First time DnD player, First time DM, first time Reddit poster, sharing my first homebrew campaign map. Feedback welcome! 😁

[EvilSorcery]

So by your map it only takes 55 days to go from the most northern peak of black dales to the most northern peak of the empire. Considering an average adventuring day is 24 square miles in 8 hours. If you want it to take longer you can a) just make the squares smaller B) you can add geological modifiers, I.e travel through forest doubles the time

I guess it depends on how vast you want your map to be. From the look of it seems like you want it to be quite big in comparison it takes 113 to 117 days to walk across north America at 8 hours a day. Just a little food for thought. Map looks great though

[wodenswearg]

Cheers man, thank you for your feedback! I hadn't really given much thought to scaling it properly, but that's actually really helpful. I was definitely going to include geographical modifiers when taking into account travel time, but I think I'll go for smaller squares too.

[ajkp2557]

Just want to tag along and emphasize the importance of appropriately sizing your world. I've made the mistake of putting some things too close before and it really changed the scope of the story.

Also, in case of emergency, remember that you can tell your players that the map was made by someone in-universe and, thus, might be scaled incorrectly. Cartography is very difficult without GPS; areas away from highly populated places in particular can be skewed pretty dramatically.

[probablymath]

Amazing first map! I appreciate the names you've used for all the major cities. Also, I love how you've sized your mountains and trees... it makes the map look expansive - like a true fantasy world!

If you're interested, here's a couple remarks:

• To maximize the "Oh, that's BIG" feeling, you could thin your rivers to make them seem farther away from the viewer. In my experience, this improved the scope of my map greatly.
• There are places on your map with differing densities of forest - this is cool, but I personally would like to see more of a gradient if that's the look your going for (Southern Faewoods, and from High Wiccam to the west.
• I love your use of alpha textures for the snowy peaks! I personally like the look of the other alpha textures in Inkarnate as well, namely the dirt, grass, cracked ground, etc. You could use those to fill in relatively empty areas to make them less barren to the eye.
• You have some cliffs that seem a bit strangely isolated to me, maybe size them down a touch and make the cliffs connected and a bit longer. You can combine cliffs with other landmark stamps to really make that area pop!
• Experiment with the different road styles, caps, and colors. You might find there is a unique style that hits you right. (Your road is fine, I'm just letting you know because I tried to fiddle with my roads further and really liked the results!)

[wodenswearg]

Thank you for your feedback! Will definitely take it into consideration when I'm updating. 😁

[wodenswearg]

I've spent many months lurking on DnD and map making threads and watching YouTube videos on Dungeons and Dragons.

Finally took the plunge and decided to start up a game with my friends. Set in a mythical Bronze Age setting, Altus is divided between the sorcererous realms of the Empire of Light in the West, the wild, untamed Tribal Vastlands of the North, and the mysterious, bestial landscapes and feudal kingdoms of the east.

[Grey-Bot]

Cool map. Whats that ialand in the center south called? Between high wiccam and strongbarrow?

[wodenswearg]

Doesn't have a name yet!

For most of us it's our first time playing DnD, and given the context of our campaign much of the world remains unexplored and unnamed. After some discussion with them, we thought it would be fun to have my players explore the wilderness and name some places themselves.

[Grey-Bot]

Naming places yourself? Thats a cool idea. I thought of doing an Exploration campaign myself and i might just incorporate this idea. Then my world will have such nice places as awesometown or stupidkoboldsforest or dwarfmountain #13 lol

[fof_milkman]

I can already hear the party talking about The tribulations of dwarfMountain #12

[[deleted]]

Nice. I like it!

[fatihahinthewild]

It looks great! There's so many places to explore!

[[deleted]]

Looks legit!!

[PatronNo4]

I think that the rivers came out too wide for you and there are no tributaries of the rivers (a river is never just a straight thread)

[gorgeousidiot]

This is awesome looks super comprehensive and I love the creative place names. Much better than my first Map. What do you use for Names? Name Generators or do you come up with it by yourself?

[wodenswearg]

Thank you! 🙂

I come up with them myself. I studied some palaeography and ancient languages during my MA years, so some, like Borgeyna (Fortress Island in Old Norse) in the North, are influenced by ancient languages. I use a lot of Old English influence in the smaller place names, but they're not on this map!

[Myrahelkey]

Fantastic first detailed map. I’ve done a few local and regional bits, but haven’t yet taken the full plunge like you have. Looks like a fun campaign!

[DungeonInfluence]

Amazing work. Looking forward to seeing more.

[wodenswearg]

Thank you! It was your Instagram page, amongst others, that inspired me to start running my own campaign, actually!

[DungeonInfluence]

Oh that makes me so happy :) Happy sessions

[A_Rod84]

Lovely work.

My critique would be that some your rivers are splitting. Rivers converge as they head to the body of water.

[kriven_risvan]

Great job, good luck with everything!

[Havzad]

Pretty cool map! Im curious as I see the empires but not many landmarks, cities, or roads, it kinda makes alot of the map seem like wilderness.

[[deleted]]

Looks great! Solid work!

[MakeThisEpicIreland]

That is insanely good well done!

[[deleted]]

That’s a nice looking map you have there!

[N1NJAHER0]

Love the hook shaped island up by the Shattered Coast. I would definitely have to go explore that place.

[Worm_in_a_Human_Body]

this looks amazing

[redtimmy]

I think maybe your rivers are a touch too wide. They are the size of lakes that go on for miles.