It’s not really your question, but you can use QGIS to create maps digitally (or edit or copy parts of existing map data from OpenStreetMap). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCnNWyl9qSE

If you wanna get really fancy with it.

It also has lots of tools for map rendering for printing out the map.

Don’t make a map. Seriously. If you’re running like a home brew campaign, just try to make a town of some sort.

Consider making the continent shaped like a dragon or something. Then nobody will complain about the realism.

If you want the realistic approach in a hurry, draw 3-5 random curves for mountain ranges. Imagine the range is taller in some part, and lower on another, and remember that a mountain range can become a string of islands if it gets low enough. Fill in some larger between-mountain pockets with flatter land (smooth coast) and some of the outsides with smaller flat areas and scrungly coasts. Draw some rivers - they go downhill and merge as they go until they reach the coast, and there’s a lot of merged rivers in those between-mountain pockets. Pick a prevailing wind direction. From the edge of the map, imagine the wind picking up water as it goes over the ocean, dropping it off as it goes across the land, and dropping lots off as it goes over mountains. The wettest areas are forests, the medium areas are grass lands, the dry areas are desert. If your continent is really big, you can pick another random direction to bring water in from, so it’s not all desert. Remember that deserts are mostly not the sand kind, and could look like the Eurasian steppe or the American Badlands.

Mountains are usually political borders. If there’s a river near a border, it’ll be the border. But larger rivers are just as likely to be the center of a polity as they are to be a border.

I have used this in the past.

You can self host it though there’s an online version here.

Same way game Devs do: take an existing continent, turn it 90-180°, and rename all the countries.

i have not played nor watched a single play session TTRPG in my life but goddammit if i don’t express my opinion.

first a word of caution i have heard from others, think about what stories (genre and beats) you want to tell and then create your map. it’s fine to pin your locations to the map but first get a vague idea of the purpose of your map first. your world is a vehicle for delivering stories. i know some people like world building more than story building, but putting the emphasis on world building and extensive backstories does not translate efficiently to player fun.

second, zoom in (and i mean zoom in) in a part of the real world map with tons of tiny lakes and islands (northern canada, finland) and search for a place that fits your needs, and then simply change the scale. then you can add elevation and rivers, alongside different biomes. don’t just make deserts and german black forests, search and add different biomes the biodiversity of the planet is incredible. semi-arid climates (plateaus and steppes) are usually under represented, although plains are generally plain so not a lot to tell a story out of. it’s surprising how well this works.

I’d like to add an alternative perspective; You’re players are probably too poor to afford a real map.

Here is an example of a good medieval map. Its basically just a list of place names in vague relation to eachother with some nice art and simplistic rivers (Probably slightly wrong because its a copy of a copy). This is a map of a wealthy merchant or low noble, you’re broke ass peasant adventurers cant even look at this map in case their grubby eyes dirty it (an adventurer should be treated like hangmen or nightsoil collectors, kept at a distance from the rest of god-fearing society and OUTSIDE the town walls come nightfall). The best “map” they can afford is a list of place names on the way to where ever they are trying to go, and if its too far away then they will have to stop at some point to get more place names from someone closer by. Make them draw their own maps, shitty MS Paint collations of where they cross rivers and meet bandits and whatever (likely false) geographical information they can get off the local beggar (He is the only one who doesn’t spit on them when they pass by). By all means have your own secret map thats accurate but never show them it, because that map is probably hanging on the wall in a Lord’s hall and the only way they would ever see it is through the window with their heads on pikes outside because they dared do work for his serfs without a license from the church and a tithe payment to him.

Alternatively if you just want a bog standard fantasy map then look for map generators online, there are plenty. Dont be afraid to just steal an already made one for your own purposes either.

I recommend working fully backwards from your story and then just ensuring the geography is logical. Incorporate geography into your storytelling, then make the map make sense.

I don’t know if this is a good idea, but I vibe with the “throw a bunch of dice” methods

Make continents, imagine where plates would be and put mountains there, imagine rough elevations of land in general, start rivers on the mountains/other raised bits in amounts proportional to how close the nearest large body of water is and start them on that side, rivers collect they don’t branch until a delta maybe, rivers follow elevation — straight when rapid changes and meandering in curves on flats, rivers run to the sea optionally making lakes or swamps in flat areas.

Major cities control important locations (rivers, harbours, mountain passes etc) and are on water with access to fresh water and farmland nearby. Farmland needs water, settlements generally need running water to be permanent.

Also have fun. Put a blasted mesa that spews posionous miasma because a god died there. Make a chasm that is so deep nobody has ever plumbed its depths and liquid shadow collects in the bottom, add a migratory forest that strips the topsoil of nutrients as it passes through.

I make the land shape then add mountains, water runs downhill so most rivers start in mountains and run to the lowest point which is a lake/sea or the ocean. If there’s been a cataclysm of some kind you can fudge anything that is too weird as just being the result of when all those Netherese floating islands fell all over the world

watch artifexian or pm me and I’ll give you my direct help later

just find a part of the world your players aren’t familiar with, rotate it so that our north isn’t the same direction as the fantasy world’s north, maybe skew or stretch it a little and then put your cities and whatnot where ancient or medieval humans did

draw a vague shape, run rivers at feel good distances, put some mountains.

earth is like tectonics colliding, creating mountains which (with distance) arrive to 0 at sea level in height (obv), and then river basins scattered across the land. lakes should have a river going in. the older the place, the flatter it is, and the bigger river basins become. mines and minerals are likely in place of eroded old mountains. but i mean making up bullshit and then sanding off nonsensical situations seems simpler. (there is also procgenesis if you want plausibly accurate map for some reason, but don’t want to think too much)

cities can only sit on rivers or lakes, with plausible trade flows. powerful city will likely aim to capture its river basin first, and then its partners until mountain ranges

Avoid rivers splitting up unless in a delta, and you’re probably 90% of the way there :D

Honestly though, landscapes are so diverse and theoretically your fault lines/tectonic plates can be anywhere, so that the only thing that really matters to make it look natural is to not repeat anything too much.

You could even have a world that is not a planet, then nothing matters anymore, mine is just ground and if you go too far in one direction you end up in a different plane. Stars and the sun are just portals to the plane of fire, very far away.