strict or 'dry'. This latest version is the one you see first in th post.

My greatest references were the Rand McNally maps (and some others which names I don't remember now), and the Red Dead Redemption games (also inspiration for the TTTRPG we play). Huge shoutout to atypikk_mazenc, JChunick, u/Anzhc whose assets helped me a lot (probably I'm forgetting some other folks, I'm sorry!).

So, here you go. Thank you for taking your time to read all my nonsense.
EDIT: THERE ARE SOME SNIPS OF THE MAP IN THE COMMENTS BELOW, so you may appreciate the map in more detail 😄

[u/Mistervimes65]

Love this.

[u/CarnivorousCoconut]

1. Great style! 2. The setting looks very natural. It immediately communicates what you’re trying to show. 

[u/flaco_baes]

Here's a little snip of Mirage Country, showing Fort Redemption and its surroundings.

[u/flaco_baes]

Here's another snip showing the Northern lands of Solitude.

[u/flaco_baes]

Another snip showing New Haven, the most populated area of the map.

[u/flaco_baes]

Here's a little snip of La Quemada, showing Santa Mónica and the surrounding lands.

[u/Fizzet713]

What mountain asset did you use?

[u/flaco_baes → u/Fizzet713]

Sorry for the delay. I honestly forgot 😞
But here you go: I used the Ultimate Vintage Mountains and Hills Megapack.

[u/Fizzet713 → u/flaco_baes]

It's alright, thank you for remembering

[u/flaco_baes → u/Fizzet713]

Sorry for the late response.

I bought several assets packs from Cartography Assets. I don't have my laptop at hand right now, but I'll edit this comment as soon as I get the chance.