Saelune said:
Souplex said:
World Map? Just have whoever can doodle doodle it.
Battle Map? roll20 is pretty good.
Someone...else...? But...but...its my world...mine ;n ;
It's not like the map is hidden information right? Just get the best doodler from your group to follow your doodle instructions.
Just have them do it in steps.
For example, here's the process of doodling my campaign's continent:
1. Draw a landmass.
2. Bisect the landmass with a mountain-range from the east coast to the west.
3. Continent north of the Fukov mountains (Named for the hero-king who united the Dwarves in ancient times, and also a pun because fuck-off you're not getting past this mountain-range) is all forests, meadows, swamps and other lush ecosystems. Elves, forest gnomes and the like live up there. South part of the continent is all deserts, rock flats, wastelands and the like. Humans, Halflings, and the like live down there.
4. To the south-east add a Hong Kong/Puerto Rico/New Zealand sized Island.
5. Add some details if you like. Inland streams, more islands of much lesser size, whatever.
There you go, an effective drawing of something you've never seen. Some of the details will be different, but once you make have your version stick with it and you'll be fine.
As for setting details:
Background: Millennia ago the continent of Dragor was ruled by evil Dragons. (Hence the name) Humanoids didn't appreciate this and rebelled. The Humanoids eventually won but at great cost' The war against creatures that spew fire, lightning, acid, poison, and cold from above destroyed the ecosystem of the south.
The south: The lack of natural resources has led to a politically unstable climate of constant war. Few nations last more than a year before they get taken over, coup'd or the like. A perfect ecosystem for adventurers.
That big island to the south-east: An Asian-themed empire from another continent (how you justify Ninjas, Samurai and the like) set up shop there about 50 years ago to serve as a trading post and eventually a beachhead for the invasion they were planning that got cancelled when on their home-continent the empire collapsed for vague reasons.
The Fukov mountains: Divided between 3 major dwarf clans the exemplify different sets of dwarf cliches cranked up to 11 along with minority communities of rock Gnomes and Stout Halflings. The Stone Clan: Your "Children of the earth(as in element, not planet) Dwarves". Stodgy traditionalists. The Iron Clan: Taking the Lawful Good aspect of Dwarves to its extreme they're basically communists. No concept of royalty or inheritance, everyone is raised by the state and assigned a role. Governed by a council of elected representatives from each of their mountains. The Gold Clan: Taking the "Greedy merchant lord Dwarves" to its logical extreme, their government is a crony-capitalist, kleptocracy where anyone with enough money can do as they please. They engage with lots of trade with the south from things like fine Dwarven weapons and ales to "Indentured servants".
None of the clans like each-other but they've agreed not to kill each-other.
My ASCII map of how the mountains are divvied among the clans:
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
sssssssssgggggggggggggggIIIIIII
SSSggggggggggggggggggggggIII
The north: I didn't really get to develop here much before my group fell apart, but I wanted to make the wood-elves violent psycho-hippies like this: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:A_Dance_in_Fire