Campaign Help: Map Suggestions

[SGI]

Hi Everyone,

As some of you may or may not be aware I'm working on a home brewed campaign setting recently converted to the Savage Worlds system from D20 Modern/D&D 3.5e. I've completed most of the mechanical items and am working on the campaign map.

This map is a major continental map meant to feature major geographical & political features. The thing is, geography wise, I totally suck. I was wondering if any of you would be interested in perusing and offering suggestions for what I can add or change, but before that some notes.

All I have now are the Capital cities, currently unlabeled but for those interested.

• The two nations on the western most point of the continent are the two Elven nations (Shukuri to the North and Shurak to the South)
• The small northern nation along the mountain range is the currently unnamed Dwarven nation. The large city is not their capital but their only city open to outsiders, a very large trading hub.
• The central nation is the human based nation of Alfryne, which is designed around medieval England and is a collection of large city states.
• The eastern nation is the empire of Mulentia, the most powerful nation, based on Renaissance Europe.
• The northern arctic wastelands are going to be uncharted but have a huge impact on the campaign.

Okay, now that is all done, what ideas does everybody have for what I can add geographically. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Yugure's Goddess]

First off... where did you get that map or how did you make it? It's really nice.

Secondly, Are you meaning like... landmarks? Different types of climates or terrians? Locations of interest for your players, like an old rundown castle or a creepy cave?

See, I could say every map could do with a barren desert, swamps and a horribly treacherous mountain pass... but I'm not sure if that's exactly what you're going for.

Sorry for misunderstanding. I would love to help! I actually have some good ideas for all of these. I just don't want to vomit a ton of info and ideas that you don't need. :3

love
dani
dude

[SGI]

I used Campaign Cartogropher 3 for the map, which makes it really easy to make pretty suave looking maps.

And I'm really after more natural landmarks like mountains, rivers, forests, swamps and whatnot. If that helps you any. I'm holding back on stuff like caves and ruins since I can fudge them in the campaign whenever is convenient.

[Sanosuke23]

I dunno, it seems to me that maybe there should be a small mountain range to the east of the forest, curving up and ending between the fork in the two rivers there. Maybe cut into the forest partially, like it moves from one into the other.

Also, I'd add a smaller wooded area in that big flat area in the east. Either south of the rivers or in between the two, either way's good. There should be SOMETHING in the west there, I just dunno what.

[Yugure's Goddess]

Cool, thanks for that little tidbit. I will find and use! =D

Anyway, back on topic. Something that I like to do when trying to come up with terrain and such on a made-up world, is to try and find some of the common consistencies on Earth. Like... Rain forests, jungles and desserts tend to pop up closer to the equator. In fact, if you put your finger on a globe at the equator, almost everywhere that it hits land, there is a rainforest, and a little farther out, are desserts or savannahs.

You got mountains mostly on fault lines and really if you have a vague idea where you want faults on the world, then you've also figured out great places for mountains, crags, caves, cliffs, canyons and volcanoes.

I find that forests tend to pop up kind of randomly but are in more temperate climates... and most land is at least a little hilly. And really just... there should be a lot of different stuff. Like I said swamps, bogs, forests, desserts and all that are good, but also be careful that you don't put illogical things side by side. Like... don't put dessert, then immediatly a forest... the dessert would kind of move slowly from barren wasteland to savannah to grasslands and maybe some gentle hills and would gradually move from one to the other.

Also take into account the type of terrain the different races tend to habitate. If you're wanting elves in a spacific place, then it would make sense that that area would be heavily forested, and the same idea goes for dwarves and stoney/mountainous terrain. Humans live anywhere, so you can't really use them to help you too much with that.

Colder areas and desserts tend to be relatively flat. Like... in places where the ground is pretty much just solid ice or loose dirt, you aren't going to have many mountains, as those two terrains usually aren't very suited to holding up huge piles of really heavy stones and earth.

...Was that any help?

love
dani
dude

[Opinionated]

Well I would say suit the land to your ideas. If the central nation is supposed to be a bunch of city states, I would say to add more cities in there, and put them in strategic locations for the cities to be built. Like along high sides of rivers, or in a naturally raised area compared to the countryside.

Also, unless the desert in the middle is magically created(certainly possible), I agree with the suggestion to put more buffer between it and the forest.

[SGI]

Okay I've modified the map a bit. And added in some lakes, more city states in the Alfryne kingdom as well as the three former capitals of the Mulentian empire. Also I've added more forests.

And Oppy, the desert is actually somewhat magical and plays quite a bit into the history of the campaign. Fun mysterious background AHOY!