Is mapping a lost art with adventurers?

[hexgrid]

I usually sketch out a simple map for the players as they progress through a dungeon. I find it's faster and easier than communicating the information verbally.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Since 3 our ot 5 characters have maxed survival, and one of the other characters has a +18 in profession:mapmaking/cartographer as well as a spell that helps make a map, I (the DM) do the maps for them. The people in question doesnt have good drawing or spacial skills, so why make the players do something they are much less capable of than the character?

When I play, if I dont have any skills, I still try to keep a half-assed map of the area.

 

[Crothian]

We map it on a battlemat because we use minis. But gone are the days wiuth the players and graph paper.

 

[adwyn]

On those rare occasions when I'm a player I keep a simple flow chart style map with notes and a few rooms copied directly from the battle map.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

My players expect me to make a map for them as we go along...and as of now I've decided that I'm not going to do that anymore. If they make a map and its wrong..well that is the nature of the beast. If they get lost that is part of the fun.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Before 3E we did map. I hated it as a player and even more as a DM.
It was funny when I was young and watching the other players get their map wrong and watch them try to figure it out (for hours no less).
Now I don't have the time for them to map or get it wrong. If the players spend two hours trying to correct their map well that is half our session for the week out the window.

I now use my Tac-Tiles and draw the map myself. Then I describe the scene. This leaves more time to actually PLAY the game. The is enough accounting and paperwork to this game already.

 

[lukelightning]

I prefer "Ye Olde Quicke and Dirty Methode" of mapping. No need for graph paper, just take a blank sheet and draw lines to be the corridors, approximate shapes and sizes to be the rooms without worrying too much about the scale, and writing notes in as need be e.g. "30x 40 with pit in center" "Sandy cave, maybe stuff buried in sand, wind from north tunnel" Stuff like that.

It's enough to get around in the dungeon, I'll let the DM worry about all the details of scale and position. And this is more realistic of what is possible for the characters to draw.

Heck, while DMing, I've considered banning graph paper and pens for mapping and just giving the players blank paper and a crayon (or charcoal stick).

 

[Quasqueton]

I think it is a core issue with the 3.x rules. With only 13.3 encounters per level, there simply aren't enough encounters in a adventure any more to warrent a map complicated enough to be mapped. IIRC, your typical 1E module would contain enough encounters to push a (current day) party up two or three levels.

You remember incorrectly. I really hope the lost posts can be restored soon, so the full thread is available to refute these incorrect claims.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=160909&page=1&pp=40

Quasqueton

 

[freebfrost]

Since the advent of 3E with increased usage of battlemats and minis, mapping has fallen by the wayside. Occasionally, in more complicated areas, the group will make some quick maps of the location, but not to the extent of ye old days of gaming.

We also don't have a "caller" anymore either...

 

[Vascant]

All three of the groups I run games for do their own mapping. Whenever they forget why they are mapping they tend to look at the antique map of North America I have on the wall in my office, it was drawn in 1710. It is interesting to see the flavor of the map and the errors of such things like coast lines and rivers. I guess it is one of the ways we keep the old 1e feeling in our game.