How To Draw Town Maps Rpg

Today a quick mini-tutorial. This isn't a photoshop tutorial, nor is it a tutorial for a polished finished map. This is a step past step in my own boondocks cosmos method when I'1000 creating the showtime sketch layout. The key here is to have the town layout brand sense.

i. Draw the terrain and the major locations

Towns conform to their surroundings. The first affair to exercise is to draw the terrain the boondocks sits on. In this case I've picked a peninsula with a larger outcropping at the end. The coast is rocky and broken apart from a low bay on the NE.

In one case you lot've placed the terrain, use that to inform the locations of the main buildings. Hither the castle goes on the highest promontory, with a commanding view of the body of water and the land effectually. The cliffs on the promontory provide natural defences. Whatsoever country based threat must come up down the peninsula, and the boondocks will desire to defend the harbour, then it's natural for at that place to be a wall beyond the terminate of the peninsula.

Later on placing the major defences, I add together a harbour for fishing boats (food), a market most the docks (commerce). I identify another couple of large buildings – 4,5 and 6 that could be a temple, inn and wizard'south belfry respectively – the trifecta of important fantasy town locations.

ii. Place the major roads

2. Add the main roads — 2. Add together the primary roads

Roads become people where they need to go. In this case, the road needs to take a fairly directly route from the main gate to the castle. Think that the roads volition follow the contours of the terrain. Avoid straight roads in fantasy town maps – they tend not to have heavy earth moving machinery so roads need to go around obstacles on the whole. Information technology'll assist sell the sense of a naturally evolving boondocks.

In one case nosotros've laid in the main thoroughfare, add together principal roads to the source of food and commerce – these will be the high traffic routes. Add together in a couple more – here I add together the second road to the NE through the smaller gate.

3. Add the minor roads

With the major roads in place the map looks blank. Add a web-piece of work of smaller roads to fill in the gaps. Remember that the bulk of the smaller roads are going to be to go people to the major roads. Add kinks and corners to give the minor roads some visual involvement, and again follow the contours of the land.

four. Draw in the houses

This tin take a while, depending on the scale of the map and the level of item yous're going for. In this sketch I was drawing on newspaper at roughly 2 inches square and so a house could be little more than a dot on the map. Here the houses are a means of blocking in the space around the roads. Ideally when you're washed with the houses you lot'll be able to encounter the roads fifty-fifty if you remove the road lines.

And that's information technology! You're done with your sketch. Add a key and it's a functional town map. Going from here to a presentation map is a different upshot, but that's a matter of mode rather than substance. When you're ready to turn your sketch into a polished finished map, check out the full tutorial on creating a final map.

I hope you lot found that useful as a walkthrough. Experience free to ask questions and share around. Also note that there are more tutorials archived hither.