Create a Homebrew Campaign | #1: Macro View
Introduction
Hello and welcome to the first episode of my Homebrew Campaign series! We’re going to start off by talking about the Macro View of the world. In this part, I’ll walk through the steps I take to create a broad stroke of my world. We’ll make a general map, add features to it, and scatter some cities around here and there. Worksheets for this project will be available below, just in case you want copies of what I'm doing so that you can either work from them directly or get inspired by them. You can grab those files at the bottom of this post.
With that said, let’s dive in! If you'd prefer to watch a video version of this course, you can check that out here:
Creating the Map
You can use any tool to make your map. Personally, I use Inkarnate and that’s what we’ll be using in this. However, if you want something free, I’ll recommend GIMP or the classic pen and paper. If you’re looking to get started right away, there are starter maps linked at the bottom of this post that feature the core geography you need to begin your map. However you choose to go about making your map, I hope that the information I provide in this course inspires you to make your world the best that it can be!
Initial Land Formations
There are two ways that I personally go about forging map formations: copying real-world geography or building it myself. If you want the easy route, Inkarnate also has a randomizer that will generate land and water for you so that you can get started quickly. For this course, I’ll be building the world from scratch.
At the start, I tend to scribble and go for a natural look. I might also take notes on what I’m adding and why in case I have plans for a particular area in the future. It starts off looking like a mess, but as I clean it up a bit, there’s more order to it.
Once the map is cleaned up, the last step I take is to naturalize the formations as best I can. This means adding bays, peninsulas, archipelagos, and other points of geographic interest to ensure the map doesn’t look flat, boring, and unnatural.
Rivers and Lakes
Some rivers may have formed naturally during the previous stage, but this is where I’ll finish fleshing those out. When you add a river, bear in mind that rivers always flow downhill. This tends to also mean that rivers flow from the north, interestingly, though there are real-world exceptions to this. I’m only going to add a couple of rivers to this map that flows into lakes, and one lake that flows out to the river.
Geographical Details
Mountains
You don’t have to know everything about geography to make a believable map, but knowing a few basic things can really help sell your map. It also has the added benefit of potentially inspiring ideas for the history of your world. A great place to start with making your map believable is mountainous terrain.
Mountains are formed through the collision of tectonic plates. I’m trying not to get too deep into geography here because I’m not an expert and that’s not what this video is about. However, if you’re creating a mountain belt on your map, it is likely because the region where that belt exists was once a divide between the two regions, meaning they were once their own continent or islands. You might ask yourself what these places were like back when they were still apart, or even why they were forced together. If you’re creating a magical world or you have gods and other great beings at play, consider whether one of those beings may have caused the regions to be forced together.
Here, I’m adding two mountain belts and one single volcano. Volcanoes are also formed by plate collisions, though the true nature of their formation is a bit more complex. I’d definitely recommend looking it up if you’re interested.
Hills
Next, we have hills. Hills form in a variety of ways and some even have the potential to become mountains in the future. Beyond movement beneath the earth’s surface, hills can also be formed through erosion, such as by wind or water as these forces chip away at the landscape.
I’m adding a cluster of hills near my mountain range to show that there is still activity beneath the surface that is causing the ground to shift and change. A couple of additional hill areas here and there, then one large, singular hill--called a butte--where I plan to add a city in the future. Hills are naturally defensible from above, making them a great place to put a town or city, particularly if the hill ends with a large plateau.
Canyon
You probably know how canyons are formed. It’s much the same as hills: erosion and tectonic plates. Canyons also tend to have entrenched rivers, or rivers that are very deep into the canyon. The Grand Canyon is believed to have been cut by the Colorado River, for example. I’m going to add one canyon, which will then lead into a desert further south.
Deserts
Deserts are really interesting; they are a result of the significant fluctuations in temperature between day and night, which causes the rocks in the region to break into smaller pieces. Additionally, rain--which does happen, but is sparse--can cause a flash flood in these areas, which furthers the erosion of the area.
The temperature fluctuation is a result of the lack of water in the region. Without water--and thus, without humidity--the temperatures of the region vary greatly. The heat from the sun is not trapped in a desert region like it would be in others as a result of the lack of water in the atmosphere, causing it to immediately turn cold.
So, here, far away from any water source, I’m adding a desert. I’ll have some desert plains surrounding it to help with the transition, as well as the canyon that leads into the area.
Polar Climates
I’m not going to go over every single possible geography type here because that’s not what this is about. However, I’m going to list two others that I like: polar climates and forests. We’ll start with a polar climate, which I’m putting in the north of this map.
Polar climates appear in the extreme north and extreme south of the world, at least in our world. This is, as you can probably guess, a result of minimal solar radiation exposure. Without that solar radiation, the temperatures of these regions are incredibly low, which naturally results in snow.
In my current campaign, the setting is farther south on the world map, so the polar climate for that continent is on the southern end of the map. Here, I’m putting it in the north. I’ll have a few snowy plains and then some glacier formations scattered in the water out there to help sell it as realistic.
Forests
Last one for this will be forests. You can probably guess how forests are formed: seeds. Trees plant more trees, they grow naturally if we leave them to it. The ingredients for a forest are sustained plants and plenty of time. There’s emphasis on sustained plants there, because you obviously need your plants to have the nutrients to survive. This is at least going to mean water, unless you have some other method of giving your plants, like magic.
I’m adding a forest at the base of the mountain belt, here. I start it off densely, then gradually thin it out as we get closer to the forest’s edge, signifying that it is a forest that’s still expanding. I’m also adding a few ponds and creeks to ensure that the forest’s survival makes sense. I’ll have them fed by water sources at the top of the mountain, which descend through waterfalls.
Wrapping Up the Geographical Details
Okay, we’ve got the geography down. I would encourage you to add some other notable regions for your map by looking up how those form and adding them to your map sensibly and logically. I’m going to finish filling out the rest of my map and naturalizing it just a bit more, then I’ll save it and move on to the next part.
Adding Cities and Towns
Cities, towns, and villages are all built sensibly. There is a reason why they are where they are. You don’t often find towns in the middle of a desert--why are they there and how are the people in it surviving? Why did they put their town right there instead of somewhere closer to water and food sources? If a large gathering of people is going to be centered on an obscure and presumably unsustainable location, there needs to be a reason for it.
I’m going to start by placing a few shoreside towns. These make the most sense and are the easiest to support. You have access to water, aquatic life, and can usually grow a great number of different plants for food.
Next, as I mentioned earlier, I’m adding a city to the top of the butte I placed earlier. There are water sources nearby that they can use to get water for the city and the hill is extremely defensible. Anyone who wants to lay siege to this city is going to have a serious challenge on their hands.
Another thing to consider is trade routes. Consider what one city may have that another does not. Those two cities might trade with one another, creating a trade route along the path of least resistance. Consider where those trade routes might be and where additional towns might develop along those routes.
We aren’t naming anything in this session, but at this stage, you should begin naming the regions of your map, such as the forest, desert, mountain range, etcetera. I’ll name my regions between here and the next session, where we’ll dive into one particular region and focus on that region and a settlement there. If you would like some tips on naming your cities or towns, Hello Future Me has an incredible video on nomenclature that may interest you! I'll put that down below.
Conclusion
Thanks very much for watching, I hope you got something out of this session in my campaign creation series. You should now have a basis for your world map, complete with landmasses, detailed geography, and scattered settlements. The next session, which will be available next Monday, will see us taking a closer look at one region and placing a village there, which we’ll draft a few details for. I’m looking forward to it! We're going to pull out our magnifying glass and really hone in on our first settlement in this vast world.
While you wait for the next session, any form of support is appreciated. Comments, likes, criticisms, subscriptions, and pizza topping recommendations are welcomed. Bye!
