10 Rules for Believable Fantasy Maps

these are my eleven rules for making more believable or realistic fantasy maps but wait isn't that an oxymoron let's talk hi everyone my name is Nate and this is WASD 20 a channel about tabletop role-playing games and fantasy maps and now in today's video we're gonna be covering my rules for creating more believable fantasy maps creating worlds that will hold up to a little bit of scientific scrutiny now you might want to completely ignore these rules and I say you have my permission go ahead I think it's totally fine I started drawing maps not really worrying too much about what was realistic doing a little research here or there but just kind of wanting to chill and draw maps and have fun and personally I think that's great so keep on going if that's your thing because instead of the way that things have formed here on earth you might prefer that huge Titans or ancient curses or dragon the fire or magic have shaped your world to be the way that it is but my goal for this video is to help you plan to ignore the rules of science and go with magic instead with intent on purpose and not be caught off guard by some of the apparent unrealistic elements of your world or your map and then have to go back and find a magical explanation for it now it might not be a huge deal if you're playing D&D with some friends although some players might find it rather immersion breaking if things are not believable however it's much more important if you ever think you might want to publish something with this setting that you've built like a novel or an RPG supplement at that point your work will be subject to a much more public scrutiny and it's a good idea to think some of these things through alright with that out of the way let's get on with the rules the ten commandments of fantasy map making the first couple tips have to do with water and specifically rivers which are such a common place to see errors on the fantasy maps probably one of the biggest ones is that rivers do not split as they flow rather if you see a fork in a river on a map it's usually going to be rivers joining together into a into a larger flow so that's one area that I commonly see on maps rivers generally do not split there are exceptions to this but it is extremely rare one exception is with that of a delta so it's actually happening with a delta is that you are getting a large amount of sediment or silt that is flowing downriver and depositing itself near the mouth of the river so what you're seeing is not so much the river splitting but you're seeing the mouth of the river widen and little kind of islands of silt depositing themselves and forming there these little land masses often kind of change with the seasons but it's not quite the same as a river splitting so I urge you to generally not split rivers rather have them join together when you see these branching paths on rivers think about flowing from higher points into lower points and joining together as they make their way out to a lake or the sea one of the things to keep in mind is that water always is going to be flowing to the lowest points that it can it is going to take the path of least resistance and gravity is going to play a role in where that water flows and that brings us to our second rule which is also related and that is that a lake is generally only going to have one river that drains it out toward another lake or the sea perhaps now there might be some cases where a lake does not have any rivers that drain it I believe the Caspian Sea for example is only drained by evaporation and so that's one factor where there's this kind of equilibrium that has maintained due to the water flowing in and an equal amount of water being evaporated more or less but when you do have a river that is draining a lake only have one because it is just so extremely unlikely that you're going to have two equally low points or that water is going to be going it's just gonna pick the lowest point and go there and the last one that I don't see too often but I have seen a little bit is there will be no coast-to-coast rivers say it with me now there will be no coast-to-coast rivers I mean really what's happening there is it's not even a river at that point if you have a coast-to-coast river it's gonna be two separate land masses that's going to be seed there you're not going to see Costa COEs River because water is going to start at a high point it's going to flow to a low point a great place to start when you're thinking about where River should go is starting with mountains and then giving them a path out to sea you're gonna have probably some tributaries on that main river here and there perhaps multiple kind of streams coming off of mountain into a river that goes into a bigger River and all of that so think about where water will gather snowmelt is a great thing to think about in mountains that's how I generally do it is that if you have mountains that have a decent amount of precipitation you're going to see some rivers coming out of that mountains and I usually make them flowing out to sea it can be a very meandering path but understand that when you make the path of that River you are deciding the low points of the land before we move on to the next rules I'd like to take a moment to thank my sponsor for this video world and ville one of the challenges for us world builders and game masters is keeping all of this content organized and world anvil is the best way I've seen to do this it is the place to go to organize your world building notes and story arcs and the ability to link content in a wiki format gives you all the campaign and story information you need at your fingertips at any time whether you want to create a great-looking timeline for the history of your world upload your map and add notes and tags or keep track of all your NPCs world envel has you covered for all this and more it's definitely worth checking out and you can try it for free right now at world anvil comm or just use the link down in the video description and now the fourth rule is that there will be no lonely mountains you will not draw one mountain all by itself unless you have a very good reason and usually that's going to be magical in nature because naturally mountains are going to be created by factors that will tend to create lots of mountains a mountain range whether that's plate tectonics or volcanic activity or something else the things that create mountains don't just create one now I know what some of you are thinking what about the lonely mountain in middle-earth is something like this actually possible in the real world well the answer that is sort of yes because when you get a more full picture of middle-earth you realize that the lonely it's actually not that lonely you have the gray mountains pretty close by the mountains of Mirkwood and the iron hills so I guess it depends how lonely we're talking about here and something like this technically in the real world would be possible and it would very likely be because of volcanic activity volcanic activity creates mountains in a much more sporadic fashion that can create some more scattered peaks here and there so the Lonely Mountain possible but would probably have blown its top by this point in the real world if one looks at the volcano Mount Kilimanjaro you do notice that it appears fairly lonely depending on the angle of the photo but in other photos we can notice that it does have some friends nearby which as evident on this map are also volcanoes so there is something kind of romantic about a single mountain all by itself in a flat plane and there might be a magical reason for that for example some Titans or Giants one builds once built a great tower there and crumbled and these are the ruins this now Mountain that's kind of cool I dig it but if you're trying to make things believable in a natural way then don't put one mountain all by itself create mountain ranges most of the mountain ranges on earth tend to form north to south we'll get to that a little bit when we get to plate tectonics but your mountains can't form a line they can form a cluster either way group your mountains together and look at the shapes of mountain ranges on earth when you're deciding how you want to place your own also related to mountains rule number 5 consider the rain shadow effect so in most places on earth you see that one side of a mountain usually is very lush and gets a lot of rain and the other side is quite arid and does not you can see this all over the place in western Washington we had the Cascade Mountains so on the coastal side of the Cascades it is very wet and on the east side of the mountains it is quite dry comparatively if I try to explain the science of it I'm probably gonna mess it up but oh what the heck here goes so what you generally see is that wind is blowing in one direction there is a prevailing wind direction over a mountain range on the side where the wind is blowing you see a lot of moisture gathering the air and it being released as it goes higher and higher over the mountain range on one side of the mountain range and therefore on the other side as the wind descends there's not much moisture left in that air and it's going to be therefore much drier you see this in the Cascade Mountain Range you see it in the Himalayas you see it in Hawaii and in most places you're gonna find that the coastal side the side closest to this sea is going to be the wet side but not always in South America for example the eastern side of the Andes Mountains is the wet side and the coastal side the west coast is actually much drier and that's again because of the direction of the prevailing winds also that east side of the Andes Mountains yeah that's the Amazon rainforest side so what that means for you and your worlds is that generally you're not going to see lush forested areas on both sides of a mountain range alright now we're going to get into this seedy territory of plate tectonics rule number six is considering the shape of your land masses now first off I want to say I get a lot of the information for this video from a book called a magical society guide to mapping it's actually a free pdf and it's got a lot of good information the layout and artwork leave a little something to be desired but it serves its purpose and it is pay what you want or free I think on Drive Thru RPG so I will definitely put a link in the video description go pick it up if you're wanting more detail or you're finding my explanations insufficient this book probably has you covered I should also note that sometimes more drawing fantasy maps we're not drawing an entire globe and that's usually the case with me when I'm drawing a fantasy world I am using world in the sense that the inhabitants would use that word the creatures living here would call this area their world this is their known world but I'm usually not drawing an entire planet or globe and I think that's perfectly fine some people like to start with the big picture and build the whole world I'm not one of those people I generally like to start with an area partially because I feel it makes the stories a little more up close and personal when you're not talking about an entire globe but you do you and if you are doing the whole globe effect then it's really important to think about plate tectonics how did these land masses used to fit together if this is an older world imagine that they used to fit together and shape your continents thusly think about how the land masses of Earth used to be one in Pangaea and are now broken apart but you can still see evidence of how they used to fit together a curious observer can just notice this by looking at a globe and saying oh yeah I can see that probably used to fit right there so do that same thing in your world and understand that there are also tools out there for you I mentioned one in a video a while back you can see that this web application is really good at simulating plate tectonics for randomly generated land masses and it's really cool so if you're not very good at it there are tools for you to do that but understand you can also usually make land masses the way you want and kind of retrofit your plate tectonics and decide okay this is the way this used to fit here and then use this used to fit here and these plates are moving this direction and you can do that within reason with a lot of existing maps that you already have rule number seven to consider how plate tectonics has shaped your mountains and this one again you can usually retrofit after the fact and decide where your mountains are but generally again we see that mountains ranges go north to south on earth because of the way our tectonic plates have shifted and you often see that mountains are going to form on coastal areas think of the Cascades the Appalachians the Andes Mountains these mountain ranges were formed by a mixture of volcanic activity at times but also plate subduction where one plate is going under the other I'll show some pages from a magical Society so you can see this illustrated a little bit better but subduction means that one plate is going under another one as they are pushed together and mountains are usually going to form on the one that is not subducting some of the earth's biggest mountains were actually formed by one tectonic plate just smashing into another one completely and that is India which used to be part of Africa breaking off and then colliding with the Eurasian tectonic plate that collision resulted in some mass Mountains one last thing I'll say is that mountains are often formed by volcanic activity you might get a thin part of the Earth's crust for example where magma or molten rock has come up and formed some islands and often mountains and volcanoes this is the case with Hawaii and these make for really great kind of chains of islands that are often fairly rugged and mountainous and sometimes volcanic so there's a lot more detail we could go into on that but again consider how plate tectonics may have formed some of your mountain ranges alright our next couple rules are going to relate to settlements rule number eight is that settlements are generally going to be found near water water has traditionally been such an important part of human life or elf life or dwarf life or deep fleeing life so think about where would be advantageous for life places that would make good ports aren't important one and places that have enough water to sustain agriculture and other ways that water is necessary for life I often make exceptions to this for dwarven settlements which are just found in the rockiest mountains possible because dwarves ain't rocks or maybe there's underground rivers down there I don't know so putting your settlements on good port areas which we'll get to in number nine and on rivers and lakes and things like that are just going to be great places for creatures to try to build civilizations water it sustains life certainly there are other factors and so just consider why would people build a settlement here in this place and rule number nine let's talk about port cities ports are generally going to be found in places that are not right on the coast right in a very exposed area but rather just a little bit in like an a Bay or a harbor or an area that is sheltered from wind and rough waters so rather than putting your port cities on these precipices or the edge of a peninsula think about a little more sheltered area and it could even be a little bit inland so to speak it could be on a river or lake near a Great Sea but certainly a harbor or a little Inlet is going to be a great place for a port city another thing to consider is that it's generally going to be very deep water and so maybe you don't think about that too much when you're building your world you know if there's a reef it might not be the greatest spot it's gonna generate our bure so that boats can easily move in and out without having to fear scraping the bottom and ports are generally going to be found in places that are ice-free year-round so if you have a very frigid area and there is a place that isn't ice-free quite nearby that's gonna be a more likely place for a port city if your world is a freezing wasteland like the state of Michigan right now then that's gonna be a little bit of a challenge these people are still going to build ports somewhere but if given the option in more likely place will be ice-free year-round rule number ten consider climate now I'm not going to get into a whole lot of climate science here because it's really really hard and it would just take way more time than we have but I would recommend that in general keeping things similar to what you've notice on earth so that very very hot areas are not going to be right next to very very cold areas and there's going to be some rhyme or reason that is generally gonna find polar regions being colder and getting closer towards some sort of equator getting warmer use common sense and personally on my maps I tend to kind of shrink the climate zones beyond what you would actually find on earth and I'm okay with that but generally keeping things very similar to earth keeping your world on a what is it 45 degree tilt and roughly the same size as Earth will just keep things simple and make sure that you're not getting tripped up in the climate science weeds anyway on this again not too much science just kind of use common sense and think about the way things are on earth and certainly this is one place where you could get magical with it if you want to go while lying the witch in the wardrobe always winter and never Christmas you can do that some kind of ancient curse that keeps one area particularly hot or cool or the presence of some magical being or artifact those can be fun things to play with so go for it and that brings me to rule number 11 break the rules I think I've pointed out several ways that there are exceptions to the rules here and there and there are also ways in which magic and magical beings can play a role in shaping your world and you don't have to get too caught up in the real world science if you don't want to if it's not something you enjoy and you don't see it serving a very great purpose break the rules like crazy just understand that it can be immersion breaking for some people and if you ever hope to share this world with the public it is going to come under some scrutiny that could cause you some pain alright eleven rules is where we're gonna call it quits here there's a lot more we could say and I would love to hear some of your rules for world building or Matt making down in the comments some of you out there have a lot more experience with this than me I'm kind of a tourist when it comes to getting into the science of world building and I'm very new to it still there are some little bits I've picked up here and there and certainly a magical Society was helpful as I recently read that so hopefully you found this helpful in helping you create worlds that are more believable hey if you like to draw maps as much as me come on over to the WASD 20 discord server where there's actually a map channel where people can share maps and get feedback I'm posting there other people are posting a lot of great conversations about maps so come check us out on discord there's a lot of great RPG world building game master discussion going on there it's just a fun place to hang out before we go I really want to give a huge thank you to my patrons for their support of this channel these people make these videos possible and I am so grateful for their generous support there's also some pretty cool rewards and you can go check them out for yourself on patreon.com slash WASD 21 of those rewards is a quarterly encounter map at this time now I'll be probably making a video about my first quarterly encounter map which is a shipwreck in a desert oasis what a cool idea that was an idea one of my patrons came up with and then all of my patrons voted on many of the ideas we just reached 50 patrons and when I reach 100 I'm actually gonna start making the quarterly encounter map a monthly encounter map so I'd love to have you come aboard as the newest member of the patron army alright if you enjoyed this video make sure you give it a like make sure you're subscribed to keep on getting more and everybody take care you'll see me again very soon [Music] [Music]

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

Length: 19min 50sec (1190 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 07 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/TreeHugger8700]

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.

[u/LankyMage]

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!

[u/OktoberForever]

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.

[u/Chester_Allman]

Some more info on how climate is shaped:

Prevailing winds

In general, easterly flow occurs at low and medium latitudes globally. In the mid-latitudes, westerly winds are the rule and their strength is largely determined by the polar cyclone. In areas where winds tend to be light, the sea breeze/land breeze cycle is the most important to the prevailing wind; in areas which have variable terrain, mountain and valley breezes dominate the wind pattern.

Effect of ocean currents on climate

Ocean water is constantly evaporating, increasing the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air to form rain and storms that are then carried by trade winds, often vast distances. In fact, almost all rain that falls on land starts off in the ocean. The tropics are particularly rainy because heat absorption, and thus ocean evaporation, is highest in this area....

Outside of Earth’s equatorial areas, weather patterns are driven largely by ocean currents...

Ocean currents act much like a conveyer belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics.

One interesting result of the above: coastal deserts (like California, Chile, and Namibia):

Some of the driest deserts on Earth occur in the western side of continents and they are called Coastal Deserts.... In mid-latitudes, the western side of continents is most frequently occupied by deserts, while the eastern side tends to be covered by forests (e.g., Amazon rainforest).

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.

[u/BrotherNature7]

This is a great primer for someone trying to get into mapping. Thanks for the video!

[u/Eos_Tyrwinn]

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).

[u/dotf2p]

Super, super helpful. Thanks so much for sharing

[u/szthesquid]

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

[u/Abramsathkay]

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.