My Very Basic First Project (WIP)

[spudspotato]

This is the first, basic draft of a map for an RPG campaign. Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Trent
"spudspotato"

[atpollard]

You have river violations.

Rain falls on sloping land and collects into rivers that flow downhill to the ultimate destination (usually the ocean, but rarely a lake).
Each area (called a basin) is seperated by high land (called a ridge).

So no area will flow in two directions (like some of your rivers and lakes do).

[Schwarzkreuz]

Its still in an early Stage. Try to correct wrong rivers so they look more naturely. Well I always do wrong rivers myself, and still try to avoid this. I like your basik forms, its looking very dualistic.

[spudspotato]

I have followed/combined a few tutorials on here and have managed to make a new draft of my regional map. I tried to place mountain ranges and hills in realistic places for water flow, but I imagine there are plenty of mistakes and I plan on correcting those before moving on to other features. Thank those of you that replied, as it brought river issues to my attention. I'd still like any advice or opinions.
MapDraft.jpg

[Lalaithion]

I tried to place mountain ranges and hills in realistic places for water flow

Always place your mountains first. It is incredibly hard to correctly place mountains after rivers.

[spudspotato]

Yeah, I have definitely learned my lesson there.

[atpollard]

MapDraft2.jpg

OK, just spit-balling here to convey ONE of many possible ideas ... (it is YOUR world)

Look at a map that shows the rocky mountains or apalachian mountains running down the opposite coasts of North America.
Start with a 'Spine of the World" series of shorter mountain ranges running down the center of your world (east - west). This will not be a continuous range, but a series of mountain ranges separated by hills and perhaps a few large valleys connecting the north and south halves of the continent.

Along the south coast is a second mountain range (perhaps set in a short distance from the coast).
The rain tends to move from NW to SE across the land, creating a great desert between the two mountain ranges.

The NW coast of the land masses get lots of rain and will tend towards lush forest, swamp or jungle (based on your temperatures). Further inland , less rain falls and normal forests dominate. SE of the mountains tends to be drier with forests along the coast transitioning to grasslands further inland.
Note that the SW coast can get rainfall that misses the central mountains.

From the general terrain and patterns above, the rivers north of the spine will tend to flow north towards the nearest coast. The North will have either many rivers, or great rivers with may upstream branches. The South will have fewer and smaller rivers (less rain).

Like I said, that is just one quick option out of many - Yours (not mine) is the correct one.

[spudspotato]

I'm definitely going to take that option into account and redraw the mountains/rivers.

[Lalaithion]

It actually depends on where in the world your continent is situated to depend on where the rain comes from. (However, in the United States, your NW to SE is very accurate.)

What is important is that you choose a direction for your wind and rain to travel in, and notice that rain will dump on the first mountain range it reaches, leaving a rain shadow behind it.

desert vs grassland and Forest vs jungle will depend on a lot of things, so you can play around with a lot of things as long as you get the general patterns right.

[spudspotato]

I've placed the mountain ranges, I plan to color them and place rivers soon. I plan on having the NW-SE model for my rainfall.
MountainRanges.jpg