have you ever played without maps?

[Dedekind]

Wait... geography maps showing cities, mountains, forests, etc., or dungeon maps with squares, hexes, etc?

I've played without, but it was for narrative focused rpgs. D&D is almost always with some sort of map.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I voted yes, though in most games we've used some sort of map at some point - strategic, tactical or both. We have played 3e w/o a battlegrid. The GM decided stuff like whether you can flank and for me it worked fine. There were only three players, which makes things easier.

In my last campaign, Mutants & Masterminds, I used an atlas quite extensively and occasionally used scatch paper to show the rough layout for fights.

 

[ThirdWizard]

When I first started playing D&D, I didn't use maps, mostly because my games were all improv sessions created as we played. Then I started setting creation with lots and lots of maps. As time went on I added battle maps and miniatures, to the point where in 3e and 4e, we never played without maps.

On the other side of the coin, I don't think I've ever used maps in any non-D&D games I've played. It just doesn't seem necessary for any of the non-D&D systems I've played with.

 

[NewJeffCT]

what do you mean by map? Do you mean something like this:

only tailored towards your fantasy setting? I almost never use those sorts of things other than for flavor - unless it's an unusual place, I almost always assume the players know generally where they're going. I might add in some flavor if somebody asks me, "Hey, what's the biggest town between City A and City B?" or something like that.

Otherwise, while my current campaign has been more map-driven, my last one was almost always out in the wilderness, so I would just set up the appropriate terrain on the battle mat and decided about where the bad guys should be (depending on who surprised whom, time of day, etc) and just went from there. Rare was the time where I had a set "map" of the encounter prepared. My group was too big for me to be boxed into one specific place that said THIS ENCOUNTER MUST BE HERE.

(I'm tempted to go gridless and use tape measures and templates a la Warhammer wargaming, but I haven't taken the plunge...)

 

[I'm A Banana]

I don't like maps in my RPGs.

Most of the time, for long distances, it's a "travel at the speed of plot"/"DM decides how far apart X and Y are" kind of thing. Sooner or later I might jot down some in relation to each other, but it's not so much a map as it is a flowchart....which I suppose is a kind of map?

For combat, a simple separation into melee/ranged is enough for me. In melee? You're in melee with everything. At range? You're far from everything. Want to change them? Take your move action (or whatever) to do it.

In 4e, I use a grid, just because I kind of feel like I have to, or I'm leaving out all those push/pull/aura/ranged/Opportunity Attack/Fighter Mark/whatever effects that 4e is rife with. But 4e is the first time I've felt like I've needed a map for battles. And I'm eager to get rid of it again.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

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

Battlemaps? Yes, it was miserable. Every time.

World maps? I'm a geographer, I've never had someone's narrative work as well for me as a crude drawing for describing the landscape that I can visualize.

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

For battlemaps, The GM would eventually resort to drawing marks on paper, then we move to arranging dice on the table, then were bringing out the grid map.

I'm fine with a GM going without a world map, as long as the GM will occasionally sketch out a regional map every now and then to help me visualize where we are.

 

[Jeffrey]

I used maps sparingly in my home-brewed 1st ed setting. I had one for my own use, just jotted this and that there and here. You know.

I did use a battle-mat more than plain maps, but again, sparingly.

You know you have that ratio about right when you can see the eyes of your players light up when you say: "Okay, lets get the battle-mat out."

 

[Ahnehnois]

Interesting map-related anecdote: I recently ran a Call of Cthulhu game based on Generation Kill (book/HBO miniseries on the Iraq War). I pulled out the map from the DVD set and figured out their route. However, when I looked back at the map midsession, trying to be coy and not look too long, I badly misread it. I subsequently described the players heading out into open desert when by all rights they should have reached a city. The players wondering where the hell they were really added to the mood.

Message: How important maps are depends on the game you're running.

 

[pemerton]

FOr my Deadlands game I sometimes provide a quick sketch for players to give them an idea of the situation, but most of the time it's all just verbal description.

This is how I run Rolemaster.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I used to run Star Wars (d6 system) without maps.