Is mapping a lost art with adventurers?

[kigmatzomat]

We rarely mapped in 1e/2e b/c it wasn't necessary until you got so deep in that you started worrying about getting lost (generally 2-3 turns away from daylight).

In 3e the general play style is:
Mark your trail. Preferrably in two different locations, the common being a blatant chalk mark on the wall and a less obvious one on the ceiling.

Someone makes an Int/navigation check to try and remember the way out.

When it is obviously a maze or other twisty place, the ranger makes a craft:cartography skill check every so often to update a map. (I use a set of "hidden" rolls the players made before the game for these kinds of events so they never know if they get a nat 20 or nat 1)

Be prepared to use track to find your way back out. (And hope one of the "track by scent" animal companions is with the party for stone floors)

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Other: DM does the mapping (that means me )

 

[DerHauptman]

Map confusing dungeon issues are annoying, not fun IMO.

Ditto, your comments!

I did try to map dungeons at first as the sets really played it up as a way for the DM to have some fun with the players. We were trying to learn the rules together DM and players at the same time after ED got the set (c1978) we were 12. I remember arguing and the DM trying to figure out where we thought we were vs where we were and so forth. Finally, we gave up after the 3rd module. So 10 sessions or so in we figured out we'd play instead of argue over 20' east, 10' west, where is the cistern etc. We scrapped it as boring and time wasting.

 

[The Shaman]

I love having a map in my hand, especially one that I made.

I love that a map is a tangible record of our progress, that it grows each time we get together to play.

I love looking at the map after the game and wondering what's down the corridor we didn't take, or through the door we didn't open.

I love listening to the game master's description and wondering if I got it right, and if it will make a difference later on.

I love trying to figure out where the secret doors are.

I love the stains from cups and glasses and errant snack foods that become blood and ichor and filth when describing the map in-character.

I love the little notations in the margins, the stick-figure illustration of the dead goblins, the legend for symbols so that I can tell the difference between an arrow trap and a poison dart trap.

I love looking at that blank sheet of graph paper and wondering how it will look when we're done.

I love me some mapping, yes I do.

 

[pogre]

None of my players truly enjoy it so I have cut it as a necessity IMC.

 

[Hussar]

bah. Try penciling and papering your way through castle Ravenloft going only by DM description. That'll put you off mapping forever.

Done it. Don't miss it.

Now when I DM a dungeon, I draw it out on 1 inch easel paper beforehand and cut it into sections. "You enter the room"...plunk..."theres the room"

That's what I've done as well. Now I just map on 1 inch graph paper and cut it out. No more wasting time drawing on a battle grid, I just plunk down the next sheet as we go. Poor man's Tact-tiles I guess.

Of course, now that I play over OpenRPG, my maps are 30 pixel scale jpegs of the actual maps with fog of war over the bits they can't see. I simply remove the darkness as they move forward. All the joy of discovery without the pain of trying to pace out rooms.

 

[hong]

I love having a map in my hand, especially one that I made.

I love that a map is a tangible record of our progress, that it grows each time we get together to play.

... if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

 

[Staffan]

You remember incorrectly. I really hope the lost posts can be restored soon, so the full thread is available to refute these incorrect claims.

OK. Well-designed 3e adventures generally don't have huge mega-dungeons. Notably, the biggest dungeons in Red Hand of Doom are 18 and 17 rooms, and most adventure sites in that module are far smaller.

 

[DragonLancer]

I voted Other simply because I'm the DM.

My players try to map everything but they are not too good at working out maps based on my descriptives (that may be partly my fault as well), and I end up correcting their maps most sessions.

 

[Lokishadow]

I have a nigh-unto eidetic memory, so it's nearly impossible to get lost. Also, if you think about it, unless you make a whole lot of twists and turns and the scenery is almost identical, you as a real live person very rarely get lost. Most people can find their way back to where they came from, even if they can't find where they're going.

Also, as mentioned in some other posts, I'd rather role-play and kill things than worry about whether or not I drew that north-by-northwest angular wall at the correct angle. A game is supposed to be fun, not an excercise in plane geometry and the application of a protractor.

Also, I rarely D&D anymore, except with my house-adapted OWoD rules set. Meaning, I use OWoD rules almost exclusively for every game I play, including fantasy settings with dungeons crawls. And let me tell you, PC's REALLY think about it before they go tangle with a dragon when they only have 7 health levels.

-Loki