Empire City - First time making a map, for a superhero D&D game I will be hosting

[kwakamungus]

The official governmental map of the city of Empire Point USA. Population 7,650,450. Home to The Custodians a government sponsored team of super heroes.

This is one of my first times making a map like this. I have made a few simple things in the past but never anything large scale. White is road, grey is developed urban, light green, is low developed/residential, dark green is park/swamps. and yellow is industrial... Blue is water...

Any advice or criticism would be greatly appreciated.

[Hermit]

You have dead-ends and alleys!!! I like the choice to designate areas via color, it helps to break up the map and to orient your players. I'm particularly fond of the islands/swamp at the bottom of the map.

A few questions:

Are you planning on adding any individual buildings to the map as landmarks?

Or, alternatively, are you planning on drawing in buildings on top of all of the blocks?

Either approach would add some nice depth to the map, but if you want something quick and elegant, I would suggest going with a few landmarks, a few of the more important buildings, and maybe a few "points of interest" (in general or specifically for the story/players).

Is this to give a visual to players or familiarize them with the space, or are you going to be referencing this map continually throughout the game?

If the map is just for a visual and for a spacial representation of where they will be, don't sweat the details too much. If the map is for them to determine travel routes and times, quest locations, villain lairs, etc. then I would add some more detail to it just so they can find something interesting each time they see it or they can seek out little details that may be relevant to the actual play of the game.

Just as a final suggestion, a key/legend of points of interest/landmarks/important locations would add a lot to this already cool map. You could also include some of the demographic info in the key/legend along with the city name, government type, industries, etc.

Regardless of my suggestions, this looks great and I think it will add a lot to your DnD game.

[kwakamungus]

Thanks for the feedback, and sorry for the long time between posts.

I do want to name certain buildings and areas on the map as well as landmarks, but Im not sure about how I would go about doing it. I like the simplistc style that it has right now, and am not sure how I would go about drawing actual buildings on top of what I already have as I am not a great artist when it comes to small details.

As for the game, the players will be seeing the map and it will be used for them in planing and other such actions. I do have demographics and stuff in a google doc but am not sure how I could add it in to the map.

[Mateus090985]

It is a lovely map in my opinion! I specially liked the rivers.

[Hermit]

If you like the simplicity and don't want to make it too busy or crowded, then I would look at trying something similar to what was done here: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=46541 (I am by no means suggesting you have to go all out artistically as is depicted in this <---, but it may serve as inspiration for how you could place icons or numbers on your map and add a legend/key to show what those numbers or icons represent). *My personal opinion ahead* -- I would most likely place the legend/key in the bottom right in the water since this will leave all of your beautiful city still visible. You can make a box that is super fancy, or simple and straight-forward, but generally it is just a box with the numbers, icons, colors, and info inside it.

Just in case you are not a fan of numbers sitting all over your map, you could also take a shot at making icons that serve as representations of what building or person is in that place (see here: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...=building+icon // specifically the "How to create icons," "Simple City Icons in Photoshop," and "Labeling Locations"). I use the pdf attachment from this page all the time to remind myself of how to do something or learn how to do something for the first time.

Speaking of that pdf, you could also check out "Using dynamic brushes to draw in city blocks" or "Using the Pen Tool to Draw Buildings" to test out some methods on how to draw the buildings in your city blocks (I know that can be intimidating or time-consuming, but it might be worth checking out).

[kwakamungus]

What would a good looking font for this modern kind of city be?

[kwakamungus]

I decdied to make my own custom looking one and went with a kind of digital look. What do you think?

B's are hard to make look good and not like an 8... or 6

[Hermit]

Nice! It reminds me of digital clocks and watches, I like it

[kwakamungus]

Yeah, that was the kind of style I was going for when I made it. Glad it paid off a bit.

Hmm, now my next question is. Since this is a large city, should a label important buildings (ie city hall, main liabary, great park, ect-) or should I label the districts names... Or both. And if I do both, how would be a good way to distinguish between the two types of label?

[Hermit]

Up to you what to label. I wouldn't label it if you don't think it is important information when looking at the map (for instance, you don't have to label the main post office if it doesn't play a part in what you want people to see on the map). Although, to your point, since it is a large city, I would label both (but that is opinion, which you can ignore, no hard feelings ).

If you want to label both there are a bunch of ways to do that. First, you could change fonts (although I like the one you made) if you want to label the districts separately from the buildings/landmarks.

Or you could make the font bigger, but slightly transparent for the districts while the buildings/landmarks are smaller font, but full opacity.

If you don't like either of those ideas, you could have a border, do a dark outline/light outline, or some combination of the two to make the districts or the building/landmark labels pop (see here for an example of someone going through this exact situation right now: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=46502).

Alternatively to all of the previous ideas, you could label the districts themselves with full opacity labels (border and highlights up to you) and then number the buildings/landmarks with a title/description (city hall, park, library, etc) for each in a key/legend beside their corresponding number.