I'm a new DM about to start my third sessions and I was wondering how others handle maps? Naturally unmarked hex maps for large areas are good for the players to have so they know where they're going, but I was wondering how others would handle maps for dungeons and such. Naturally I don't want my players to know what's coming up in the dungeon for suspense purposes but copying out the map on a piece of graph paper in real time as they enter the rooms seems cumbersome and needlessly slow. I appreciate any help!
If you go "old school" then mapping is the domain of the Players. They are responsible for making their own maps, from their travels.
Same for dungeon crawling. You don't "[copy] out the map on a piece of graph paper in real time as they enter the room" - the Players can make their own maps ( or not ) as elaborately or as simply ( squares for rooms, connected by lines ) as they like.
If the Characters happen to purchase a map from an in-world cartographer, then they'd get something functional and suitable for travelling, but likely not suitable for exact navigation, and certainly not complete. The Dwendalian Empire Map by Devin Rue hits a nice balance between being useful, simple, artistic, but not overloaded with tons of hyper-exact details.
We get a ton of hyper detailed maps in supplements, and in our day-to-day lives we have access to real time GPS tracking and huge map databases accessible in real time. That level of detail and information just isn't available to pseudo-medieval societies ( outside of magic ).
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
You have a lot of different options, so figure out what works best for your table (and mix things around on occasion as well!)
First, you can run sessions in "theater of the mind" style, where you don't really need minis or maps.
If your group likes maps though, you can get just a battlemat and then either:
draw on it before hand and cover it up with paper etc
draw on it as the party discovers things
get dry erase transparency paper and map things out on those sheets then lay a sheet on the grid map as the party explores
Or use dungeon tiles and put them down as you see fit.
I typically predraw things on battle mat then cover sections up with paper etc.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Are you asking about region maps, or battlemaps for combat?
For battle maps, I've seen the following approaches all work:
1) No map. Just describe things, run pure theater of the mind combat.
2) Just-in-time drawn battlemaps. Stuff like this: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR/. When the players enter an area that you need a map to describe (like a room with a decently complicated geometry, or multiple exits, or a lot of features) draw it on the board.
(This is what's being done in one campaign I'm a player in right now.)
4) Print out battlemaps from where you find them, such as online. There's a bunch of maps out there, in various levels of artistry and utility.)
(This is what I do in the campaign I DM for. I find a map online - I subscribe to an art patreon that does D&D maps, https://www.elventower.com/, but I also google for other sources if I have something in mind. I expand it to the right size with https://rasterbator.net/ and print it out. If it's a map with multiple rooms, I'll cut out the rooms individually and place them on the table as my players find them.)
I draw out the maps on a squares battle mat as the players discover the rooms. Of course, it depends on wether or not the exact layout of the dungeon area is important or not. When it is, its something I can draw pretty quickly. Years of practice.
Check out AngryGM's advice on mapping. Warning - he writes with a particular style, it is not to everyone's tastes.
I'm a big fan of not making maps. Sometimes, when I'm running a session, my "map" will just be a bunch of words with lines.
Really, whether a room is 20ft wide or 22 ft wide isn't important. What's important is the general looks ("stone walls, rubbish on floor, smells bad"), the exits ("two ways in or out, one to the guard room, one to the river"), and what's there to encounter ("several oozes").
For my Princes of the Apocalypse game, I've given the players a nice A3 colour printed copy of the Dessarin Valley map. This way they have something nice on the talbe to look at as well as a good general reference. I have warned them that the map may not be accurate. It's good on the big stuff ("Westbridge is north of Red Larch") but doesn't reflect the little stuff ("the map says the bridge is here, but it's not, where is it?").
Really, whether a room is 20ft wide or 22 ft wide isn't important. What's important is the general looks ("stone walls, rubbish on floor, smells bad"), the exits ("two ways in or out, one to the guard room, one to the river"), and what's there to encounter ("several oozes").
There are quite a few spell descriptions that would disagree with you, though I do see what you're going for.
I find that having a map of the dungeon in the form of a battle map helps to give the players a better feel for what the encounter really looks like without me having to describe the dimensions of the space and them misunderstandings what I'm describing. This allows me to focus on more descriptive elements of the environment.
The easiest is probably to have a dry erase type battle map that you can quickly sketch out the room. But that does create a break in the action and tension.
If you have multiple battle maps you can pre draw the space on the maps which helps keep everything flowing but does require a larger investment.
Printing them out is also a good way to speed up the process of setting up the space.
For my group I dropped about $350 on a short throw projector. That projector is attached to a 3 foot piece of conduit which is in turn attached to a 2x4 base on the table. The map is on my laptop and projected down onto the table on a white dry erase desk blotter that is 2' by 3'.
This allows us to quickly change maps and I can scroll from room to room as the players move without having to reset anything. I also have a library of different maps that I can pull up for random encounters.
Assuming you're using pen-and-paper, then my preferred thing to do is to draw on a big roll of 1" square paper you can get from office supply stores. If the dungeon's really big (which mine are, I'm old-school) then it's up to the players to make their own map of that as we go since the paper is thrown out at the end of the session. You do get used to drawing quickly this way. What I've never been able to do quickly is convert from 10' squares of most maps to 5' squares of battlemaps; so we tend just use minis to indicate rough positions and not do grid combat.
I use a combo of theater of the mind and maps. I just like to draw/paint maps. For the most part I like to have maps of areas where the players will be spending a bit of time at. Ill also make treasure maps that the group can find. Combat is handled purely theater of the mind. Honestly I feel that theater of the mind actually speeds up the game progress when compared to using a battle map. Another thing I will do now and then is use fog of war and slowly open up areas as the players explore. However I do find it to be a slower process. It is also fun to let the players map things out based on the info you tell them. Adds a bit of realism. With theater of the mind though, judging distances can get confusing for not only the players but the DM as well. You really need to pay attention with it.
I'm a new DM about to start my third sessions and I was wondering how others handle maps? Naturally unmarked hex maps for large areas are good for the players to have so they know where they're going, but I was wondering how others would handle maps for dungeons and such. Naturally I don't want my players to know what's coming up in the dungeon for suspense purposes but copying out the map on a piece of graph paper in real time as they enter the rooms seems cumbersome and needlessly slow. I appreciate any help!
For one campaign I map for complicated combat encounters, I have a party of 7 so that one gets maps more often, for the other campaign I Map far less.
Regional maps I never grid, in fact I rarely do detailed regional maps, if the party ask for a reference guide I might sketch out on a whiteboard to show where things are relative to each other, other then that I simply TOM everything, it becomes a lot easier to “move distances” if it isn’t nailed down. That mountain I thought would be 3 weeks journey I can pull closer because actually that makes more sense.
I use a blend of jsut-in-time drawn battle maps on a grid with a dry-wipe marker. However, I also use a tablet often to display a player version of a map if it is available - but typically only once they have either purchased a map at a carotgrapher, or have travelled extensively in an area.
There are so many digital maps and tools available now (I do use these for online sessions a lot since it makes things flow a lot easier for online games), so using a tablet can be a good idea from a time saving perspective. You cover overlay black boxes on an image if you wanted to use a digital map, but only show parts of it.
I use a blend of jsut-in-time drawn battle maps on a grid with a dry-wipe marker. However, I also use a tablet often to display a player version of a map if it is available - but typically only once they have either purchased a map at a carotgrapher, or have travelled extensively in an area.
There are so many digital maps and tools available now (I do use these for online sessions a lot since it makes things flow a lot easier for online games), so using a tablet can be a good idea from a time saving perspective. You cover overlay black boxes on an image if you wanted to use a digital map, but only show parts of it.
In the past a friend of mine has used a flatscreen TV (all 50 inches of it) lying on it's back to do the same thing, we placed minis on the TV screen and it had the benefit he could scroll the map (yes he made one big enough it was bigger then the TV screen lol)
Method 1) Everyone brings a device (ipad, laptop, etc) and has access to digital battlemaps on Owlbear...otherwise it's all theatre of the mind.
Method 2) I bring as big a screen laptop or tablet as I can and it's thrown in the centre of the table for people to look at as their initiative order comes up. Again, supported heavily by theatre of the mind.
Method 3) I design maps in Inkarnate or something similar then print them off in either A1 or A0 sizes. The downside is that for pkayers who like to use minis the scaling isn't right.
Of course, being honest, I prefer entirely theatre of the mind. It's a lot less work for me, but I find that certain streamed D&D games have caused a loss of imagination and certain level of expectation from players these days. For me then, it really is about adapting my delivery to the players. If they need maps, I'll find the solution that most works for me even if it's not perfect.
I dislike Theater of the Mind. It means the players cannot do tactical positioning. No "I move here so as to get 4 people in the fireball/Wall of Flire/Stinking Cloud". Instead it is "DM, how many can I get with my fireball, assuming I move my 30 ft?" It becomes more of the DM's story, rather than a joint game.
IRL, we use a Battlemap, though I prefer Hex even for combat. No need to think about how far it is diagonally.
Online lets you use full color maps on roll20 or whatever you are using. A lot easier to do.
I dislike Theater of the Mind. It means the players cannot do tactical positioning.
I disagree, if the DM explains the layout well enough tactical positioning is possible. I've seen it done really well. As I say it all depends on the group.
Moreover, while battlemaps (i prefer Owlbear over Roll20 myself) allow for fog-of-war, they can actually have the effect of the players being slightly meta. As the map is seen from an angle other than through the character's eyes more detached decisions can be made.
As I say though, I do think it's down to the group. If the group prefers to use maps, that's awesome. There are drawbacks whichever way you turn though. All depends on the dynamic around the table (real or virtual).
I'm a new DM about to start my third sessions and I was wondering how others handle maps? Naturally unmarked hex maps for large areas are good for the players to have so they know where they're going, but I was wondering how others would handle maps for dungeons and such. Naturally I don't want my players to know what's coming up in the dungeon for suspense purposes but copying out the map on a piece of graph paper in real time as they enter the rooms seems cumbersome and needlessly slow. I appreciate any help!
If you go "old school" then mapping is the domain of the Players. They are responsible for making their own maps, from their travels.
Same for dungeon crawling. You don't "[copy] out the map on a piece of graph paper in real time as they enter the room" - the Players can make their own maps ( or not ) as elaborately or as simply ( squares for rooms, connected by lines ) as they like.
If the Characters happen to purchase a map from an in-world cartographer, then they'd get something functional and suitable for travelling, but likely not suitable for exact navigation, and certainly not complete. The Dwendalian Empire Map by Devin Rue hits a nice balance between being useful, simple, artistic, but not overloaded with tons of hyper-exact details.
We get a ton of hyper detailed maps in supplements, and in our day-to-day lives we have access to real time GPS tracking and huge map databases accessible in real time. That level of detail and information just isn't available to pseudo-medieval societies ( outside of magic ).
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
You have a lot of different options, so figure out what works best for your table (and mix things around on occasion as well!)
First, you can run sessions in "theater of the mind" style, where you don't really need minis or maps.
If your group likes maps though, you can get just a battlemat and then either:
Or use dungeon tiles and put them down as you see fit.
I typically predraw things on battle mat then cover sections up with paper etc.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Are you asking about region maps, or battlemaps for combat?
For battle maps, I've seen the following approaches all work:
1) No map. Just describe things, run pure theater of the mind combat.
2) Just-in-time drawn battlemaps. Stuff like this: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR/. When the players enter an area that you need a map to describe (like a room with a decently complicated geometry, or multiple exits, or a lot of features) draw it on the board.
(This is what's being done in one campaign I'm a player in right now.)
3) Pre-drawn battlemaps. You can draw out a whole dungeon on a mat like that - or on individual tiles like https://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Interlocking-Role-Playing-Miniature-Tabletop/dp/B016H1B0RW/ . That lets you draw things ahead of time and then plop them together.
4) Print out battlemaps from where you find them, such as online. There's a bunch of maps out there, in various levels of artistry and utility.)
(This is what I do in the campaign I DM for. I find a map online - I subscribe to an art patreon that does D&D maps, https://www.elventower.com/, but I also google for other sources if I have something in mind. I expand it to the right size with https://rasterbator.net/ and print it out. If it's a map with multiple rooms, I'll cut out the rooms individually and place them on the table as my players find them.)
I draw out the maps on a squares battle mat as the players discover the rooms. Of course, it depends on wether or not the exact layout of the dungeon area is important or not. When it is, its something I can draw pretty quickly. Years of practice.
Check out AngryGM's advice on mapping. Warning - he writes with a particular style, it is not to everyone's tastes.
I'm a big fan of not making maps. Sometimes, when I'm running a session, my "map" will just be a bunch of words with lines.
Really, whether a room is 20ft wide or 22 ft wide isn't important. What's important is the general looks ("stone walls, rubbish on floor, smells bad"), the exits ("two ways in or out, one to the guard room, one to the river"), and what's there to encounter ("several oozes").
For my Princes of the Apocalypse game, I've given the players a nice A3 colour printed copy of the Dessarin Valley map. This way they have something nice on the talbe to look at as well as a good general reference. I have warned them that the map may not be accurate. It's good on the big stuff ("Westbridge is north of Red Larch") but doesn't reflect the little stuff ("the map says the bridge is here, but it's not, where is it?").
There are quite a few spell descriptions that would disagree with you, though I do see what you're going for.
I find that having a map of the dungeon in the form of a battle map helps to give the players a better feel for what the encounter really looks like without me having to describe the dimensions of the space and them misunderstandings what I'm describing. This allows me to focus on more descriptive elements of the environment.
The easiest is probably to have a dry erase type battle map that you can quickly sketch out the room. But that does create a break in the action and tension.
If you have multiple battle maps you can pre draw the space on the maps which helps keep everything flowing but does require a larger investment.
Printing them out is also a good way to speed up the process of setting up the space.
For my group I dropped about $350 on a short throw projector. That projector is attached to a 3 foot piece of conduit which is in turn attached to a 2x4 base on the table. The map is on my laptop and projected down onto the table on a white dry erase desk blotter that is 2' by 3'.
This allows us to quickly change maps and I can scroll from room to room as the players move without having to reset anything. I also have a library of different maps that I can pull up for random encounters.
Assuming you're using pen-and-paper, then my preferred thing to do is to draw on a big roll of 1" square paper you can get from office supply stores. If the dungeon's really big (which mine are, I'm old-school) then it's up to the players to make their own map of that as we go since the paper is thrown out at the end of the session. You do get used to drawing quickly this way. What I've never been able to do quickly is convert from 10' squares of most maps to 5' squares of battlemaps; so we tend just use minis to indicate rough positions and not do grid combat.
I use a combo of theater of the mind and maps. I just like to draw/paint maps. For the most part I like to have maps of areas where the players will be spending a bit of time at. Ill also make treasure maps that the group can find. Combat is handled purely theater of the mind. Honestly I feel that theater of the mind actually speeds up the game progress when compared to using a battle map. Another thing I will do now and then is use fog of war and slowly open up areas as the players explore. However I do find it to be a slower process. It is also fun to let the players map things out based on the info you tell them. Adds a bit of realism. With theater of the mind though, judging distances can get confusing for not only the players but the DM as well. You really need to pay attention with it.
I'm mildly surprised that nobody has raised the (admittedly time-consuming and expensive) option of constructing scenery...
For one campaign I map for complicated combat encounters, I have a party of 7 so that one gets maps more often, for the other campaign I Map far less.
Regional maps I never grid, in fact I rarely do detailed regional maps, if the party ask for a reference guide I might sketch out on a whiteboard to show where things are relative to each other, other then that I simply TOM everything, it becomes a lot easier to “move distances” if it isn’t nailed down. That mountain I thought would be 3 weeks journey I can pull closer because actually that makes more sense.
For me, you said it is time-consuming and expensive and has low ROI for reuse unless it is a tree or an inn.
I use a blend of jsut-in-time drawn battle maps on a grid with a dry-wipe marker. However, I also use a tablet often to display a player version of a map if it is available - but typically only once they have either purchased a map at a carotgrapher, or have travelled extensively in an area.
There are so many digital maps and tools available now (I do use these for online sessions a lot since it makes things flow a lot easier for online games), so using a tablet can be a good idea from a time saving perspective. You cover overlay black boxes on an image if you wanted to use a digital map, but only show parts of it.
In the past a friend of mine has used a flatscreen TV (all 50 inches of it) lying on it's back to do the same thing, we placed minis on the TV screen and it had the benefit he could scroll the map (yes he made one big enough it was bigger then the TV screen lol)
I use three particular methods when in person:
Method 1) Everyone brings a device (ipad, laptop, etc) and has access to digital battlemaps on Owlbear...otherwise it's all theatre of the mind.
Method 2) I bring as big a screen laptop or tablet as I can and it's thrown in the centre of the table for people to look at as their initiative order comes up. Again, supported heavily by theatre of the mind.
Method 3) I design maps in Inkarnate or something similar then print them off in either A1 or A0 sizes. The downside is that for pkayers who like to use minis the scaling isn't right.
Of course, being honest, I prefer entirely theatre of the mind. It's a lot less work for me, but I find that certain streamed D&D games have caused a loss of imagination and certain level of expectation from players these days. For me then, it really is about adapting my delivery to the players. If they need maps, I'll find the solution that most works for me even if it's not perfect.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I dislike Theater of the Mind. It means the players cannot do tactical positioning. No "I move here so as to get 4 people in the fireball/Wall of Flire/Stinking Cloud". Instead it is "DM, how many can I get with my fireball, assuming I move my 30 ft?" It becomes more of the DM's story, rather than a joint game.
IRL, we use a Battlemap, though I prefer Hex even for combat. No need to think about how far it is diagonally.
Online lets you use full color maps on roll20 or whatever you are using. A lot easier to do.
I disagree, if the DM explains the layout well enough tactical positioning is possible. I've seen it done really well. As I say it all depends on the group.
Moreover, while battlemaps (i prefer Owlbear over Roll20 myself) allow for fog-of-war, they can actually have the effect of the players being slightly meta. As the map is seen from an angle other than through the character's eyes more detached decisions can be made.
As I say though, I do think it's down to the group. If the group prefers to use maps, that's awesome. There are drawbacks whichever way you turn though. All depends on the dynamic around the table (real or virtual).
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.