Cantgetmymaprightitis

[Jasperak]

Area maps... I'm ok at like the large scale view of a continent say... but once I get down to smaller local view... things just look weird. I guess I never feel like I get the scale correct or something.

I think I just need to step back and give it a day or so, then come back to it.

I bet if you were to put up an example of a map you were not happy with, most would either like it or offer constructive criticism.

I'll go first...

EDIT: Scale of the map is 3 miles/hex and is 45 miles wide and 51 miles long

 

[howandwhy99]

Does anyone else suffer from cangetmymaprightitis?

I draw a map, but then I'm just not happy with it, so I end up scrapping it and starting over.

Frustrating.

Oh yeah. Maps are not easy.

My suggestion is to draw them in pencil, colored pencils work great. Plus rulers and protractors for more funky underground dungeon designs.

As for dealing with scope try scanning it, zooming in to your needed level, and then tracing over the printed copy to get the major lines.

 

[weem]

1) Cut a paper grocery bag so it lays down flat

2) Draw out your idea on the "inside" area (aka blank side).

3) Sit back and watch as your worries are swept away by the awesome that is the "omg-its-like-it's-on parchment" effect. Your players won't know what hit em...

My regional map in progress (not that it's great, just giving you an idea)...

 

[GlassJaw]

Cool topic. I like making maps a LOT but I'm definitely a perfectionist. That said, in my years of experience, the map itself has more to do with my own anal-retentiveness than the actual fun it provides in any given session.

I guess my point is that as a map-maker/DM, you have to understand that the map will never be perfect. Go with your gut. You are most likely your harshest critic.

Nail the most important stuff and don't sweat the details.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I've drawn more than my fair share of fantasy maps with obsessive details. The only time I obsess nowadays is when the map is for my own use. When it's going to be used in a session I only ever map in broad strokes.

I've long found that I'm the only one who care for excessive detail or perfection in a map. It even became a bit of a gag in various gaming groups when other players noticed I'd be dwelling on the map we were handed, wondering in my mind what's going on in some other corner of a realm, or wondering what led to some town being settled there and not somewhere else. Or that I'd remark that some map got a basic fundamental principal of geography wrong, or conversely I'd be amazed some map got it right.

So when some new adventure had a map that was offered I was often teased "does this map meet your approval?"

Is it an aesthetic sense that causes you to toss it out and start fresh, i.e. you just can't draw as good as your imagination desires?

Or is it that things just don't end up in the "right" places for where you need them to be?

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

For me the issue always is water. I'm fine until I start on rivers and lakes. I can't help but want them to fit into the overall topography so I start obsessing about how a river can run from point A to point B, the tributaries that feed it and where they originate, where a settlement would be located to access the water, etc. I bog myself down in that until I give up trying to continue the map.

 

[TarionzCousin]

WebMD says that "Cantgetmymaprightitis" can be easily cured with generous doses of Doritos and Mountain Dew.

 

[Oryan77]

Is this a Bigfoot reference?

WebMD says that "Cantgetmymaprightitis" can be easily cured with generous doses of Doritos and Mountain Dew.

Ohhhh, I get it now

I thought he was speaking like Bigfoot from Howard Stern, "Can't get my map right it is". Too bad too, I was going to leave him XP for being a Stern fan