A scorched world

[Amazon_warrior]

Heyas! Me again. I've had this idea for an arid campaign world for some time now, but have been stumped on many things, including the maps! However, I came across Ascension's fantastic tut for PS and decided to have a crack and see what happened. It's turning out quite well for a first try, I think! I used the same method as for the sea ledge to make some "mountainous" areas on the land, the idea being that the sea level has dropped dramatically and exposed swathes of sea bed, leading to a terraced look. I almost feel I could go without the "2D" mountains but they add texture and overlap pretty will with the embossed ones, so I've left them for now. The rivers were a puzzle; it's dry so I figured there shouldn't be too many, but I'm not sure if they look ok as they are.

The next thing to do is come up with some appropriate icons - it's supposed to be a world balancing on a survival knife-edge, so probably no big cosy kingdoms, more like areas that the different races and tribes migrate through, with overlaps at advantageous points such as oases. I've done a little research into real-world arid areas and I think I can produce enough variety if I'm smart about it.