I’ve been thinking about maps, and more importantly, I’ve been thinking about how this blog is lacking a good article on map making. Players love maps, dm’s love maps, everyone loves a good map. I only have one problem, I have no skills when it comes to cartography. Sure, I can place a couple of trees in photoshop over a continent, that’s not a problem, but I am bad at the logical and realistic placement of rivers, trees, forests, and lakes.
I am working on a solution though, and hopefully within the next couple of days I will announce a series of guest articles by someone way better than me on the topic of map making. But I need your help. I need to know what kind of articles on the subject you’d find interesting. What is it about RPG maps that you’d like to read about? What maps do you want to see tutorials for? Battle maps, or maybe world maps? Leave me comments below, or shoot me an email at newbiedm@newbiedm.com
This is one subject I can’t really blog about, because I just don’t have the skills, experience, or patience. Map making is tedious work, but it is very rewarding. I’ve been working on my campaign map for a while now, but the fact that I can’t really do it with skill just honestly turns me off. I don’t want someone asking me “Why would a river be there?”, you know what I mean? So I just avoid drawing it.
Either way, here is my work in progress:
In the interest of full disclosure, the style is a bad attempt based on a map I saw at the Cartographers Guild that blew me away. My apologies to the artist, Bohunk on the Cartographer’s Guild forums, for the complete and utter ripoff attempted on my part. Rest easy knowing my map will never be as great as yours.
So, if I could get some suggestions on what kind of map advice you’d like to see here, please let me know.
www. Newbie DM .com 
xerosided
July 12, 2009
I’m interested in the same issues you have: appropriate placement of mountains, rivers, forests, and other geographical features. I can handle the rest.
Aside from that, there are so many different ways to draw/render the actual maps that no tutorial can be definitive or comprehensive… but that doesn’t mean another tutorial or two won’t be appreciated by newbie mapmakers. And I’m always looking for a few new techniques to add to my repertoire.
CC
July 12, 2009
Before you get too far, you should check out the excellent podcast “Fantasy Cartography with Photoshop”: http://www.zombienirvana.com/?page_id=67
jonathan
July 12, 2009
@NewbieDM – Nevermet Press is currently looking for amateur or professional gratis cartographers looking to work as part of a team on individual small projects. So, drop me a line if you (or anyone else) want to get involved.
Bog97th
July 12, 2009
Articles on creating map icons for your CC or Fractal mapper software.
Many sites list how to make maps with different software but I have not seen any on creating symbols used for the software alone.
Anarkeith
July 12, 2009
Don’t hesitate to pull terrain from the real world and drop it into your map. Drop by the library and pick up a kids picture book on geology or geography. It’ll be a quick read, and explain runoff, uplift, and the other forces that sculpt the land. And there will be pictures. I use these a lot for flavor in describing places like swamps (grab a book on wetlands). Just pick three or four tidbits, change names, and run with ’em.
Recently I’ve been just using existing landforms and relocating them to my gameworld. The Phillipines has become my Atlantis, for example.
Spenser
July 12, 2009
In my personal experience, world maps are relatively simple. I’d be far more interested in articles on city mapping.
DrOct
July 13, 2009
I’m certainly interested in just about all aspects of map making, from large geographical maps to city maps. But my personal main interest is in making battle maps with grids etc. I like the concept of dungeon tiles, but find them to be a bit more expensive than I want them to be for what they are, I’d love to be able to make my own (what software to use, how to set up the grid, draw the terrain etc), and to learn a bit more about how to put them together in interesting ways to make a good battle.
Richard
July 13, 2009
For city maps, check out architectural land planning books. I work in an architectural office so I come upon land planning a bit better than world landscaping. Hopefully the web has resources that can be tapped for land planning.
Claus
July 15, 2009
I am more interested in the middle ground of local landscaping. I have a nice grasp on how tectonic plates work, so I like my world-scale maps. But when it come to country-sized/region sized maps, I get a bit lost with limits between forests, swamps, rivers, deserts, plains, hills, etc.