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

[EzekielRaiden]

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:

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Having fought this particular battle, yes, I do think physical multi-level terrain would bring it to life quite well, though your efforts to make it have depth in Fantasy Grounds were most admirable.

I will say I'm surprised to not see your gripes about the maps in Out of the Abyss, which I fully agree with your assessments of. They're awful, and a masterclass in how NOT to design maps for an adventure path.

 

[Hussar]

I will say I'm surprised to not see your gripes about the maps in Out of the Abyss, which I fully agree with your assessments of. They're awful, and a masterclass in how NOT to design maps for an adventure path.

Heh. Now yes. There's a GREAT point. The OOTA maps are truly attrocious. FAR, FAR too large. Like, pointlessly large. Take the Whorlstone Caverns (and if you don't think I have to be REALLY careful whenever I type that...)

Now, as far as map design goes, it's fantastic. Those tiny tunnels are accessible if you partake of certain mushrooms that will shrink you down to small or tiny size. The line that is drawn on teh map is the route of the baddie you are chasing through these tunnels. There's tons of verticality in the map as well and lots of really interesting hazards and whatnot. Fantastic stuff.

Until you notice that scale. One square is TWENTY FIVE FEET. Put it this way. Other than a couple of encounters, there is only four or five baddies in any given location and most are less. 1b, to the south of the entrance, has two baddies in it and it's a 100x100 chamber. It's ludicrous. I got lucky and a very talented cartographer that I saw on Reddit had resized the maps and fiddled with it a bit to make it work so much better:

Which is nicely shrunk down to 5 foot squares. Same map, but, much, MUCH better designed.