Requiring Players To Draw The Dungeon Map!

[BryonD]

What does this add to the game? It's much more of a challenge for the players, to convert the spoken word to a visual representation, than it would be for the characters, who can easily see the room layout.

I agree with you.

I also prefer the chance of getting lost to be tied to the skills and actions of the characters, not whether or not the players spent time scratching out squares on paper.

 

[Mallus]

I lump actual mapping in with actual (ie player-based, not PC based) puzzle solving. Some people think it adds to the game, some don't.

Personally, I think mapping is tedious. But puzzles are fine.

And please, can we retire the 'it's bad because it challenges the players and not their characters' meme? D&D is a game. And games has to offer a challenge to people actually playing them, or else what's the point?

 

[grodog]

We're currently playing Paul Jaquays' Caverns of Thracia, and I'm one of two mappers in the game; you can see samples of our maps @ http://members.cox.net/caverns_of_thracia/index.htm (at the bottom of the page). I drew the ones labelled "Silli" as part of the file name, and Parthon's maps were drawn by another player.

I draw freehand maps, usually, rather than drawing on graph paper since a) I don't figure that the PCs have graph paper, so this style appeals to my sense of verisimilitude, and b) it means I'm less tied to the grid and getting the map "just right"---as long as I can read it and get from A to B to C, it's served it purpose (along with being the place where we note possible traps, areas to search in more detail later for secret doors, monsters to come back and kill later, etc.).

In some other cases, however, I just write a linear, trailing description of the environment, if it's too complex to try to map. I'll generally do this in big caverns, complex city areas (ruins or still inhabited), and other very confusing environs to map (strange planes, complex mazes, etc.). I posted an example of the mapping from my Lake Geneva Gaming Con sessions when we played through Rob Kuntz's Castle El Raja Key @ http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/El_Raja_Key_maps-grodog_at_LGGC3_2007-06-15.pdf and it begins with a trailing map set, then moves into dungeon maps as we moved up and down several levels, staying on each just a short amount of time.

 

[Hussar]

One of the huge advantages of playing in a Virtual Table Top is that your mapping is done automatically. Just remove fog and presto, instant map.

 

[Li Shenron]

Greetings!

Back in the day, drawing the dungeon map was a requirement. I've noticed that over the years, in many campaigns I have played in or read or heard about, this custom has been largely discarded as too time consuming, and irrelevant.

I still like to use it in my campaigns though. Especially when the party goes into a dungeon. It seems to add some extra...*oomph* or something to the game. I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but the players seem to not only take a very keen interest in where everything is, but it somehow seems to help them immerse themselves into the "dungeon" environment...if that makes any sense?

What do you think?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I hate it. I think it adds an extra *bleah*

As a matter of fact it was suggested by a player a few years ago, but I told him that he could do it only if his character was doing the same thing while exploring: holding a parchment and quill all the time to update the map.

I go along well with just two options IMC: either someone in the world provides the characters with a map of the place (and in this case I hand the map out to the players as well), or otherwise they have to rely only on my descriptions. In the latter case, getting lost happens sometimes, and IMXP it's not bad at all! It can really add some drama, especially if the PCs are trying to escape... It also serves to make the good ol' Intuit Direction skill as useful as it was supposed to be in 3.0.

edit:

I have to explain better the case when a map is not available. I do often show the players a map of the room to support my description. But I mean that I don't show the map of the entire place. Once they're out of the room, I take the map away and show the next.

 

[Mythmere1]

Mapping adds a *lot* to the feel of exploration, that the characters are really on their own and responsible for their survival. It works better with 1e (what I play) than with 3e, mainly because of time availability. I used the "draw it on the battlemat and let them map if they want" with 3e, because you've got to draw it anyway if there's a combat. Might as well use that as the short cut even when there's not a combat.

But if they don't map at all, you also lose the effect of such things as random teleports or deceptive passages, slopes, etc. These are fair game if you make the party map, not so much if you've handwaved it up to the point where they're screwed because you told them mapping wasn't necessary.

 

[Piratecat]

We found it consistently slowed down play, distracted the DM, distraced one player, and made the game less fun. We discarded it.

One of the ten worst games I ever played in involved the DM describing the labyrinth we were lost in so that I could map it. Three hours of irrelevancy in which nothing happened. That pretty much cured me of the practice right there.

 

[grodog]

One of the ten worst games I ever played in involved the DM describing the labyrinth we were lost in so that I could map it. Three hours of irrelevancy in which nothing happened. That pretty much cured me of the practice right there.

I agree, PC: that's why I wouldn't map a complex maze at all---I'd just record the turns and moves we made: "right turn, 30' straight, @ T intersection right turn, 90 feet straight with 2 corridors on left" etc. Who wants to get it right? I just want not to get lost

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

See here for my take on mapping.

 

[jmucchiello]

Do you make them draw the map with a quill on parchment by torchlight, too?

The characters also go to the bathroom occasionally. I don't have the players reenact this at the table.