How do you handle Mapping Complex Dungeons?

[hong]

I've used the "virtual map" approach sometimes. Rather than drawing rooms and corridors and whatnot, I just have a number of set-piece encounters. In between these set-piece encounters, I use Survival or Search checks to represent the PCs figuring out where they are and how to proceed. It's an approach that's heavy on descriptive language, and light on squares and graph paper. The only map that appears might be a _very_ rough one showing where all the important bits are in relation to each other.

Basically mapping is something that most of us aren't that interested in anyway. The dungeon is just a big maze to be solved so we can get to the interesting bits, namely the encounters with monsters, traps or NPCs. Hence it's all abstracted away, except for the set pieces.

This probably works best for natural caverns rather than excavated dungeons, but there's no reason you couldn't use it for both.

 

[rounser]

Basically mapping is something that most of us aren't that interested in anyway. The dungeon is just a big maze to be solved so we can get to the interesting bits, namely the encounters with monsters, traps or NPCs. Hence it's all abstracted away, except for the set pieces.

I'd assume that your approach also keeps the boring bits to a minimum. By default, if a published adventure involves, say, a mansion, they'll detail all the boring and irrelevant bits like kitchens and broom closets for sake of verisimilitude, and players might yawn their way through these at the gaming table. Your approach is much more like a movie director - cutting to the chase of what actually makes the game fun.

Of course, for a lot of DMs, making maps and worldbuilding is half the fun...so I hardly expect it such an approach to become in any way widespread, regardless of it's advantages.

 

[diaglo]

i do it the old fashion way...i make the players have a mapper in the party...usually the party thief/rogue.

i describe what they see. they can take longer time to explore if they wish to map. and so i add dimensions to the description.

but i also like to use a Caller.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I'm running the Sunless Citadel right now, and the mapping can be a pain. Why can't they just make the rooms be sized in exact increments of 5'? How come they have to make the walls between rooms like 3' thick? How the heck do you tell them what to draw when the dimensions of the room don't follow the lines on the grid?

I made an executive decision to round all the rooms to the nearest 5'. All those 17'x17' rooms I describe as 20'x20'. I pretend the walls have no thickness. If the room is anything other than a square, I snatch their map and sketch it in real quick for them. It's a hell of a lot faster than trying to communicate the exact proportions of an odd-shaped room verbally, and then I can get on to the description.

Be aware that the Sunless Citadel has a few misprints. A description will say a room has 3 goblins, then later in the description it will indicate there are 4, for instance. Creatures are described as carrying certain weapons, but their stat blocks in the back have the default MM weapons. Stuff like that.

 

[Leopold]

i do it the old fashion way...i make the players have a mapper in the party...usually the party thief/rogue.

i describe what they see. they can take longer time to explore if they wish to map. and so i add dimensions to the description.

but i also like to use a Caller.

what he said.

My player CRY if they don't have a map. I laugh at them and tell them that they can have a map, they gotta just draw it.

Now once they find everything I give them my map for simplicity and let them move along.

 

[MerakSpielman]

what he said.

My player CRY if they don't have a map. I laugh at them and tell them that they can have a map, they gotta just draw it.

Now once they find everything I give them my map for simplicity and let them move along.

The problem is that the players depend entirely on the DM's verbal description to create their map. Words are subject to interpretation, important details might accidentally be left out, and sometimes it takes almost a minute to expain exactly where a door is located in, say, a large triangular room. The characters, sitting there in the dungeon with paper and charcoal, could make a pretty good map pretty easily, just because they can actually SEE what is around them. That's why you end up giving them your map for simplicity - it's so much easier if the person drawing the map can actually see something before he draws it.