Hail and well met from a newbie in Denver!

[bellbookandcandle]

Hey, you can call me anything you'd like, Bell being the most obvious with the username! Longtime cartography appreciator, very new to doing it myself, but I've been keeping my eyes open and I'm ready to learn! I'm a 19 year old writer & nerd from Denver, Colorado. (But I've lived in most of the lower 48.)

Maps and worldbuilding for fantasy worlds have been a big interest of mine since... well, since I can remember. I started playing D&D at around 9-my dad is a bigger cartography nerd than I am and it's probably him that I get the interest for it from, he's been DMing since before I was born. This got me really into the practical application of fantasy maps and I fell in love. I'm sure others here can relate!

Now, three years into DMing myself I'm only now dipping into maps that are more illustrative than crude border delineations, and I'm having a lot of fun, but I'd absolutely love to make some friends and learn more within this interest! I've attached the two maps I've tried to tackle so far, feel free to tell me what you think (just be gentle! I'm new to this!)

foraghrot-westhold-flat.pngluinloteflat.png

[tilt]

welcome to the guild Bell - and very cool maps to start with. When you're ready to start on your next you can make a WIP thread for your Work In Progress and get help and critique while you work.. for now I will leave you with this - rivers never spilt, they only come together - that's a nice little rule to help you when mapping regions looking forward to seeing more from you .. and your dad too perhaps?

[bellbookandcandle]

Thank you for the warm welcome! It's great to be here. Could you explain this;

for now I will leave you with this - rivers never spilt, they only come together

a little more in depth? I think I understand what you're saying, but I'm very new to the geography side of maps so I'm not sure how to practically change what I'm doing with the rivers to make it more realistic; any tips/tricks/explanations are heartily welcome!

Thanks again for the welcome, I like this site a lot already!

[ChickPea]

Hi, and welcome to the Guild.

Take a look at this thread about rivers. It explains a lot. Or - a simpler explanation - think of a tree. You have the main trunk with branches splitting from it. These branches split into smaller ones, which in turn split into even smaller branches. That's pretty much how your basic river system should work. The smaller 'branches' generally start in higher ground and join up as they flow towards the coast, culminating in the main 'trunk' that exits into the sea. There are some geographic exceptions, which I think get discussed more in that thread I linked to, but for a simple model, that's pretty much how it works.

[bellbookandcandle]

Thank you Chickpea! I think I definitely understand; I've been doing it in reverse (branching from the bottom rather than the top), and this is a super good thing to know! Thanks to everyone for catching this for me! I'm already midway through another map with reverse-branching rivers but I'll definitely keep it in mind for future maps, I definitely understand a lot better now!

[ChickPea]

You can get what appears to be splitting near coasts with deltas, but that's not technically a river split. It's a build up of sediment on the river bed that creates channels of water (usually with a slow flowing river), but it's still the same river. However, I don't think that's what you have in your maps.

Glad the explanation helped, and looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[tilt]

ChickPea got it well in hand I can see - hehe.. rivers are always fun when you're starting out - and then again - if you have a magic world - maybe all rules concerning rivers are different there... but generally you just go with the branch idea

[KerryB]

Hi Bell!
I'm new too, both to mapmaking & this guild.

Hope it's ok to butt my nose into your thread to thank ChickPea for the link with the river info! (That was one that I'd found, read with great interest and then couldn't find again when I had my map in front of me... which I've since learned, has the rivers all wrong ...) Such great info, but I have to admit that the river police badge did bring about a little chuckle. I think it's awesome! (It's all in the details, right?)

Anyway, your maps look nice!
Welcome, from a fellow newbie!

[ThomasR]

I really like what you're doing here. The second map is my favorite.