Hi all, I’m making a map for an RPG, and I’m wondering if there are any standards for numbering a map key. Should lower numbers be in a particular location (central, NW, etc), be more important places, capital cities, most populated places, etc?
Hi all, I’m making a map for an RPG, and I’m wondering if there are any standards for numbering a map key. Should lower numbers be in a particular location (central, NW, etc), be more important places, capital cities, most populated places, etc?
Short answer: it depends on the map and what you're trying to do with it.
Longer answer: usually you want the map to be easy to read, and easy to find locations. That means, you should do whatever makes sense based on the map in question. I don't often see numbered legends for regional maps; they tend to be more common on cities and buildings/dungeons, which have a lot of very fine details. On regional maps, it is often easier to just put the label adjacent to the marker, in a place where it doesn't obscure some other detail. The type of key that I have seen most commonly for regional maps simply shows what the different markers mean (i.e. small circle = town, big circle = city, square = fortress etc.). But again, there are no rules, and you do whatever you think is best; if that means a numbered legend on a regional map, go for it.
In my own experience (I mostly do city maps), I have two preferences. The first is to have the legend numbers start for locations in the most important part of the city (usually that's the city centre), and then go to locations in the next most important district, and continue until the whole map is finished. The second preference is to divide the legend by type: thus, the first set of numbers will be used for, say, government buildings, the second set will be used for fortresses, the third set for religious buildings, and so forth.
Hope that helps.
Wingshaw
Formerly TheHoarseWhisperer
I agree with Wingshaw -- it depends on the map. Region and larger generally get labeled with place names rather than numbers. Smaller regions, like areas surrounding a dungeon entrance, can be numbered in the order you think the players will encounter them. Same with dungeon maps.
I think that numbers should be easy to find, meaning that they should follow in a sequential manner around the map from where ever they start. In other words if number 1 is in the top left corner number 2 shouldn't be in the the bottom left. That said unless you for some reason want to obscure information (for instance in a dungeon you don't want players to know immediately what's there), or you are linking to a fair amount of information that can't be represented pictorially in the map, or symbolically, I think it's better to just put it on the map. Looking up numbers is a distraction generally, it breaks the flow of reading the map.