Key Principles for Creating a Great TTRPG Map
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- If you've watched the videos from the previous weeks, you will know that we have been talking about a lot of theory relating to worldbuilding for your RPG. Now, we get to dive in to some of the more practical stuff and actually start creating your own roleplaying world! So, in todays video we are talking maps and the principles of mapmaking in terms of what we as game masters and dungeon masters need to do. Get your pencils and paper out and get ready to start drawing your map for your next D&D, Call of Cthulhu or any tabletop roleplaying game of your choice!
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
03:50 Establish size
09:53 How to start drawing a map?
15:03 Express your tone
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*Thanks for watching!* Tell us about some of the greatest maps that you have created or used in your RPGs and how you have used them by commenting below.
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Find it here: bit.ly/3wa4OIe
Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description.
9:12 OOOH, one of my player would definitely ask that on a normal campaign already lol I just look at them and go "you can help me figure it out if you want"
Draw maps on everything you’ve got!
- Back side of old envelopes
- on napkins
- on A5 size paper (4x6 inches ish)
World maps, dungeon maps, building maps.
It is great fun!
It is another hobby inside the hobby… hobby-ception if you will…
Last week, I made my first campaign setting map before I saw this video. When I got started, I had no idea how to begin, where to begin, and a vague idea of the sort of setting I wanted to make. After making the map, however, a whirl of stories began to unfold about what sorts of peoples would inhabit the setting, ideas I hadn't considered before. An island hopping nation of people descended from naga inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, a draconic society inspired by Ancient Sumeria ruled by dragonborn but advised by dragons who remember life before the cataclysmic event that tore across the world, and so many others. I'm excited to make more, to allow those maps to tell me what sorts of people live there and the kinds of adventures my players might embark on.
Yes, fussing with your map is a great way to come up with stories... it's getting that kind of awesome down to the level of your players' heroes that I find hardest.
@@Vinemaple I guess a good idea is to let them learn passively about the world instead of lore dumps (unless they actually enjoy lore dumps)
@@josebocanegra8720 Exactly. The "expository lump" as Ursula K. LeGuin called it, is going to be snooze bait unless you are an absolute genius and can play your audience like a fiddle. It's best broken up and snuck in in small amounts, where relevant.
@@Vinemaple exactly, the way I personally do it is I give them some
Kind of inconvenience when they’re out and about, maybe a larger amount of bandits in a normally well guarded road, a new tax was introduced, prices for grain and food has doubled or even tripled, enough that the characters would question it and an NPC would answer with 1 or two sentences about it.
In this way, I find the players motivated to investigate and learn why this is happening, maybe even find a way to help, or worsen the situation
Best map: I found it free online. It was a river cutting it's way through mountains. It had drilled a 20-foot canyon and there was one bridge. I made it huge and had harpies singing on the far side from the party. Harpies draw people towards them in a straight line with no regard for hazards...like a cliff above a raging river. People fell in, were getting washed away, trying to fight harpies flying over the river while fighting Perytons coming down cliffs.
That was a fun battle; made possible by the fantastic map.
I'm falling in love with our new campaign map because every session allows my players in Monster of the Week to keep filling in the infrastructure of a fictious town in upper Utah. They all feel at home, and it's been endearing to me as the monster keeper to see them make little homes in this thriving local economy.
LOL I LOVE the "Shithot Desert"
Awesome timing. I just started teaching my daughter how to world build and map her world.
I always get so overwhelmed when thinking about maps and world building but this series is great in that it breaks down the process into bit sized pieces.
The phrase Upside Down Mountain sent me off to my notes document in a flurry. Currently I'm seeing a mountain reaching down from an overcast sky nearly touching a regular mountain summit-to-summit a' la Castlevania.
You make the drawing look so easy and fast.
With my skills it would take couple of evenings to just figure out how to do all the needed things, let alone make a complete map... But I still enjoyed this video because it made me think one particular world I thought of twenty or so years back, and how your tips would apply if I had the time to finish it.
Thanks again!
Yes ! Magic should impact the ecosystem ! Easy to forget but this is one of the best ways to get creative and build a truly unique world.
Blew my mind with the mountains and then again with the forest lol.
I have a finished first draft of a Western Setting map and started a larger, more detailed version of it, last weekend (kimda cool that this video came out as I'm working on it xD)
What was fun was trying to figure out a world where there is a massive expanse of wild and world barriers that make it so that place can stay "forever wild" for a wider, crazier western setting. So much fun. Plate tectonics kicked my but tho
These videos are incredibly helpful to me in building my campaign. I had to take a break from gaming for a while, and the "backlog" of videos means I get to binge-watch whilst planning out my world & campaign: so fun!
"There's nothing there, actually" - Taken almost literally in the case of the US/Canada border, with it's 'no touch zone' which is a maintained 20 foot line of cultivated deforestation where the border is on the map so the forests don't touch each other.
The exception is the wonderfully convoluted border between Baarle-Nassau (within the Netherlands) and Baarle-Hertog (within Belgium), where all the borders are clearly marked because the borders are so complicated as to work as a minor tourist spot today in a similar way to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch adopted it's town name when a railway station was put there to attract tourists (It's not a false name, it's got a legitimate etymology that describes the town rather than it being gobbledegook, it was just... Specifically chosen to be ludicrously long when a ludicrously long town name might start attracting tourists due to being clearly labelled as a train station. And it seems to work well enough.)
(And I also love thinking about how magic impacts ecosystems)
Most modern borders are pretty obvious by air, fewer are by space... but in the kind of feudal societies ( I will not use the term "medieval") we think of in connection with traditional fantasy fiction, borders were generally unmarked and frequently redefined or renegotiated or just plain made up.
Every time I watch one of Guy’s videos my imagination is on fire.
I have a continent that has lands that have been physically separated by a great catastrophe called The Shattering. The occupied lands on the west coast were completely destroyed by this epic magical event. The mountains down the middle of the content were raised as a great barrier against the blasted land. The dwarves who lived in the mountains barely survived by digging deep underground. The three groups on the east side of the island were almost completely wiped out and were isolated from each other by more impassable mountain ranges, creating pockets where the survivors could rebuild as the land cooled and was restored.
It was so long ago, that no memory remains of the Shattering and that there even other people until the Dwarves break through the mountains into each land and inform them that they are not alone. Each of the lands (the three on the east coast, and the land of the dwarves) are very different in geography. Each has shaped the survivors in different ways. And with no other lands to conquer, war of any size is unknown among the three isolated lands. (The dwarves, not so much, but that is a story known only to the dwarves)
This history also impacts placement of cities, and the design of the cities themselves. With no history of war, walls were never needed. Cities tended to grow organically from a small village and expand into sprawling conglomerations of dwellings, buildings and even some small farms and fields holding on while all around them was built up.
The adventure begins in one of these peaceful lands, only newly aware of the other lands, and completely ignorant of the wider world. The campaign is one of exploration and discovery while trying to stop an evil menace that is arising from an unknown place and is threatening the peace with hitherto unknown horrors. Because it is so discovery-focused, I've created low-detailed maps to give them an idea of scale and major places, with a lot of blank space to be filled in.
Five months was a long time ago, and I've read that some people think it's weird to reply to a comment after so long, but I just wanted to let you know that this has greatly inspired a world I am creating for a campaign with my friends.
I fully intend to add more ideas to really make this my own, but currently, I'm thinking that long ago, the world was devastated by the war between demons and devils, with fights of demons and devils and their followers destroying kingdoms, killing thousands, and ruining ecosystems.
It got so bad that the gods themselves stepped in; they created walls of mountains and rivers, made the lands and oceans treacherous and near impossible to pass from one side to the next, separating the countries that had no stake in the war but were being destroyed by it, and the countries that were waging war.
I don't have a lot of detail on this yet, and I'm realizing now that this reply got away from me and it's probably pretty long, that combined with that fact that it's been five months, and I wouldn't be surprised if you never read this comment, especially to the full.
I just wanted to express my gratitude for this very interesting comment that has inspired a world I had very few ideas for how to start creating.
Thank you, and happy gaming.
Perfect timing! Yesterday I started to create a map for an upcoming mini adventure. Thanks for the great video. I am really enjoying this series.
My greatest map so far is one that I didn't use yet. It's a swampy area with a dragon pillar on it they need to destroy. I just played around a bit in Inkarnate to make it and then used my knowledge of GIMP to add a rain effect. It's wonderful.
Just set a reminder for the map-making endeavors, I'll enjoy it next month :D
This video is such great timing as I just started making a new map for my current campaign! Really appreciate being able to watch your creative process too Guy ty!
I've also found using a map generator and then printing that into Photoshop and chopping it up and fiddling with it to hit your specfic needs can help if your time is limited.
-Dan
Maps are where I usually start. often times, in the past, I would generally create the whole atlas, then zoom in as needed. My last campaign used the same size map for a large island. My current map started as a field of mostly empty hexes, where the features are randomly generated as the party explores the world. I can say from experience, that each of these approaches have encouraged a different play style.
i find it pretty hard to not start with the atlas as generalized shapes because it needs to be all consistent, mountains on tectonic plates edges, climate, fauna, flora, a sense of scale and proportion is hard to master in this environement
@@wontcreep I started one of my maps with the mountains, then worked from there. It was very satisfying, but the players didn't seem to see a difference.
Back in about 2010 I drew a fancy version of a DM's homebrew map: the Forbidden Continent. I felt sorry for him using a map drawn on a computer with a mouse, and I gave him a Tolkien-esque map with individual mountains and hills and mock-letterpress printing intended to look in keeping with the setting's feel of "D&D 4e version of early colonial North America." I was then very selfish and lazy and gave him photocopies instead of the pencil original, which I never inked.
Today my great mapping project is the core continents of my own homebrew world, a lightly parodistic and deeply deconstructive look at traditional fantasy tropes, it's been 12 years in the making, but the original maps were older, made on a lark and later pressed into service and made to fit. They have grown and improved so much!
But this video is exactly what I need for the next step: building actual campaigns that start in the world, little regions where adventurers can tromp around making a difference: an adventurers' tavern in a corrupt city, various old/new/abandoned/growing villages and towns that can become bases or launch points, the boomtown of hopefuls, desperadoes, vendors, and swindlers that has grown up in the nearest town to a major "dungeon," it's been hard for me to know where to start in fleshing out these *local* areas with the necessary detail while I dream about how Orent won its independence back from the Grand Confederation, only to be absorbed into the growing Athorian Empire...
If you are a DM and you have a session one that you have not prepared for, a great way to slow the first session down is to have everyone start off as prisoners in individual cells on a ship or in a cave or something, that forces the players, in my opinion, to have to talk to each other and introduce each other, and it slows things down if you haven't prepared for session one as much as you should have
I made a four foot long three ringed circus with tension drawing the towers apart to create tight ropes which could be cut loose from multiple points. It also had a net at the bottom which was, of course, dropped to the "without the safety of a net" line. I had made some magnetic arrows and a counterweight system to permit climbing to various levels via arrows in the pole or cutting a line to lift a platform up. We used it for about 20 minutes....
As a dnd map maker for 2 years, great advice!😁💜
I've made maps, mostly world maps, and use beans and trace around them to get the main shape.
"When was the last time a player at your table asked what the socioeconomic relationships between--"
Saturday.
loved this video, lots of great details and tips. I feel the greatest question in world building is why. Why are the rivers purple? they are leeching magic from the ley lines of the world, which draws or possibly creates new creatures to consume magic from the waters. A religion could be founded on the river, a city could be exploiting the river.
This episode has inspired a lot of imagination and creativity with your desert of salt example. Thank you sir, have a splendid evening.
i think an important distinction to make is the difference between worldbuilding and just creating a space that pertains to your game
You're glowing today! Great video!
I received some advice
To throw down a handful of beans and let that help set up your city.
I changed it to dice of different kind and each type of d 4 meant a different thing.
Then I dropped the dice again for the baddies. It helped So much. I did adjust for things that didn't make much since.
Re: magic shaping the map, since "all the laws of the Universe are expressed on our planet" - uh, no. There are lots of natural laws that have nothing to do with physics/chemistry etc. More to the point, depends on the nature of magic and how it works.
I had a world map that I ran 3 campaigns on beforemy players unknowingly gave an arch wizard the power to create a reverse pangea affect and combine all the Continents and killing thousands
FYI: this hasn't been added to the playlist. It goes straight from Homebrew to Filling In Your World.
I almost exclusively use premise maps from premade settings … but I needed to make a map of an everchanging city from the SLAYERS rpg. Sounds complicated? Well it is ^^
I've used Inkarnate to draw the two places I grew up in, as fantasy maps.
That's my weird piece of suggestion.
I cheat my friend makes the VTT maps or we import them.
I use the battle mat for our in person table.
18:18 Not sure what was intended, but am I the only one that read it as the "S**t Hot Desert"? :)
im sorry to ask, but what have you been using to draw that map during the video?
Do you have a “how I make maps in photoshop” video 😁
Can you go into how to get your maps from digital form to actually on a physical table for players to use. I know you have made videos on maps before, but the part that I struggle with is when I'm not using roll20 or some other online platform and instead need physical maps on a real physical table. I thought about just taping or stapling the maps together but wanted some other opinions.
Social economic things have definitely come up in my games people like these things for Richard backstories
Travel & Trade: Rivers too…
How do I handle feeling like the area is real without knowing how they feel about their neighbours? I don't know how to not care about the surrounding area
I literally roll my die on a piece of paper and just kinda let my imagination take over lol
No one is gonna mention the SHIT HOT desert 😂😂
i lvoe how the name of the desert is shithot desert
I use paint to create my maps for my roleplays.
What program is he using to make that map in the background?
Photoshop
Hmmm the world map making software that isn't out yet hmmmmm
I have made maps
I disagree with the idea of "only draw what you need" for one specific reason: scale. A lot of fantasy map creators when developing a world create spaces that are just absolutely tiny because they start small and then expand, rather than starting broad and filling in, and to me the resulting world scale just ruins my immersion in it. Especially when it is a world where gargantuan creatures are roaming about yet not necessarily fighting over territory. So, I prefer to start with a rough layout of the full world, just continents and oceans. Then I pick a spot and start developing that specifically, with the larger constraints of physical borders already established. Doing it this way also gives my players and I more flexibility in figuring out where their characters are from and developing those supporting locations.
First :3
lil' feedback here: for me this video was uncomfy cuz there was too much happening... It's easier for me to follow what you say when looking at you but there were too many other things happening on screen for me to do that. 1st the map drawing time-lapse top left, 2nd the monitor in the background on the right showing all these pictures, 3rd... well... you... less visual noise plz
I have not watched the video yet I have never used a world map they fucking befuddle me
Create...maps?
Yeah, nope. I'm not subjecting my poor players to my...""""creative"""" skills. They have enough trouble with what comes from my mouth as GM, let alone trying to decipher the garbage that would come from my hands.