D&D 5E Does anyone still do mapping?

[Sacrosanct]

Back in the day, we had a mapper. One of the players would have graph paper and do their best to map out the dungeons. I don't see that so much anymore. Not even with my own group. There is some speculation around that. For example, it takes A LOT of time for the DM to describe the room in detail, and then map it out, and now as adults with jobs and kids and families, our gaming time is limited so we don't want to spend it on mapping. The other thought is that also back in the day, you had to map when you played video games. Due to graphics and non-smooth movement, every tile looked like every other tile and if you didn't map, you'd get lost. Is it a coincidence that our desire to map in D&D stopped at around the same time video games started doing the mapping for you?

So how to you handle it? Many times, I'll print out the actual map with all the details blank, and just let the players use that as a reference. It just speeds things way up. But I feel like it's almost like cheating that way, and the players are missing out.

 

[Bradley Hindman]

I draw the dungeon map on a whiteboard as the players explore. That map is then used as a visual aid during combat or exploration scenes. This works well for us since we usually play in Theater of the Mind mode. If a scene gets particularly complicated, I have a set of magnets that I can stick onto the board to indicate rough positions.

 

[iserith]

There was a thread on this recently.

I use Roll20 for my games, both online and in-person, so the map is generally up on the screen and revealed as the players move their tokens around. Dynamic lighting is great because the players will only see what their characters can see.

I think mapping has fallen out of mainstream practice, in part, because the reason for mapping "back in the day" was chiefly to help the players figure out where hidden chambers or corridors might be. If there was a big gap on the map, it might suggest the presence of a secret door leading to a cache of treasure! Now, with mechanics like Passive Checks and Activities While Traveling, that sort of thing is handled with action declarations and ability checks rather than precise mapping and using that visual to suss out hidden areas.

"Draw a Map" is an activity a character can certainly do while traveling and exploring. In order to make that a meaningful trade-off against other activities, in addition to providing a reduction in the chance of getting lost in the wilderness, I make source maps of dungeons worth gold. So if the player is willing to risk his or her character being surprised by the odd wandering monster, he or she can make a source map and sell it back in town. I'm also using the rules in Xanathar's for tool and skill use. Someone proficient with cartographer's tools can Draw a Map and perform some other activity at the same time which usually means the character is also Keeping Watch and has a chance to avoid surprise.

 

[TwoSix]

The video game linkage certainly does seem possible. I think there are two other factors at play.

1) The game moved away from being a test of player skill to a test of character skill.

2) The game moved away from being focused on dungeon/site exploration to being focused on world exploration.

Both those trends track with the changes from 1e to 2e.

 

[pogre]

I lay the dungeon out in Master Maze and Hirst Arts pieces. So, the map appears on the table more or less.

 

[Blue]

I do mapping! Oh wait, I'm the DM.

In reality, I make sure my players never have to do mapping. If I throw something like a maze at them, it's a skill challenge type-of-thing to work through it, not "you go 20 feet and can turn left or continue straight".

I don't see the value in introducing meaningless points of decision. By meaningless, I mean that the players have no information to make a call so the choice has no meaning to them.

Of course, my group isn't big on things like classic dungeon delves, I effectively use the Five Room Dungeon technique a lot.

 

[mrpopstar]

As I mentioned in the thread [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] linked to above, I maintain a map behind the screen as DM that I use to manage exploration, combat, and all the other important stuff a DM needs to describe what each character sees, hears, and experiences. Mapping is key to my DMing success!

 

[Nevvur]

[MENTION=15700]Sacrosanct[/MENTION]

I have my doubts either of the reasons you speculate for the change had a very substantial impact, but this is speculation on my part, too. I will say I'm sure there were plenty of adults with jobs and families running D&D with mapping back in the day, and while I enjoyed the Wizardry games, I never bothered mapping them myself.

I think iserith and TwoSix point out some of the motivations for mapping in old school RPGs and why that paradigm changed, but I reckon we can find other reasons, and it'll be hard to identify any single one of them as a main driving force.

 

[GlassJaw]

Man, I loved mapping back in the day. A pad of graph paper and describing the dimensions of the room felt like D&D when I was a kid.

Nowadays, most of the mapping is done with dry erase tiles or Dwarven Forge. Rarely do to draw/build the entire map beforehand so I encourage the players to draw it on their own but no one has taken the initiative as of yet. It hasn't come back to haunt them...yet.

 

[Rabbitbait]

We use roll20 online or in person with dynamic lighting. One interesting thing I have found is that with dynamic lighting, if someone isn't keeping a rough map in a biggish dungeon it is possible for them to get lost. I had one party fleeing for their lives, thought they were going back the way they came and ran into an entirely new area full of enemies.