Using real world maps in your games

Using Real World Maps

I use real world maps a lot in my games. I basically take a map of anywhere and just trace it. The Interstates become the major roads; the State highways become the side roads; and natural things like lakes, rivers, and mountains I pretty much keep as it.

I put the larger communities exactly where they are, I just change the names (although in many cases the County name works just fine as a different name for the city where it is located). For populations I scale it to 1/100 of the current population, which translates well for Medieval times.

You don't even have to worry about players knowing the area if you pick a place that is far away to use (I have found that maps of sections from the western Canadian Provinces work great for this).
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I've been planning on using some of my brother's maps of the Canadian Rockies for maps when the PCs get to the mountains.

There's no reason a fantasy mountain range (or plain, or whatever) has to be different from the real world; and when you use a real-world map, things will have more "realism", adding to suspension of disbelief.
 

A friend of mine used a map of norway in a after the bomb game, but with the sea level moved up for about 50 cm (foot and a half).

It took us about 2 years before we found that out !
 



Remove ads

Top