D&D General Dnd map review

[Gator dm]

Recently I drew a map for my dnd campaign (homebrew setting and story) and I would like to have a feedback before placing settlements, names and other illustrations like sea monsters. My initial goal was to do something sober and immersive, like the map has been made by a cartographer NPC. Does the result match my Intentions ? suggestions, comments and critics are welcome ! : )

 

[aco175]

I think it is a great map and must have taken you a long time to get this far. It should fit your intend well. I do see several circle islands and some sort of typhoon symbol. Not sure what they are and if they are more for your campaign.

I had a campaign back in 3e where each PC started with a map. Each had some unique features on them that the others did not. Some overlapped and all had the major features. It took them a while before figuring out that they each had some unique things the others did not. It was a good roleplaying moment.

 

[Oofta]

First, the map looks awesome! It's an interesting coastline with a lot of variation to it, it looks pretty cool.

However you asked for criticism, so here goes

• Too many mountains, not enough mountain chains. For the most part mountains form where tectonic plates collide. Think of mountins like rumples in a sheet, or if you took a flattened pie crust and push it together. Zoom out of google maps sometime and you can pretty much tell where those plates met.
• Concentric circle islands - if there's a reason for these, cool. If not, there are too many.
• Rivers: think about how the water is going to flow. Water is going to find the easiest path to the ocean. They also "join" they don't split. You seem to do that here:
  
• Rivers also tend to go to bays
• Not enough lakes. There are a lot of rivers, all that water would pool somewhere.

So basically, the coastline is fine, think tectonic plates and mountain ranges (I'd also throw in some hilly areas, maybe rugged and so on) how water is going to flow. Basically, tectonic plates collide and lift land, rain erodes it away as it seeks the ocean.

Good luck!

 

[aco175]

Also to note, this is a giant world map and few in history were very accurate for something of this scale until WW2. As you zoom you can add much more detail. I have copied a world map from long ago for reference.

 

[LordEntrails]

What @Oofta says.

It's a very pretty map, but you have too many things that defy the physical world. Some is great for a fantasy world, but do you want magical explanations for all of them? .

I always look at rivers. As Oofta said, plus;

• you have a river that runs parallel to the coast line for way to long or without mountains/hills to keep it from going to the ocean.
• You major one in the NW doesn't go to a visible ocean. Maybe that's ok, but does it run toward a mountain?
• I see another river that starts nowhere and ends before it gets to an ocean

If you really want to learn about mapping, go check out Cartographers' Guild - a community for maps of fantasy, sci-fi and real world locations That's where the real serious mapping folks hang out and you can learn a lot just buy reading.

 

[tetrasodium]

I expected the river criticisms to just be pedantic but have to admit that there does seem to be an awful lot of rivers to an almost jarring degree The concentric circle islands are confusing unless there is some specific lore reason significant enough for it to be common knowledge what they are just because any event/construction of that magnitude feels like it would be on par with a modern day human in most parts of the world not knowing that humans travel to space now or knowing that the romans once conquered much of the world in the past even if they don't know the details. Other than those it's a pretty neat map

 

[toucanbuzz]

No need to discard your original map even if you revise it for realism. In my new Kingmaker campaign (explore the wilderness, form a kingdom), the PCs have an ancient map. Locations are in old English, it's hand drawn, it isn't 100% accurate (the rivers aren't perfectly marked, nothing is to scale). But, it's what someone drew based off what they heard, and it's all they have for the time.

Otherwise, my only criticism is there's a shitload of mountains. In most D&D games, mountains = impassable terrain and nothing interesting there. Now, if you have another explanation (some ancient war of the gods or titans or so on), that's another matter.