Megadungeon mapping at the tabletop

[Quickleaf]

My players are heading into Dragon Mountain soon, which will be the largest dungeon I've ever run. I know it's not a true megadungeon, but for my purposes it is. My question is: How the heck do I handle all the miniature-scale mapping? Any tips or tricks from you dungeon pros out there?

Btw, a projector setup - while a very cool thing - is just not on the table for us.

I've already visited http://www.megadungeons.com/megadungeon-resources/ and read the mapping links there, and while they're very good, they don't pertain to actual mapping at the tabletop scale.

My thinking right now is to use gaming paper and draw up the maps with colored sharpies in advance. I suppose I can simulate light sources/fog of war with pieces of black paper to cover the map. But because of the dungeon's sheer size, I'd need at least three sheets of gaming paper (30" wide) to accommodate the dungeon. That will mean some flipping between maps, but seem seems like it would be the least hassle. Is this the best way to go? Or are there other ideas or photos you an share to put me on the right course?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mark CMG]

Game paper might be overkill if they aren't going to spend a lot of time in areas. Do you have access to a megamat and some wet erase markers? You can always throw together some paper maps of places they have already explored between sessions if they need to reference places they've been.

 

[Quickleaf]

Game paper might be overkill if they aren't going to spend a lot of time in areas. Do you have access to a megamat and some wet erase markers? You can always throw together some paper maps of places they have already explored between sessions if they need to reference places they've been.

I do have markers, but what's a megamat? Is it one of those easel-sized 1" gridded pads you find at teaching supply stores and places like Office Depot?

We'll probably be in this dungeon for 3-5 sessions but won't be revisiting it after. I'm mainly looking for a way to handle multiple maps with minimum loss of play time.

 

[Mark CMG]

I do have markers, but what's a megamat? Is it one of those easel-sized 1" gridded pads you find at teaching supply stores and places like Office Depot?

We'll probably be in this dungeon for 3-5 sessions but won't be revisiting it after. I'm mainly looking for a way to handle multiple maps with minimum loss of play time.

If you don't think you'd ever use it again, it might be overkill, but I've been using them for years and they have paid for themselves a hundred times over. I'll bet some other ENWorlders would testify to their usefulness.


http://www.chessex.com/mats/Battlemats_MegamatsReversible.htm

 

[Quickleaf]

If you don't think you'd ever use it again, it might be overkill, but I've been using them for years and they have paid for themselves a hundred times over. I'll bet some other ENWorlders would testify to their usefulness.


http://www.chessex.com/mats/Battlemats_MegamatsReversible.htm

Yeah, pretty similar to Paizo's flip mats right?

My hesitation there is that I would never have more than 2 areas pre-drawn at a time. Which would mean I'd end up having to erase and draw new maps in the middle of play. I'd like to save time and avoid that if I can.

 

[Mark CMG]

Yeah, pretty similar to Paizo's flip mats right?

My hesitation there is that I would never have more than 2 areas pre-drawn at a time. Which would mean I'd end up having to erase and draw new maps in the middle of play. I'd like to save time and avoid that if I can.

The Chessex mats are less specific and more flexible but they probably would require some drawing during play.

 

[griffonwing]

Alternatively, you can take one of these attached files to any architect/blueprint print shop and have them print out sheets on a 36" or 48" roll printer. I created these when I worked as a draftsman and printed out several for my campaign.

These are 24x36 and 36x48 grids with 1" squares and further subdivided into 25 subsquares. Meaning that if you chose each 1" square to be 5ft, the smaller grids would equal 1ft. Or 10ft squares would give you a 2ft subsquare.

These could be printed cheap enough that you can print a couple dozen relatively cheaply. Simply draw out the MegaDungeon on these printouts before hand. No need to use valuable gametime to draw, and you will have every option covered regardless of where the group decides to go.

Enjoy.

 

[Nytmare]

The evolution of my preferred battle mat mapping style started with a wet erase battle mat, and progressed to include pre-printed and cut out maps, sometimes under a sheet of plexiglass, that I'd lay out on the table as people explored. I found however, that the time needed to prep and lay out chunks of map took more away from the game than it gave, so I started looking for an alternative.

From there we fumbled around with a couple different projector setups, but unfortunately, once I found a reliable rig, I ended up moving to a house where the game room was also the dining room; and I wasn't allowed to hang things from the chandelier.

Continuing to build off of where I had ended up with the projector, I built a DM screen around two back-to-back flat screen monitors. The computer they were hooked up to ran them as one extended desktop, so that the far left of the desktop was the monitor facing me, and the far right was the monitor facing the players. Using this, I could drag images, or handouts, or maps directly to the players' screen and didn't have to print anything out.

When the players would explore, I'd have the map open in Photoshop on my monitor, with the saved image showing on theirs. As they'd wander around, I'd erase a mask layer of fog, re-save the image, and it would immediately appear on their screen. When it came to combat, the players would take turns copying whatever section of the map where the fight was taking place onto the battlemat. This had the added benefit of giving me a few moments to gather and prep for the battle, while keeping my players involved and actively participating. I could spend more time, before the game, prepping across the board; and the amount of time I allotted to map making could be spent entirely on making that 1 map pretty instead of making the map, printing the map, cutting out the map, organizing and making sure that I had all the cut out pieces, hiding the pieces off to the side of the game table, getting the right piece, taping the piece to the growing mess on the table, saving the map for later use...

In retrospect, the one thing that I did really really like about the printed out maps, was that after we were done, we'd tape the map to the walls or ceiling of the game room where they could be referenced or reminisced over. That's not really something you can do in every game room, but it added something to ours, and made it feel more like a club-house.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Years ago, before we started using projectors and stuff, we had a battle scene that was going to take place in a massive ice cavern that was the lair of a dragon (an adventure from Dungeon that was awesome, but I don't remember the name of it).

My solution to the map problem was to adjust the scale, not try to fit more on the paper.

I went to a industrial/construction recycling yard here and bought myself a hunk of sheet metal -- something that would be magnetically active. I hand drew the map at 1/4 scale (so each 1" represented 20 feet).

For minis, I bought a package of business card magnets. I put colored paper on the magnets (they come with peel and stick adhesive on one side to attach the magnet to a business card) and then cut them into 1/4" squares (for PCs) or larger (for the dragon and it's minions). There was enough room on the top of the little bit of magnet to put a letter or symbol to mark which character it was -- which could further be differentiated with different colors.

So, in the end, we were able to have the battle on a much smaller battle mat. The magnetic surface and tokens were really just enough to make sure the teeny tiny minis didn't move when anyone sitting near the table breathed.

This allowed for some much more interesting combat on that scale -- having that much room made it possible to USE that much room.

-rg

 

[S'mon]

For routine exploration I like to use 2 blank Paizo flipmats, and draw as the PCs explore. That gives me 4 surfaces each of 24"x30", and if they all get used in 1 session I can wipe them and reuse.