D&D General Mapping: How Do You Do It?

[UngainlyTitan]

I am a land surveyor by trade. I use maps a lot. It is easy to get turned around even when you have one on hand.

But really this isn't about realism. it is about making the game fun, and making exploration and the effort the PCs put into it worthwhile.

If (general) you don't think mapping is fun, awesome. But what does that add to this discussion?

You asked for opinions, I apologise for offering one that you do not like.

 

[Charlaquin]

Personally, I think making a map as you go, as players, is a fun part of dungeon adventures that it’s a shame so few groups want to do any more. I wouldn’t make a group map the dungeon if they didn’t want to (and don’t, because my regulars don’t enjoy it). But I think it’s a fun part of the experience for groups who are into it, and if @Reynard has a group who’s into it, I’d say he’s quite lucky.

 

[Charlaquin]

You asked for opinions, I apologise for offering one that you do not like.

He asked how other people handle mapping at their table. “I don’t, because my players don’t enjoy it” is a perfectly fine answer. “You shouldn’t, because I don’t enjoy it” is understandably a less welcome sentiment.

 

[Lazybones]

For my tabletop game, I used to use a gridded battlemap with dry-erase markers. Earlier this year I switched to a flat TV using Fantasy Grounds (FG) on my laptop. It took some getting used to, especially running the two screens with two instances of the software (a DM's instance on the laptop, and a player's instance on the TV), but I've gotten it running pretty smoothly now. Sharing maps and other images is very easy. There's a free extension for FG that automatically scales maps to a 1" scale but I haven't figured out how to use it; I usually just keep a ruler on the edge of the map box and manually scale up the map once I share it, takes about five seconds.

I have the players put their minis directly on the screen (there's a protective coating on top of it to avoid scratches), and use two player character placeholders in the software to track their movements/reveal the map, one set with darkvision and the other with a light source that I can toggle on or off as needed. For larger maps it becomes necessary to occasionally move the minis, but I think the players enjoy moving their physical representations on the map themselves. When they're just exploring on a big map I'll sometimes zoom out and let them see as they go by moving the placeholder tokens; when an encounter takes place I reset the scale and have them place their minis in the encounter location, to save time. FG even has a useful feature that allows you to reset the fog of war, which came in handy recently as the party was teleported to another part of the map (this was in The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, as published in Quests from the Infinite Staircase).

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Personally, I think making a map as you go, as players, is a fun part of dungeon adventures that it’s a shame so few groups want to do any more. I wouldn’t make a group map the dungeon if they didn’t want to (and don’t, because my regulars don’t enjoy it). But I think it’s a fun part of the experience for groups who are into it, and if @Reynard has a group who’s into it, I’d say he’s quite lucky.

Agreed. Years ago I had a brilliant idea for a dungeon wherein the shape of the dungeon literally outlined the shape of the dingus we were looking for. It was a very large dingus. But I was too late. The ship already sailed. I missed my chance because not many people even think of mapping the dungeon anymore.

 

[Burnside]

You are being pedantic. RPGs are a conversation about everything. Every element of gameplay depends on an "audio narrator." You are singling out mapping, pretending it is different than the rest of play, when it isn't.

It is if the DM is going to be exacting about the accuracy of player's mapping skills.

You asked what our experience was. I've DMed for ballpark a thousand players at this point. As a player, I've had maybe a dozen DMs, maybe 20.

There is exactly one guy I've played with who enjoyed mapping as a player. Granted, these days most DMs don't attempt to make players map. I've seen it tried maybe half-a-dozen times. Each time resulted in an evening 80% about "this map is wrong and we can't figure out why" and 20% about the rest of the things normally involved with playing D&D.

The rest of the game being theater of the mind and a verbal loop between players and DMs never, in my experience, caused the amount of non-fun that was caused by a DM forcing players to map when the players didn't want to.

If players ENJOY doing that, then full speed ahead. But like I said: one guy.

 

[Charlaquin]

It is if the DM is going to be exacting about the accuracy of player's mapping skills.

Personally I think being exacting about it is missing the point. If you just want the players to have an accurate map of the dungeon, it would be more effective to make it yourself (you can give it to them piecemeal if you want to preserve the fog of war effect). The point of having the players do it is that it might not end up perfectly accurate. The fun, as a player, is in the dungeon itself being a puzzle, and trying to solve that puzzle as a group. You want there to be a real risk of making mistakes and having to go back and revise the map as you discover new information that contradicts what you previously thought about the dungeon’s layout. Or, if you don’t want that, you probably don’t want mapping to be a player activity, which is a valid preference but not a universal one.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

He asked how other people handle mapping at their table. “I don’t, because my players don’t enjoy it” is a perfectly fine answer. “You shouldn’t, because I don’t enjoy it” is understandably a less welcome sentiment.

I was responding, initially to a remark about being turned around in a hospital or school and responded that being turned around or getting lost has little to do with maps and is a very different experience in real life compared to getting mapping wrong at the table. I never suggested that he should or should not do, though I do find that it adds little to the game and I have difficulty in seeing how it could be managed via a VTT even in principle.
Just wanted to clairfy that and will not be responding further as this is really a side issue.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Personally I think being exacting about it is missing the point. If you just want the players to have an accurate map of the dungeon, it would be more effective to make it yourself (you can give it to them piecemeal if you want to preserve the fog of war effect). The point of having the players do it is that it might not end up perfectly accurate. The fun, as a player, is in the dungeon itself being a puzzle, and trying to solve that puzzle as a group. You want there to be a real risk of making mistakes and having to go back and revise the map as you discover new information that contradicts what you previously thought about the dungeon’s layout. Or, if you don’t want that, you probably don’t want mapping to be a player activity, which is a valid preference but not a universal one.

Is this a puzzle for the players or for the characters?

 

[Burnside]

Personally I think being exacting about it is missing the point. If you just want the players to have an accurate map of the dungeon, it would be more effective to make it yourself (you can give it to them piecemeal if you want to preserve the fog of war effect). The point of having the players do it is that it might not end up perfectly accurate. The fun, as a player, is in the dungeon itself being a puzzle, and trying to solve that puzzle as a group. You want there to be a real risk of making mistakes and having to go back and revise the map as you discover new information that contradicts what you previously thought about the dungeon’s layout. Or, if you don’t want that, you probably don’t want mapping to be a player activity, which is a valid preference but not a universal one.

Totally. The goal is fun. If the players do enjoy mapping, then that's what the table should do. And honestly I personally see where it could be fun as long as the DM is not, broadly, a jerk.

I really do need to stress however, that I have played with ~1k players over the past 9 years. And I feel confident in saying that 99% of them would hate it, even with an otherwise good DM.

What I REALLY want to stress is that I don't think a DM should unilaterally force mapping on players. A lot of players would leave the table rather than do it.