have you ever played without maps?

[messy]

(this is coming from the viewpoint of a d&d player, but i guess it can apply to any game).

have you ever played an rpg without using maps of any kind?

if so, how were things like terrain, travel time, etc., handled?

 

[the Jester]

(this is coming from the viewpoint of a d&d player, but i guess it can apply to any game).

have you ever played an rpg without using maps of any kind?

if so, how were things like terrain, travel time, etc., handled?

Just because there aren't maps doesn't mean the gm doesn't know the setting.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

I LOVE your Wormy icon

To the question - aye, I play from time to time without maps, but, that's when we aren't doing alot of travelling. If there's travel involved, the maps are in use.

Of course, I have people who like to bip off to other dimensions, so I get to do alot of improvisational map making...

 

[Michael Silverbane]

When we play without maps, it works more or less just like when we play with maps... But with more talking and less looking.

At some point, map or no, the DM decides how far apart point A and point B are. If there's a map, he then marks that down on the map. When there's not a map, he just tells the players, "Point A and point B are about two days apart."

 

[Crothian]

Gaming without maps I think is the norm for us. We just describe the scene and that does the trick.

 

[Chris Knapp]

I voted yes, but the more I think about it, the answer is no. No matter how informal the games I've played (including a 4 person game in the back of the school bus on the way to summer camp), each included a map of some sort or another. Even if it was a few dots on a piece of paper to represent where the dungeon was in relation to where we were. I believe that, if you even point at the ground and say, "That spot is you, and that spot is something else." you have a map. I guess I've just always been a visual player and seeing X in relation to Y on a 2D surface is often required for me to "get it."

 

[pawsplay]

(this is coming from the viewpoint of a d&d player, but i guess it can apply to any game).

have you ever played an rpg without using maps of any kind?

Sure!

if so, how were things like terrain, travel time, etc., handled?

The GM kind of describes the scene, and if the players think any feature are important or potentially useful, they ask questions.

Another answer would be, "Sometimes not too well." The worst in-session arguments I have ever had have always been about how close someone was standing to someone.

 

[Ahnehnois]

For D&D, I have one worldwide map. I'm currently DMing in a different era than what I originally mapped, so I just use the rough outlines of continents and distances and keep the rest in my head. When players travel overland I usually pull up the map in between sessions and calculate distance on my PC.

I hardly ever use maps during a session. We occasionally do a blank grid battlemap but I try to stay away from that because I think it encourages metagame or gamist thinking. I don't often employ all the terrain and weather condition aspects of the game just because it takes time and it's comlpicated.

For non-D&D rpgs I've google-mapped real-world locales. When I played Battlestar Galactica I just made it up as I went along (see below).

if so, how were things like terrain, travel time, etc., handled?

You travel at the speed of plot. Check distance only at DM discretion.

 

[pawsplay]

We occasionally do a blank grid battlemap but I try to stay away from that because I think it encourages metagame or gamist thinking.

What do you do for players who are interested in tactical decisions like position, flanking, surprise, and range?

 

[BenBrown]

What do you do for players who are interested in tactical decisions like position, flanking, surprise, and range?

I'd guess he doesn't have any amongst his regular players.