I'll be starting my first campaign soon (Storm King's Thunder), and have only run a few one-shots before. Some I've used maps for, and some I've tried Theater of the Mind. Both are cool, though overall I think I'd prefer to map most of my combat.
But looking through the SKT book and maps, many of the zones are quite large. I also quite like the way Matt Mercer does it in CR, where most of the dungeon is just described, and then the combat zones have his maps (though mine will be simple print outs or drawings on a board... I ain't got time/money to do full models like him...); but as a new DM, I'm not sure how well I can guess exactly which parts of the bigger maps to prepare for combat.
For SKT, we start in Nightstone, and then go into the Dripping Caves (later on in the adventure there are some more really big zones, but I can deal with them later). Using those as examples, how much would you prepare to map for the players, or how much would you just describe?
You can also use a bit of a mixed approach. IE for a town you can draw it out on graph paper, so that your players can visualize it, then, depending on where they are fighting, "zoom in" with either a smaller map, or a dry erase map that you keep changing. For Triboar, as an example, I had it on paper, so the players could see the areas of town. IF anything happened in town, I would draw it out in smaller scale for that area on my dry erase map.
Unrelated to the question though, SKT can be a bit tricky in the middle. I recommend dropping a lot of clues and foreshadowing so that the players know who the main folks are before getting all of the information dumped on them towards the end. Give your players a reason to care. Also, the middle section gives you a ton of flexibility in designing some one-shots and smaller areas which you can then use to advance the plot.
Hope that helps some!
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!"
For the cities in Ch 2 that makes sense. No way to map that whole thing out. Though for the two areas in Ch 1 (and the Maelstrom later), it's a really big map, but kinda possible to do on one big board. Either way, the 'zoom' method might work for those as well.
Thanks for the tips for Ch 3. I've found a couple really good 'how to run SKT' guides that I'm using to help me out. They give some really helpful things about previewing what's to come, but I'm definitely a bit intimidated. Fortunately I'm running bi-weekly, so have quite a bit of time before I get to that to figure things out. Ch 1 is rather straight forward at least.
Have a chat with your players to see if they have an idea of what would be helpful for them! I prefer to totally run theatre of the mind, but one of my players is very visually oriented and as the healer is super vested in making sure she stays within the correct distances of everyone. It causes her a lot of stress to not have any map in combat, so I just have a grid with icons out so everyone has a visual on distances.
Nightstone can be a bit more chaotic then the Caves, as it's a town with a lot of different buildings and paths. If you don't want to go full grid but want to offer some visual references you can just show them the map of the town and let them point to where they want to be or go. The Dripping Caves is 5 distinct areas (the main cavern, the Goblin warrens, the black pudding area, the prisoner area, and where the Boss is) so you can run much of that without a map as once they pick an area to go to it's a very direct route.
But I absolutely suggest asking your players ahead of time what they would be more comfy with.
I do know one of my players prefers to have a battle map. I met him running a couple AL sessions where I did Theater of the Mind, and he asked if I ever used maps :P
Again though, the 'zoom' idea is a good one. Even for the caves. Find the areas where combat is most likely. I'll see what I can anticipate (and then watch them throw it away~)
As a small aside, at least in my experience, anytime you drop a map down, players get into "combat mode". While I pre-draw stuff on my grid map, I try to wait till the last possible moment to put it down, otherwise every encounter becomes a combat encounter.
As you mentioned in the original post, in SKT some of the scales can be massive (literally giant-sized lol), just because they are, don't let that daunt you from making them even larger. Some parts of the story almost require "epic scale". In act 3 I recommend trying out a few variants to get a better sense as to both what you enjoy as well as what your players enjoy in terms if visualizing a battlefield.
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!"
Very good point. I learned something similar early on when I said to roll initiative, even though it didn't mean combat, just that time was slowed down. Thanks for that. I'll try to figure out the best way to have maps, and then combat maps, separate.
I'll be starting my first campaign soon (Storm King's Thunder), and have only run a few one-shots before. Some I've used maps for, and some I've tried Theater of the Mind. Both are cool, though overall I think I'd prefer to map most of my combat.
But looking through the SKT book and maps, many of the zones are quite large. I also quite like the way Matt Mercer does it in CR, where most of the dungeon is just described, and then the combat zones have his maps (though mine will be simple print outs or drawings on a board... I ain't got time/money to do full models like him...); but as a new DM, I'm not sure how well I can guess exactly which parts of the bigger maps to prepare for combat.
For SKT, we start in Nightstone, and then go into the Dripping Caves (later on in the adventure there are some more really big zones, but I can deal with them later). Using those as examples, how much would you prepare to map for the players, or how much would you just describe?
cheers~
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
You can also use a bit of a mixed approach. IE for a town you can draw it out on graph paper, so that your players can visualize it, then, depending on where they are fighting, "zoom in" with either a smaller map, or a dry erase map that you keep changing. For Triboar, as an example, I had it on paper, so the players could see the areas of town. IF anything happened in town, I would draw it out in smaller scale for that area on my dry erase map.
Unrelated to the question though, SKT can be a bit tricky in the middle. I recommend dropping a lot of clues and foreshadowing so that the players know who the main folks are before getting all of the information dumped on them towards the end. Give your players a reason to care. Also, the middle section gives you a ton of flexibility in designing some one-shots and smaller areas which you can then use to advance the plot.
Hope that helps some!
"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!"
For the cities in Ch 2 that makes sense. No way to map that whole thing out. Though for the two areas in Ch 1 (and the Maelstrom later), it's a really big map, but kinda possible to do on one big board. Either way, the 'zoom' method might work for those as well.
Thanks for the tips for Ch 3. I've found a couple really good 'how to run SKT' guides that I'm using to help me out. They give some really helpful things about previewing what's to come, but I'm definitely a bit intimidated. Fortunately I'm running bi-weekly, so have quite a bit of time before I get to that to figure things out. Ch 1 is rather straight forward at least.
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
InsiderHave a chat with your players to see if they have an idea of what would be helpful for them! I prefer to totally run theatre of the mind, but one of my players is very visually oriented and as the healer is super vested in making sure she stays within the correct distances of everyone. It causes her a lot of stress to not have any map in combat, so I just have a grid with icons out so everyone has a visual on distances.
Nightstone can be a bit more chaotic then the Caves, as it's a town with a lot of different buildings and paths. If you don't want to go full grid but want to offer some visual references you can just show them the map of the town and let them point to where they want to be or go. The Dripping Caves is 5 distinct areas (the main cavern, the Goblin warrens, the black pudding area, the prisoner area, and where the Boss is) so you can run much of that without a map as once they pick an area to go to it's a very direct route.
But I absolutely suggest asking your players ahead of time what they would be more comfy with.
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
Talking to the players is always a good idea ^^
I do know one of my players prefers to have a battle map. I met him running a couple AL sessions where I did Theater of the Mind, and he asked if I ever used maps :P
Again though, the 'zoom' idea is a good one. Even for the caves. Find the areas where combat is most likely. I'll see what I can anticipate (and then watch them throw it away~)
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
As a small aside, at least in my experience, anytime you drop a map down, players get into "combat mode". While I pre-draw stuff on my grid map, I try to wait till the last possible moment to put it down, otherwise every encounter becomes a combat encounter.
As you mentioned in the original post, in SKT some of the scales can be massive (literally giant-sized lol), just because they are, don't let that daunt you from making them even larger. Some parts of the story almost require "epic scale". In act 3 I recommend trying out a few variants to get a better sense as to both what you enjoy as well as what your players enjoy in terms if visualizing a battlefield.
"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!"
Very good point. I learned something similar early on when I said to roll initiative, even though it didn't mean combat, just that time was slowed down. Thanks for that. I'll try to figure out the best way to have maps, and then combat maps, separate.
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM: