Bonus Assignment: Map Making #150Daysto100K

While everyone is germinating on where their novels are going, here is a bonus assignment for those of you who are going to be writing and creating their own world for their project.

Draw a very rough map with your climate zones, kingdom boundaries, and the names of the particularly important kingdoms/regions.

I will be creating maps for the interior of the books for fun, but I happen to own the software and tools, although I did get a replacement basic Wacom tablet to simplify some of the job for me. (Note: the tablet I got cost me a big bad $35; it’s very basic and just gives me the ability to use a pencil with my monitor in a fashion I’m comfortable with.)

I have another tool that lets me sketch in more detail on a proper screen, but that one, alas, is a bit of a pain in the ass to use and isn’t as ideal for map making purposes.

Here is my doodle of my map. As I’m starting over my worldbuilding, I have given myself a brand new map.

The climate zones are very basic, and I use a central dividing line to split the continent up, which is roughly three thousand miles wide. In reality, each kingdom/region will have a mix of climate zones and micro-climate zones, but this gives me a very loose guideline for how the cultural groups should work due to their specific climates.

In the Desert/Med areas, some sections will be “Death Valley” type of desert while other sections will be closer to “Greece” in terms of climate. Some places will be lush, others will be hard-baked ground that sees maybe an inch of water a year. Subtropical (good agricultural areas) will be common on this landmass, although desert/med climates will be also common.

Tropical is limited to one region, and that will be rainforest type of tropical.

So, for those of you creating a world from scratch, take the time to slide in this extra assignment. It need not be a pretty map, but you should have it so you have a better idea of the space your characters are working with.

A good guideline for sizing: a horse with a wagon will generally be able to travel twenty miles a day on easy terrain. (Even burdened with goods.) A particularly heavy burden of goods will travel closer to fifteen miles a day.

The more hilly the terrain, the fewer miles a day the horse and wagon can go.

A messenger relay can travel up to as much as 200 miles in the day, which involves generally 2-3 riders (usually 3) and all horses involved are only run hard for 2-3 hours before being swapped out for a new horse. Once again, this is on easy terrain.

A conditioned horse can, if needed, pull out 70-90 miles in a day, but this is HUGELY hard on the horse and the rider, with a high probability of both being injured as a result of the ride. (Yes, on easy terrain.)

(50 to 70 miles in a day for a heavily conditioned horse is far more reasonable. This horse is an ATHLETE, however, as is the rider.)

20-40 miles a day for a solid horse and a rider with a light kit is generally a reasonable distance. A light carriage (only riders, light packages) can do roughly 30 miles in a day.

Your mileage will vary based on temperature, season, and terrain. Hilly terrain will significantly lessen your mileage, where a moderate climate plains terrain may put you on the higher end of the limits.

When you create your map, think about distance. An average, unconditioned human can walk at a pace of between 20 to 24 minutes per mile without a burden. Plan your figures around these numbers. Does your society make use of animals for riding? There might be more distance between hamlets. But if your society doesn’t? You will often have hamlets distanced only two to three miles apart, a hefty distance when you have to walk.

Plan your societies and cultures accordingly, and remember that life in a fantasy society is often far smaller than we tend to realize.

For homestead and farming size, I would plan for a family of four to need approximately five acres to survive each year, and this is assuming that they are trading with other homesteads and farms, which is common practice in fantasy worlds.

There are 640 acres in a square mile, so assuming there is no wasted space, a square mile, 128 families of four could inhabit that space. In reality, hamlets are groups of one hundred people or less. So, a square mile would be all the space needed for a hamlet, and that gives everyone more than five acres each.

Realistically, outside of any specific hamlets your main characters live in or visit often, you really don’t need to know anything other than they exist. If it’s a place they go, add it to your regional map.

So, map as many or as a few maps as you need, but if you’re building your own world from scratch, you’ll definitely want a rough one so you visually know where your characters are going and why.