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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Castellan" data-source="post: 2800674" data-attributes="member: 639">As a player and a DM, I've always preferred hand-drawn maps over print-outs. Paper that has been burnt, crushed, soaked in coffee/tea, or otherwise aged is a nice touch.As a DM, when I present a map to my players, I consider it to be another NPC. The original map-maker may have had certain ideas or goals s/he wanted to record. But, other people might gain ownership of the map and use it for other purposes. Perhaps there's a hint you'd like to place for a future encounter (villain or otherwise) in the form of a cryptic scribble. Your players might drive themselves batty trying to figure out what it means, and they could end up providing you with all kinds of ideas for adventures in the process.I think the Story Hour for Piratecat's group (the Defenders of Daybreak, early years) has a great little bit where he handed them a map and one of them flipped it over and said, "hey, what's this written on the back of it?" Turns out it was a fire trap or some other warding spell. While you should be careful about replacing search checks with the players' real-life experiences, it can add a touch of realism to the game (if used sparingly).I'm not a great artist, but I consider my maps to be works of art. I treat them seriously, and even the hastily-drawn handouts get extra consideration before being put into play.If you give your map similar consideration, your players will hopefully thank you for it, and can pull that map out months or years later and say, "remember when we got this...?"</blockquote>

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