hand out maps for dungeons and buildings where the party will explore. It makes for much faster navigation. They simply point to where they want to go, and you tell them if the notice anything on the way.
I hand-copy the maps, from the originals. That way I can hide secrets and the maps look more authentic.
In my own game, I had a 4 level dungeon. The first 2 levels, I made the players do their own mapping. They only got descriptions from me. In 5 hours, they only cleared 2 levels. It was a very slow game. We paused the game, and picked it up 2 weeks later. In the second game, I had them find a map right away of the next 2 levels. The pace of the game picked up immediately, and the players had more fun in the 2nd game.
Use minis, even if only for some basic layout. It really helps players keep track of what's going on. That means they stop asking "what's the situation" on their turn.
Janx
I hand-copy the maps, from the originals. That way I can hide secrets and the maps look more authentic.
In my own game, I had a 4 level dungeon. The first 2 levels, I made the players do their own mapping. They only got descriptions from me. In 5 hours, they only cleared 2 levels. It was a very slow game. We paused the game, and picked it up 2 weeks later. In the second game, I had them find a map right away of the next 2 levels. The pace of the game picked up immediately, and the players had more fun in the 2nd game.
Use minis, even if only for some basic layout. It really helps players keep track of what's going on. That means they stop asking "what's the situation" on their turn.
Janx
