How to Make a Realistic Treasure Map

If you wanted to hide your treasure, why would you resort to tattered pieces of paper, crudely-drawn landmarks, and ‘X marks the spot’? If you wanted to make sure that you could find your hoard again, but still keep it safe from anyone who wanted to find it, wouldn’t you think your way through it a little more? Isn’t there more to treasure maps than you may think at first? Here is How to Make a Realistic Treasure Map.

But before we begin, for those who are looking for specific links:

Our Journal Post containing the full map is here: The Goldhunter's Sea

Our full tutorial on our YouTube page is here: How to Make a Realistic Treasure Map (full video)

Our lore video for the map is here: The Goldhunter's Sea | The Lore Archive S1E1

Welcome, adventurers, to the Red Quills. My name is Ryan and today we’ll be discussing creating treasure maps. We also have a couple of other topics today: as well as going into how you can create your own treasure maps, and the step-by-step guide for that, I’ll also have a quick rundown on the creation of this watercolour map - as opposed to my normal inked style - and the pros and cons of this method. And this is the first week of our new linked format, which I’ll talk about later. 

But for now, let’s talk treasure maps. Sometimes nothing scratches an itch quite like a big red cross scratched on a map, but let’s take it a little further - as we generally do here at the Red Quills. Today, we’re going to paint a complex picture of the sea floor, give an idea of trade routes, ambush points, protected areas, and add in some notes from the pirate who owns the map leading not only to those excellent pirating spots, but also to his treasure. 

When we’re done, you’ll be able to use a map like this in your own campaigns as both navigational chart and treasure map. So let’s get started. 

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As always, we begin with a blank page, and I started by creating a quick sketch of the landmasses. Because we’re not working with buildings or dungeons, it’s not strictly necessary to do a sketch, but I’d recommend it when working with watercolours, so that you don’t have to keep the whole picture in mind as you’re working the details, and you can focus on specific parts as you get to them. 

Then we’ll take out our watercolours and begin to paint. I wet the area that I want to paint first - not too much, just enough to get a sheen on the paper - and then add in the paint. Because I’m painting the sea floor here, I can get away with some mismatched areas, some darkness and some light, as that will just add to the overall effect. 

I’d like to address the comments that I’ve had recently about how long it would take for different styles and different sizes of maps. I’ve stated before that I allocate about seven to eight hours for the maps that I work on here - and due to the fact that it’s all in one long slot, it means that you can really tell that I’m flagging by the end. But there’s a lot of different ways that you can cut that time down in your own mapmaking: the easiest of which is to work on smaller scales. 

I’ve got an A2 240gsm piece of paper here. It’s thick enough for watercolours - note that if you’re working with watercolours for the first time, you’ll need thicker paper otherwise you won’t get the same effects and it’ll be a mess - and it’s bloody enormous. You can just as easily work on a smaller sized paper. It’s not exactly a linear relationship: I wouldn’t say that it takes half the time for an A3 piece of paper or a quarter of the time for an A4 piece of paper. But if you were to do this on an A4 piece of paper, taking your time to make sure that you got the details in, then it would probably only take you three hours or so. 

In the near future, I’ll be coming out with a video about doing maps in different sizes and styles to save time, so keep your eyes out for that. 

Realm map techniques: Drawing vs Painting

Now, let’s talk a little more about this map. What I’m doing for this map is a little more worldbuilding than would normally go into a simple treasure map. The idea is quite simple: the average pirate does not have either the artistic skills, tools, or knowledge to create an accurate map. They would be forced to create something simplistic and rough, which may impact on the ability to read the thing. So what a moderately intelligent pirate will do is find a map that has been plundered from a merchant vessel, and use that as a basis for the notes that they will use to mark out their treasure. 

That’s what I’m doing: we’ll make an official nautical map that’s been stolen and written on by a pirate to mark out their treasure. Clever, eh? 

Which is why we’re going to all this effort for details. Now, I personally don’t tend to watercolour my maps very often - the last few videos that I’ve come out with have all had a bit of it: mainly in illustrations or to highlight areas, but nothing over the top - but given some of the responses that I’ve had to recent maps, I thought that I would take this opportunity to see how worthwhile it was to watercolour more often. 

I’m also aware that while I go to great efforts to hand illustrate all of these maps, there are plenty of digital painting apps that are specifically built to help people to create their own fantasy worlds - and they are an option. Far be it from me to say that they aren’t. No gatekeeping here, maps are for everyone. But there is a certain limitation that you’ll encounter in any creative method that doesn’t let you use your own hands. 

Overall, I enjoyed this watercolour. It was a little time consuming, it’s a little ostentatious, if I’m being honest, but it adds a texture to the world that just cannot be duplicated by ink. 

I’ll always return to ink as being the best medium for a map: it’s quick, it’s easy to read, it can make detailed work like nothing else, and it’s very accessible for everyone. Watercolouring has a good effect, but it does require a fair amount of skill - even I’m not sure that I’m getting the most out of using it - and it can make any mistakes very messy. 

Alright, we’ve had a brief chat about the mediums and the techniques so far: in a little while, I’ll finish up the watercolours and move to using inks. It’s the same method as my usual maps - thicker black lines for the coasts, and 0.3mm coloured for the symbols and terrain. There are fineliners that do well on watercolours, but to make it easy to read, I am keeping the colours off of the paint, with the exception of the coastline and a few blue labels. Now let’s discuss what’s actually in the map.

Obstacles for your Maps

In the past, we’ve created realm maps aplenty, each focussing on different attributes and information loads: for instance, our trade maps tutorial went into how to denote cost of passage by sea or the tolls on bridges, and our cultural map talked about establishing different spheres of influence and methods of governance. This map, given that it’s a merchant’s map stolen by a pirate, will more heavily feature the trade map information, but let’s not overburden it with too much information at this point. 

We’ll put on enough information to do some worldbuilding and be useful, and then extrapolate from there, why don’t we? 

The Natural Landscape

Given that this is a map for the sailing merchant, it obviously looks most closely at the nautical features of the Goldhunter's Sea: the fact that the sea takes up a solid three quarters of this map should be fairly indicative, but let’s be clear. So to that end, I as a mapmaker am going to draw a quick outline of where I want the coastlines to go, and then run through a list of various natural landmarks that would be significant to firstly the seagoing merchant and secondly the opportunistic pirate. 

As sea captain will always view the coastline through the lens of safety or peril: a deep, secluded cove is generally safe, while an open beach littered with rocks is dangerous. Everything becomes about how you can move your ship through the area with the least amount of fuss. Ships are heavily at the mercy of the tides, the weather, and practically everything else - particularly before the invention of the engine. Your sails, anchor, and keel are crucial to your ability to voyage but all extremely fragile in their own ways. 

So when you look at your own coastline, to add some detail in, consider adding the following points:

• Secluded coves vs open beaches
• Gentle coastline vs dense islands
• Deep straits vs reefs
• Undersea plateaus vs trenches

Those natural details, in addition to ones that you normally add to the land-based maps, will give you plenty to work on. 

Layers of Content

There’s a rule of thumb that I tend to use for both maps and life in general that is particularly applicable here: complexity is achieved by layering simplicity. Complexity is great in a map, it’s the je-ne-sais-quoi that makes the reader feel as though they’re looking at something that really could be several hundred miles across. Convolution is different, and the difference is that complex things can be broken down into simple and distinct lines. 

For instance: when you’re making a nautical map, you want as much detail as possible. You want to create obstacles for your heroes as they are sailing through. Rather than stringing all of the complications together and making them all work on the same level, consider each addition as a different layer. On the most basic level is the navigational obstacles, the ones that effect everyone that takes to a boat: the currents, the coastline, the rocks and the reefs. That’s the first layer.

Then you make the second layer, the territorial obstacles: the land realms have their own slices of the seas, their own rules that they try to impose within the reach of their ports. Tariffs, taxes, and inspections for honest sailors, and more fatal consequences for pirates. Patrols, sentry towers, and defensive structures. That’s your second layer.

Then you make the third layer, the political obstacles: these ones don’t effect the honest traders at all. Calling them political may be a stretch, but the pirates of these waters have different bases and territories of their own. A pirate caught poaching is in deep trouble. The various catchments, their hunting grounds, their flagships and tributaries, their captains. That’s your third layer. 

Then you make the fourth layer, the supernatural obstacles or mysteries. I like to add mysteries on every level, but if you’re creating a fantasy campaign or story based in a sea like this one, it’s always good to create an overarching mystery. The Rift runs right through the Goldhunter Sea, and while it runs beneath every path from one side to the other, there are only a few safe crossings. The Rift itself, what lies beneath, what comes out of it, and why it’s there. That’s the last layer. 

And with all four layers, you have a complex world: it’s not convoluted. If one of your layers encounters a writing problem, if there’s a plot hole in one, it won’t make the whole thing fall apart. Take it layer by layer and build it up. Make the layers respond to one another. 

Balancing Opportunities with Risks

We’ve got our natural landmarks and their inherent risks, we’ve got some layered details on who lives where and what they want, let’s get into some more practical application of these details so that you can really make it work in action. The main thing to remember when you’re doing this is the Predator-Prey Perspectives. 

There’s a few details that I’ve added or will add to this map in order to make it usable to someone who wants to be a pirate in the Goldhunter's Sea. A great deal of that is the natural landscape and the political layout of the area, that’s true, but a pirate will look for details amongst that big picture, and I have just the answer for that. 

In the balance of a society in which some folk are predators - i.e. pirates - and others are prey - i.e. merchants and the innocent - all arrangements have their pros and cons for both sides. A lonely settlement on the coast, far away from the normal patrols of the imperial navy, does not have to pay taxes, but is a prime target for a raid. The trade route that stretches across the Rift, attempting to avoid the attention of the monsters beneath, is much safer if you band your ships together and make the crossing in one place - but while that helps against the monsters, a pirate who knows the arrangement can lay a devastating trap. 

Later on in this map, I’ll be adding in some notes from the pirate who sketched their treasure directions into it, and amongst them will be a great deal of insight into where is best to ambush merchant vessels, where is heavily guarded, where you can resupply. A pirate’s map does not only lead to the treasure that they already have, but to the treasure that they can yet take. 

Character Scribbles in Handouts

So let’s go into that: we’ve had all sorts of cartographers’ charts and sketches recently, from naturalists’ maps to site-specific charts, and all of them have had a great deal of detail written into the margins for the reader to learn more about the location in question. And while we’ve covered that in great length before - check out How to Draw a Stunning Handout Map for content additions from an official perspective - we’re going to talk more about what a pirate or adventurer would write on a map, and how you can incorporate it into your stories. 

Adding personal touches to maps with character annotations and sketches

An annotator will only add what details are relevant to them. Or, correction, they will only make a mess of a map once: the cardinal rule is that the map still has to be readable. But they will add in notes for themselves later on, sketching out the need-to-know and need-to-remember in case things ever slip their minds. Sketching them on a map means that they can directly link their notes to a location, and so it makes sense, then, that the notes themselves are all location specific. 

So, to that end, there are really four kinds of location-specific notes that a character can scribble on a map: 

• Myths. All sailors are superstitious. That’s obviously a generalisation, but I can personally understand it from a psychological perspective. As I mentioned before, a ship is at the mercy of practically every natural force - it’s only by pure skill and sheer dumb luck that they keep on floating, and accidents are generally very messy. So to counteract that, sailors comfort themselves with superstitions, beliefs, and a complex mythology to keep their minds off the danger that surrounds them constantly. Note that the mind will automatically create explanations for occurrences even if there is no explanation obvious: for areas of danger that they do not understand the root cause of, they will create a mythological or supernatural explanation. For example, a cold meltwater river coming from the mountains hits the warm tropical sea, and causes near-constant fog in its immediate vicinity. The fog makes the area unnavigable, and the rocks there are treacherous. So the pirates avoid the area, claiming that the fog is the breath of a beast that lives at the mouth of the river and eats ships. 
• Opportunities. These can be far less fantastical than the last category, but they are crucial nonetheless. Changing political systems, economic landscapes, and trade routes are all a core part of the pirate’s life, and they need to take them into account. If a pirate captain hears a rumour that a port will be doubling its tariff for incoming merchant vessels, she needs to listen. Many merchant vessels will be going elsewhere, and the port authorities will be gathering coin with a vengeance. Both of these facts are handy for a pirate. 
• Risks. The other side of that coin: wherever opportunity exists, so too does risk. Many of these risks will be marked out on a map already, or inherent to the landscape. But cartography is never as exact a science as the mapmakers would have you believe. Particularly not for a profession so vulnerable to reefs. Risks such as rips, maelstroms, reefs and rocks may not be marked on maps, but should definitely be notes. 
• Experiences. Generally, every note that’s handwritten on a map comes from a personal experience in some way. But this is the title heading for all of those notes that the pirate makes that aren’t in the other three: clues leading to their treasure, scribbles about their life before becoming a pirate, all of the worldbuilding that you want to add in. These are all about them as a character, and not necessarily the world as it is. 

Techniques for incorporating handwritten notes and symbols

Which leads us neatly into the worldbuilding itself as its pertains to these notes. When you’re creating a map, how do you add in notes that your characters will use to explore, explain, and extrapolate? As a cartographer, it almost physically pains me to encourage this, but don’t be afraid to scribble on your maps. They’re just maps. Not on my maps, obviously. On your own maps. 

So, here’s some different kinds of scribbles and scratches to include:

• Crosses, Circles, and Arrows. The simplest kind of note, one of these just connects or highlights points. If you have a port of interest where they don’t have tariffs, circle it. If you have a point that is excellent for ambushing merchants, put a cross on it. If you know that one of the kingdoms has just invaded a border town on the coast, add in an arrow. And the best part is, just adding in these basic shapes doesn’t give the reader an explanation. It’s ambiguous! So you have a playable mystery there. 
• Short-Form Clarification. These are for single-word or numerical additions. If there’s a port, maybe mark the tariff. If there’s a trade route, maybe mark the passage cost. But you can also mark the names of pirate captains in their hunting grounds, the real names of pirate strongholds, or passwords to enter secret places. 
• Long-Form Marginals. These are the ones from above. They are full sentences, and they contain detailed explanations, crammed into the blank spaces or margins of a map to record insights. These are the most obvious, but the more detailed the explanation, the less work that your characters need to do. Don’t make it too easy on them. 

Using character scribbles to hint at backstory or plot points

I know that this is a mapmaking channel, and not a writing channel. It’s astonishing, frankly, how often those two coincide. Mapmaking is, after all, an expression of worldbuilding, and worldbuilding requires a lot of writing to make it work. But when you’re using a map and its scribbles to explore a character, it’s important to note that the work involved isn’t mapmaking. It’s writing. 

Which isn’t to say that I don’t have any advice for you. I’ve done it for my own maps and others’ before, but just to warn you. 

So here’s the step-by-step to adding a backstory and plot point to the map:

Step 1. Timeline the Backstory. Stick it all down on the page, in order. You don’t need my help with a timeline. You know what you’re doing. 

Step 2. Locate Each Plot Point. For each event or major circumstance, put in exactly where it happened. If it happened over a wide area, find the major three or four concentrations of its consequences or inception, and record those. 

Step 3. Record a Short Response for Each. From the character doing the scribbling, write down what their response to it would be. Somewhere between 2 - 8 words, it could range from something as ambiguous as “Worst day of my life” or “Never again”, to something more explicit: “This is where the world ended.”

Step 4. Add to the Map on the Locations Specified. Nice and simple, just combine all your ingredients and bake for half an hour. 

Details to Include

Alright, let’s get into the actual details that you will need to add into the pirate maps that you create, and that I haven’t necessarily given much attention to so far. I haven’t been doing this very much for previous videos, but as I go through, I’ll start to update the format of the videos so that you can have a comprehensive list of additions to make them much more immersive. 

Navigational Essentials

All maps require their readers to be able to use them to navigate, and so in this map as all maps, we need to include a compass rose, a distance grid (which is generally aligned north-south and measured to correspond to a measurable distance), a scale, and any legend that you need. 

Note for the legend that you don’t need one if the map is self-explanatory. If it’s obvious that a mountain is a mountain, or if the peaks are all labelled ‘mountains’, then you don’t need a separate textbook explaining that to the reader. If they can’t get that from context, they deserve to get lost.

Legends and Symbols

If you do have a more complicated map, then you will need a legend. If you have symbols that aren’t all labelled explicitly, or if you have variations that need to be noted in the kinds of cities, forests, or sites, then you should ink out a legend and show the reader what they all mean. 

That being said, I like to mix things up occasionally by including an ambiguously-named and mysteriously-symbolised point on my maps, so that there’s an element of intrigue for my players to encounter. But that’s just me. 

Storytelling

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. All maps tell a story. Generally, that story is very sedate: it’s the story of mountain ranges, forests, and rivers. It’s the story of the way the world turns, where it rains, and where roads run. 

But you’re in an enviable position: you can make your maps tell the larger strokes of a much more exciting story. The stories that maps tell are always on scales beyond the notice of the average person. No one person can look at a mountain range and truly know its story or the implications therein. 

So when you make a map, and you have a large story to tell, the map can tell the physical parts of that story: the locations, the millennia of changes, and a scale beyond mortal ken. 

Connection to the Campaign

Okay, here comes the exciting bit. As I mentioned earlier, we’ve got a new format for our tutorials here at the Red Quills. Our videos are going to be the same, but seeing as everyone’s had such interest in the end product, we thought that we would give some examples for how to incorporate worldbuilding and use the maps by making a connected story between them. This is the first of six tutorials that will be connected in the Quest for the Pirate King’s Treasure. 

But this map is the beginning of the quest: your players can find it clutched in the hands of a weary and wounded sailor, desperately trying to escape. While the map itself appears to be nothing more than a merchant’s map covered in scribbles and scrawls to the uninitiated eye, on the back is a longer account: an explorer in the Goldhunter's Sea was captured by the dreaded pirate Amador Smoke-Eye, the man they call the Pirate King. He was forced to make the maps and lead Amador to a stronghold that the Pirate King would be able to use to store the treasures of a lifetime of plunder, and the map that your players find contains the clues to sail directly there. 

The next video will be a tutorial about creating fantasy cities for your worldbuilding, in which we’ll explore the first stop on the way to Smoke-Eye’s treasure, the City of Ships. 

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As always, I cannot thank everyone enough for the support that you all give us here at the Red Quills. We’re very happy to be making these videos, so like and share these videos to help us build out fan base. We’re improving on our videos all the time too - you can tell, if you look at our older stuff, there’s a definite increase in quality - so it’s going to get better and better all the time. 

Comment below if you have any specific questions. I try to give the basics in the videos, but there is obviously so much to cover and a limited time to talk about it in, that I’m happy to discuss points in the comments to clarify any questions. 

Until next time, then. Enjoy your adventures!