Realistic scales for geography

[Durandal]

Hiya all, I was creating a map, and setting for roleplaying in DnD, and I had to ask, what constitutes a realistic scale typically for any large continent?

 

[Minibit]

It depends how much detail you want on the map!

IF you want to include just the shape of the continent, the borders on it, its major geographical elments (i.e.: a mountain range, a desert), and its most major cities, then something like 3 cm = 500 km, 6 cm = 1000 km can work, as on this map

If you want to get more detail, like smaller towns and geographical elements, or even if you want room to add notes, then you'll want to use a bigger scale, maybe 50% of that (so 6 cm = 1000 km, etc.) like this one

If you want to do even more detail than that, you might consider making multiple maps: one map of the whole continent like the first example (undetailed) and then individual maps of the countries/areas on that continent, which you can blow up more for details.

 

[Durandal]

It depends how much detail you want on the map!

IF you want to include just the shape of the continent, the borders on it, its major geographical elments (i.e.: a mountain range, a desert), and its most major cities, then something like 3 cm = 500 km, 6 cm = 1000 km can work, as on this map

If you want to get more detail, like smaller towns and geographical elements, or even if you want room to add notes, then you'll want to use a bigger scale, maybe 50% of that (so 6 cm = 1000 km, etc.) like this one

If you want to do even more detail than that, you might consider making multiple maps: one map of the whole continent like the first example (undetailed) and then individual maps of the countries/areas on that continent, which you can blow up more for details.

Can't say I'm good enough to make maps that detailed D: haha