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

[Mannahnin]

I still use use the white bubble doors on my maps. Does anyone have strong opinions about those?

I don't like it when the doors are hard to see because the artist decided to draw them to scale. This makes then difficult to discern from windows.

I also like the extra room inside a bubble door to communicate information, like a dot for a locked door. I also indicate where the hinge is on each door using this space.

Agreed on all counts. I like the white rectangle/double rectangle door/double door map symbols I learned from BECMI. The main refinement I like to include is a little curved arrow indicating which way they open and implicitly where the hinges are.

Yeah, you are preaching to the choir with me on that one. I think indicating the positioning of occupants supports a certain kind of play style. One that Fourth Edition in particular was pushing.

I have to remind myself that my preferred play style is just one of several, or maybe even many.

True. Having positions indicated clearly is good for set piece battles. I don't need or want it most of the time, but it can be great for encounters I've designed (or the module writer has) to play out in a particular dramatic way. Pre-calculating ranges for spells and where baddies should be can be a great thing.