D&D General D&D Dungeon Map Design: Good and Bad

[THEMNGMNT]

I cannot emphasize this enough: Maps are too dang small!

In my group, I have 5 players. Sometimes they have allies, henchmen, pets, etc. They almost always face off against an equal or greater number of foes. Therefore, a typical combat has 12-15 creatures. A climactic set piece could have double that number.

Meanwhile, most maps for most adventures are full of 20x20 rooms and narrow corridors. I'm exaggerating slightly. But not really. This is a chronic problem.

And I almost never see verticality on maps, which is a huge missed opportunity. Did anyone watch last night's Critical Role? The fight in Castle Sloak was a great example of how verticality leads to more exciting, dynamic combats.

 

[Distracted DM]

I cannot emphasize this enough: Maps are too dang small!

In my group, I have 5 players. Sometimes they have allies, henchmen, pets, etc. They almost always face off against an equal or greater number of foes. Therefore, a typical combat has 12-15 creatures. A climactic set piece could have double that number.

Meanwhile, most maps for most adventures are full of 20x20 rooms and narrow corridors. I'm exaggerating slightly. But not really. This is a chronic problem.

And I almost never see verticality on maps, which is a huge missed opportunity. Did anyone watch last night's Critical Role? The fight in Castle Sloak was a great example of how verticality leads to more exciting, dynamic combats.

I agree that verticality's important, as are a big room here and there, but I also think that one thing that makes a dungeon a dungeon is tight-squeeze spaces.
I had to coach one of my parties recently to use choke points to their advantage- I briefly agonized over the decision of whether or not to tell them, and ultimately decided it'd be better for them to have the info and learn from it.. rather than TPK in ignorance.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I take your point. But choke points are fairly common, big rooms are not. I'd prefer to see that flipped.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I think we would need to use a 10-ft map scale in order to get larger chambers because these maps are likely* to be confined to a 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper with a quarter inch grid.

* Likely.

 

[Simon The Hunter]

I always try to make sure there is lots of space for movement and mobs and to also include stuff that can be used tactically... I also try to make it have some sort of smart design if it's been built, naturally made stuff like a cave can be a bit more freeform.

 

[billd91]

Ah, verisimilitude in setting vs game play - the conflict of the ages within D&D. Do the monsters (or lord of the castle) live in a setting designed to improve their defense or one designed to let PCs use their powers and abilities? I get that this is a game and players want to have fun with their power fantasies. But I also get that sometimes they have to face some adversity rather than make everything optimal for them.

 

[billd91]

Yes, that change happened in 3e. 3e introduced a 5-foot grid as the standard scale for combat, but some dungeon maps still used a 10-foot grid. I’m not sure at what point they started doing 5-foot scale for dungeon maps too, probably either 3.5 or 4e.

I never considered the maps going to a 5 foot scale instead of 10 foot to be much of a consideration. The 5 foot scale on the maps just makes it easier for the DM to translate onto a battle map for playing with tokens/minis. Plus, there are still plenty of maps out there in modules using multiples of 5 feet per square - I see plenty of maps still using a 10 foot scale, sometimes even 20 for particularly large maps.

No, the BIGGER change was putting PCs into a regular 5 foot fighting space. Before that it was about 3 medium creatures in a 10 foot wide space. Granted, the 5 foot space was just easier because it made the 10 foot square easy to divide up. But it was a notable change.

 

[Hussar]

I love dungeons. Yes I do.

Probably the biggest addition you can make to dungeon design is verticality. So many dungeon maps are flat. It doesn't take much to make a dungeon so much more interesting when you add a bit some verticality. One of the best examples of this is from Lost Mines of Phandelver. The first dungeon - The Cragmaw Gobins Hideout - is absolutely fantastic for this. Multiple paths, and lots and lots of verticality. That encounter with the bridge across the path is just such so much fun.

This model really brings it to life:

 

[el-remmen]

I think we would need to use a 10-ft map scale in order to get larger chambers because these maps are likely* to be confined to a 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper with a quarter inch grid.

* Likely.

Yeah. I got a pad of 14 x 17 inch graph paper (quarter inch boxes) for redrawing maps for this reason.

 

[el-remmen]

I forgot to mention that when prepping 10 foot square maps for Owlbear Rodeo, I pop the map into photoshop and erase the interior grid and then apply a new 5 foot box scale when i upload the map to OBR.

(When possible. Some maps are too detailed or crowded for that to work)