Maybe my expectation was off - Dungeon of the mad mage doesnt use the full maps for undermountain....

[Satyrn]

Ah, doors are, imo, the biggest challenge with realistic and/or color maps. The way I have chosen to deal with them is by showing them open. Opens doors are pretty recognizable. Here's an example

Those are some nice looking maps.

I wouldn't like that style for my megadungeon, though. I've set it up so that its too dynamic for furnished rooms to make sense. When the players enter an area/level, I randomly determine the inhabitants and what's going on. So, like, a month ago what was a goblin enclave, settled and peacful (and thus fully furnished) could now be a battleground between orcs and devils, a wasteland of barricades and corpses.

So for Mad Mage, too, I'm glad the maps show empty rooms, to be furnished (or not) as I see fit.

 

[jasper]

Ok, I forgot or did not give a flying duck about Undermountain during other editions. So far I am liking the book and wish I had a homebrew group to play it. I am however totally tick off about paying $19,42 for map pack which was just photocopies.

 

[LordEntrails]

Those are some nice looking maps.

I wouldn't like that style for my megadungeon, though. I've set it up so that its too dynamic for furnished rooms to make sense. When the players enter an area/level, I randomly determine the inhabitants and what's going on. So, like, a month ago what was a goblin enclave, settled and peacful (and thus fully furnished) could now be a battleground between orcs and devils, a wasteland of barricades and corpses.

So for Mad Mage, too, I'm glad the maps show empty rooms, to be furnished (or not) as I see fit.

Thanks for the positive comment.

As for furnished rooms, I get it. When I release the map packs I'll also have unfurnished ones. It just seems to me that most people though are not wanting to go and change the ecology of the dungeon too much. i.e. the effort to re-populate areas with more than random encounters. And since providing maps both furnished and unfurnished isn't very hard (just doubles the size of the zip files!)

For those willing to do the work you are, unfinished maps are great

 

[Parmandur]

For me personally, I find it a little easier to get into the abstract space of how a building is laid out when the map is plain and straight forward. The old blus scale maps work great for me. Color maps can be too distracting, too concrete.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I own 2E's Ruins of Undermountain and 4E's Halls of Undermountain. And now I own 5E's Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Honestly, I don't know if I like it or not. In fact, I don't know if I truly like any of the Undermountain adventures, ever. But in comparison to those earlier, alternate takes on Undermountain--Dungeon of the Mad Mage is PACKED with content. It has more dungeon than you could run. It would take years to get through. Chris Perkins said that rather than go broad, they wanted to go deep. I think that undersells the product. It's the most comprehensive version of Undermountain. Ever.

 

[Demetrios1453]

For me personally, I find it a little easier to get into the abstract space of how a building is laid out when the map is plain and straight forward. The old blus scale maps work great for me. Color maps can be too distracting, too concrete.

I'm actually fine with either plain maps or more detailed ones. My only issue is with readability - sometimes colored, detailed maps can get too busy, at which point it's hard to tell exactly what is going on. But those tend to be rare exceptions.

I'm perfectly fine with the bare, sparse maps of DotMM; they fit the theme of a dungeon crawl quite nicely. I am a bit surprised when people say they reject an entire adventure not because the subject matter doesn't interest them or the story is badly done, but because the maps aren't pretty enough for them...

 

[Parmandur]

I'm actually fine with either plain maps or more detailed ones. My only issue is with readability - sometimes colored, detailed maps can get too busy, at which point it's hard to tell exactly what is going on. But those tend to be rare exceptions.

I'm perfectly fine with the bare, sparse maps of DotMM; they fit the theme of a dungeon crawl quite nicely. I am a bit surprised when people say they reject an entire adventure not because the subject matter doesn't interest them or the story is badly done, but because the maps aren't pretty enough for them...

Yes, more detailed maps can be fine, and WotC has always done quality work. But the maps in this year's books are a marked improvement in my estimation.