I''m setting up a campaign(Lost Mine of Phandelver), and was wondering how, and when maps for combat should be used? For small engagements imagination works just fine, but when dungeon crawling I don't know how to build(reveal, show, etc...) a map as the characters are walking through the dungeon. How should the maps be revealed when exploring, and used in combat?
It's really a personal preference thing. What do you and your players like? Some people prefer the theater of the mind style and just run with it, and don't worry too much about exactly where people are standing. Other people, usually those who are more drawn to the tactical aspects of combat, prefer having a grid so they can be sure where they can more and where they can target their attacks, how big their spells are, and just how close everything is, and where the corners are, etc.
If you're new, I'd suggest trying it each way for a bit and seeing what works best for you and your group.
If you're doing something like Phandelver and you have a large map for some of the dungeons and such, somethign you can do to keep your players from just looking at the full map to see what's coming is to cover the parts they haven't gotten to yet with blank paper.
Roll20 has a feature called 'Fog of War' where you can easily hide/reveal parts of the map when you as the DM wish to do so. Hidden parts will just show up as black space to the players but you can see everything whether it be hidden or revealed.
One way to go about the whole thing (which my group has started to do) is to only use battlemaps for combat scenarios and use theatre of mind for everything else; usually a dungeon's pathways and rooms can be easily described by the DM and I've felt that having a massive grid map for the whole dungeon can slow down movement as players start to move square by square. I'm actually finishing up Lost Mine of Phandelver within the next couple of sessions and pretty much shifted around the final dungeon design to be less insane and only using battlemaps for combat in here.
In the end it's down to what you and the players enjoy and what enhances the game. If your players love the thrill of slowly moving inch by inch through unknown dungeon areas then you can have the whole map and use Fog of War. If you've found that your players don't really love this aspect and the games start to stagnate then go ahead and only use battlemaps for combat or when it's REALLY necessary.
Me, I have to have a map, as a GM. I can deal without one, maybe, as a player, depending on how complex the battle is. But as a GM, I must have the visual or I cannot run the combat.
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Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Roll20 has a feature called 'Fog of War' where you can easily hide/reveal parts of the map when you as the DM wish to do so. Hidden parts will just show up as black space to the players but you can see everything whether it be hidden or revealed.
One way to go about the whole thing (which my group has started to do) is to only use battlemaps for combat scenarios and use theatre of mind for everything else; usually a dungeon's pathways and rooms can be easily described by the DM and I've felt that having a massive grid map for the whole dungeon can slow down movement as players start to move square by square. I'm actually finishing up Lost Mine of Phandelver within the next couple of sessions and pretty much shifted around the final dungeon design to be less insane and only using battlemaps for combat in here.
In the end it's down to what you and the players enjoy and what enhances the game. If your players love the thrill of slowly moving inch by inch through unknown dungeon areas then you can have the whole map and use Fog of War. If you've found that your players don't really love this aspect and the games start to stagnate then go ahead and only use battlemaps for combat or when it's REALLY necessary.
I myself use Shmeppy for quick combat tracking, the link is in my signature. It is a no-frills straightforward system.
When you use theatre of the mind for combat, the DM needs to be very good at both visualizing the situation AND describing it clearly to the players. Where everyone is located, how far apart they are, where they think they can move, whether they will be out of range of opponents or not, the locations of any cover or movement obstructions and anything else that could affect the combat.
The DM needs to be able to picture where things are and clearly let the players know so that they can figure out what they want to do. In addition, if the DM is very descriptive it helps the players also visualize what is going on which helps with fun and immersion.
If either the DM or the players have trouble with visualizing or communicating it can lead to frustration and sometimes argument as the player makes one decision based on how they perceive the situation only to have the DM correct them and have something unexpected happen which then either needs to be rolled back, corrected or left to play out which may leave both the DM and player frustrated and unhappy.
The more creatures that are involved in a combat, the more confusing and harder to visualize it gets - one opponent is pretty easy since everything can usually be described relative to their location. Two is also doable ... three or more and I would tend to avoid it in theatre of the mind and use a map instead.
Maps tend to reduce this type of confusion by relatively clearly laying out creature locations, distances, environment and obstructions (furniture/walls/etc).
There are two kinds of maps.
1) Exploration maps that show the area and features that you are exploring.
2) Tactical maps that have typically a 5' scale and can be used for evaluating combat.
Exploration maps are very convenient for visualizing the larger scale. The areas that have been explored and what has been found. In person, this can be done by drawing a map on paper or printing out a map in advance and using a covering piece of paper to reveal areas as the character move through. On a VTT like Roll20, this can be done even on a free account by importing a map and then using the basic fog of war feature to reveal sections of the map as characters move along.
Similarly, a tactical map in person could just be a square grid with miniatures, scaled to 5'/square and markers used to note important features like doors walls and furniture. On line, you can do the same thing with a blank page and draw lines on it to represent the local tactical situation. You could also import a fancier map and use that as an alternative.
Generally, I will always use exploration maps so that the party understands the general layout of where they are and where they are going. I will usually use tactical maps for combat unless it is a single target or a combat I expect to resolve quickly enough that it doesn't need the effort of creating a map and drawing things out.
Anyway, for basic mapping features, most of the VTT products available should suffice even with a free account. In person, the only limitation is how much time the DM wants to spend in preparation but it is usually not worth investing a lot of time in a tactical map that is likely only going to be used in a single play session.
P.S. for something like LMoP, since you own it, you can likely scan the relevant maps and either print a copy for use at the table or upload it to Roll20 for your personal use in your game. Most of the maps come gridded to a specific scale and you can load these into Roll20 or another VTT and scale them so that it matches the Roll20 scaling so that when you move character and creature tokens on the map they move the correct distance.
In general maps add setup time to running any combat, but save time when trying to describe a complicated tactical situation. As such they tend to help for complicated tactical fights, but are more effort than they're worth for simple fights. Exactly where the break point is varies somewhat with your tools and setup; if you already have a map available, it's easier than if you have to draw a map, and electronic maps are faster to switch around than physical maps.
I use Inkarnate to run my combats. I create all my maps on there (including porting published maps to copy to maintain style) so it has been easy to import monster and player tokens into the tool. When running I use theartre of the mind but also have a map with a grid over it to refer to. I can then also grab screenshots to post to discord to show my players what I am describing if needed. I then keep track of player and monster positions on the map (I have 8 players) and might update the posted map at the end of every few rounds if needed.
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I''m setting up a campaign(Lost Mine of Phandelver), and was wondering how, and when maps for combat should be used? For small engagements imagination works just fine, but when dungeon crawling I don't know how to build(reveal, show, etc...) a map as the characters are walking through the dungeon. How should the maps be revealed when exploring, and used in combat?
It's really a personal preference thing. What do you and your players like? Some people prefer the theater of the mind style and just run with it, and don't worry too much about exactly where people are standing. Other people, usually those who are more drawn to the tactical aspects of combat, prefer having a grid so they can be sure where they can more and where they can target their attacks, how big their spells are, and just how close everything is, and where the corners are, etc.
If you're new, I'd suggest trying it each way for a bit and seeing what works best for you and your group.
Thanks.
If you're doing something like Phandelver and you have a large map for some of the dungeons and such, somethign you can do to keep your players from just looking at the full map to see what's coming is to cover the parts they haven't gotten to yet with blank paper.
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Is your game online or face to face?
If it is online then you can just show them images of what they can see little by little.
Face to face, you can draw them what they see.
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Roll20 has a feature called 'Fog of War' where you can easily hide/reveal parts of the map when you as the DM wish to do so. Hidden parts will just show up as black space to the players but you can see everything whether it be hidden or revealed.
One way to go about the whole thing (which my group has started to do) is to only use battlemaps for combat scenarios and use theatre of mind for everything else; usually a dungeon's pathways and rooms can be easily described by the DM and I've felt that having a massive grid map for the whole dungeon can slow down movement as players start to move square by square. I'm actually finishing up Lost Mine of Phandelver within the next couple of sessions and pretty much shifted around the final dungeon design to be less insane and only using battlemaps for combat in here.
In the end it's down to what you and the players enjoy and what enhances the game. If your players love the thrill of slowly moving inch by inch through unknown dungeon areas then you can have the whole map and use Fog of War. If you've found that your players don't really love this aspect and the games start to stagnate then go ahead and only use battlemaps for combat or when it's REALLY necessary.
If you think not having a map might be inconvenient, use the map.
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I agree with others, it is a personal choice.
Me, I have to have a map, as a GM. I can deal without one, maybe, as a player, depending on how complex the battle is. But as a GM, I must have the visual or I cannot run the combat.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I myself use Shmeppy for quick combat tracking, the link is in my signature. It is a no-frills straightforward system.
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When you use theatre of the mind for combat, the DM needs to be very good at both visualizing the situation AND describing it clearly to the players. Where everyone is located, how far apart they are, where they think they can move, whether they will be out of range of opponents or not, the locations of any cover or movement obstructions and anything else that could affect the combat.
The DM needs to be able to picture where things are and clearly let the players know so that they can figure out what they want to do. In addition, if the DM is very descriptive it helps the players also visualize what is going on which helps with fun and immersion.
If either the DM or the players have trouble with visualizing or communicating it can lead to frustration and sometimes argument as the player makes one decision based on how they perceive the situation only to have the DM correct them and have something unexpected happen which then either needs to be rolled back, corrected or left to play out which may leave both the DM and player frustrated and unhappy.
The more creatures that are involved in a combat, the more confusing and harder to visualize it gets - one opponent is pretty easy since everything can usually be described relative to their location. Two is also doable ... three or more and I would tend to avoid it in theatre of the mind and use a map instead.
Maps tend to reduce this type of confusion by relatively clearly laying out creature locations, distances, environment and obstructions (furniture/walls/etc).
There are two kinds of maps.
1) Exploration maps that show the area and features that you are exploring.
2) Tactical maps that have typically a 5' scale and can be used for evaluating combat.
Exploration maps are very convenient for visualizing the larger scale. The areas that have been explored and what has been found. In person, this can be done by drawing a map on paper or printing out a map in advance and using a covering piece of paper to reveal areas as the character move through. On a VTT like Roll20, this can be done even on a free account by importing a map and then using the basic fog of war feature to reveal sections of the map as characters move along.
Similarly, a tactical map in person could just be a square grid with miniatures, scaled to 5'/square and markers used to note important features like doors walls and furniture. On line, you can do the same thing with a blank page and draw lines on it to represent the local tactical situation. You could also import a fancier map and use that as an alternative.
Generally, I will always use exploration maps so that the party understands the general layout of where they are and where they are going. I will usually use tactical maps for combat unless it is a single target or a combat I expect to resolve quickly enough that it doesn't need the effort of creating a map and drawing things out.
Anyway, for basic mapping features, most of the VTT products available should suffice even with a free account. In person, the only limitation is how much time the DM wants to spend in preparation but it is usually not worth investing a lot of time in a tactical map that is likely only going to be used in a single play session.
P.S. for something like LMoP, since you own it, you can likely scan the relevant maps and either print a copy for use at the table or upload it to Roll20 for your personal use in your game. Most of the maps come gridded to a specific scale and you can load these into Roll20 or another VTT and scale them so that it matches the Roll20 scaling so that when you move character and creature tokens on the map they move the correct distance.
In general maps add setup time to running any combat, but save time when trying to describe a complicated tactical situation. As such they tend to help for complicated tactical fights, but are more effort than they're worth for simple fights. Exactly where the break point is varies somewhat with your tools and setup; if you already have a map available, it's easier than if you have to draw a map, and electronic maps are faster to switch around than physical maps.
I use Inkarnate to run my combats. I create all my maps on there (including porting published maps to copy to maintain style) so it has been easy to import monster and player tokens into the tool. When running I use theartre of the mind but also have a map with a grid over it to refer to. I can then also grab screenshots to post to discord to show my players what I am describing if needed. I then keep track of player and monster positions on the map (I have 8 players) and might update the posted map at the end of every few rounds if needed.