Guides for Making Good Maps?

[Conners]

Over time, I've found several good map-making softwares... but I can't draw, and I don't understand how geography works well enough.


Are there guides which teach you how to make a good map? Something that helps you to understand geography, how to draw the rivers, when to add which elements, etc.?

[KoboldCleric]

The Cartographers Guild (http://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?32-Mapping-Resources) will soon be your best friend. There are tutorials for a myriad of techniques, basic overviews of a plethora of different geographical elements and phenomena, and a fine collection of quality finished products from which one can draw inspiration. The link above leads directly to the tutorial section of the forum. Happy mapping!

[Madara]

I have found Autorealm (http://autorealm.sourceforge.net/) to be worth more than I paid for it(Nothing), and its certainly works.

There's also a very nice youtube tutorial.

[Conners]

Thank you both very much. I will make sure to check out the tutorials and gradually improve a map. Will have to look at youtube tutorials before I can be sure of what map tool suits me best, though.

[Savannah]

The Cartographers' Guild is awesome; you should definitely check it out!


Something that helps you to understand geography, how to draw the rivers, when to add which elements, etc.?

Check out this guide to mapping (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55266). It's a free pdf that does a good job of covering how geography, climate, etc work.