D&D General Do your players map?

[Don Durito]

Flowchart mapping is the way to go. Producing a scale map as you explore doesn't really pass the laugh test for me, neither for the characters nor the players. Too much business.

Yes. And that means making sure that locations can be adequately mapped by a flow chart - which is a good thing. (Or as the Angry Gm put it "A map that a human can draw"). I find that locations that are overly complex tend to outstay their welcome in any case.

Actually, I'll quote this from the link above, because I think it's good.

The point is before you bring a map to the table, make sure you can draw it QUICKLY and EASILY as sticks and squares or as boxes and hashes. Or both. However you like. And wherever the layout of the map makes you think for more than a moment about where the next line has to go, fix it. Because if it gives you pause when you’re looking at it, it’ll stop a mapper in their tracks when they have to map it without seeing it.

 

[Lanefan]

1.) One does not "map" in real life.

I rather suspect there's some hardcore spelunkers now and some pyramid explorers in years past that would disagree with this.

2.) No PC normally carries paper/ink to make one.

Even if I'm not the mapper at the table, if my character is literate then it's going to have writing materials on board, regardless of its class, if only for making notes or leaving messages; and if it's a caster then writing materials are essential should I want to copy a scroll into my spellbook while still in the field.

3.) No PC has the skills to make a map/read a map.

Making an accurate map is more difficult than we give it credit for, I'll agree there.

Reading one, however, should be something any literate PC can do to some extent, limited only by whether the labels are in a known language or not.

 

[Lanefan]

Not in a long time, most likely since the 3e terrain maps came out. Mapping mostly became a problem where the player did not understand the DM enough or the DM not explaining enough to the player. The DM ended up reaching over the table to sketch for the player. Repeat a few more times each night of play.

As DM, for complex locations I'll draw a map out on the board showing where the PCs are, but when they move to somewhere else that map gets erased and a new one drawn. For simple situations I'll just describe it as they go. In either case it's on them to make whatever map their PCs have, and if they don't then it's assumed the PCs have no map, with attendant consequences arising as and when logical.

And if they don't have a map and they hit a teleporter or some other thing that throws them off, gawds help 'em if they try to find a way out - they'll never realize there's a discontinuity.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

And if they don't have a map and they hit a teleporter or some other thing that throws them off, gawds help 'em if they try to find a way out - they'll never realize there's a discontinuity.

I am usually a little bit lenient in my execution of teleport traps, as the relative locations of the characters affected will change (mixing up the marching order). Although I don't always have all the characters affected go to the same destination. So the characters will realize right away that they've been teleported (though they likely still don't know where they are and are possibly now separated).

 

[Shiroiken]

We use dynamic lighting so the map goes black once you leave a room. We don't use fog of war because apparently it requires a good PC for everyone. I really, really don't like dynamic mapping.

I don't use dynamic lighting because you have to be a paid member, and I'm cheap

My other DM has used dynamic lighting, and we've found some issues with it, at least with the premade maps for Avernus. Either you can't "unlock" the doors, or he hasn't figured how to do so yet, so we can't see into a room until we enter it. With a large party, we sometimes have players outside of the room during a combat, and it makes it awkward being unable to see without moving your token.

I never found any issue with Fog of War, and I by far have the worst PC in our group. The only major issue is making sure you reveal wall sections and doors enough that everyone knows where the walls end and the edge of sight ends. Since I often make my own maps, I use a heavy red line for walls, which are easy to see and thick enough to show even if I use the polygon reveal. I also use the old school rectangle for doors, which stick out from the wall. Admittedly it makes mapping a dungeon unnecessary, since the player can see back, but honestly I usually don't want to worry about that anyway.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[Helldritch]

I plastified a few graph sheet and I use dry earase on them to make maps for the players. It's way quicker this way and it leaves us with the fun part. Back in the early 80's, I used to make players do the map themselves but after a year or so, I got tired of the famous: "It's not how you said, that's not what I understood, no you said it was left, not right..." and so on. So now I do the mapping for the players. I only show what they can see. It works quite for me. It's been this way for 38 years...

 

[Lanefan]

Exactly.

As most people PRIOR to 1920 were illiterate.

Wikipedia:

So if a PC does not pick up the skill of literacy, they can not read in my campaigns. And even then, they have to be specific on which language.

I achieve much the same result via different mechanics; also not all languages (particularly "monster" languages) even have a written form. All arcane casters, however, are automatically literate in their native language, otherwise how could they write/read their spellbooks?

So having a map written in Chinese and you can only read English... guess what, you can't read the notations.

True, but I think you'd still be able to recognize it as a map most of the time. And keep in mind there's also magic that can help, in particular the Comprehend Language spell.

And even then, if you have never seen a map, how are you going to be able to understand it?

Hard to imagine a PC who's never seen a map, particularly after a few trips into the field.

There are:

• Political Map. A political map shows the state and national boundaries of a place. ...
• Physical Map. A physical map is one which shows the physical features of a place or country, like rivers, mountains, forests and lakes. ...
• Topographic Map. ...
• Climatic Map. ...
• Economic or Resource Map. ...
• Road Map.

etc.

There's also schematic maps, representative maps, pictorial maps, line maps, etc.; so yes, they can vary greatly. Depending on what's being mapped, they can also vary immensely in their accuracy.

Your PC is not automatically literate and can read a map.

I completely agree that not all PCs are literate. But even then, illiterate people all the way back to Neanderthals can still draw and interpret pictures - and a map, in its basest sense without any written labels, is a picture.

Nothing's automatic, of course, but I'd always give an illiterate PC a half-decent chance of recognizing something to be a map and a much smaller (but rarely zero) chance of being able to interpret any of it.

 

[abirdcall]

As a usual rule, the party has one person who writes down treasure, and one person who maps as necessary. There's also a person who randomly doodles monsters, but that's not an assigned role.

In terms of when mapping is done, it's usually only when they are in a cliche dungeon environment. Other times, I will provide handouts or do a quick sketch as needed.

We literally just got a thread made about gatekeeping.

 

[Umbran]

Exactly.

As most people PRIOR to 1920 were illiterate.

On the other hand... the Printing Press was already around in the 1440s. Scandanavian countries had what we can probably call full literacy in in the early 17th century (so, the 1600s) - literacy being a requirement for marriage in Sweden in the period.

So, I mean, fine, if you want to do it that way. But just figuring that PCs are literate is just fine, too. There's enough historic precedent that it isn't unreasonable.

Literacy is a cultural thing. The fact that your PCs need to take it separately is only because you created the cultures that way, not because that's how all cultures really ought to be.