How do you like to handle dungeon mapping?

[mrpopstar]

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.

I have no expectation that the players will map the dungeon as they explore, but experience has taught me to anticipate at least one player at every table who likes to map.

I engage with the player mapping process by encouraging simple lines to scale that focus on route, with notation that details dungeon highlights and routes not taken. I find that group discussion is more productive in terms of supporting common agreement when there's a map on the player's side of the screen that provides for visual spatial alignment.

 

[iserith]

In the Before Times, usually the person stuck being the mapper was the guy who was in the bathroom when the DM asked who would be mapper and the rest of us said "Not it!"

 

[Schmoe]

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.

Speak for yourself! Although some people don't really appreciate it when I check out the closets...

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.

In a classic dungeon crawl, mapping is an important part of the experience to see how areas interconnect and where unexplored sections are. I think it would be extremely challenging to run a dungeon crawl without someone tracking and revealing the map.

That being said, different players get a different level of enjoyment from the actual process of making the map. In my current game, one of the players came prepared with a pad of graph paper and has tackled the mapping with great aplomb, so I'm happy to work with him and provide detailed descriptions of measurements. In another game, I've been happy to sketch out a representation of the dungeon on the game mat as long as someone said they were mapping.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Running the APs, I found one easy way to create the map is to print it 8.5/11 and cut it area by area, so when a player enter a room and explore it, I add that piece to the dungeon. Room by room they reveal the map, like a puzzle.

 

[jgsugden]

Physical real world mapping of what characters see in the game seems to be a bit of a cheat to me if I give actual dimensions to the PCs. Unless they stop to measure rooms, I rarely give them specific dimensions. Instead, I offer up descriptions with comparisons. If they ask for dimensions I give them an estimate based upon an investigation check result (and sometimes a perception roll as well).

Of course, if we pull out minis and drop down the battle mat, the size of the room becomes much clearer. However, I only do that for about half of the combats, and there are many 'rooms' in a 'dungeon' without a combat, so we only put down the mat for about a third of the 'rooms'.

Players usually operate with only a crude map that they assemble that often looks nothing like the real dungeon - and that is perfectly fine. It rarely has any impact on them at all.

 

[Oofta]

Speak for yourself! Although some people don't really appreciate it when I check out the closets...



In a classic dungeon crawl, mapping is an important part of the experience to see how areas interconnect and where unexplored sections are. I think it would be extremely challenging to run a dungeon crawl without someone tracking and revealing the map.

That being said, different players get a different level of enjoyment from the actual process of making the map. In my current game, one of the players came prepared with a pad of graph paper and has tackled the mapping with great aplomb, so I'm happy to work with him and provide detailed descriptions of measurements. In another game, I've been happy to sketch out a representation of the dungeon on the game mat as long as someone said they were mapping.

In a tunnel-based dungeon, there are frequently going to be large sections that are nothing but rock so no amount of mapping is going to reveal a hidden room.

In a structure based dungeon, I think it should be the PCs, not the players that detect that something is "off". In addition, many people forget how thick walls have to be when it's stone supporting stone. Not to mention that some hidden areas could be interdimensional spaces so no amount of mapping will help

How often do you go around measuring structures in five foot increments? Wait ... I may not want the answer to that if you're checking out closets.

Call it "theater of the map" instead of "theater of the mind". Or just DM laziness. Pulling out the grid paper is perfectly fine, just relaying how I run my games.

 

[Ristamar]

I have never been privy to a D&D game as DM or player in which the tedium of detailed player sourced mapping was worthwhile relative to the exclusive payoffs.

 

[Shiroiken]

While I don't really play IRL anymore, when I did, mapping really depending on the complexity of the layout. If it was something simple that the players were expected to explore in 1-2 sessions, or linear in nature, then a map was unnecessary. If meaningful decisions needed to be made, as a player I often just kept track on a piece of paper, with rough descriptions and other exits. It would easily allow us to escape, or go back and look at another direction we passed by. Way back in the day, we'd use graph paper to make crude maps, but found this too much work unless the DM basically did it for us (slowing the game down). The only way these were really useful is finding a hidden room due to a gap in the map.

 

[jasper]

What I have done in the pass is copy the map and ink out parts. Then tell Shiroiken to ignore any secret doors/traps markers I miss. What I do now is " Ok room 5 can take to 6, 7, 10, or 8. Which one do you want to go.

 

[Fauchard1520]

It's been interesting in my Out of the Abyss game. I've actually had my GM in that one hand the book across and let us study map layouts. It's a bit meta, but it does help to get the layout of an area in the way that oral description can't.