How to Map for your World

We’re going to be looking at a challenge today. I've been asked several times over the past few weeks about making a video on creating smaller maps. We've covered a lot of different topics over the last fourteen weeks, but in each video, I create one A2 map and use that as the focus. But if you're not making something quite so big, what can you expect? What differences do you need to make? What techniques can you use to make the most of a map? Welcome, adventurers, to this week's topic: How to Map for your World.

Now, in previous tutorials, we've talked about realm maps, heist maps, naturalist's maps, dungeon maps, and a great deal more. For this tutorial, I'm actually going to make three maps of the same location: one in A3, one in A4, and the last one in A5. I'm going to draw them in different styles, talk about how you could use them in your campaigns, and as an added challenge for myself, I'm going to tie them together so that they can be used together as a part of a campaign. And I'm going to time myself drawing them, so that you can get an idea of how long it will take. 

These are all focused on the same place: the Isle of Dreams. In the Lore Archive series, this is the next stop for Yemoke as he attempts to find and kill the Pirate King. The Lore Archives are filled with the lore from the maps that I make for these videos. 

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Alright, so I'm going to begin with a blank page, and then I'm going to divide it up: one A2 piece of paper (240gsm thickness, for my watercolours) into an A3, an A4, and two A5s. I'm only going to use one of those A5s, though. 

Each of those I'll sketch a quick border and I've gone to the effort of making a fairly accurate sketch of the Isle on each so that they are all usable in relation to each other. You'll need to sketch a border, a title card, and a compass rose on each. Possibly a legend if you'll be using a lot of symbols. 

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I've been making a lot of use of watercolours recently, mainly because of the way it looks, and because it's also quick if you know what you're doing. I won't use them for every map today, though, so that you can get some inking techniques if you want some of those. But I'd recommend checking out Creating Culture in your Fantasy World - it's one of my first videos, but I do have several inking styles there. 

Central Characters and Influences

These maps are all of the Isle of Dreams, a collection of close islets in the north of a reef. They are protected by strong currents and powerful magics that enchant and bewitch any who sail close or land on her shores. It is ruled over by the Lady of Dreams, Sylaere, a great sorceress. 

I have based the Isle of Dreams on several locations in the famous book, the Odyssey. In his adventure, Odysseus meets the enchantress Circe, who turns his men into pigs; the Lotus-Eaters, who make them forget their lives before and live in blissful ignorance; and Calypso, the goddess exiled to an island that cannot be found. I've made a combination of all of these ideas for the Isle of Dreams. 

And I mentioned this not only because it's going to come up again later, but to discuss the creation of influences and characters in your maps. I generally talk about politics and rulers, or mythologies and gods, as generalised rules. But in this case, I am drawing them into the map explicitly. The Lady of Dreams is a fundamental part of the Isle, just as Sauron is a fundamental part of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. 

Creating these maps gives an example of character-driven locations, let's discuss. 

Implying Existing Characters

Good or evil, living or dead, the great figures of your world will have left their marks in some way or another: their conquests, their monuments, their seats of power. When you are creating a map and want to give some indication of the characters in your world, you don’t need to be limited by having to write ‘this person reigns from their capital here’ or ‘this person controls this spit of land’. Such information is easily gained in the world, by conversation with anyone who knows geography. Having a map allows you to infer things by implication, and explore not only the initial information, but how it impacts on the world. 

Rather than labelling somewhere, ‘the battlefield of the last alliance’, for instance, you could instead mark it on the map as the Dead Marshes, where the bodies of the slain are preserved by the acidic waters of the marsh, so that their haunting faces watch you as you venture into the mist. Rather than writing ‘Amador’s Area’ on a map, you can write ‘Madman’s Prowl’, which gives you some insight into how the locals viewed him. 

Weaving Findable Motivations

Another way to look at writing characters is to write the development for characters. If you’re running a role-playing game, and you know that they will do anything for power, gold, or glory, then these motivations are something that you can weave into the map. The Goldhunter’s Sea gives a fair indication of riches in the area, as well as implying the existence of pirates and prospectors. Other motives can also be implied. 

They don’t necessarily need to be motivations that your heroes have to pursue themselves: but putting them into your map gives you the option of using them later. They are promises of contents, and boundaries that add to the moral landscape. 

Memorable Places

I try to create memorable places in the maps that I create - both for these videos and for my own writings and worlds. Almost all of the videos that I’ve done at this point have delved into some way that you can make your own worlds more details, more navigable, more interesting, and these traits will make them memorable. 

I won’t waste your time by going over the basics that I’ve covered in other videos, because at this point I’ve spoken for a grand total of about six hours on this topic. So instead I’ll go over the questions that I’ve asked myself as I’ve made this map, so you can apply them to your own:

What is the main danger, the secondary obstacles, and the environmental complication?

Alright, right off the bat: this map is focused on the Lady of the Isle. Her manse is very obvious, it’s difficult to get to but visible from a distance, and there are several allusions to her. The secondary obstacles are all over the place: her subjects inhabit Heartbreak, and the other shipwrecked sailors inhabiting the Isle in various villages and the March of the Everlost will present issues to exploration. The environmental complication is that the Isle’s purpose is to enchant and bewitch you. 

These are all very explicit examples, and yours don’t have to be. But it does make for a memorable location. Thinking of other very memorable locations in fictional worlds will also lend themselves to this train of thought. Think through those three layers of conflict. 

What are the intentional plot points, the waypoints, and the contingencies?

In my case, the big plot points are three: the Lady’s Manse, where you’ll find the Lady herself; the Maw, where you’ll find the Vault of the Pirate King; and the Smoker’s Watch, where you can gather more information about Amador Smoke-Eye. Those are my intentional plot points. Maps have these in-built, they are where you want your characters to go. 

Now you assume that getting there has to be a journey, and you add in some waypoints. Some places that they will have to go to in order to reach the intentional plot points. In this case, the Coast of Abandon is where any ship approaching the Isle will wash up; the Heartbreak Village is at the foot of the stairs leading to the Manse; and the Fields of Forgetting lie just beyond. These waypoints give you the opportunity to put some filling into that adventure. They are purposefully designed to be obstacles as well as locations. 

Lastly, you add in the contingencies. They are your contingencies, not the characters’. You have determined where you want your characters to go, and now you have to plan for when they don’t want to go there. So you follow the same steps as before, but you make false leads. The March of the Everlost is not important to the plot, but you have to pass through Moondrink Territory to get there. 

What have you hidden in the map that they could pursue or ask about? 

Always keep something up your sleeve, even if you don’t know if it’s going to be useful or not. This is partly covered by the contingencies, but you know what is going to happen and your characters do not. Hiding something important in the map, some implication of consequences or secrets, gives you an advantage when it comes to storytelling, so what have you hidden? 

I’ve hidden that Amador stayed here for long enough to have established an area as just his own. That the Lady fell in love with him, even though he was obviously a madman. That she tried everything she could to enchant him and make him forget the world outside - up to and including shrouding the entire island and creating illusions of the sun and the moon to fool his awareness of time. And that it didn’t work. The clues are in there, if you look hard enough. 

Maps as Immersion

This collection of maps is honestly a delight to create, because it gives me the opportunity to really explore the options for immersing players or readers into the world. Because we have three different maps, with three different styles, and when I write the lore I'll have three different accounts written on them, I can really flex some writing muscles. 

Maps are an excellent immersion tool. If you only ever use them on screens, or print off A4 versions from your home printer, I would recommend getting your hands on a large copy that you can roll out, write on, plan your adventures on. Words do not do the feeling justice, when you use a map as an immersion tool. 

In this case, if you have all three as physical copies, they can all tie together: they are not just a navigational tool, but a puzzle that your players have to solve. I would be the first to say that the last of these three maps, which will be a painting of a bird with some text, would be difficult to see as a map without any assistance. But when you place it next to a complete map, not only will it take shape, but it will contain more significant information than the larger map. 

For Exploration

Exploration is the primary purpose of a map - though, in saying that, it is important to note that an area that is unexplored will not have a map made of it. But your players will not have been there: they can use the map to plan out their journeys, measure distances, understand the political and social landscape. In war campaigns, maps can be used to predict troop movements. For traders, they are used to find safe and profitable passage. 

But no map will contain every detail that your players need to remember. They'll need to write their notes down somewhere — in our recent video, How to Draw a Treasure Map, I talked about NPC notes on maps. But players can do the same thing. 

Two of these three maps can be used for purposeful navigation. Which isn't a bad ratio. But that's not the only purpose that a map can have. 

For Plot

These three maps together get gradually more plot-relevant as they continue, but more and more cryptic each time. That, alas, is a side-effect of plot relevance. The more significant the information, the more cryptic it is. Otherwise anyone could read it.

Which is why I'm such a fan of doing these three maps, why I'm enjoying it so much. A standard map is informative, which by its nature is a dispassionate purpose. But being able to layer the information creates an air of intrigue, and it allows me to code in some of the information that I have to try to hide in plain sight in the more straightforward maps. 

For instance, I've left a couple of clues in the main map about plot points on the Isle: the Coast of Abandon is where sailors wrecked on the Isle have abandoned their boats and run ashore, the Fields of Forgetting are where the Lady's servants grow the flowers that they use to impose amnesia on their guests, and the Smoker's Watch on the Madman's Prowl was once Amador Smoke-Eye’s haunt.

Those are all implied clues, which could easily be missed. But the smallest map goes into much more explicit detail, saying that the Isle is a bird: “in its eye, it can see many a man whose sight was clouded by smoke”. A riddle, yes. But much more explicit than the first two maps. 

Details to Include

Alright, let's have a chat about what to include in your maps. These maps are a fair bit smaller than the ones that I usually make, and therefore contain less detail than I generally squeeze in. So, here are some quick questions about making sure that you have enough detail in there that you can use later on. 

Obviously, you need to include all the important landmarks and terrains, I won't even bother going through those. If you want example lists of those, you can check out my earlier videos. Or just read a map. These are the details that you may need as a writer, rather than just as a cartographer. 

How does the map point to the plot?

First question, and the most important. The implied question is, of course, “Does it point to the plot explicitly enough?” You can do this a number of ways: simply by titling, as I've done here, with so many foreboding names - like The Lady's Manse, or Heartbreak Village, or the March of the Everlost. Everything about the Isle of Dreams implies bliss and forgetfulness. 

If you're creating a world to explore, you've got to make the map be clear about what the vibe and focus is: are you more interested in the ruins of former empires, lost temples of evil cults, the castles of feuding nobles, or magical anomalies? 

What other implications does your map have?

Once you've got your main focus, sprinkle in something else. Some other implications. People have many skills, but one of our most ingrained is to be able to detect when something doesn't quite fit. Obviously, there are degrees of this: but the longer one looks, the more subtle the difference they'll be able to discern. 

For instance, the Isle of Dreams has a great many references to bliss and forgetfulness, yes, but there are some exceptions to this rule: Smokers Watch, Algul Watch, and the Maw are all more violent or destructive names than the rest of the Isle. It's very subtle, so I would not expect an instant recognition, but it's good for you to sprinkle some in. Even if you don't get to use them, it's better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. 

What does the mapmaker want the reader to know? 

Every mapmaker has an agenda: in this case, you are the mapmaker. If you're the master of a role-playing game, then you want your players to go in a particular direction. Couch that in the perspective of the in-game creator of a map: you could make it forbidden, allude to treasure or power, describe the dangers and stories. 

For that, you will need to think about the psychology of your players. Are they cautious or daredevil? Optimistic or gloomy? If you look them in the eyes and tell them that they are heading to certain death, will they change course or pick up speed? 

What doesn't the map contain? 

Last question, and my favourite: where are the holes? The mapmaker is prejudiced: they have their own opinions, their own experiences. But sometimes a hole in the information that a map contains can grab attention more than any amount of allusion. 

Connection to the Campaign

Finally, we get to the part where we connect this to the larger story of this arc. In previous episodes, we found first a map created by the famous explorer Yemoke Dramasae, who warned about the rise of the Pirate King, and the massive store of treasure that he has hidden in Goldhunter's Sea. But more importantly, he warned that the Pirate King, Amador Smoke-Eye, was attempting to find some path to immortality: unsatisfied with the conquests and the taste of bloodshed that he has already wrought on the world, he wishes to find some way to become deathless, and rule the seas forever. 

Yemoke followed him in an attempt to stop him, but fell far behind. He was captured by pirates and taken to their capital, the moving City of Ships, where he found that few remembered or had met Amador Smoke-Eye. Putting this mystery to one side, he decided to seek help in tracking Amador down by appealing to the sorceress, Sylaere, on the Isle of Dreams. 

Now, these maps can be found scattered around the Isle: the smallest map can be found anywhere on the Isle, as it did not need to be hidden. But the larger two maps were forbidden by the Lady, who has made an agreement to keep the Isle's location secret from everyone. The second map can be found at Smoker's Watch, the tower on the north side that Amador used to haunt when visiting the Isle, and the first can be found in the Maw, where Amador has hidden his vault.

Each map contains a part of Yemoke’s account on the Isle, but the important information can be found easily: that Amador's treasure vault is hidden in the centre of the Isle, under the dominion of the Lady. 

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And now we’re done. We’ve finished. Three maps, all of the same place: one watercoloured, one inked, and one symbolic. I deliberately tried to make the process as quick as possible while keeping the quality of the finished product up. It took me two hours for the first, and about an hour each for the second and third. Overall, I’m fairly happy with how they turned out. I’m not a huge fan of the watercoloured forests on the first map, I think they’re clunkier than I like, but that was a lot quicker to do than to ink out each tree individually, so it does have that going for it. 

They’ve made a great story between the three of them. I’ll be posting the Lore Archive episode about the Isle of Dreams later this week, catch it on my channel and watch the others to catch up on the lore. I also post Shorts of my timelapses, if you’re into that, at a much higher speed than even this. 

I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, post them in the comments below and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can. I hope this answers some of those questions about smaller sizes of map and doing them fairly quickly. I’ll be revisiting it occasionally with other kinds of map - I really liked the way that these all worked together, so I will definitely use it again. 

Next week, we’re going to be going into code maps, and how you can make puzzle maps for your players to figure out over the long term. In this case, it’s the puzzle map to finding and using the keys to the Pirate King’s Vault. So keep your eyes out for that! 

Once again, thanks to all of my supporters, if you enjoyed, let me know. If you want to support the Red Quills, consider commissioning me. I need a new hard-drive to store the raw footage for these videos, so any help is appreciated. 

Good luck, adventurers. I’ll see you out there.