How do you like to handle dungeon mapping?

[Fauchard1520]

Dungeon mapping can be a challenge (relevant comic for reference). I've taken to handing players cut up bits of map as they go, allowing them to piece it back together with tape. It has the added advantage that they can draw out dungeon rooms while I prep the other parts of combat, but you lose that old school hand-drawn feeling of mapping.

How do you guys handle in-game cartography?

 

[iserith]

I use Roll20 for most games (even in-person ones) so the map is revealed as the players move about the adventure location.

In a game without Roll20, I give each chamber or area a pithy and memorable name, e.g. The Oubliette of Screams or The Hazardous Hall, that the players can add to a list so they can just say where they want to go back to if necessary. "There was a door we didn't check in the Hazardous Hall, so let's head back that way."

Often, precise mapping from old school games was a lot about finding hidden chambers, but I think that's mostly handled by Activities While Traveling and passive checks now. I usually make "Draw a Map" a specific activity a character can do in the adventure location if they have the proper supplies. If they undertake that task, they are automatically surprised if a lurking monster attacks (because they aren't Keeping Watch), but the source map is worth gold back in town.

 

[jasper]

I don't. Either I hand the players a map. Or assume mapping and time to map is taking place. I once had two people mapping and I was drawing out rooms as they entered. Neither of the maps were close to the real map.

 

[Burnside]

If possible, I have a printed-out map that's covered up and reveal new areas of it as players advance through. Failing that, I quickly and simply draw the map for them as they move through the area.

I have found that having players draw a map based on verbal descriptions from the DM is frustrating as a DM and extremely frustrating as a player.

 

[mrpopstar]

As the Dungeon Master, I maintain a map behind the screen on standard graph paper that I use to track movement, lighting conditions, and positioning in combat. The map is inked and my tracking is done with pencil and eraser.

My players usually maintain a simple line map as they explore. Their map is done with pencil and eraser.

If one of the characters draws a map as an activity while exploring, I provide an appropriate copy of my map after the session (detailing only the areas they explored). That map is inked and usually generates a lot of reflective discussion before the next session.

 

[Oofta]

I don't, and haven't for a long time. Other than nostalgia I don't see that it adds any real value.

In real life we don't go to someone's house and start mapping, we just more or less remember where things are. If the dungeon is large and complex, I may ask for checks now and then. If someone tells me their character is making a map movement speed is reduced appropriately but I don't make the players do anything.

In a lot of cases I only have a vague feel for physical layout other than a few key scenes. I don't need to have more details than necessary. I only map things out if it adds value to the story.

 

[mrpopstar]

I don't, and haven't for a long time. Other than nostalgia I don't see that it adds any real value.

Nostalgia has its own value!

In real life we don't go to someone's house and start mapping, we just more or less remember where things are. If the dungeon is large and complex, I may ask for checks now and then. If someone tells me their character is making a map movement speed is reduced appropriately but I don't make the players do anything.

In a lot of cases I only have a vague feel for physical layout other than a few key scenes. I don't need to have more details than necessary. I only map things out if it adds value to the story.

The maps I use behind the screen add value to my descriptions of what each individual character sees and hears, and to my ability to manage combat.

The crude line maps my players generate add value to conversations about what to do next, which direction to move, etc.

The story isn't served directly, but there is value added to the transportive experience of an immersive narrative.

Experiences differ!

 

[Oofta]

Nostalgia has its own value!



The maps I use behind the screen add value to my descriptions of what each individual character sees and hears, and to my ability to manage combat.

The crude line maps my players generate add value to conversations about what to do next, which direction to move, etc.

The story isn't served directly, but there is value added to the transportive experience of an immersive narrative.

Experiences differ!

Yeah, one of the great things about D&D is that the rules are just a starting point. Want to draw maps? Awesome! Miniatures, theater of the mind or some combination? Go for it!

For the most part I'm just too lazy to do maps when I DM.

 

[aco175]

I find that a lot of my games now-a-days involve only a few rooms, maybe 4-6. I find no need to have these mapped by the players. Even if they go underground to a series of mines or caves we no longer map. Maybe the players know that they will be steered back to the planned adventure if they wander long enough. I usually asks for a group check and have a wandering encounter if they fail.

 

[SirGrotius]

it's a great question. In two of my core groups there happened to be a player who was an amateur cartographer/professional architect, so he took up the mapping duties on his volition. If I hadn't the luxury of such a savant, I would've tried to work in the players receiving the map somehow.