Mapping and Exploration

[D'karr]

A buddy of mine found something called 5x5 (I do not have a link). We played a typical campaign for a time and generated a few loose ends. Then as a group we decided the 5 goals we had. Then we/the GM mapped out the 5 things you needed to do complete those goals. The group decides what to pursue and the GM generates the material. For the GM, they can run a "sandbox" but really they only need to deal with 5 possible directions when something wraps up. It gives a nice cross-over between the two styles.

That would be Dave Chalker's ([MENTION=5389]davethegame[/MENTION]) 5x5 method. You can find it at Critical Hits


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[amerigoV]

That would be Dave Chalker's ([MENTION=5389]davethegame[/MENTION]) 5x5 method. You can find it at Critical Hits


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Thanks for the link (must spread Xp around).

 

[Grogg of the North]

I ran a Stargate-esque game once where the players were requested by the local government and guilds to discover where the magical portal took people. The PCs would provide maps of the new areas and reports on natives. It was more or less a sandbox and I let the PCs go where they wanted.

As for mapping, in the past I had PCs that enjoyed doing that. And I would only draw on the battlemat if it was relevant. After a dungeon crawl he and I would compare maps to see how accurate a map he made. Really helped me improve my description abilities. Mapping dungeons is something I enjoy doing too as a PC.

 

[howandwhy99]

Does anyone play in an exploration-based campaign featuring mapping of the wilderness and underground sites (either on hex/graph paper or freehand)? Or are you in a "let the battlemat handle the mapping" sort of game?

I run such games. I find the most important aspect of exploration is that mapping is a possibility, but not a requirement. Having a more or less accurate map to the maze one is in may improve exploration a lot, but simply including improvement in a game is considered in certain opinions to be making a requirement. I see it as holding fundamentally different purposes for play.

If they are going to scout the wilderness, then the players should have a viable means of mapping if they so choose. If you have sea going exploration as well, then include means to chart and navigate. Non-spatial exploration is often overlooked, but every bit as important too. Have your maps, lists, and matrices of what is available to learn on hand and ready before play begins.

 

[Nytmare]

I just started an online exploration/mapping game with my old circle of table top D&Ders.

The idea was a heavily house-ruled West Marches/Kingmaker hex crawl, that would translate into a wiki-based group writing exercise, that could devolve into normal table top play when everybody was back in town.

Player motivation is primarily exploration, so that they can map, so that they can make money, so that they can explore better, so that they can save up enough to build a castle and play house.

 

[Water Bob]

Does anyone play in an exploration-based campaign featuring mapping of the wilderness and underground sites (either on hex/graph paper or freehand)? Or are you in a "let the battlemat handle the mapping" sort of game?

We don't use battlemaps, per se. Typically, I use these big sheets of graph paper that measure about 2' x 2.5'. This, I tack onto a large cork board that we throw over the kitchen table.

Tacks have colored dots on them and represent characters. I draw on the graph paper with a black magic marker. Sometimes, I'll have pre-made maps. Sometimes, I draw as I go.

It's not unlike the old pencil and 8.5" x 11" graph paper from my 1E AD&D days--except bigger.

I usually do all the drawing--just out to the characters' line of sight. I work of a master map, translating it to the big map as the characters move.

My campaign is a mixture of both. I've created a huge sandbox for the players to explore. As we go, and the gaming years pass, I keep adding to the map as the players discover things. The PCs might hear a rumor and go exploring. Or, I might just put something in their path as they're moving from one part of the map to the other.

I might put "adventure path" style adventures into the campaign, but if I did, I'd just adjust the adventure so that the locations fit where I wanted them to on the big local map I've made (over 2,000 square miles).

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

I'm playing in a game run by Michael Mornard - RPG.net's "Old Geezer", who was part of both Arneson and Gygax's original groups. We're exploring a dungeon I know on a meta-level to be the AD&D DMG sample dungeon, but since wandering monsters are brutally frequent and (despite rumors to the contrary) I don't have AD&D memorized, making a map so that we can describe where we go at each turning is vitally important. At one point we chased some goblins off the map and Michael just gave us very brief descriptions - "you run through a room and down a hall, passing some doors and around a corner". Finding our way back to areas where we knew where we were was extremely tense and exciting.

When I run games, I often use a wipe-erase board to speed up the process of describing complex areas but then erase it when the party has moved on. Smart parties will make their own map; here's a report on a situation in which using the map thus created was also very nail-biting.

As a player I always look to make a map these days. I find that it is very immersive to be doing myself the thing I imagine my character to be doing as the mapper, and it helps make the environment real for me. I'm not very good at directions, so it's often good to have someone else mapping as well and compare notes afterward, but even so I find that it inspires better play because in the course of making the map I have thought more deeply about what is going on, how areas might connect, taken notes on the map about points of interest, etc.

 

[Soraios]

Loving all the responses and I'm glad to hear there are some macro and micro mappers!