Trying to design a world map/regional map. Any tips on how to

You could always do the lazy thing and just draw a bunch of blobs and some mountain ranges separating different biomes.

If not, then I usually start with plate tectonics, determine the general hight map (that is, separate the world into "mountainous", "Hilly", "flat", and "below the water table"), then decide which way the world turns. Wind blows the opposite direction (inerta), and if it comes off an ocean, it'll be wet. Depending on how much water the area gets, that'll give you how lush the area is. Should be easy to figure out where to put your biomes then.

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>>54592311
>>54592456

Or you could go the even lazier thing and use a world map from the distant past or the possible distant future.

>>54592311
I use Civ 5s map editor and load up a random continents map and then edit from there.

>>54593188
That.

That aint a half bad idea

>>54592311
Why is Brazil the Demon Wastes? That's racist.

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>>54592311
You could always look at terraformed planets for inspiration. They'll give you rough points to start from.

>>54592311
Why are some of these names from 4e?

>>54593272
thats not brazil, thats mexico. still racist thou

>>54592311
I fucking hate maps like OP's more than any others. They clearly cannot even slightly be bothered to come up with an original world, and yet they sliiightly alter some of the shapes of some landmasses to make it look like they're trying, when in reality the Mediterranean is untouched.
There's an air of unwarranted smugness about it, and I hate it.

>>54592311
start with a world of solid land.
add varying levels elevation and depression.
add water to see where the major oceans, seas, lakes and rivers form.
add weather patterns based on the new landscape.
add vegetation density based on humidity levels and relative access to the coastlines.

BAM, NEW WORLD.

>>54593272
Because it's so scary even monsters don't feel safe at night so they move north.
Why do you think the chupacabra's in texas and oregon now?

>>54594877
>4e names
>Eberron names
Who even made this map?

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>>54592311
Pour macaroni noodles on a paper. Trace the outline.
BAM! A completely original and organic looking coastline for your continent. Repeat as needed until you have enough continents, then mashem together and your done.

>>54592311
It's too heavily resembling\based off IRL.

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>>54596632
>want flooded America
>but also want ice age
Shit, I'm screwed.

>>54595080
shit suggestion

>>54596934
Late in the last major ice age much of Northwestern America was covered in a colossal glacial lake of snowmelt capped in place by ice shelves. When those shelves eventually melted and failed, the resulting flood was of biblical proportions.

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>>54598442
Lake Missoula and the 100 ft tall wave of water. Ripped the land clean to the bedrock, and even started boring holes via whirlpools of rather intense strength. Now called the channeled scablands of Eastern Washington. Pic related, some of the holes bored into the Dry Falls, a place that during the flood was Niagra on steroids (five times the size and ten times the flow of all current rivers world wide).

It also happened over a dozen times during the Ice Age.

>>54598442
I was thinking closer to the cretaceous ocean.

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Just how impossible would be to create an Europe-equivalent without all the peninsulas, mountain-ranges, rivers, and above all the Mediterranean?

>>54599371
I don't understand your question. Continents are formed thanks to the mountains ranges, rivers and coastlines. What exactly do you want? Its like asking you want a water planet without any water in it.

>>54599371
Equivalent in what way?

>>54599555
>>54599568

Politically, economically, and culturally.

>>54599587
Politically: hell no. Europe's uneven terrain is what allowed for cultural and political diversity. It provides natural barriers and chokepoints defending from those fuckers over there. On a flat land you'd get another Russia.
Economically? Maybe but who would they trade with? How would they transport goods with no Mediterranean?
Culturally? You wouldn't get as many distinct cultures

I'm a total lazy fuck and just use bodies of water as the shapes for my landmasses.

>>54592311
Monty oum just put ketchup in a napkin and fielded it, somehow two land masses look like dragons now in rwby.

>>54592311
Dwarf Fortress's world generator could be used

>>54600506
this
I took a whole bunch of small lakes and upscaled the cool looking ones to make continents

>>54600987
Second this. You can export the maps and just use them as a guide.

>>54601149
Did anyone make a program that turns a DF world map into an image yet?

>>54592311
>areas marked ??? in and amongst named areas

"We have knowledge of all the lands of the world, except the southern edge of that forest over there, fuck that place."

>>54601222
Depends on what you mean by an image. If you mean a big ASCII map, then yes. The program's called Dwarf Fortress. You can also export the world's history and view it with Legends Viewer, which can give inspiration for civilizations and conflicts and leaders if you're stuck. There's also options to export maps of other types, like strictly geography, drainage, political, etc.

>>54593272
uma delicia
I'm sorry

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out of curiosity, has anyone ever done pic related?

anyone with a big dry-erase board and a good broad salad bowl want to try it quickly and see if it works?

thoughts?

anyone like random planet map generation?

are there any good free random planetary map generators?

>>54602547
I'm making SOPA out of you for that.

>>54597726
do better.

>>54593327
Which planet is that? Mars?

>>54592311
There's two methods: top-down and bottom-up.

With top-down, you start with cosmology and physics/magic. How was the world born? From molten rock like ours, or made directly by gods? If gods, did they pull it from nothing, or shape it from something else that had rules? How has thermodynamics/magic affected the formation? Then you do geography, biology, and finally history

With bottom-up, you start with where you want the campaign to be set, and work outwards and backwards. What's the economy of the country like? What neighbours do they have? If certain neighbours are stronger/weaker, what geography/history/biology caused this imbalance?

Both methods have problems. Bottom-up can lead to a setting that feels flimsy if the players try "looking behind the curtain". Top-down can make them feel inconsequential.

>>54605535
Venus. Assuming some magitech to terraform it.

>>54603047
I've done this for dungeon creation, with a chart for what each type of die represented and what number was what. I believe d8 was a trap and then there were 8 types of trap it could be. Worked pretty well

>>54596539
Tried this while eating dinner. It worked ok but I can't use the map now cuz it's got cheese all over it. What did I do wrong?

>>54605885
You didnt use enough cheese.

>>54593137
Those are lovely, but they never come in a big enough resolution that drawing regional maps is possible without just the same amount of guesswork as with a entirely made up map.

>>54605885
Put the map in the microwave for a few minutes

It should fix everything

Take a cleared off surface, and start pouring cereal out on one point of the table. Because of the odd shapes in the cereal, it will settle odly, and all you have to do is trace the outline.

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>>54599371
I don't know

>>54603047
Anybody got some tables for this?

Which factors would you take into account?

die size?
number value?
color?

>>54595739
You apparently completely missed it has Forgotten Realms as well.

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Having the same problem. This is what I've got so far, but I think I've been looking at it too long to see where it doesn't make sense.

>>54609774
I'm no /wbg/, but it looks great to me. Certainly better than anything I could design.

>>54601222
Use the PerfectWorldDF standalone utility.

>>54609774
turn off the hexes

>>54607571
1.) closeness
>mostly qualitative
where do the dice cluster?
that area has a higher elevation

2.) biomes
>Dx
>where x is the number of possible biomes

3.) city/settlement locations
>nat 20s?

4.) resources
>either the "resource die" rolls a max value
>or the designated die rolls and determines the resource in the area

>>54609774
nice

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>>54610777
So it's easier to see? Or is a grid just better?

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>>54605535
Mars is actually fairly boring if you go by sensible levels of terraforming (using the water that's already present on the planet). You'd need a lot more water to make the geography interesting.

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>>54613194
Like so.

File: MarsFlipped.png (726KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

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>>54613232
Or like so.

>>54593188
And how do you save the map?

>>54613194
>>54613232
>>54613250
The lack of landmasses around the world's latitudinal center is extremely upsetting to me

Stupid question, but what factors makes a desert sandy and not any other biome?

>>54613621
Partly erosion of underlying rock but mostly when there's a nearby source of sand, e.g. Cretaceous sandstone in North Africa. Most desert isn't sandy.

>>54592311

Anyone have this map without the labels? Because hot damn, I would run me some games there.

>>54613250

I want to condense this down to the size of Earth's Moon and run something based around the inner sea.

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>>54614127

>>54614157

yes, yes, I am aware that it's just earth with shit shifted around. Your wit is without peer.

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>>54613450
That's the thing about Mars, its northern hemisphere is most likely one gigantic impact site. If you start to terraform it, it's going to end up with one gigantic northern ocean.

>>54614149
The flipped map, with a bit of alteration, would certainly work well as a campaign map that players could recognize. And since you mentioned the moon, have a terraformed Luna to complete this set.

>>54614074
Thanks for the info

>>54614281
Makes me want crepes. Where's Tycho, for reference?

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>>54614281
And by "recognize" I mean it in how it looks compared to normal fantasy maps, since most of them follow Earth's northern bias towards landmass. A world with significant southern landmasses and scant northern ones would stand out as weird, at least in my experience. Certainly fun and different, but the northern bias people tend to have make them almost always associate "north" with "cold," not "equatorial."

>>54614371
If I'm looking at that right, Tycho crater would be around the south-east region. Map's centered on the far side of the moon.

>>54611323
Easier to see and the hexes weren't useful for travel distances in the first place, because you have 3 hex cities and larger one hex distance from other similarly large cities.

>>54599865
In Russia cultural diversity (in Middle Ages) retains by large impenetrable forests and that main and\or only roads/transport ways were rivers.
Duke's troops could easily get lost in 100 mile travel between cities.

>>54613194
Can you find another projection? Maybe centered on the south pole instead?

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>>54617475
Centered on it? Sadly not, this is the best I could find.

>>54611323
I quite like this.

>>54609774
>>54611323
Have your peninsulas of land and islands follow mountain ridges. and every settlement will need some sort of water access, be that river, lake, ocean, or spring.

>>54614650
Dragonlance was a southern latitudes setting

>>54605535
>>54605776
This is Earth, chopped up and scrambled.

I recognize the Northern Territory of Australia right in the center, Arctic Canada in the top left, the Asian inland seas in the middle of the big continent.

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>>54619296
No. It's Venus

>>54592311
I don't know what bothers me more. That despite the map being distorted it was obvious even from just seeing the thumbnail it was obvious that it was just Earth, or that whoever made it couldn't be bothered to change Europe even a little bit.

>>54609774
>>54611323
Which program/webpage did you use for it? Just curious

>>54613194
Wouldn't most, if not all craters be filled with water?

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Here's a map showing the landmasses of Ice Age Earth. From what's not pictured:
>Most of Northern Europe, parts of Russia and most of North America are inhospitable due to being covered in glacial ice sheets
>There is a solid ice bridge connecting South America and Antarctica
>Fertile Crescent is a paradise