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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zaukrie" data-source="post: 4772105" data-attributes="member: 2057">Welcome. DMing is hard, so be prepared to be frustrated occassionally.Rule 1: do what makes it fun for the players and you. If they like super detailed maps, do those. If they don't care about that stuff, don't worry about it.Rule 2: wing it a lot. precision in map drawing is not critical. Wing the battles to make them more dramatic. Let the PCs get a few wins under their belts before really testing them.Rule 3: prepare your encounters ahead of time. If you have minis or counters, bunch them up by encounter (I use baggies or little plastic boxes to group minis that go in one encounter together)Rule 4. Have fun (yes, this is the same as rule 1 - this is a game, played for fun - some people have a hard time remembering this)As for your actual questions:I usually pre-draw (or in my case, organize 3D terrain I've made) the encounters so that I can place them on our table. Now, I have a decent sized table and a room dedicated to roleplaying, so that isn't realistic for everyone. I'd recommend having the key encounter areas pre-drawn to a large extent. You don't want the scenario described above where you are in the middle of the excitement and then have to stop the game.Remember, no one (or at least most people you'd want to play with) will be a stickler if they later re-drew the maps you laid out and a room or two overlapped. Don't get too caught up in perfection, find the balance that you and your players enjoy.</blockquote>

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