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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gentlegamer" data-source="post: 3697865" data-attributes="member: 2425">Good heavens! That should never be the goal of mapping! The goal is not to get lost, or, in some cases, to find a specific thing (secret door, hidden alcove, etc.). This doesn't require a replica of the DM's map! Even the DM's map is just a visual aid for adjudicating the game and not 100% accurate to the environment it represents.Getting it right doesn't require this level of effort, getting it right requires enough detail to avoid getting lost (in most cases).To me, this seems to be an indictment against the form of the role-playing game itself. The a large part of the game consists of the DM describing what is perceived by the characters' sensory abilities. Just because the mental picture formed by the players doesn't match what is in the head (or on the map) of the DM isn't itself reason to do away with using verbal descriptions.Drawing a map of the imaginary terrain that your role-playing alter ego is exploring is very much part of "role-playing."As I noted above, these things are not all or nothing affairs. Don't try to construct a strawman based on that. Some things are for the players, some things are for the characters. Making the decisions necessary to navigate a complex dungeon requires some mental output on the part of the players; maps are a valuable tool for this activity and the skilled player will make use of them as need arises.If you had such a skilled character, I would give you more exact dimensions when asked. Otherwise, you will get roughly accurate dimensions (as tall as a pike-staff, the room is 10 paces wide (left, right instead of north, south). Some things you won't know about unless your character possess an ability to detect it (such as very subtle grades in slopes that dwarves can detect as a race ability). In the subtle slope grade, even the skilled player can detect if he wants to (by seeing if a ball will roll in a direction when placed on the floor, or pouring liquid on the ground and see if it pools or flows).It sounds like the player is attempting to dictate to the DM the results of Emirkol's attempt at mental map making. If the player wishes to leverage the M-U's mental abilities this way (and if I agree to his interpretation of them as applied to mapping), I would rule that the player may take as long as he wants to draw and make notes while time is "frozen." If Emirkol has a divination spell that can give him greater accuracy, I may provide him with some pre-drawn maps (whose accuracy in turn is subject to the vagaries of divinations in general . . . oracles are often less precise then desired!).If you are truly playing old-school, why is the M-U handling the mapping? That's the thief's job!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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