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reddit.com › r › Fantasy › comments › 1cqpumi › favouritebest_fantasy_maps

I don't know, but it drives me a little nuts when I see a fantasy map with a river that on one end drains into the ocean and on the other end... also drains into the ocean. Like the second map in the Bushlands. Answer from Thorjelly on reddit.com

Inkarnate

inkarnate.com

Inkarnate - Create Fantasy Maps Online

Create fantasy maps online. With Inkarnate you can create world maps, regional maps and city maps for dungeons & dragons, fantasy books and more! FREE SIGN-UP!

Armoria

azgaar.github.io › Fantasy-Map-Generator

Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator

Free web app that helps fantasy writers, game masters, and cartographers create and edit fantasy maps

Videos

youtube.com

How To Make A Fantasy World Map In Minutes!

00:30

YouTube

Making a fantasy map out of rice!✨ #art #shorts - YouTube

Thought I’d jump on this trend 🏰🧜‍♀️🧚‍♀️ ...

How to Draw Fantasy Map Trees and Forests - 5 easy styles to make ...

July 9, 2021

10:11

YouTube

Making Fantasy Maps the Old School Way! - YouTube

June 8, 2025

youtube.com

Creating a Realistic Fantasy Map | Fantasy World-Building

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The Book Designer

thebookdesigner.com › home › fantasy map generator

Fantasy Map Generator - The Book Designer

June 13, 2024 - Enchanted castles? Magical forests? A desolate wasteland? Plug in the details, and our AI fantasy map generator will create it!

reddit.com › r/fantasy › favourite/best fantasy maps?

r/Fantasy on Reddit: Favourite/Best Fantasy Maps?

May 13, 2024 -

PICTURES/LINKS TO PICTURES APPRECIATED

What are some of your favourite fantasy maps out there? Which ones do you think are the best? Do the two overlap, or are they entirely separate?

I'll go first (these are in no particular order):

Map Of Epheria, The Bound And The Broken written by Ryan Cahill: I just love the general shape of this continent! And I love the art for it. Here I have the territories map, just because I like it more. (Btw the Bound and the Broken is a spectacular, lesser known series. Go check it out!)
The Known Werld of The Dragonslayer Codex written and illustrated by Sawyer Lee Art: Wow, just, WOW. The art for this one is spectacular, and I love all the names of the areas. (The Dragonslayer Codex is a worldbuilding project by SawyerLeeArt on twitter/instagram, with spectacular lore, even better drawings, and amazing spec-evo dragon species, among other animals! Go check it out! The book is set to publish this year!)

Now, care to share some of your favourite maps in fantasy?

Top answer

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Are you looking for a map generator that you can edit to a degree, or actual programs/tools to help you create your own fully custom map? For the former, there’s a lot out there - Azgaar’s generator has a lot of layers to mess around with, or Watabou’s various tools for just a quick realm-sized map to play in plus some other details.

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With a pencil and some paper so you can make changes. Focus on the area of relevance. Are you running a campaign in a city, a country or spanning continents? You dont really have to do much for areas you dont plan to use. And only think the first major story arc out. If its going to be a 1-5 level campaign where farm boys kill some orcs and save the village you dont need to know anything about the Yuan-ti empires across the sea. Keep it relevant with only vague references to stuff outside the story. Map making goes hand in hand with the rest of the world building. Start with the point on the map where the characters are. Add the point where they will go. Now fill in the in between. Is there a river linking them or dividing them? A mtn range or swamp? Why is the starting place where it is? What surrounds it? Farmland? Forest? Do the same with the target location. What kind of adventures do you want them to have in between? Now that you have at least 3 things on the map (start, between terrain, end) name them. What relevance do the names have to other things that might need to be on the map? If the town is Southwood is there a Northwood? Does that imply there is a forest between or nearby you havent added yet? Look at who is in the start besides the players? Is it a small independent town or part of a larger state? Who controls it? Do you need a home for the local noble or is he an absent landlord and if he is where is he? Are there mines, lumber operations, ship building? If so who do they trade with and how? Roads? Rivers? Magic Portals? What is the predominate race in the start location? What other races will you allow and where do they live? Do you need a Dwarven citadel and a mtn range? A sylvan forest for elves? Swamps for lizard men? Hills for halflings and gnomes? How did each of these races people get to your starting point? EDIT: use real world locations for inspiration. The last campaign I started was a small mountain kingdom so I spent a lot of time researching Andorra and looking at maps of it to design where the characters would start. It became the basis for the first local map. An isolated mountain kingdom divided into river valleys sandwiched between larger neighbors with only one city of note and a bunch of small faming communities, a few mines, and lots of broken mountainous terrain.

Instructables

instructables.com › design › art

Draw Your Own Fantasy Maps : 11 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables

August 15, 2022 - Finishing touches might include inking any unique features, like the smoke from a volcano. I also typically draw a few individual trees near forests to suggest a thinner forest and some tufts of grass in the grasslands. You might also want to add in a compass rose or border to the map.

Worldspinner

worldspinner.com › fantasyWorldMaps.html

Worldspinner: Fantasy World Maps

Choose from over 100 fantasy worlds. Each offers a detailed Atlas full of maps, nations, and adventure opportunities.

reddit.com › r/mapmaking › the biggest fantasy map on the internet (seriously)

r/mapmaking on Reddit: The Biggest Fantasy Map on the Internet (Seriously)

February 15, 2024 - Check out the legend in the bottom right! And i'm sorry it feels empty—nearly every fantasy trope exists somewhere on the map. The wiki for the map is 800 pages. I promise there's a lot of stuff going on, even if it doesn't pop out at you!

Steam

store.steampowered.com › app › 3035500 › Fantasy_Map_Simulator

Save 20% on Fantasy Map Simulator on Steam

Fantasy Map Simulator

Fantasy Map Simulator: Create and watch imaginary worlds evolve over centuries. Design maps, simulate nations and their politics, and control destinies. See empires rise and fall on your desktop wallpaper.

(9 / 10)

Price US$6.39

Medium

vpallasanderbooks.medium.com › designing-maps-with-brushes-and-stamps-a1f434e9d2c7

9 Map-making Software for Fantasy Cartographers | by Varun Prabhu | Medium

January 3, 2025 - Wonderdraft is a software developed by Megasploot. This software is quite easy to master and is known for giving its maps a classic fantasy feel. The learning curve is pretty much minimal, and anybody could draw maps without the need of knowhow of graphic design.

J. and J. Heydorn

jandjheydorn.com › nortantis

Nortantis Fantasy Map Creator — J. and J. Heydorn

Nortantis is a free, open-source fantasy map generator and editor, created by an author for authors. With it, you can quickly generate a random world, then fine tune it to match the world for your story.

reddit.com › r/mapmaking › best resources and tools for fictional map creation?

r/mapmaking on Reddit: Best resources and tools for fictional map creation?

February 17, 2023 -

Please remove if not allowed.

Perhaps some of you here are able to recommend me good tools and sources for map creation? I am looking specifically for those which allow creation of fictional and creative maps (cities, towns, lands, continents, the whole globe).

Please do not recommend Azgaar or Watabou since I am already familiar with them!