Is precision in player dungeon mapping even necessary anymore?

[Emirikol]

Is precision in player dungeon mapping even necessary anymore?

It seems the longer I game, the less necessary it is to have graph paper and the more 'thematic' it is to just scribble it on a sheet of paper.

jh
ps One of my players gets' in a huff about it not being perfect, but he's not going to last long..he's also been griping about our (CON=1st level hp's)house rules because he's an ungrateful turd.

 

[jdrakeh]

Honestly? The only two times I can ever recall mapping anything extensively were once during an AD&D campaign where a maze of one-way doors was involved, and once during a Shadowrun campaign in which the PCs were trapped in what amounted to a dungeon of the D&D variety.

 

[Festivus]

I'll let you know after tonight. The group is going to be entering the Temple of Vecna in Three Faces of Evil. My plan is to use dungeon tiles to layout 30 feet of vision and keep moving the tiles around on them as they progress... so mapping will become important to them soon enough.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

I haven't had players map anything since my Rules Cyclopedia days.

It just really doesn't seem necessary when a) if you are using minis you're going to have a big ole' map of the battle areas anyway, and b) if the dungeon is particularly convulted, you can just call for an Intelligence check to see if they get lost.

I think, in that regard, the game has evolved more toward "role" playing since we're not spending half the session saying things like, "The room is 30 feet by 20 feet with a door in the middle of the southern wall."

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Is precision in player dungeon mapping even necessary anymore?

No. You don't need to know the room's exact dimensions. You just have to be able to recognize the room or the way to the entrance/exit/important areas. The GM might need a "perfect" map but the PCs shouldn't. PCs should be able to say "I draw a map" for the same reason they can say "I eat three meals a day" without having to actually having to do so at the game table.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Is precision in player dungeon mapping even necessary anymore?

Was it necessary at some point in the past?

 

[kaomera]

Was it necessary at some point in the past?

I'd say that it wasn't so much necessary as it was part of the fun. I couldn't really tell you why it was fun (specifically), but it was part of the overall D&D experience... It was just assumed that one of the players got to be the mapper, and at the time it didn't seem like a chore. Nowadays, it does.

 

[Emirikol]

Was it necessary at some point in the past?

Back in the old days, primitive dungeon design seemed to cram as many rooms as possible on an 8X10 sheet of paper. Thankfully, most scenarios have evolved past that point (not that those other scenarios weren't fun..but let's be real

Another thing is mazes...don't you just DETEST mazes in scenarios?

jh

 

[Emirikol]

I'll let you know after tonight. The group is going to be entering the Temple of Vecna in Three Faces of Evil. My plan is to use dungeon tiles to layout 30 feet of vision and keep moving the tiles around on them as they progress... so mapping will become important to them soon enough.

My group REALLY enjoyed 3 faces of evil. BTW, for mapping, I did each of the three major areas on seperate sheets and then just recreated the main area with the dungeon tiles.

BTW, spoiler, there's a lot of potential for evil people to stand on that platform over the pit in the main entry chamber.

jh

 

[phindar]

It used to be Industry Standard with the groups I played with, but this was back in high school when the average session went about 12 hours. Nowadays with time at a premium and the usual session clocking in at about 4 hours, I've noticed my group's tendency to skip the non-essentials and concentrate on the fun parts.

That said, every so often it is fun to go with an old school dungeon crawl and have a mapper. But its a special circumstance, rather than the usual thing.