Does anyone have advice for my map?

is this a little better?

>Rivers don't cut through land, they have a source/sources that runs the river into the sea
>One road leading into that island city is really neat, a ridiculous network of them isn't
>Clean up that thing in the gulf, it looks like shit

Keep trying.

Okay shit, there's a lot going on there. First off, you have to think geologically when making a map I feel (unless it's literally a man-made continent/island/etc.). This means you have to think why are areas above sea level, and that often boils down to tectonic plates mushing together, pushing over eachother, and forming mountain ranges.

The best way to lay out a natural looking map is think about where there would logically be mountain ranges and build them there. Then you can think about water forming rivers that come from the mountains due to climate and you can start drawing in rivers/lakes/deltas/etc.

The big issue I have with this map personally is all the straight lines, or smooth lines. Reasonably you could reform that huge retarded inlet in the middle as more of a tear shape, with mountains above and below in places. This might make it look a bit more realistic in the sense of mountains that have moved/been forced apart by tectonic activity. Beyond that, just generally try thinking about why there would be hilly/mountainous regions in that thin bit connecting north to south. I would expect an area like that to be more lowlands with lots of swamps and marshes. It also makes for more of an interesting story mechanic for travelling PCs if you're running games in this world.

That big mountain in the middle of the top half looks weird to me too, I'd add some mountains to it's left and right to make it more of a range of mountains, and maybe make the mountains to the left fork a bit so you have some valleys and stuff.

Also just generally sort out your coasts. Make them less smooth, with spits of land and jagged edges in relation to the geographical features of the area.

Looks better, but I think what the other guy was getting triggered by is the stupid lump of rivers to the north-east of the center mountain. Shit's retarded yo.

>5 days [walk] top to bottom

So you're looking at an island roughly 50 to 100 miles big based on this information. You should go look at Google maps satellite images to get an idea of how to make your maps. It will give you ideas about how many different kinds of biomes you can have, how they are distributed, how close or far about the cities can be, how many rivers you will have, etc...

For example, your island would be roughly the same size as Hawaii.

Ok so this is a bit shit and may come off rude but it's quarter to 3 ok?
The island's a nice idea but it needs a lot of work. Just know that I'm trying to help, even if it is rude.

If your inspiration is those symbolic medieval maps by monks that never been outside of Normandy, you nailed it.

Rivers flow down hill. They converge, they do NOT split.

You have rivers that:
-split
-flow to multiple different coastlines
-appear to flow from one coastline to another
-flow TOWARDS a mountain range

I'll admit that all of these things happen in the real world, but they've each only happened in ONE place, and usually stopped happening within a decade due to erosion, whereas this map has them happen regularly.

This
Also I'd recommend having some land going off the map. that way you give the sense that there's more then just whats on the map.
Its what i did in my map

Do you have a version without the grid?

the middle part is man made, but i did mess around with it a bit to try and make it work better

this is all valid feedback, thank you man. as far as the cleanup bit on the charred area, magic man is at it again with a fireball upcast to the Nth level to split the island off from the ice wall ya feel

I think i got most of them fixed, with the exception of the one river headed towards the mountain

eventually i plan to have the players find away over the ice wall that magic man surrounded themselves with to stay way from SPOOKY EVIL PLOT DEVICE, but i do like the way you did it! Ill definitely steal it in the future

i also fixed the landbride, at first i figured since magicman made it it would be all tangly but thats fucking retarded, theres no reason for him to make anything past what he needed at the time, which was a straight line to get troops to the mainland

hows this

Much better. It could do with a little more detail, particularly the Elven Dominions, Pristina and the bit west of Verdanwood.
Quite a nice map though.

Ah, I thought the edges were just stylised torn map rather than an ice wall. In regards to the land bridge you can make the edges a little scruffy, even if it's magical the sea will have eroded it a little unless it's brand new.

Looking much better. Removing that clusterfuck of mountains to the northeast is the best change to the map so far, it looks much nicer.

As for the mountains around the center lake, it's got a while to go but it's looking much better. However they made it, all that earth has got to go somewhere. Even being manmade it would be a bit more rough I reckon.

I think thes should be a little better. Thank yall for the advice

Looking much better scro, good job.

If I can ask, what's the deal with the history behind the huge center lake? What happened in the world's history to have that happen?

the whole shit isnt written, but essentially one of the gods who ruled over magic went buttfuck crazy, letting his children draw on his godly magic power, some bullshit ensued and they started terraforming the shit outta the land. eventually some mind rapey squid shits came and they nuked the fuck outta it by just pushing it as far into the ground as possible, mostly leaving the dots, but the big boi was big so he left a bigger dent ya feel

Neat. I've got a epic sized crater in my game world as well, though it was created by a giant meteorite charged with magical energy. It impacted the continent and shattered across the world, leaving a country-sized crated that was filled with magical energy. Eons later the dominant nation of man emerged from the crater and basically started waging a war of conquest until they were fought to a stalemate by the other conquering nation of Elves. The crater in my world is about the distance across of the continental US and the edge of the crater formed the Ring Mountains.

damn lmao

That's a nice map.
I'm gonna steal it for this campaign.

Photoshop with custom brushes, right?

IDK the fuck happened with the namefield, there.
Also, here's a WIP.

Yeah, that's right. I'd prefer you didn't steal it, but I mean I can't really stop you. All I can really do is tell you how to make your own.

calthyechild.deviantart.com/art/Fantasy-Map-TutorialxResources-258559867

This is the tutorial I used as a basis. Once you give it a shot you can really mess around with what you want to alter and make your own.

calthyechild.deviantart.com/art/Tolkien-style-Map-Brushes-138796530

And here are the brushes.

Seriously dude, make your own. There's a lot you can do with it and honestly mine is kinda boring. Here's a pic of one of my prototype attempts.

A free / cheap tool for making world maps?
Very new DM.
Ive made some maps but only on sheets of paper

Inkarnate

what this guy said
Inkarnate is a good way to go. I haven't used it in ages, but I remember it being ez-pz.

Failing that, if you have a copy of photoshop either legit or bootleg you could try this tutorial.It's especially good if you want a randomized map, but it also works with pre-designed maps.

No, in fact I think we should take advice from your map and do the same to the middle-east.

Tada, world-peace achieved.

OP, I was going to give you this advice: I want to add to that. Thinking about the geological underground and how it all formed into the resulting topology enhances your worldbuilding skills and your world.

It also helps you build immersion as the topology indicates which technologies, natural resources and overall living conditions are present.

>the stupid lump of rivers

Thing is, are they all actually flowing rivers or is that a large marsh/swamp/delta body of water?

Fast flowing water acts and shapes the earth in a very different way to slow flowing and stagnant water.

This.

This is something I forgot to include in my original post, thanks for mentioning it dude.

Geography greatly influences how you can develop cultures for your world in so many ways, so really paying attention to the topography, geological makeup, and climate can be crucial influences in how your world grows.

For example, my world here has a large desert off to the west. It's a arid environment full of oasis, canyons, savannah, dry forests, and sand dunes, and as part of that environment there's a lot of areas to mine and collect sulfur, as well as a lot of ripe mining areas for precious gems and metals. This influenced the population and eventually the local civilizations developed basic firearms technology, being the first in the world to create this technology. Of course on top of that it's naturally a very hot environment and there are a lot of coloured minerals like red clay and stuff, so layered clothing is very popular, as well as dyeing of said clothing. This all culminates to a very Arabic-inspired population with flintlock weaponry, some big enough to take down elephant-sized creatures.

geography influences so much of your world so it's something to really pay attention to.

...

the dwarves setting is basically reverse-moria right?

The coast lines are a little irregular, can you straighten them a bit?

This is actually a really interesting map even though you're just memeing.

i dont see how it was memeing, actually was trying to get constructive critism :]