I did this in MS-Paint, quickly doodling for a few hours of free time, while I was caught on a computer that didn't have Adobe Photoshop. If you are going to make map's like this I recommend Photoshop, as it allows you to play with layers, but for instructional purposes Paint is just fine.
First start with a blank canvas, but make the background color something other than white, there is going to be a lot of information in these maps, and pure white space distracts from it. I chose an earthy brown for my map of the environs around Dracula's Castle, observe:
Now that we have the basic area, we need to start with the geography of the region, the change in elevation, and the geological features of the landscape affect everything else in the environment as we shall soon see. I did up the higher elevations in a darker color brown, the big blob to the west is the mountains described in Design Document 2, the one in the center is the sheer cliff Dracula's Castle is situated on, and the third in the upper right is just for fun:
Now we have the cliff for Dracula's Castle, so we know about where the city will be, why not put it in right now? Because as a general rule the most important factor when building a city is its proximity to water, and the local water sources should be squared away before you start adding in any details about the inhabitants. I mentioned the tributary of the Danube to the north, so lets add that right now. Before we go on I'd like to note that I like to use calligraphy brushes for rivers, as rivers are generally thinner when they curve, and widen out in straight lines like a calligraphy brush. They do cause some issues if you want to do a horse-shoe bend, but those are rare in rivers, anyways take a look:
Now the rivers flow may seem arbitrary, but there is a method here. Water seeks it's own level, and as you can see the course of the river seems to flow away from the areas with higher elevation, unless your map encompasses the start and end of a river this handy short-cut will make the flow of a river seem natural.
The first river shoots of the Danube, but another good origin for a water source is to be a mountain spring formed by snow-melt to trickle down from the mountains. If you're looking for a handy water source to supply your quaint little RPG starting hamlet, that's a good place to start. I'll throw in one of those stream just for fun, it's okay to have more than one water source on a map, just don't get bogged down with them. Here is how it looks on the map:
Okay, we have the high elevation and water flow, but there is little indication which way the water is flowing. Let's mark some marshland so you can tell where the low point is:
Now that we have the geography down let's add the city. In modern times cities sprawl out, but in this time period cities are bound by walls or palisades. A common border to a city is a circular wooden palisade, so the black ring around the city represents that, the grey within is the constrained urban spread:
Every city needs roads to go to it. I mentioned earlier that the main road to the city came in from the South, let's add that:
Now a few lesser roads. First a somewhat smaller road leading to the mountain pass for trade, and then an even smaller road leading north to the ill used river crossing:
Finally to flesh out a few details, by adding a small sheep road into the marsh. Then a slightly less dark shade of brown for the higher, but not mountainous elevations. Finally we use a warm green to mark the woods to the South we mentioned earlier:
Now to add some label the points of interest and we are done!
Hope you learned something from this, enjoy!
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