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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 7993649" data-attributes="member: 58197">Can't speak for Reynard, but for me:Until the pandemic hit, pre-drawn maps (whether drawn by me or by someone else) were an absolute nonstarter for me, because all my gaming was F2F. Copying a pre-drawn map onto a physical battlemat is painfully slow and brings the game to a screeching halt at the exact moment when excitement should be ramping up. It's far less disruptive to just refer to my notes for any key terrain features, and then quick-sketch something.Obviously, the limitations of a physical battlemat no longer apply; but the other issue is that I want flexibility to adapt to what the PCs do. Let's say they get attacked by assassins in the common room of an inn. Do they fight them right there? Do they beat a fighting retreat up the stairs and barricade their rooms? Do they dive out the window and draw their attackers into the open? Do they run up to the top floor, bash a hole in the roof, and turn the whole thing into a chase across the city rooftops where half the game is trying to knock your opponents off the edge? Each of these scenarios is going to require a different map, and it's hardly feasible to think of and prep them all in advance.Likewise, a lot of my encounters are just lightly sketched out: The PCs might go here, and if they do, they'll probably run into these critters. I'm not going to put a lot of prep time into any one of those, since most will end up not being used.Now, in the case of a set-piece encounter where I know where and how the PCs must engage the bad guys--like you find in a more traditional dungeon crawl--it might make more sense to draw maps in advance, at least as long as we're gaming online instead of in person. Even so, I put a premium on speed and ease of use: The last thing I want to spend my limited prep time on is wrestling with my tools.</blockquote>

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