Drawing Settlements - Cities, Towns, etc. For your Map

[@star9129]

I'm currently writing a book right now, but I need to draw a map for it. This is so helpful, thank you so much.

[@altairtheartist6459]

Wow! Same here! :D

[@chanteniquevanaswegen8806]

XD I just draw them for fun. How are your maps going?

[@austinnguyen7032]

same

[@kanganshakr3893]

What is youre book calld?

[@dylanbuttigieg5870]

Same dude. I'm writing 21.

[@MaidenOfDread]

Have you seen those warriors from hammerfell? They have curved swords! CURVED. SWORDS!

[@Teindall]

BY THE NINE! FOR THAT REFERENCE: YOU HAVE COMMITTED CRIMES AGAINST KZbin AND HER PEOPLE , COME QUIETLY OR FACE THE JARL'S JUSTICE!

[@beaclaster]

Theres some curved sword in our world

[@skymarshallmarz5573]

Scimitar...

[@beepboop9848]

Vampyria its called a saber have your heard of them?

[@GlitchedRed]

Crazy, right? And I hear those Agonians to the far south use make big clubs from fallen branches of their Hist trees and fix many shards of obsidian into it to make an edge. I swear, I saw one cut the head off a troll in one swing with one of those things!"

[@GargoyleBard]

Have you ever tried drawing a map to look like it's night time? Might be an interesting tutorial, or at least challenge... Also, I think a thing on drawing clouds in empty spaces, over water, etc, would be great, is definitely something that shows up on a lot of older/fantasy maps. Just a few ideas

[@Pijetlo91]

I use the little black squares for cities, starts for capital cities and the diamond for forts / other exotic places when ever I use a big map, like an entire continent. However, in my new campaign I plan for my PCs to find a more detailed map of the area and I plan to use the 2nd column with the little towers, just because it is a smaller area. So thanks a lot for sharing Nate :)

[@MLunenborg]

I can't unsee that the Dwarven settlement, looks like a really angry bird looking at me. I'm so sorry. But I have gotten many great ideas to work with on my not yet existing maps! -They will come, when I finally get my courage up to brew a campaign for DND from scratch. =D

[@WASD20]

:D

[@jogailejurkonyte4746]

Omg it does!

[@phoenixblueknight]

Maarten Lunenborg your not the only one who sees an angry bird

[@pie7438]

@@jogailejurkonyte4746 ikr

[@calvinwithouthobbes]

I was just about to comment the same xD

[@b_olson542]

I would love to see your take on an underworld map. That would be inspiring.

[@adammclauchlin7605]

Thanks WASD20, I've been struggling with drawing cities on my maps!

[@mikeydrago-dt8by]

Nice ideas Nate. Anything can work. Could you make a video on how to draw canyons, valleys and gorges please? I'm making a map for my sister, but I've never done canyons or gorges before. Thanks.

[@OscarAEst]

Great video! Could you make a video about roads in the future

[@WASD20]

Probably! Thanks for the suggestion.

[@ImzadiTroy]

Have you ever though about taking all the concepts/examples you have shown us over the course of your map drawing videos and creating a document with all the examples to use as a reference. I think that would be really cool.

[@WASD20]

I was actually JUST thinking about this today. I'd love to make a PDF to throw up DriveThruRPG. Probably a Pay what you want sorta thing.

[@elouanmassatsch8610]

Thanks a lot for all the map drawing videos😃 they have been really useful for me and I'm looking forward to send you my A2 sized map that I'm working on right now Keep on going your videos are amazing 🙂

[@whiskeySe7en]

Shout out Malazan Book of the Fallen !!!! The leather story line is awesome, hope you read the series one day. Best fantasy series of all time

[@Alice-gr1kb]

Yeah I use the shield method, as my society is very organized into groups, as they are an empire

[@Ipaincakes]

I was litterarly looking up how to draw villages and citys like 1 hour ago! Thank you wasd20 for getting me into map making :)

[@WASD20]

Thanks for watching!

[@thatoneguy1350]

what the normal eye sees: dwarven city 15:55 what my eyes see: angry triangle man

[@dylanbuttigieg5870]

Dwarven city looks a bit like a mountain with a face. I like it lol

[@nightmare3711]

I personally like to just draw flags with the name beneath it. It looks really nice imo

[@vikingshaman3079]

WASD20, awesome video!!!!! Your channel has been super helpfull, I don't really do all that much RPG stuff, simply because its not all that popular where I live. But I am currently working on a sword & sandal novel (possible series) and I do intend to include a few illustrations, so these videos are just simply great...

[@epicdungeontiles]

I used that book to draw a map for my campaign! :D It's awesome although I didn't do it justice in my map haha.

[@GamerMeister]

You are so good at drawing, i think your voice it satifying xD

[@raindog8684]

Thank you! I really enjoy these videos.

[@loydcogswell294]

I’ve been drawing fantasy maps for years now and I’m not really a fan of the digital version of them... old school maps look way cooler to me, but after watching some of your videos I think some photoshop would be ok for certain things in map creation shadows and what not but not to much PS-ing though. I do enjoy your videos though I’ve picked up some stuff... Thanks for your help...

[@finnneary1679]

Fantastic! I'm quite bad at drawing towns, this helps me out a lot.

[@donneal1352]

Thank you for your time.

[@jasonheimbach6944]

Would love to see how you'd interpret modern towns, villages, cities for fantasy style maps.

[@Ponninftw]

that dwarven settlement looks like something out of Angry Brids

[@lukasbrucas3027]

Cool! Nice techniques!

[@pie7438]

I drew my settlements like tolkiens map of middle earth this of course was helpful you know minas tirith and the shape it is in the map?

[@juli29_pp]

Really helpful, thank you!!

[@fhuber7507]

A settlement, the buildings are relatively close together. I've seen too many people put the buildings 100 yards away from each other. You shouldn't be able to fit anther building in between.

[@gracesprocket7340]

A borough/burgrave plot was various widths, from 2 rods to 7 rods. Typically 3, for a single dwelling and messuage with land for crop and animals in the backs. In depth, from 5 rods to 20. (A rod is 15 saxon feet (identical to 16.5 modern ft or 20 celtic ft). As later development occurred in towns, these plots were subdivided (for building and tenancy, but not ownership of the borough plot and it's voting rights)... two or more buildings could be crammed into the frontage to the street, with more added to courtyards and lanes. Sometimes development along the backs also started, but not consistently. Usually the initial borough layout was along a single street, or perhaps a cross roads or a grid of 2 parallel streets and a crossing one. It was uncommon for a newly incorporated town to have more than 120 plots with 2400 hides of land under it's control, and many were much smaller. Many medieval towns still show the original borough plots within their layout, and similar considerations were applied to further development both within the 'spare' space left inside the walls (sometimes take up was less than anticipated and fewer desirable people moved in), and to suburbs growing outside the walls, though later plots could be smaller than those initially laid out in the core. Within a village, the plots were of broadly similar sizes, but lacked the formal market place and walls of a town. However, the cottages were not necessarily all concentrated in the village proper, and some could be found as outlying hamlets or assarts of the manor. They did tend to fall on the single main road through or at the junction of it more often than they did not. Most of the surviving hall houses, cottages etc from the middle ages are middle ranking peasant housing. It is somewhat ironic that peasant houses are now the most desirable and expensive (and often fairly large) buildings in our countryside.

[@redstation9765]

Nice book !!!

[@lauramartin1902]

Have you checked out Ed Emberley's books? They're aimed at kids, but I think they'd be a useful resource. His books are geared towards cartooning and distilling objects into their most basic of symbols - really helpful in cartography. You can snatch it off of amazon for a totally reasonable price.

[@WASD20]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@gracesprocket7340]

If you want your fields to look more medieval (established, ox-gang worked), then a gentle reverse s curve is more representative than straight lines. They should also (at least in a more localised plan) be long and thin (and can mark the centreline/edges of the corn-rigs and dead furrows of the rig and furrow ploughing - where the ridge is raised up to 6ft above the intervening 'dead furrow' between two adjacent acre-lands). Villages (and towns) have their houses on the high street, with backlands of around a half to quarter rood (an eighth to thirtysecond of an acre) for each messauge, burgage or toft and croft plot. There are few houses on the backs. Only later in development of dense towns and cities when the established town gets a larger population during early modern development does there become large scale development of and subdivision of tenancy (but not the borough voting rights) with additional properties on the lanes, the back lane and on courtyards on passages through the fronting property. The common field is divided into lands of an acre (fur(row)long and acres bredth (60 saxon ft by 600 saxon ft (15 saxon ft to the rod, add 10% for modern measure with our smaller foot (The saxon foot is convenient for scale working because of the 15ft rather than 16.5ft rod of equal length, and the near equivalence to a 'metric foot' i.e. three saxon ft is nearly exactly 1m)). Some lands are smaller, narrower in width (typically 3 rods rather than 4), and length... so that a particular land/selion is a whole number of eighths of an acre usually (from measurement of a sample of rig and furrow remnants). The common field is ploughed in large parcels of parallel lands, as individual rig/furrows - and the intervening parcels which are smaller than the full acre are divided into the smaller rood, half rood, quarter rood parcels of similar form, but smaller size. A lot of selions seem to be only 3/4 of the acre 3 rods by 40.

[@chanteniquevanaswegen8806]

Your work is truly incredible!

[@stevet7522]

The link for the book goes to a set of pens instead of the book. Awesome video as always. Keep it up.

[@WASD20]

oops. Thanks for the heads up! Fixing now

[@MLunenborg]

Also very useful. ;)

[@azoz-so5qr]

To anyone who bought the book he recommended: Is it actually worth buying and does it help at all with drawing maps? Thanks

[@beetlemilkpublishing2665]

A little late to this party: I like the book. I own it. I’m an absolute beginner so it’s nice that it starts from the essentials

[@elcapulco]

Thanks!

[@anthonykxk5937]

Thanks Nate! Any recommendations on how to make borders between kingdoms? e.g. 2 kingdoms at war would clearly have a set border between them but I don't know how to make one that looks good :/

[@dromedary6964]

Alright, here's a couple ways to do it depending on how you like your maps. Style 1: "War Map" In the initial stages of drawing your map, after you've completed all the landmarks and such, copy the paper with a printer and retrace the lines to make it look more natural. Then, once you've done that, jot down the cities in whatever style you like (I personally like the dotted style, it makes it look more like a mass-produced map made more by military commanders than by actual cartographers), and then shade in or outline the lands separate kingdoms own. You can then make the cities, camps, etc, and represent them on the map. Then you can write each kingdom, their troop placements, and where conflict is taking place primarily. I personally use and LOVE this style of map, because it separates the fantasy rpg element of the story with the political and more engaging side. On one hand, you have the civilian drawn map that simply shows the world, and on the other hand, you have a map drawn by those in power and show the political tension and lands in your world. Style 2: "Cities" Draw a simple shield in the middle of your kingdoms (or somewhere near it) as shown in the video, and then make each kingdom's cities or forts a different color than eachother. For example, the Sultans might have a purple color, while the Khans use red, and the Orcs use green, etc. This doesn't show the EXACT borders of the kingdoms, which is good for civil war-esque playthroughs, as its more chaotic and there aren't clearly defined borders, moreso cities and towns being captured by one side while another side owns nearby towns. This is less exact, but it's definitely less work and lets the players know in a less confusing way how the world works. For example, patrols might be randomized and even though you're near a green town, a red might spot you on a patrol and begin to attack you. This is, as I said, good for civil wars and the like. I have a friend who does it this way, but I don't personally use it, nothing wrong with it however. Style 3: "Regions" Make a bunch of regions on your map that can be occupied by warring powers. For example, make a lot of different shapes and areas on your map and put something there to mark it is owned by a power. You can shade it in, add a banner, a coat of arms, outline it a certain color, make a certain shape to show there's an embassy. Pretty much anything you want goes, and this is good for tabletop almost "Risk" games. Style 4: "Clashes" The final style, which I personally think is really cool, is you don't have very defined borders, but you have different symbols on the basics of the borders, which don't actually have lines. So if there's a fight between two powers, you can add a sword and a sword of their colors clashing. A red and a purple sword clashing, or a blue and a green. If they're in a trade agreement, you can have 2 hands of their colors shaking, and if they're neutral or defensive against eachother you can have 2 towers on each side of the border in their colors. This works really well with the "Cities" Style, and I think it's a nice feature that adds life to your world. Note: I'm not sure if these have been come up with before, but I made these up pretty much on the spot from some of my worldbuilding experience. Choose one you like, multiple you like, or none at all. It's your choice, I hoped this helped you. Sincerely, Jurgen.

[@WASD20]

Maybe just a dotted line? I'll think about this one.

[@anthonykxk5937]

Thanks!

[@michaelszostak7489]

You should make a video discussing how to make maps of these settlements themselves

[@cosmicsnowflake9830]

What are those 2d settlements, the detailed ones? The ones with towers, and walls and houses? What do you call them?

[@beaclaster]

Very helpful

[@magiv4205]

_He's back_

[@dmendesdotnet]

Hello Nate! This is a really nice one. Thanks for posting! Have you ever tried or considered to use a Fountain/Nib pen on your maps?

[@warlandpaint]

Please one video for draw fictional faction/ clan/country symbol application those symbols on the map . Thanks .

[@Gangrid]

Good content man. I was wondering which music you use for your videos? I have heard it through many of your videos and I really enjoy it! Thanks for sharing

[@WASD20]

Thanks. It’s called stale mate, by jingle punks.

[@mrross1606]

Thank you

[@carlosfrostygreen6855]

This looks cool for college students or d- n -d

[@cardboardcoder9328]

The shaded style is just like skyrim, you should check it out

[@chinmaythekingoftheekingdo2686]

If there are capitals there should b countries so how about a dotted line for them?

[@darren1445]

I think you could probably do a book on fantasy maps

[@meatKog]

If you want a map to look cool, draw it big and reduce it on a copy machine -- I suggest 80% to 60% reduction

[@premmaliptem9078]

Please say that how can we show camp in map.

[@MakatAlexander]

Awsome video, thank you so much, it helps alot. Just a small thing you could improve, if you use some other backgroud music some times. just vary it a little. Greetings from Norway.

[@hawkiebaby]

One always wonders why medieval fantasy towns lack ecclesiastical buildings... ;-)

[@MiltonRosso]

can you please do special terrain

[@eaterofchildren_]

I think he has a pdf on that Ps Zote is the pale king ^-^

[@MiltonRosso]

@@eaterofchildren_ I think he was created by the pale king to kill the radience with brute force, but that was taken away when the pale king became scared of his power. Frey prince zoye is his origonal form

[@eaterofchildren_]

@@MiltonRosso well I think zote is pale king because he’s such a lad and a brave warrior just like pale king

[@knightowl2638]

Love your videos, you've been an amazing help. Do you have any resources for long wall icons? I've got a kingdom that has a massive wall separating their boarder from the neighbors, think great Wall of china

[@WASD20]

I don’t have video on that now, but try looking at how it’s been done on other maps. Even historical maps of China.

[@overtly_occult4763]

What about elven cities

[@lisadikaprio]

flags on those towers look like tiny duck heads

[@SeraphimZoomer]

SO MANY OPTIONS

[@stwinkbug]

Yeeeeeeessssssss

[@ZachC-130]

Can't unsee angry bird face dwarf door

[@jackydahlmann1951]

Damn this Video came one day late xD Drew my new campaign map yesterday and had no clue how to do my cities

[@carriehanifen3434]

😀👍

[@ardacankose972]

I wait the this video

[@ryanherb6332]

I made a map and called it.. *drum roll* “Delland”

[@3D9547]

wow nice like ratio

[@loserthehated3427]

I'm here

[@maticonba]

I WAS FUCKING LOOKING FOR IT

[@mrbones1795]

Aleluia aaa

[@TheTerribleTy]

Megamind looking ass, good video

[@WASD20]

Thanks, Tyler. 😂