maps and building a world

[NeonKnight]

Ok, I'll wade here.

When I am mapping, especially my old World, the World of Auren, I named things, but only in the grossest sense. In other words, I named those really, really LARGE things. To put it in perspective, when you look at a map of lets say just North America, you can expect to see the following named:

Atlantic Ocean
Pacific Ocean
Rockie Mountains.
Hudson Bay
Gulf of Mexico
Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie & Ontario,
etc.

(See this map here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ameri...rica_ref02.jpg)

In otherwords, only the really 'noticable things'. See the map Auren-SW-1 to get an idea. So, I have named the really large noticable things, and a major city or two per nation.

Yet, when I was making plans to go in further at the moment, most of these maps are pen-paper), I was naming areas like straights, creeks, hills, individual mountains of importance, towns, villages, thorps, woods, forests, plains, fens, etc.

As for naming, well, that is a whole other topic

[Ascension]

I do the same, start with the biggest things and work my way down until it starts to look cluttered...whether it be mountains or rivers, cities or labels. I'll put in a whole slew of city sizes then draw roads to connect the biggest and work toward the smallest until it starts getting cluttered. For names, I usually make them up but sometimes I'll use a name generator when I'm just not feeling creative.

[Trace]

For me I grid my maps with the primary starting map in the center, because to my view; where you start is the center of the world. I then just expand outward.

Details: for my primary map, I put in a good bit of information because that is what my players will be needing, the greater from the center the less information.

Size: I like the Campaign Cartographer 800X1000 miles.

Names: I try to keep things simple, the grey mountains, the troll lands, etc. but will also steal from my mythology for names. Rivers named after gods, leaders, or heros, etc.