Maps

This.

When writing a story, maps should be an afterthought compared to the plot and your characters. Also, if you're not shitposting desu, you'd have better luck asking Veeky Forums.

Here's a handy-dandy map tutorial for your trouble.

Shouldn't wine country be on the dry side of the mountains?

>fantasy
disgusted_drake_with_hand_up.jpg

I think it helps to start by deciding what kind of people, races and creatures you want in your world. Then it's easier when you think about what kind of places they live and how do they interact with each other.

Like, it's probably not smart to make humans live next door from some hyper dangerous monsters, because then you have to explain why mankind hasn't gone extinct by the time your story begins.

This seems like some amazingly unimaginative shit. Like the setting for a video game.

This is terrible. You obviously didn't even bother thinking about what you draw.

...

Elves are done man.

I say this as a D&D player; not even the kind of D&D player who hates Elves, but seriously; everything that can ever possibly be done with Elves has already been done at least three times independently.

Just draw a map by hand, it's not hard if you take the time, and even a novice can, with patience produce a pleasing hand drawn map, with care.

First look up some basic geography so you can get a refresher on how plains and mountain ranges form, and how these affect climate, so your world makes geological sense.

Also, start worldbuilding from the bottom up; begin on a personal scale with the lives of individuals, then build a world around that armature to give it context.

You seem to be starting from the top down, which is basically just a recipie for "Kingdom of x race" or "Land of stereotypes" syndrome - which are the worst ways to abstract fictional kingdoms.

I'd actually start with the Anthropology and religion of the setting THEN sort out the geopolitical glurge.

>create a setting made up of endless creative wonders and possibilities

Such as?

More than that I hate seeing some contrived bullshit races and unpronounceable names that the author spends chapter after chapter explaining. If you have beings that fulfill the role of these archetypical races, like dwarves or elves, then just fucking call them dwarves and elves. What races there are probably isn't the pivotal point of your story, so why waste time with it any more than you have to?

Why not both?

Bam; Glorantha, motherfucker.

It's got Elves, Dwarves and Trolls, all rather different from their usual modes but still innately recognisable, as well as more interesting bullshit like Duck Men and blue-skinned immortal atheists who start to age if they break the tenets of their ancient and highly conservative caste-system.

Of course, if there's a role and purpose in your story for a brand new race, then by all means, that would be ideal. My point was more that just because a work uses the races common to fantasy doesn't necessarily mean it's a lost cause. I mean, it generally is, but for other reasons, I think. Just, the author's priorities were elsewhere.

Yes.

Also, I question whether the area producing the most valuable commodity necessitates having the densest population. But on the whole it's a pretty good guide.

>inverted europe
Nigga be fucking CREATIVE goddamn

>More than that I hate seeing some contrived bullshit races and unpronounceable names that the author spends chapter after chapter explaining.
That's just called bad writing.

>If you have beings that fulfill the role of these archetypical races
You shouldn't have archetypical races in a genre where the only limited by the author's own creativity and imagination. If you need to rely on such a crutch to give your reader a quicker understanding of the setting, then you're just a bad writer.

>What races there are probably isn't the pivotal point of your story
Unless they are.

If an author just uses elves and dwarves then he's a creatively bankrupt hack who shouldn't be writing fantasy in the first place. If he just comes up with a string of bullshit races that sound stupid then he's a bad writer in general. There is a middle ground though, which is being able to come up with fantasy creatures and races that are actually creative and interesting. This isn't fucking rocket science either, all it does is require a writer who's smart and creative.

You are a pleb.

Execution, not conception. Dwarfs and elfs can be great, if handled well.

t. someone who doesn't have dwarfs and elfs in his stories.

Point me to an author who makes dwarfs and elves interesting post-Tolkien.

Execution can only help with a retarded concept so much. Stop excusing lazy writing.

Glorantha for one, which some user already mentioned.

Is there anything literary? No. But, if you came into this thread expecting anything literary, you were going to have a hard time.
Silly words for WONDERFUL! (but inane) concepts are lazy as shit, user.

To clarify; if you're already relying on races, or "worldbuilding" at all, then you're doing something very wrong.

Tolkien could do it because he was a shellshocked autist who was weaving Christfaggotry and legit mythology into his world from the beginning.

>Tolkien-esque dwarves and elves can totally be written good, they've just never been written good in literature before, despite thousands of writers copying them into their stories
You're one of those plebs who claims Communism could work if it was integrated properly, aren't you?

>Tolkien-esque dwarves and elves can totally be written good,
Oh no, those are fucked.

You can't copy something and expect it to not be derivative.

You sound like one of those faggots who thinks originality for the sake of originality is worth reading.

Is there a word for having a fascination with maps? I like looking at them, imagining them in my head, and looking at places on Google maps/earth. Sometimes after hearing or reading the name of a place I go to Google maps and look around until I find it.
Also imagining the layout of houses is also "satisfying" in my mind. Like if I think of a childhood friend, I can remember his house and "draw" it in my mind. It's hard to explain.

Autism. It's called autism.

Cartophilia?

I agree that actual story definitely takes precedent over worldbuilding, and that there's a problem with fantasy authors valuing worldbuilding over telling a good story on account of Tolkien's popularity (among some other factors obviously).

>legit mythology
This is what I think is the most important factor for good worldbuilding. The reason all these faggot books with elves and dwarves and orcs and magic swords and suck is because they just take fantasy tropes they've seen, and re-use them in a context that doesn't make any sense. It's like when someone on Veeky Forums brags about how "original" their elves are because they live in the desert and are jew traders. Why didn't you base them off an actual middle-eastern mythological being, then? Why use Scandinavian, Tolkien-inspired fairy fucks?

>claims to hate cliche copypaste elves and dorfs
>then claims that original creations are bad

What do you like then, you gargantuan faggot? Or are you just being contrarian for the sake of it?

I have the exact same deal, I've slowly been making a map based in an original fantasy setting for the past couple years. It's not even for a book or a role-playing session. I just find it comfy to make a geographically feasible yet fantastical landmass and to populate it with interesting peoples and places. It's gotten to the point where I've started detailing my world's history, with a particular emphasis on a ~300 year period. I also like to play GeoGuessr from time to time.

Pic related is the map that I've used as a base line. I've since hand-drawn numerous reproductions of it with a few alterations at various scales.

I may have the 'tism.

Like I said, it's in the execution. Making something your own is good. Making something not your own, but originality's own, is shit.

And, using someone else's stuff as describes is just stupid.

>I may have the 'tism.
We're so far from May it's wound around to April.

my favourite

Mine isn't fantasy, more like a far future other world. There's no magic or supernatural occurrences.

mewo2.com/notes/terrain/

>You shouldn't have archetypical races in a genre where the only limited by the author's own creativity and imagination.
Literally every human culture has creatures that correspond roughly to elves and dwarves. Why would you go making up a name for something which already has a name?

>There is a middle ground though, which is being able to come up with fantasy creatures and races that are actually creative and interesting.
When you divorce fantasy from real-world culture and mythology it ends up closer to sci-fi than anything else. If you take out forest and mountain-dwelling creatures for being too close to the real world folklore then why keep anything from the real world? A Juxtaposition of mundane and bizzare with no link in between is just messy and ugly.

That's neat, it looks nice visually and even though the landmass in the top left looks a bit constructed it's believable enough
Also that the map is mostly ocean is a nice gimmick

But how come they made it all the way to the coast line on the bottom right, but have never bothered to sail up their own coast line?

This is my one. It's evolved so much over the years, and now I don't even really like it.

That's a pretty decent world. I imagine that traversing the inland sea would make for a very interesting D&D campaign.

[oy vey goys], what programs, besides paint, do you use for map making ? [free prefered]

is this le joke?

You ever watch Hunter x Hunter?

The aesthetic of the races means nothing, it's all about the underlying themes, it's about what that race and its customs and superstitions communicate. And it is those that are much more important than whatever arbitrary physical aesthetic or name you assign to them.

For example, I have a race of lizard men. Their civilization is founded upon the understanding of the world as flux, and an understanding that this should be embraced. All of their biases, myths, rituals, superstitions, governments, ect. can be traced back to that essential understanding, even those that contradict it are designed precisely with this core idea in mind.

The Elves form a counterpart to them, in that they understand that the world is flux and this is undesirable and can be changed, and as such the end goal of all Elven civilization is to bring about total peace. Some Elves do it like Buddhists, some like environmentalists, some like capitalists and others like industrialists. But all activity in these societies is fundamentally arranged around the pursuit of peace, even, ironically, war.

The Dwarves form something of a middle ground, and see the world as flux, desire peace, yet think this is unattainable as a universal value and as such stick strongly to their traditions, and find peace for themselves in that and allow the rest of the world chaos without it concerning them overmuch.

Your right, I just flipped a map of europe upside down and made all the water, land and all the land, water.
This is just a map I throw together to give me some ideas for the divisions of the world.

>There is a middle ground though, which is being able to come up with fantasy creatures and races that are actually creative and interesting

For example? The problem is, your options are not magically unlimited even in fantasy. Certain characteristics have to be there in order for the characters to be likeable, relatable, or in the very least understandable to the reader. If they're capable of interacting with humans, then that already puts massive restrictions on a race's physique and mentality. And I think the quality of being interesting has little to do with what the character's race is called.

>For example, I have a race of lizard men. Their civilization is founded upon the understanding of the world as flux, and an understanding that this should be embraced.
Huh.

I have a race of lizard men, whose civilisation is founded upon the understanding of the world in stillness, and an understanding that this should be embraced.

Here's my map, still early in development and it's still going through huge layout changes, most location names are placeholders. It's in the middle of a big update so lots of the stuff on it is misplaced or will be removed in the future. Geographic realism is temporarily compromised by that.

That looks good, user. Your colouring is excellent.

However, you should be doing your story first, then your world, then your map.

It's not for a book or anything, it's a setting built to run multiple RPG campaigns in. The map is the foundation of the whole thing and the fundamentals of the world are already laid out, just placement, size, and names are constantly changing.

Any links for a good image to map converter?
I've "painted" a world based on a few cup stains/watermarks and would love to see it looking better than a semi shitty paint pic

Work on the setting with the campaigns in mind, then make the map from that. Same principal. Although, your map is probably worth preserving at this point.

I fucking wish.

All anyone links are random generators.

You don't need maps, they are unimportant

>that geology
WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
t. Geologist

>that filename

t. Rob

The northern areas are very cold, there's an enormous Siberia sized landmass stretching out west from that continent, but it's Antarctic temperatures, so the sailors (whose ships are most likely 15th century levels in technology at least) can barely penetrate it. However, the further swathe of ocean to the New Land is tropical. As for why they barely explore the coast, I was inspired by Abel Tasman's stop off in Murderers Bay (now Golden Bay) in New Zealand, he barely mapped the coast before setting off in disgust at the natives.