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.

 

[Lanefan]

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.

I add a red line indicating where the door is when it's open, which serves the same purpose.

The only time this doesn't work (either option) is when the door slides or lifts open vertically, like a portcullis.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I draw a line from the center of the front of the door to the corner where the hinge is located. Knowing where the hinge is tells us how the door swings, and if we can knock the hinges off to breach the door. The front of the door is the side without the hinge.

In the image we can see two sets of double doors on the right. The top set of doors swing open into the rectangular chamber, whereas the bottom pair swing out. The top and bottom single doors are locked as indicated by the dot (but the top one is silly because we can just knock the hinges off.)

I've always wondered what other information can be inserted into the door bubbles. I've tried using color to indicate what material the door is made of - wood, metal, or stone.