Maps

[LostSoul]

Re: Good idea

Though your method is ALOT easier, I find its more leading the players than giving them the control over how they handle the problem I have presented to them.

Hmmm, not really. Everything that you've got on your map is there (even more - things that you may have forgotten to put on your map exist, if you wing it), you just don't detail the nitty-gritty empty houses and streets that connect the important bits. If they do decide to go somewhere that you haven't detailed, well, that place ain't gonna be on your map either; you're in the same situation.

I played a lot of Star Wars. When I started I tried to draw maps of cities and Imperial complexes. I gave that up. It was just too much pointless work. Eventually, the PCs would ask, "Is there a weapon shop here?" or "I go to the computer store." No need for a map, just NPCs. (It was even easier in the "dungeons" of Star Wars - the Imperial complexes. If the PCs wanted to go to the computer centre, the barracks, the engineering bay, the hangar, the power core, the prison, whatever; I didn't have to detail any of it. Just ask for a couple Sneak rolls, and if they failed they'd run into some kind of encounter.)

 

[redbeard]

Maps are more than maps

Maps are more than just maps....

They help you and the players visualize the setting, get a feel for how BIG, small, run-down, majestic, etc. that the city is.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I like to have maps of cities, but I rarely use them for actually determining how the players get from point a to point b.

I do more like what was suggested above, having a list of encounters in mind for various situations and player actions.

But I still use a map - it helps me describe and it helps the players see.

And, on a few occasions, I have actually used them for point a to point b stuff - like a chase scene (though that can be done with flow charts as well).