10 Rules for Believable Fantasy Maps
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Channel: WASD20
Views: 1,411,938
Rating: 4.9218016 out of 5
Keywords: d&d, dungeons and dragons, fantasy map drawing, cartography, science, geology, rain shadow, rpg map, fantasy map making, map taboos, fantasy map taboos, better maps, more realistic, geography, plate tectonics, fantasy map tectonics, role-playing, world anvil, world building, world builder's guide, worldbuilding, settlements, making maps, drawing maps, middle earth map, 5th edition, wasd20, d&d maps, mountains, rivers, world builders, dm tips, gm tips, fantasy novel, ttrpg
Id: 17NU-io9dmA
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 19min 50sec (1190 seconds)
Published: Thu Feb 07 2019
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Oooh, I had no idea about the rain shadow! Welp, gotta go apply it to my mountains and see what happens to them and my waterways.
Hey r/worldbuilding! I thought you world builders might benefit from some of these "rules" and principles. There's so much to know about the science of worldbuilding I've often found it daunting myself. Let me know what you think!
This is a really great list of rules! Thank you for the video.
One caveat I would add to your treatment of settlements would be that some settlements break these rules (being near water, being near a sheltered harbor) because they grew up around a fortress or stronghold.
The advantage of having a fortress built on a high point, a mountain pass, or an exposed sea cliff, is the ability to survey the surrounding landscape and dispatch troops quickly to a specific area. Or, depending on the world, the fortress may be able to control a critical chokepoint with cannons or other bombardments.
Usually these fortresses will have a garrison and those troops will need the usual human services (food, clothing, entertainment) as well as some military-specific services (blacksmiths, etc.). All of this activity will create an artificial economy that may necessitate typical logistical services (goods storage/movement), as well as a market. So, in providing typical human services, a fortress will often start to resemble a city.
Some more info on how climate is shaped:
Prevailing winds
Effect of ocean currents on climate
One interesting result of the above: coastal deserts (like California, Chile, and Namibia):
The bit on coastal deserts includes a description of the super-fascinating Atacama desert in Chile, which gets less precipitation than anywhere on earth besides the poles. Life survives in the Atacama by absorbing moisture from the sea fog -- fog being another common feature of the coastal strip of coastal deserts, where warm sun and cold ocean water combine to form it -- it sticks to hilly coastal areas (like San Francisco), leaving inland areas much drier, sunnier, and hotter.
This is a great primer for someone trying to get into mapping. Thanks for the video!
Earth is on a 23.5 degree tilt. That is why the tropics are between 23.5 north and south and the arctic and antarctic are at 66.5 (90-23.5).
Super, super helpful. Thanks so much for sharing
Ok this is off topic but where can I find a clean version of that shirt design, because I might have found my next tattoo
I feel like this needs to be asked somewhere and I may make a post about this but people tend to asume that a single landmass is the default state of a world before solid tectonics begins to act on it although that is generally based on one data point (earth) and even then there were massive world oceans before Pangea emerged.
What I am trying to ask is if there is a reason continents should start as a single mass, why not two land masses or many small ones that are eventually pushed together? I feel that unless I am ignorant of some truth in physics or geology that this idea that a globes land masses must have all been directly conjoined is really less useful than it is reckoned and is potentially limiting how people can conceive of their worlds.