There any good old discussions on here as to how about physically laying out one's fantasy world?
Low level D&Disms as the default
I've been thinking a lot of how to fit expies of major ancient Earth civilizations onto a map, then the fantasy world progresses with them interacting at a close tech level. So 1000AD franks bump into Mayan-types who have mega-wood.
Fantasy map design
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I start smaller. The immediate neighbours, maybe include notes that your Mayan-expies exist to the East or across the sea, but mapping the world can wait. Partly to give me room to adjust, partly because when I'm starting a game it's usually in a hurry because someone else's game has crashed for one reason or another.
In any case low level parties are more likely to be interested in the area they can walk/ride to in a week or less unless your campaign concept involves airships, an escort to royalty or something like that.
In any case low level parties are more likely to be interested in the area they can walk/ride to in a week or less unless your campaign concept involves airships, an escort to royalty or something like that.
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Thaluikhain
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I thought this article had some handy hints, and the series in general.
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infected slut princess
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Just play a Civ game on a randomly generated map and watch how history unfolds. After a few thousand years, pick a moment in the game and draw your world and nations like that. Then just replace the Civs with your fantasy nations as you see fit (Iroquois become Wood Elf Coalition, Irish become the Orc Confederation, Ottomans become Fairy Kingdom, Canadians become Mongrelmen, or whatever).
Oh, then you are an idiot. Because infected slut princess has never posted anything worth reading at any time.
Just use The Only Fantasy World Map Ever.
More seriously, I think you want to figure out what kind of campaigns you want to support and design around that. If you're trying to do a political intrigue campaign you're going to need a finite area controlled by a small odd number of competing interests. If you're trying to do The West Marches you're going to have to have some reason for there to be lots of ruins in an area that's past the edge of civilization. Town of the week needs a road you're following that cuts across cultures. Ye Olde Standarde Plotte needs a few dungeons with bad guys who turn out to report to a bigger bad guy who turns out to report to an even bigger bad guy, so you need to figure out a place name and rough direction for where those guys live so you can start early on the vague rumors of dark happenings.
You can support all of those styles in the same world - you can set aside different regions for different things and even have overlap when the silk road cuts through the bickering fiefdoms on its way to the abandoned marshes. But you only ever need to support one of them unless you're trying to make a huge commercial campaign setting.
More seriously, I think you want to figure out what kind of campaigns you want to support and design around that. If you're trying to do a political intrigue campaign you're going to need a finite area controlled by a small odd number of competing interests. If you're trying to do The West Marches you're going to have to have some reason for there to be lots of ruins in an area that's past the edge of civilization. Town of the week needs a road you're following that cuts across cultures. Ye Olde Standarde Plotte needs a few dungeons with bad guys who turn out to report to a bigger bad guy who turns out to report to an even bigger bad guy, so you need to figure out a place name and rough direction for where those guys live so you can start early on the vague rumors of dark happenings.
You can support all of those styles in the same world - you can set aside different regions for different things and even have overlap when the silk road cuts through the bickering fiefdoms on its way to the abandoned marshes. But you only ever need to support one of them unless you're trying to make a huge commercial campaign setting.