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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7438667" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!You guys are...mostly...a rather odd bunch! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f635.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt="o_O" title="Er... what?    o_O"  data-smilie="12"data-shortname="o_O" />I can't imagine NOT having the players make a map...usually on graph paper with 5' or 10' squares. There is, to me, something just so, well, satisfying seeing a map get made and seeing the players staring at it trying to make decisions.I've always encouraged players make a map. Yes, even a line map. Those adventuring without a map are...well, lets just say that frequently they become the "dungeon dressing" that the back of the 1e DMG has listed on various 1d100 tables. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The key thing is to develop, as a DM, a method of description. I've been doing this DM thing for a LONG time now (longer than a lot of folks playing have been alive). It took me a good year or so to develop the best way for me to describe stuff to my players. It's consistent, and it's fast. Every DM needs to do this. Then stick to it. Your players will learn what you mean when you say "You see a standard corridor heading east for about 40' where it turns into a Y intersection with 5' corridors".How I do it, is "...it goes X distance...and then...". Meaning the player draws X distance. Stop. THEN continues with the next bit.Example: [assuming 10' squares] "The corridor goes North for 60' and then you see a side passage, 10' wide, heading off East. The main passage you are on continues North for another 20' and looks like it turns into a curve to the North-West". The player would draw a 60' corridor. Simple. The next 10' (the "70th feet square") would be a corridor going east. Simple. The player then continues the main corridor (the "80th feet square") for 20' more. Still simple. Then (in the "100th feet square"), the player would lightly draw the corridor curving to the NW.Rooms and chambers are handled the same way. A distinction between "room" and "chamber"; A Room is enclosed via portals that open/close (doors, typically). A Chamber is much the same, but has at least one portal that is not blocked (a hallway, for example).Example: "The door opens into a room, 40' west-east, and 50' north south. The door you entered is in the south room, 10' away from the south-west corner. There are two other doors in the room. One on the west wall, in the center, and one in the north wall, 10' away from the north-east corner. Evenly spaced columns, about 10' apart, starting 10' away from the south wall, run down the center of the room".Should be easy to understand, right? The key to my "mapping descriptions" is the use of "...away from..." and "...go's for...and then...". This makes it much easier than trying to describe each wall. The only time I describe specific wall lengths and angles is when you get one of those really odd-shaped rooms (Temple of Elemental Evil has quite a few!). So "Starting at the west side of the door you entered...west 20', north 20', north-west at 45 degree angle for 20', north 10' (in that 10' is a door), then north-east 20', east 30', south 70', to the door".When things get REALLY weird...angled walls that are not at 45 degrees for example... I use a "count up/over" method. Basically the player stops drawing and then "counts" a distance up/over to place a dot; draw a line between that dot and the last 'wall' the player drew. I'll usually describe it as "an odd angle" so the player knows what's going on there.Anyway, as I said, the key thing is consistency. Once you and your players understand the same "mapping language", mapping is surprisingly easy and fast. It also lets multiple players make a map (which happens on occasion; when one player wants a map for himself for his character's portfolio). My players are so good at it now that if there is a "trick" in the dungeon (like rotating walls, or a non-obvious teleporting area), they go back over the area and I describe it. They know I am describing it the 'same way', so when they see a 50' corridor where there should be an 80' corridor, they know that something is up (usually...they do second-guess themselves sometimes and this is quite amusing to the sadistic DM side of me! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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