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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fenris-77" data-source="post: 8011345" data-attributes="member: 6993955">[USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] - No, my approach isn't typical at all, and I wasn't suggesting that your comments struck me as odd because they didn't describe my game, only because they didn't describe a lot of D&D games.Outdoor maps and movements rates are to determine how long, on average, it will take to get from A to B. Nothing more, nothing less is inherently specified. What A DM actually does with that can vary quite a bit of course. The standard answer is to roll X number of random wilderness encounters on chart Y based on terrain and duration of travel. Some times it's just to say it takes two week to get there.  Sometimes there's a whole spectrum of adventure, possibly even including the throwing of a shoe. Even inside the core rules there are different ways to handle travel and maps, and once you take into account the various 3PP resources for the same there's a pretty wide range. I'd agree that hand waving travel is common of course, but it's not standard. To come back to your question, what are they for, the actual answer is something like whatever you need them for.As for the quote about my map use, I'll be specific, I was talking about dungeon and location maps there, not country maps for travel. Colouring inside the lines there is just about not ending up with two rooms occupying the same space by mistake. That sounds a lot like your use of Anatolia. Other than that I think I narrate much the same way you do - the map doesn't dictate action declaration other occasionally based on options about direction, or the other barrier type things that would, I think fall under your definition of terrain and architecture. I might have a list of things I can populate a given space with, a list usually generated with evocative description in mind, and I'll have a list of monsters that could appear, possibly a neat custom treasure or two, and maybe some notes about factions if the place is big enough. The bigger the dungeon, the more I'd consider some brief notes about factions and ecology. Those notes aren't generally tied to specific locations on the map though, unless there's an element that calls for a specific treatment, like a dragon in a lair, rather than hanging out in a 10x10 room guarding a cupcake (genre conventions and whatnot). The notes are more like crib notes to expand on as the fiction provides the appropriate space.And no, that isn't how D&D suggests DMs use dungeon maps, it's far more informed by my running and playing other more fiction forward games. I also don't always do things this way either. If I'm running a module I'll take what it gives me and freelance off that and use the map I'm given. It depends on the game, the process I describe above is for my own stuff.</blockquote>

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