By referencing the map and estimating travel times, you can create a more realistic world. This can be especially important for RPG campaigns, where your players may be traveling from one location to another over multiple sessions. I bring this up specifically because it’s probably one of the most common, but easily avoided mistakes you can make as a storyteller. One of the biggest advantages of using a map is it helps you keep track of distances and travel times between locations.
Consistency is important because obvious contradictions can ruin the experience and take people instantly out of the story. By drawing out clear geography and borders on a map, you can ensure that your world remains cohesive and logical. Have you ever read a story where you noticed an obvious contradiction about where something like a town or even a mountain is located? Or perhaps something felt off about the distance some characters were supposed to travel and it sure seemed like they got to their destination a bit too quickly. You will often find that the map itself takes on a life of its own and ideas for your story will be an outflow of what you see on the page. This is why I personally prefer to draw a map very early in the world-building process for any story I want to write. This can inspire you to create interesting cultures, characters, or creatures that are tied to these natural features.
By mapping out these kinds of things, you can understand how they affect things like travel time or the resources available. And if you want to learn more about city placement, check out the guide I wrote: Where to Place Cities on Your Fantasy MapsĪ map can also help get a handle on the geography of your world and where mountains, forests, rivers, etc.
Do these kingdoms have an alliance or are tensions building toward war? Could there be political intrigue within the court or perhaps espionage between the kingdoms with a plot that could make up part of your story? There are so many ways you could take this, but being able to see exactly how different nations are placed on your map can inspire entire storylines that drive the geopolitics of your world. By mapping out the landscape and settlements, you'll be able to get a sense of the lay of the land! This helps you make better decisions about where you place certain locations, how cultures may interact, and what events could be an overflow.įor example, if you are designing the political environment of your world, a map showing the borders and territories of each kingdom can help you understand how they may interact with each other. The process of creating a fantasy map can be extremely helpful for visualizing your world.
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