Hey, /tg/ so I'm going to be running a campaign soon in a custom setting that I've built.
The only problem is that I'm terrible at creating maps, so I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me make a not so terrible map. I did a shitty mock up, but I'm afraid that my artistic skills don't extend much further beyond that.
Here's the mock up I did. And yes, I'm aware of how bad it is.
>>43786986
what style are you looking for?
>>43787044
I'm looking for something sort of like this, with a focus on the terrain. The world is sort of swashbucklery, minus the water. Think more sky pirates.
>>43786978
This is a handy tool: http://inkarnate.com/
I hate to keep bringing this up because it sounds like I'm shilling, but Inkarnate.com is a really pretty browser-based map-making tool for all of us DMs with terrible art skills or no patience. It's not very powerful; you're limited to one map size and the premade icons are kind of ass, but you can make maps very quickly and very easily with it. You can even play around with the scale of the maps if you don't use the icons.
That said, if you want to do more than one landmass, you'll probably have to make separate maps and stitch them together in an actual photo editor, like Photoshop or GIMP. Those are way better and more powerful, but they're time-consuming and the learning curve for making good maps on them is steep.
>>43786986
Try using Inkarnate like this anon suggested >>43787090. It is simple, free, and good. Not incredible or pro-tier, but very good. Last time I used it was missing a few minor features I would have liked to have but I did not need them in the end, more features may have been added since then.
My maps were literally mspaint shit until I started using it. Now they get to be overcluttered shit instead, but they look really shiny and I like them.
Speaking of which I would like opinions on pic related. There's a few things that ignore geology and whatever because of magical bullshit ( demonic desertification and the two central mountains mostly, I hope) but I spent a long enough time on it to be proud of it for whatever reason.
I would link more maps made with it but I cannot find them. Will look harder.
>>43787126
I'll definitely give it a shot. Hopefully it doesn't look too ass.
>>43787139
>>43787139
The terrain types seem too neat - forest stretching to cover everything with no beaches or grasslands is a bit strange. I'd also suggest adding a peninsula or something similar to the northwestern part of the continent, since its shape is very geometrically simple as it is.
>>43787139
That's actually pretty acceptable. There's a lot of nice detail on it.
You might want to play around with the softness of the brushes and think of putting in some more transition shades between the geographical zones, so that grasslands doesn't just drop right into desert and rocks. You could also make the coastlines more chaotic, like that chain of island oop north, but it's fine as it is too.
>>43787162
>>43787170
Yeah I felt one of the problems I had when I was spewing trees everywhere was that I was not really sure where trees should not be. Had completely no idea what kind of conditions could lead to a grassland but felt that was one of the things I was missing.
The shape being off sounds about right, since I literally started with a block and shaved off the sides gradually and turned it into a peninsula. I always felt like I should have done more on the edges, something like, I don't know, scandinavia-ish but less extreme?
The part with the desert is intentionally a kind of stark drop off (demonic bullshit draining life, invasion stopped at forts mostly), but the tundra part is not so perhaps I should fix that. Not really sure how to, though? Make it less of a flat horizontal line or what? Does messing with the softness on the brush kind of magically make it look better?
Here's a political variant of the map with placeholder names because fuck.
>>43787263
>matriarchy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqjcHYTQgQ
>>43787263
I really wish I could make the size of the farmland smaller. Guess I'm just not going to use that stamp.
>>43787302
Asian themed matriarchy, rulers have magic in their blood and are essentially dictators with good PR. Constantly at war with the notRome, uses a lot of expendable militia composed of both genders with military training being mandatory at an early age. Standing armies and commanders are most often female. Some raise intelligent spiders for silk and companionship like dogs. Maybe for battle too, not sure on that yet.
The rooftops in the cities are flat, and covered with gardens full of flowers. The alleyways are narrow, so it is easy to do ninja bullshit like running around on rooftops, but people who get tired of their flowers being trampled might put barbed wire or caltrops or some shit up there so watch the fuck out. Some may even try to incorporate such things with their gardens aesthetically.
Primarily worship a spider goddess. Dudes that follow a monk themed god have monasteries all over and are considered useful to have around due to their excellent craftsmanship and thus allowed to exist with few issues (they also protect villages near them as a plus). Every now and then there is a rare skirmish in the north with the naga over shrines and sites considered holy by both of their patron gods (sites of natural beauty and/or heat usually). A lot of beef with notRome due to lost/scorched land and serious war crimes being committed (on both sides, of course). They leave the elves alone, but would probably pick on them if they were not busy elsewhere.
Any rumors of a resistance movement are unfounded and should be reported immediately to the nearest authority.
>>43787342
Yeah that was one of the features I wish existed back when I was making my map. Kind of surprised it is not in yet, as it seems like it would be fairly simple to add in.
>>43787479
Sounds cool, lad. Totalitarian states can make for great gameplay I find (with the right players).
Do Demons ever bleed through the forest and end up in the Matriarchy's land, or do the elves usually stop them?
Is it a fairly temperate climate in those lands?
What kind of military do they employ? (As in, not!Rome presumably has a predominantly heavy infantry force...)
What's the story behind the island in the bay?
Sorry for bombarding you with questions, just looks like an interesting map!
Well, this first area looks like poop so far. This is surprisingly frustrating. Any advice for the middle/bottom parts? Obviously the top part needs more work, but I'm still trying to figure out what to put there. On that island, it's the capital city. But I'm not sure what I should do for scenery and stuff.
>>43787559
It's really not that bad anon, keep playing with it and filling stuff out, things should start to click as you go on.
>>43787528
The demons mostly stick to that border simply due to having trouble getting past it, but every now and then a group that is not mindlessly trying to consume and destroy everything will slip through the cracks and open portals somewhere by gathering sacrifices, bringing in more demons who either do the mindlessly destroying thing or gather even more sacrifices to make the portal wider to bring in more demons daily. The Demon Fuckers (name pending) have a sect split off from their usual anti-demon forces that go around busting these portals, sending soldiers on suicide missions into the hells with them to close them and do as much damage as possible.
I should really figure out all the weather stuff but I don't really know jack shit about what it 'should' be, so it just kind of is. Matriarchy would be mostly temperate, but a bit chilly near the mountains I suppose? The world is kind of in a giant bubble so prevailing winds and whatever either don't exist or exist exactly as I want them to, I guess.
Matriarchy is heavily focused on polearms/firearms, the latter of which was invented by one of those monks trying to find a way to help the common man deal with monsters. A lot of tercio formation kind of stuff, with husband and wife often taking up the polearm and firearm in tandem.
Nothing too special for the island, it became the capital primarily due to its natural beauty and only has a fairly small population of well off citizens. The cities on the mainland have larger populations and more industry and are just generally more useful. Lots of luxury good production and more theocratic than the rest of the nation.
notRome is kind of hard to explain since it turned into fantasy Roanapur with vampires, alchemist jews, and magical SWAT teams.
I don't mind the questions at all, it helps me go over stuff and I enjoy opinions on it.
Not OP but I'm in the same situation
Thanks for linking Inkarnate, paint just wasn't my thing
>>43787479
>>43787859
Cool, man. Sounds like quite a fun setting, and Matriarchy-land sounds like a great place to explore. I thought from the map that the Demon Fuckers would be some kind of Demon-worshipping/corrupted Human territory, but am I right in thinking it's more akin to something like the Nights Watch in ASOIAF?
How does it function as an independent territory? What do the other nations think of it? Why do they worship the Eldritch Devourer?
Is Velhazar a kind of necro/undead nation?
There, contributing.
My contribution:
Here is a MEGA archive with a load of tutorials on manual map making
https://mega.nz/#F!8pRHnSYS!u2N4HMm5J7WCjBFX7w0rYw
>>43788081
Gonna definitely download that for later use.
>>43788028
I actually never thought of them as the Night's Watch but yeah, same idea. Except with mad scientists and shit splicing demon parts onto their soldiers to make them actually able to have a chance. Pacts, possession, and demon flavored wendigos too.
The chart there with the gods has red for hateful, green for friendly, and purple for patron. A bit outdated, I need to change some of the less fleshed out gods and add lines but it works. The devourer is worshiped by cults next to the water at the bottom of the map, and the squidthing on the map is part of the reason demons don't just go around.
Nyvholt is run by noble houses who don't give a shit about anything that happens more than five feet away from their city so they don't care much about what the Demon Fuckers do unless demons start knocking at their door.
The Greyadins and their Paladin brethren just want to retake and purify what they once had (everything outside Velhazar), so they don't have much of a problem with the Demon Fuckers aside from the part where they churn out half demon soldiers that tend to go insane and/or berserk. The Paladins would make a big fuss over it if they were not so pressed by the undead.
The Wood Elves are allied to the Demon Fuckers, being in the same boat as them after getting over their hatred of using demonic bits but still insisting such things not touch their forest. A lot of half-elves in Demon Fucker land.
Velhazar is run by a council of powerful liches through mutual desire to continue existing so they can continue their research. Mindless undead slaves walk the streets, retrieving materials from the markets, and agents will hire out people to retrieve exotic ingredients and test subjects.
The map is a bubble of life in a world where 99% of everything is dead from demonic incursions after the notBlood War ended, and the population is not aware of this as they have been in the bubble for so long.
My friends wanted a grimdark setting so this is what they got.
>>43788028
Sorry for the walls of text, and sorry I can't explain more in depth. Keep hitting the text limit without even realizing it.
Wish I had more maps to link too.
