I definitely like a well drawn map or maps. Even better if there is a link in the book to a website with a full version of the map as I'll switch over to a web browser to look at the map instead of having to go back to the map in the book.
Reminds me a bit of the world my current slate of characters (well, at least the central two) were originally designed for- it was more or less the California coast. I added ancient elf ruins and elemental vortices, built a wall across the Baja California and made it a demon- infested hellhole (although the wall was built by humans on what's now the bad side, to keep everyone else out), turned everything east of the Rockies to Kansas and Nebraska into various levels of monster- infested desert, and so forth. I'm not entirely sure how suitable a world it would make, especially in light of how I had to redevelop one of the characters to make her background work for LitRPG.
Did someone say maps? I LOVE maps, with jumping around a lot and moving from place to place it's so much easier to use landmarks on the map for people to follow. Also means I don't haev to put in entire paragraphs trying to explain where the hell the person is or where they're going.
Looks good! Had you ever heard about LitRPG before? Not all authors are doing maps, but some, like me, are doing them.
Cool. It's a new(ish) sub-genre that combines RPG-like elements with books. We've been working on nailing down a definition here ... https://litrpgforum.com/threads/whats-a-good-definition-of-litrpg.150/
Oh man I had no clue this existed. But I'm still curious, this is books that take game elements? or games that take literary elements?
Books with gaming elements. There's usually leveling up (explicit), loot drops, etc. It's still relatively new, but Ready Player One is probably the most famous example. https://litrpgreads.com/blog/ready-player-one-summary Glad I could introduce you to it.
I'm in love with this! http://www.mapsofgolarion.com/ I must build one for the Tower of Gates series eventually.
I've always loved maps in fantasy. Related, I found this discussion between Abercrombie, Martin, and Rothfuss on maps (how they're created, where they come from, etc.) to be very interesting. Especially Martin's input. The discussion starts at 11:55.
