Requiring Players To Draw The Dungeon Map!

[Steel_Wind]

I don't think there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.

I do think there is a modern way and and old skool way though. The old skool "players map it" style of play was favored in older CRPG's too.

Remember the original Wizardry and Bard's Tale? They made you map it initially too - as that puzzle element of the game was part of the built in gameplay.

As the tools available in both tabletop and CRPGs advanced, the mapping element of the game withered in favor of using available tools and emphasizing other elements of the game experience as a means of achieving "fun".

If you like "players map the dungeon" in your game - then you do and that's the right way to play for you. If you don't - then you don't.

Both methods are equally valid. I do think, however, that the modern trend is against player mapping.

The ultimate map is - of course - a revealed projected map on the tabletop (Coolest. Gaming-Setup. Evar.) . Projection has as an intrinsic property a complete and perfect "automap" reveal on the fly feature - one of its chief attractions for dungeon delving.

 

[Milagroso]

For those who like to give the PCs maps:

One time I tried this with great effect. Create your map normally, uses graph paper if you like. Only create the corridors and rooms. Do not add secret doors, trap locations, or monster notations.

Now, scan it into your computer. (if you have a scanner). Using grayscale or brightness/contrast settings you can adjust the brightness of the map to reduce the graph lines. For this to work the most effectively you either have to draw the map with thick pencil lead like good ol' number 2 or go over it again with a pen or maker. But if you know how to mess with the settings of your scanning software you might not need to.

Now, print out the new copy and call that the Player's Map. Take your old one out of the scanner and add all of the thingamabobs, gidgits 'n' widgits, and critters. Now your PCs have a more or less copy of your map with out having access to your notes and without you having to make two copies.

As an added step to increase mood and flavor:
Make some tea, any kind will do. Pour it into a baking sheet and a let it cool a bit. Place your Player's Map into the baking sheet and let it soak for a bit. An hour is usually good, but you can go all night if you like. Take the sheet out and hang it out to dry. Now your Player's Map has an aged and slightly faded look.

 

[the Jester]

I don't require them to map, but they have to deal with the consequences if they don't.

 

[Piratecat]

I don't require them to map, but they have to deal with the consequences if they don't.

Why? The wizard may have an intelligence of 24; the ranger might have a survival skill of +18, and that includes direction sense. You tell them that they enter a room with three doors, a room they've been in before, and they don't remember which door they came in before?

That's a metagame challenge that just not fun for me in 3e. I'd mostly buy it in how we played 1e, I think, when "what you know is what your character knows." But, for me, not now.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here is the general problem...the distinction between player knowledge and PC knowledge. Mapping is just one aspect of it.

A few years ago, I had an insight into the metaplot of the campaign, revealed it and shocked the blifisgurgle out of the DM by figuring it out. Then, due to non-campaign reasons, we couldn't game for months.

I, personally, couldn't recall my flash of insight.

Despite mere hours of game time, the DM ruled that if I couldn't recall it, neither could my PC. That ticked me right off.

Here's a simple solution that preserves the PC/Player knowledge barrier, plus saves headaches, trees, and time (I just thought of this, and I'm probably going to use it for all future D20 campaigns): Make it into a Knowledge Skill (KS: Orienteering) with synergies with KS: Architecture, Survival, and whatever else you deem fit. Regular architecture Mapping checks would have a DC 10 check against getting lost. Complex architecture or architechture with a lot of extremely similar rooms, etc. might be DC15. A maze could be DC20+. Certain abilities, spells & powers might lessen or eliminate the checks.

If you don't want to make it a distinct skill, make it a DC check that is modified by things like KS: Architecture, Survival and so forth.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

My character can see the room, draw it. I do NOT want to listen to you drone on and on about details that I'm supposed to be looking at. Especially as I'll probably have forgotten half of what you said by the time you're done. (I've got a really bad habit of droning when reading boxed text, and my players aren't shy about pointing that out to me. And I don't care for it when someone else does it either.) But my character is still looking at the room! Battlemats are the greatest gaming aid ever invented.

And someone mentioned teleport rooms and such. I really, really don't want to spend hours (wasting game time) drawing a map, only to find out that it's useless...

YMMV, but that's been my take on it since the early eighties, at least.

 

[Jakar]

Why? The wizard may have an intelligence of 24; the ranger might have a survival skill of +18, and that includes direction sense. You tell them that they enter a room with three doors, a room they've been in before, and they don't remember which door they came in before?

That's a metagame challenge that just not fun for me in 3e. I'd mostly buy it in how we played 1e, I think, when "what you know is what your character knows." But, for me, not now.

I tend to agree with that.

The person who is playing the Int 24 wizard may be, as Jethro Tull puts it, as thick as a brick, but that should not affect the wizard being able to remember a room they have been in.

 

[heirodule]

After playing alot of doom and quake, I decided that getting lost in a dungeon with anything other than completely featureless walls would be pretty difficult

 

[Hejdun]

In our game, a player maps as long as the rooms are relatively simple. I'm usually the player that maps because our DM and I have gotten into a good rhythm. We've come up with a sort of system that works out well for maps that conform to squares and has roughly normal shaped rooms. If there's an important room that's oddly shaped, he grabs my pencil and sketches it out himself on our graph paper.

I think it's important for the players to have a clear visual representation of what they've explored before and what's been left unexplored. I don't notice that it takes too much time, since exploring is really part of the fun in DnD. I don't really map out rooms on the big map (that's for battlemats), but I'll label a room if it fits into an easily category (libraries, for instance, are easy to spot).

The DM has to describe everything anyways, you mine as well sketch it out while he's doing it.

 

[danzig138]

After playing alot of doom and quake, I decided that getting lost in a dungeon with anything other than completely featureless walls would be pretty difficult

Really? After playing a boatload of Doom and Quake, I decided that I'd never go into such a situation without a companion whose entire point of existance was to keep track of where I had been and where I was so I could get out again.

Because I suck at it completely. I could have beaten those games in a fifth of the time I did if I hadn't been constantly going back and forth going "Have I been here? It looks familair. . ."

As for mapping, which is what I assume the OP means by drawing the dungeon (unless he means creating the dungeon, which could be an interesting experiment), I tell them if they want to map the dungeon in such a way that the other people can look at the map, they had best buy some parchement, quills, and ink for their characters. I'm pretty lenient about letting them make Intelligence and skill checks to find their way back out. And someone usually thinks to bring something to mark the walls with.

But if the map is for their own use without sharing? I don't care. It doesn't add anything to the game in my experience (it certinaly doesn't immerse them), and it does slow things down, but I figure if they want a map, they don't mind the slow down.

As a player (Which at this point in time pretty much means never, since I'm the only one who ever runs a freakin' game), I hated mapping, because everyone tried to make sure they drew the rooms correctly blah blah. I started to despise it less when I just started drawing a line to the rep resent hallways and little stars for rooms. Much quicker without having to note details. As long as it showed me how to get out, it could look like a scribble. If a DM tried to tell me I had to map the dungeon, I'd tell him to blow it out his rear.