What scale to draw a map?

[POPE]

In world designing. what is a good scale to use when hand drawing the 'known' world? The world I am working on designing has a land area a little more than Europe, Asia and Africa combined. Most of it lies on a single super continent with many large nd small islands surrounding. As a note I am also considering a second land mass about equal to North and South America as well.

With that in mind what would be the best scale in which to draw my world map?

Also are there any good/easy to use map makers I should look into?

Thanks.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Also are there any good/easy to use map makers I should look into?

Pencil and paper are still yet to be topped in the ease of use department. Plus, you get that highly desired "hand drawn" aesthetic in fantasy maps.



Seriously, though. Pencil and paper FTW.

Scale? Hard to know without knowing the size of the planet this is on . . . but suffice it to say, make it fit on an 11" x 17" sheet of paper whatever the real dimensions of the place. That's about all for a map of the entire "Known World". You can draw smaller regional maps "zoomed in" as needed in higher detail.

 

[S'mon]

I find that going above 100 miles/cm you don't get much useful detail. You can always create your maps at 100 miles/cm (250 miles/inch) then zoom out later to a full world-map.

 

[POPE]

I will try the 250 miles /inch.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Hexographer is a great, free program. (There's a premium version that allows offline use and some other features, but I've only used the free version.)

Hexographer Overview

I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to do hex style maps, like the traditional TSR maps.