World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[Xiag]

Mapping

I'm an evil SOB when it comes to mapping. For me, that was one of the coolest things about dungeon crawls. Slowly unveiling the map for yourself, and seeing what clues you can piece out of it. Circumstance bonuses for when they sustpect a secret door in an area due to map clues are common.

I have a table tile system (1" = 5') I use with mini's. They have to draw the map by hand, and since they were too cheap to buy the lined paper, they're doing it all on plain, white, paper.

Honestly, for a guy who's never played D&D before, and never EVER had to map anything, he's doing a fantastic job. I'll be scanning it and putting it on my site. The only thing he does different from me is that he uses X instead of [] for doors.

The most fun is the couple times they've had chases, and I've given him 6 seconds worth of round to draw on his turn, while trying to keep up with the group. Or the times people have run off without the map, and I just describe their way around instead... only giving left and rights...

 

[Dracorat]

When I draw doors they look kind of like:

/|

 

[rvalle]

From what the book says, it seems like there wasn't much there before Longtail shows up. Just traps and random death. I guess that could be changed at will. Large bugs (from E even), goblins from B, 1 wandering Shadow to scare the bejjebies out of him.

The Orcs didn't have a plan for getting out. They were trusting Longtail. Silly Orcs.

So 1 of 2 things. Have him fight random low level things as they (him and other orcs) explore A. Or make up parts of the fights between orcs and kolbolds. From the room discriptions you can get an idea of how the fight went. There were outposts and raids on said outposts. He can be in on one of those. And then when the wave of Fiendish creatures pour though the dungeon...

rv

 

[erucsbo]

How is everyone handling mapping in the WLD? I was using tracing paper to map out sections for my players, but this was time consuming and left the players out. Any suggestions?

RolePlayingMaster with a projecter attached to my laptop and projected against the wall of the room we game in. Works extremely well. I paid for it before Fantasy Grounds and MapTable came on the scene (several years ago) and display the player map on the projection while doing reveals on the DM map on my screen.

 

[Hussar]

I use OpenRPG, pretty much the same as Fantasy Grounds except that it's free. And, yeah, with the Fog of War option, it's pretty much the easiest way to run the WLD there is. Projector on the wall would be grass too.

Or, be like some people, hang the projector from the ceiling. O.O

 

[twilko]

Mapping

How is everyone handling mapping in the WLD? I was using tracing paper to map out sections for my players, but this was time consuming and left the players out. Any suggestions?

Not being so up on technology and not having a budget to keep up anyway, we use a Battlemat and I, usually, have all the rooms predrawn on overhead transparency sheets. Only thing is that it is a lot of work to prepare for a session. Then again my group only got through 2 rooms last time around (F20 and F21. Minotaurs are such fun. )

 

[Hussar]

Something that might work, although it would take a while to prep.

Photocopy the maps and then blow them up. Or scan them, blow them up and print them, which would likely be easier since you could remove all the stuff the players shouldn't see before printing. Then print on 1" scale. If you do print, I'd do a lot of cutting out of the walls and the like to save on ink.

Cut up the maps and store the parts in one of those slip cover things that you use for storing baseball cards. Label the lot as you go along. IIRC, you'd have to blow up the maps about 400% to get 1" sized squares, meaning each map would be about 16 A4 sheets. Not too hard to handle. Just slap down the bits as they travel along.

Dunno if this would work, but it might speed up play quite a bit.

 

[Hussar]

An update vis a vis LEVERS

Three sessions, count em, three session, my players dithered about pulling the lever in the 7th ring of the Pyrefaust. Finally they did. Released five of the bloody huge wyvern dragons. They whacked one barely while the others went elsewhere to let out all the other dragons. Pyrefaust is about to become very, very inhospitable.

All in all, Region J is now my bestest, most favourite region. The party is cut off from retreat, scared, low on hit points and lost. Yeah baby Yeah!

See, players ALWAYS pull the lever.

 

[Raven Crowking]

See, players ALWAYS pull the lever.

And it ALMOST ALWAYS whacks them in the ass!

 

[Hussar]

Oh hell, of course. It wouldn't be fun without a whack on the ass.