Rivers love to split at random places. Make sure to include as many splitting rivers as possible.
Speaking of rivers, it's well known that rivers are unaffected by gravity and thus will flow uphill and ignore the terrain.
Mountain ranges are formed by a bored god doodling, and that god is you.
When you place a settlement or city, make sure it's got all of the essentials: A cool landmark it can be named after, a treacherous terrain to banish misfits to, and a source of enemies to threaten the population.
Borders before the industrial revolution were extremely rigid and well defined, so make sure your map reflects that.
A common mistake is trying to imagine underwater geographical features like mountains. But those things don't actually exist. The land is land and the sea is the sea and they have no relation to one another.
What about islands, then? Islands should be placed randomly, like the gods sprinkled some land on the sea.
No continent is complete without a massive forest that's a day's walk from frozen tundras to the north and a sandy hot desert to the south.
What climate could allow for such a combination? We're climate deniers here. Weather is to set the mood, not to design the map.
Don't forget to populate your map with many interesting cultures like: hippie people, working class people, cold barbarians, hot barbarians, and normal people.
2087
gracieabrams
jimmyeatworldofficial
gummygunk
