(Part 2) Top products from r/mapmaking

If you look closely you can see the shapes of individual buildings, which can be discovered via satellite imagery. Then you have street names and place
names, not terribly difficult to obtain when you have diplomatic staff in the city. There is also hydrographic information about the Potomac such as
depths, flow rate, and width, which was often taken from the official surveys (to say nothing of having a soviet branded survey vessel taking readings
outside the Pentagon's windows). Less obvious from the picture is that they have ascertained the building material, weight limit, and clearance of the
bridges, which could only have been done by boots on the ground.

Here's a larger sample taken from the same scale. Look how much detail went into that. Borrowed from here.

Now picture that all of this information was mapped by the Soviets of nearly the entire world's urban areas- over 2,000, though many have not resurfaced-
and you get a good idea of the wealth of information that they had to work with. In some of the Warsaw Pact countries they had crazy details like
individual trees and the distance between them listed.

These maps are fascinating and a little unsettling. They have a lot of details left out of official published maps, like military installations, the names and products of factories,
mountain passes and what time of the year they were passable, police stations, even subway line stops and if the lines were electric or not. What does that mean? The maps could be
used for conventional air strikes bombardments, and troop movements, but that doesn't account for the civilian infrastructure like mass transit- they must have been occupation maps as
well. They knew which bridges their tanks could cross, which rivers their ships could navigate, where the vast majority of our military and government buildings were, the various heights
of neighborhoods to help troops unfamiliar with the area... And not just the US, either. Most countries. On top of that, the maps were regularly updated. Think of the resources needed
to handle all of that.

While no one is sure just how many maps there are and of what areas, a lot surfaced in the Baltics following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This article from Wired is a fascinating read. You can now buy originals and reproductions from ebay shops based in Latvia and
Lithuania as well as vendors who likely purchased from those guys. Here is a large scale map of my hometown of Dallas, TX. Incidentally, if anyone
can find a copy of the 1:25,000 map that supposedly exists I'd love to see it. It would look very cool on my wall. It's unnerving and beautiful all at once.

Further reading: Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Secretly Mapped the World
This book was recently released and I finished it yesterday. It's more of a technical analysis, there still isn't really any information about the how and the official why.
I thought it was fascinating. It goes into the detail, the errors made, the cultural assumptions made that didn't translate well, etc. You can tell a lot about a country by
how they draw and label yours.

Thanks for reading! Would love to see any additional info on this in the replies. I'm so amazed that these maps exist.

> Goblins

Actually, I think they'd be more likely to strike as soon as the party makes themselves comfortable - as in, they settle down for the night - after clearing a large infestation.

> Recruiting soldiers at different cities

1. Don't forget to implement Charisma checks (Diplomacy) for recruiting soldiers. A well-spoken, seemingly good leader will be more efficient at recruiting than a completely uncharismatic Wizard.
   
   
2. Keep in mind you can hire a dozen spearmen at any village for a barrel of mead and a gold coin, but given enough time you'll train them up to elite levels. Provided they don't skip fortress (which seems realistic). Recruiting experienced soldiers at cities will save time, but not gold in that case.
   
   And, IIRC, pay for a trained soldier is between 1 silver and 1 gold coin (1 gp = 10 sp)... at least in 3.5.
   
   ----------------
   
   No idea what edition are you playing, but Stronghold Builder's Guide has plenty of material not restricted by editions. Book of Challenges also has a pile on info for making in-built castle and dungeon protection mechanisms (read: traps).
   
   Finally, take a look at Stirling Castle, Scotland. I came across it fairly recently, been drooling ever since. It looks amazing. Only needs some adjustments for a fantasy setting - for example, protection against flying enemies.
   
   Happy DMing! :)

Yeah; don't mess up!

I'm just kidding, I do have an actual tip. Since I don't know your experience level, it might be stuff you know already, sorry if so.

Use pens with different size tips (such as these ) to differentiate different elements, like the outline of the mountains vs the contours of the mountains, and the coastline vs rivers. Start by inking everything but the thinnest lines with a medium size pen, then go over the thicker lines with the thicker pen. This gives you some wiggle room for changing shapes slightly during the inking process, so you're not stuck with the first line you laid down. Then when all of that is done, give it about 10-20 minutes to fully dry and erase your pencil lines gently with a white eraser.

Then go in with your thinnest pen and do the finest lines.

That's a pretty neat coincidence. You should read a book called Schemers and Dreamers: Filibustering in Mexico, 1848-1921, which discusses in detail various abortive attempts to carve new American-ruled republics out of northern Mexico. Filibustering in general would be worth studying if you want to do a really deep dive. William Walker, who conquered Nicaragua and ruled it for two years, might be especially interesting. There are several modern books out about him, but I haven't read any of them so I can't offer any recommendations.

I recommend these instead of Sharpies...

https://www.amazon.com/Prismacolor-Premier-Illustration-Markers-Assorted/dp/B0026HZ4BK/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1501484025&sr=1

You can sometimes find the 4 pen package at walmart.

If you do go with Sharpie, they now make a pen that has less bleed than the regular precision tip markers, but they still bleed more than the prismacolors.

You should check on local art stores, they have all sorts of cool stuff that you can often try out before purchasing.

Cool! Here are a couple of resources that I know about:

• Fantasy Art & RPG Maps Book
  
• A Very Short Introduction to Fractals Book
  
• YouTube Channel which goes into WAY too much technical detail
  
• YouTube video discussing Plate Techtonics
  
• Fractal World Generator (www)

I actually never draw details with pencil, I add everything directly with ink. I use the pencil only to roughly sketch the layout of the map, then most of the details I put on the fly.

So you can use whatever pencil you prefer, but if you are curious which pencil I use, it's this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001E3GUBK

Well, I found it after a bit of hunting.

City Works by mike mearls, a legends and lairs supplement for D&D third edition.

https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Lairs-Works-Mike-Mearls/dp/1589940970

The city building chapter it had was what I was trying to recall.

If you haven't already found it yourself, I tried googling the names in the picture and I think it's Making Maps, Second Edition: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS.

The book Proxima by Stephen Baxter involves a tidally locked world, and he goes into to some of the climate and biology.

I can't actually recommend the book for the story: A few clever ideas, decent execution, but mostly horrible characters, several strange and unneeded plot twists, and let's not forget the surprise cannibalism and Romans Legionnaires!

tldr; Skim it for the world building, skip the actual story.