The Lost Coast - My first overland map

[ReverendRover]

So this is The Lost Coast, my first proper "world" map for an upcoming DnD game I am running.

I've never really had a proper crack at mapping out a region before, I've been working within a published setting and just making my own dungeon and battle maps but I really wanted to have a go at crafting my own little world.

This particular version is going to be my draft, just putting together some features and seeing what it all comes out like, then I will go back and tighten up the geography to make it feel (hopefully) interesting and believable as a real place.

The basic premise is that this region was once the seat of an ancient empire, now completely fallen into ruin and long since forgotten. There's very little civilization, mostly deserted cities with tribes of wild natives living there won't be much of a road network. I'm liking my mountain range as a natural barrier to keep the setting focused on the coast for now. I'd like to ask for any opinions on the layout in general, if anybody has them. I have a tendency to naturally want to clutter absolutely everything so I think I've been a little sparse in places. The southern area with the large forest needs a big overhaul to do something interesting with it and I might make the very light tundra creeping off the northern mountains a little more pronounced.

Also, any advice on rivers! I really suck at rivers. I know they come off mountains towards the sea but they never seem to look natural when I've been drawing them.

Any thoughts, criticism, that sort of thing for when I tackle the second draft?

LostCoast2.JPG

[ChickPea]

Hi RR, welcome to the Guild.

This is a pretty decent first map, and the terrain feels quite realistic. As for your rivers, they aren't bad, though they could probably be a little wigglier. A small point: you've got some lakes that have neither an inflow nor an outflow. Not sure if you haven't got round to it yet, or if it's an oversight, but you might want to take a look at that.

I'm not so keen on the two rivers near the top that converge at the sea. I would make one of those rivers flow into the lake that sits to the left of the castle. You can then either have the outflow from the lake join the other river, or make that other river also flow into the same lake. The general idea with lakes is that they can have several inflows, but only one outflow (there are exceptions, I understand, but they're very rare.) For the other lake in this area (to the right of the castle), connect the river that almost touches it and maybe have some tributaries flowing down from the mountains too, but again only one outlet flowing towards the sea.

If you want to study up on rivers, we've got some bedtime reading for you...

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3822

You're off to a great start and I really like what you've done so far, and looking forward to seeing your next update.

[Josiah VE]

Great so far!
You're using CC3? I love the art pack you're using.
About those two rivers that converge right at the sea, you could make the left one go through the lake, and the right one, if you're not using the tunnel for something else, make it come out of the tunnel. I think that would be pretty cool. The river could then flow into the lake, and converge with the other river somewhere before the coastline maybe. Just an idea!

[ReverendRover]

You know, I hadn't thought of an inflow or outflow for the lakes at all, thanks for that. I was actually thinking of downsizing those lakes a bit and maybe having a third one because I want that particular area to be quite marshy but very cold as well. Sort of a frozen bog. I might get rid of one lake and do like you said, have a lot of smaller tributaries flowing in from the mountains and a larger river leading into the northern most of those bays.

I'll definitely have a read through that thread, it looks pretty helpful. I've also got some OS maps of the Lake District which I might have a look at, get an idea of how to better use a lake more naturally. I think what I want is for the terrain to be very natural with one or two very unnatural features, like the weird pink stone and the clefts in the ground around it. Having a more realistic environment for that sort of thing really highlights the strangeness, might make my players more curious about the weird stuff that sticks out.

Sneaky edit: And yes, I use CC3. Mostly I have used it for dungeons but the latest update had that map style for overland and it really inspired me to do a regional map finally!

[Robulous]

Great map and welcome to the Guild, my fellow Englander! Studying real world maps is a great idea - rivers tend to branch more, but it depends what level of detail you feel is necessary.

[ReverendRover]

Thanks for the welcome, Robulous!

So I had a second run at it. I didn't like the southern area at all so I altered the coastline there a bit. I also altered the coast in the north to get rid of those double fjord-type bits and make it a single large inlet. I also shifted the lakes around up there, adding inflow and outflow from the colder, icier northern mountain range.

The central "Spine" range also got a rework to allow for another pass halfway down and to slightly reshape the midland area. These midlands are where a lot of the precipitation from the sea is caught on the Spine and makes this area more lush, therefore it's where the very last remnants of the fallen civilization cling to. The north has no marsh anymore, it's too cold up there.
The south now has what I'm calling "The Cataclysm", which is where the pink rock thing either fell from the sky or came up from the earth, haven't decided which, but that has caused a wasteland and killed off the large southern forests. The very, very south is now more of a frontier. Where the mountain ranges end it would lead into a steppe-type area. Whatever empire ruled here long ago built a ginormous defensive wall along that southern pass, now only the ruined towers remain.

Also, made my rivers more windy so I think they looks a little more natural.

LostCoast3.JPG

[Josiah VE]

Don't have much to say, looks pretty great, and that pink rock and the chasms is cool.

[Elterio Delgard]

Simply beautiful but for the coast line you should make it more like shattered at certain area with some islands.

[ReverendRover]

Yeah, some islands might be good to break up the sea a bit. I'll probably do that off around the north coast, maybe just little rocky barren places and a slightly larger one with a bit of forest.

Small update to it here:

LostCoast3alt.JPG

I was messing around with the colour balance to make it look a little more bleak, ended up sort of highlighting the coast by accident too. I kinda like it.

[ChickPea]

It's looking really good. The changes you've made are big improvements and your rivers look much better now.

Will you be labelling it at some point?

EDIT: never mind, I see you posted a labelled version in finished maps.