How do you handle Mapping Complex Dungeons?

[Baumi]

HiHo!

I will GM "The Sunless Citadell" on Sunday and I was wondering what would be the best way to handle the Mapping of this complex dungeon?

The Dungeons we used in the past could always be mapped very abstract (lines and Circles) but I think this time it will not work that way, because the rooms are so close together and often irregular shaped.

 

[Dark Jezter]

http://www.bc-products.net/

Why have your players map out the dungeon when you can unmask the dungeon one room at a time?

 

[reiella]

http://www.bc-products.net/

Why have your players map out the dungeon when you can unmask the dungeon one room at a time?

That is cool, and I want .

 

[Baumi]

Many thanks for the quick answer, but there is no chance that I get one of these till sunday!

... So how would you handle it WITHOUT it?

 

[Numion]

Many thanks for the quick answer, but there is no chance that I get one of these till sunday!

... So how would you handle it WITHOUT it?

The DM draws a map for the players according to what they see. Thats how I do it. Players open a door, I then quickly draw a new room or whatever it is they see beoynd the room, describe it and then it's the players turn.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Many thanks for the quick answer, but there is no chance that I get one of these till sunday!

... So how would you handle it WITHOUT it?

First of all, do you have a Battlemat?

In any case, I rarely draw out anything unless there is an encounter that has become a combat. Normally I stick with spoken description rather than mapping out the whole thing. The players will map out their progress as they go and if they are confused or think they have made a mistake I'll correct them. I find that doing it that way keeps the game from becoming a Wargame where their characters are nothing but game pieces to move around on the playing board.

If you don't have any kind of Battlemat or anything really big you can draw on you can do one of two things.

A) Get a piece of graph paper and draw it out on that. In turn of initative hand the piece of paper around to everyone so they can draw a letter representing their characters wherever their character moved.

B) Go to a hobby store (like Michaels or Hobby Lobby) and buy a few big sheets of card with the grid already printed on it. Office supply stores also sell it sometimes because they are great for making presentations if you don't have Powerpoint. Go ahead and draw out the map on it in advance and use paper towels to cover up what the party hasn't explored yet and pull away the paper towels as they go. This method is also very cheap as the card only costs maybe a couple bucks. After a while it will get expensive and that may be where you'll want to invest in a Battlemat or Tact-Tiles.

 

[Thanee]

Very simple. Just draw the map exactly as it is in the book (w/o any hints, that are only for the DM of course) - room by room - as it is being explored by the players.

A sheet of paper (or a few) and a pencil is all you need.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Buttercup]

I use a giant tablet with a 1 inch grid. You can buy them at office supply stores. I paid about $15 for one with 50 pages. As the players enter a room, I draw it on the paper. The grid lines make it easy to draw to scale, and you can also use it as a battle mat.

But as soon as I'm close to running out of pages, I'm buying those tact-tiles. They look like the coolest solution ever.

 

[3catcircus]

HiHo!

I will GM "The Sunless Citadell" on Sunday and I was wondering what would be the best way to handle the Mapping of this complex dungeon?

The Dungeons we used in the past could always be mapped very abstract (lines and Circles) but I think this time it will not work that way, because the rooms are so close together and often irregular shaped.

Well, my solution *won't* work for you for *this* scenario because it requires a long term investment and the ability to print reams of paper in color: I use the CC2 suite and the free Harnica Mappa add-on. I print out a single 8.5"x11" map for me, and then a 1"=5' scale map (it takes a lot of paper to do this) for the players that I lay out room-by-room, corridor-by-corridor. Traps, secret doors, etc. can be unmasked be printing two copies of the map - one with the "Secret" or "GM Only" layers hidden, and one with it revealed - if they find a secret door or trap (or trigger said trap), I replace the sheet with the one showing the door/trap/secret/etc.

That having been said (and the best solution, given the resources), your next best bet is either a battlemat or the Tact-Tiles for rapid tactical room and character placement. For the whole map, I have the mapper (you *do* remember that quaint 1st edition concept of having a Leader and a mapper, don't you?) draw on his own sheet of paper - I describe the rooms and corridors and let him draw for himself.

 

[MichaelH]

I do one of two things. Either I let the players draw their own maps from what they see (what I describe) or I draw the map for them as they explore. We usually use blank graph paper. When a battle begins, I usually draw the area on a battlemap, place the miniatures, and fight it out.

For the more complex dungeons, I usually draw the map for them. I don't worry too much about absolute accuracy or scale, either, unless one of the PC's is a cartographer.