I’ve been making note of procedural fantasy map generators for a while now. These are tools that generate a map of an imaginary landscape, town or dungeon, mostly (but not necessarily exclusively) for the purposes of role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The latest to come to my attention is Watabou’s Procgen Arcana, a set of free-to-use map generators by Oleg Dolya.

Meanwhile, for those who draw their fantasy maps digitally, but without a procedural map generator, there has been more than one project to extract symbols and signs from real old maps for use as stamps and brushes in, say, Illustrator or Photoshop. I mentioned David Stark’s library of map elements, taken from a 17th-century map, last year. The author K. M. Alexander (previously) has put together a number of brush sets based on old maps, allowing users to “create fantasy maps that can add a touch of historical authenticity to any project.” The latest is based on an 18th-century map of Bohemia. He also has packs of compass roses, sea monsters and other cartouches, as well as typefaces. Quite a lot of stuff, actually. Free for personal and commercial use.

I have notes on an article about fantasy maps in the digital age, in which I’d discuss the development of maps from entirely hand-drawn to digital to algorithmic. I’ve been meaning to write it since before the pandemic. I wonder if it’s all out of date by now. Possibly not.