Maranthea's Map Making Tips
In talking with Maranthea, she has given us some tips that she uses to make those superb maps that we have all played and thoroughly enjoyed.
Map making, as you probably know is a painstaking process. This is what we do: Create a concept. Come up with a story line, a few ideas as to what you want and don't want on the map. Next: Lay terrain in an interesting way, trying to use color and shape concepts to make them different and interesting.
Once done go through with the little square and take out all of the right angles and squares, making them seem more natural. Next, lay down towns and adventure objects. Our object is to lay down lots of Adventure Objects, this way the player has stuff to do. Keep in mind some things are powerful - Griffin conversevatory, Hill Fort, etc. Other objects, wells, Springs etc. are really necessary to have several of them. So you can place more of them down.
Then I go through and connect all of the objects, trying to create different shapes with trees and mountains, using whatever is available. Also, beautify the map. Plain maps with really open spaces can be pretty boring. Then I place a decent amount of creatures, treasure troves, a few artifacts and other goodies. The best thing to do is to look at each screen of territory and see if it looks empty or full. If it's empty see what's missing and fill it up.
