Designing Your Custom Fantasy Map
Wondering where to get started with your custom fantasy map? I’ll walk you through what you should consider when creating or planning your fantasy (or sci-fi – I’m not here to judge!) world.
Who needs a fantasy map?
Are you a dungeon master or a game master? Do you want your made-up world a real, tangible map to bring to the table? Maybe you’re sick of the D&D fantasy maps out there and you’re looking for something new, something straight from your big beautiful brain? Or, maybe you’re an author, desperately looking for that visual cherry on top to expand your world. Either way, a map can go a long way!
Why you should plan ahead
Cartography isn’t necessarily complicated, but it’s good to have an idea of regions, weather, geography, bodies of water, and so on. I’ll walk you through some of the steps I ask my clients when designing and drawing a fantasy map. You don’t need a custom fantasy map generator to do it!
Cartography 101
Let’s start with the basics. What does your map need? Now, obviously this isn’t true across the board, but it’s a good reference to get you started. (For example, there won’t be a lot of lakes on your desert planet, just like there won’t be a lot of sunny beaches on your ice planet).
From villages and towns to entire regions, continents, and worlds, here’s what you need to consider:
Water: It tends to be the essence of life (In most cases. I don’t know how your alien fae work!) and it comes in all shapes and sizes. Consider what works with your world, keeping in mind from real-world maps how rivers naturally wind, twist and fade, often stretching from larger bodies of water. Here are some examples of water you might find in your land:
Swamps and marshes: Who doesn’t love a boggy, sticky mess? These landmarks usually belong in the lowlands.
Lakes: From crystal blue mountain lakes to murky, muddy field puddles, lakes tend to be useful to your civilizations’ survival!
Oceans and seas: Coastlines, shipping, and travel may all play important roles in your fantasy world.
Mountains, hills and caves: Break up boring spaces in your landscape with a nice, jagged mountain range or a canyon (I love a good canyon or ravine to make your rivers more interesting). Remember: where there are mountains, they’re often preceded by foothills or plateaus. Look to real-world regional maps to see how mountain ranges tend to follow a line or pattern – and then feel free to throw away tradition and make up your own!
Cliffs: I find cliffs are especially great at adding definition to your coastlines. Beaches are nice sometimes, but why not spice it up a bit?
Volcanoes: These bad boys can sit just about anywhere if you want them to. Like I said, I’m not here to judge. Maybe you even want to add a river of lava!
Fields and deserts: There’s bound to be a few of these across your land. Consider whether these areas are agricultural or barren, and what creatures might reside there.
Forests and jungles: I love a good bush (you heard me). It makes the landscape more interesting and is a lush place to throw in lakes, rivers, mountains, and other interesting scenery.
Villages/Towns/Cities: Now, the rules for this one are a lot less stringent, and that’s because your species will take all forms. Some things to consider, though, are how do they get their food, water, and supplies? Do they live on the ocean and ship their supplies in? Are they near a river, where they can travel up and downstream? Are they underground or high on a mountaintop? There are a lot of possibilities, so feel free to get creative!
Islands: If you're going for a coastline or continent map, consider how some islands might scatter your oceans (or even your lakes and rivers). It's helpful to think about how islands were likely once part of the land, then broke off and drifted away over the eons.
Yeah, I probably missed some stuff. Feel free to get creative with your fantasy map! I’m not stopping you!
Custom Fantasy Map by PeculiarPDesigns
Place Names and Locations
This might be my favorite part of creating fantasy maps – the names! Here’s where you can get really weird with it.
Here are some NATURAL landscape examples of names you could bring into your fantasy world:
Rivers
Lakes
Oceans
Bays and Coves
Inlets and Peninsulas
Regions
Mountain Ranges
Deserts
Plains
Here are some INHABITED examples of things you can name:
Borders
Roads
Bridges
Farms
Villages
Towns
Cities
Harbors
Shipping Passages
Well, there it is, and hopefully it wasn’t too long-winded! This should give you some guidance for boosting your cartography skills.
My Humble Little Plug
PeculiarPDesigns is a custom fantasy map creator, done by one person – me! I digitally hand-draw all my fantasy maps as either digital or printed copies in whatever format you need.
If you have an idea or even a rough sketch of what you want on your map but you’re not sure how to make it on your own (or you simply don’t want to – that’s fine too!) then I’m your pal.
Check out my custom map creator options HERE!
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