I am a long time user of battlemaps using wet erase markets. Though this works, I've never been a big fan of the "DM Loading Screen" that comes as a result of drawing things room by room. I've started to more recently move to printed out maps. However, I have a problem that one player meta games pretty hard when using a printed map, but I also don't want to slow the game down by going back to drawing everything.

Playing Curse of Strahd and printing out the maps has been nice, but it has issues with this one player. A room had a corpse in it, player changes from kicking down the door to carefully peeking in, ect. If there's a secret room, it pushes this player to just state that they want to go there. If I cut the map up to fight meta gaming, it slows down the game a little and a missing part of the map will always be evidence that there's a secret room that the party must discover.

What have people found success with for maps?

Have people found a way of making secret rooms stay secret when printing them out?

Maybe I'm approaching the meta gaming from the wrong angle, it burns me out a little, but maybe it shouldn't?

I've done a few different things. Sticky notes all over the map that I pull off as the PCs explore the area (works better on maps printed small). I have 1" grid paper that I use sometimes and I'll use 8 1/2"x11" cardstock as a fog of war mechanic that I remove as they go through areas. (This is usually for maps I've drawn out by hand ahead of time. And I don't draw the secret doors that they can't see readily when entering the room.)

For really complex maps (i.e. Dungeon of the Mad Mage) I've used Roll20 so they can see the map and that has fog of war features that I can mask the dungeon with.

Thanks, it seems like I need a Fog of War device of some sort. I've seen plastic sheets plus dry erase work. You'd think there would be some sort of a pre-built solution for this.

I've been using cut up maps, and just place the next segment next to the door when they open it.

I do the same as ftl, and rather than printing out the map, I hand draw it on grid paper - that way I can include features I want to, while avoiding things like trap locations etc.

I'm running my first game next week a one-shot and am planning on using printed maps. - I also have the same concerns...

I've heard DM's 'cutting up' the map and adding the new sections as the characters explore as another way to deal with this. (I'm loathed to cut up my dungeon map print-out though..) - I'll probably give sticky notes a try.

Surprised no one has mentioned this:  describe each room to the party and have them draw the room.

Quote from Shalrath42 >>

Surprised no one has mentioned this:  describe each room to the party and have them draw the room.

 That sounds like it would interesting and a bit scary at the same time.

I use a battle mat and draw everything out. The players have enough patience to wait it out.

I've always been fond of cut up construction paper, sized to the map.  Place the pieces down on the rooms so that the contents are covered.  Bonus: You can write the room descriptions on the backs of the cards to read off as they are discovered.

I got some plastic sheets that I can black out with expo marker beforehand for tonight's game. I'll let you guys know how it works out.

Some people mentioned just using a battlemap and drawing it. There's nothing wrong with this, I've been doing that for years. However, I like the idea of printed out maps because they look nice, and have a nice effect on the table for the amount of prep work I put in.

@Shalrath42 : I've never seen anyone do that before, how does it work out for you? It sounds interesting, I think it'd be fun to run a one shot with it to see how it goes.

@Sedge : How that's making things dual purpose. Sounds like a decent amount of prep work, but sounds like it would make the game run smoothly. Does it take much prep time?

Quote from Sedge >>

I've always been fond of cut up construction paper, sized to the map.  Place the pieces down on the rooms so that the contents are covered.  Bonus: You can write the room descriptions on the backs of the cards to read off as they are discovered.

 Oooh, I like the idea of having the room descriptions on the back. When you say cut to the size of the map do you mean just a square the same size as the outer dimensions of the room it's covering? So that they might see the basic outline but they see no features within? (Always looking for new things.)

@Warpix   It's how I learned when first gaming back in the 80's and early 90's.  DM's had enough to do with running the game, they didn't need to take time to draw a map for the players when there's at least 4 people sitting there perfectly capable of sketching a rough map.

I like the look and feel of printed maps but I don't like the square grid. I find that tactically a hex map works better for my groups so I'm stuck with TotM and drawing it out.   I will consider having my players draw it out themselves, that might be fun.

I'm from an older mentality that echos Shalrath42:

One of the more interesting choices I made was to have a cartographer for the table. This helps delegate roles, it helps the players work with each other to make sure that the map is well drawn. I brings the table away from whatever distraction they have is, keeping their focus on the game. It creates some more immersion because they need to visualize what I'm explaining. Heck, even if the player draws the map poorly, you can integrate it into the story if/when it comes up. It's just a wonderful tool at my disposal.

Having a cartographer does have its drawbacks though. If there is a misunderstanding on descriptions, not a player error, then mistakes in the map can be had which will skew the whole thing. There are also times where no one at the table wants to take up the mantle and forcing players to do something they don't want to is not always the best course of action. This is a tool that can only really be used with buy in and testing the waters. 

That all said, if you're of a mind to draw maps for the party and want to avoid down time at the table, I'd suggest covering the map with paper/cloth and removing it bits as the party advances.

I have a massive map that I printed out on a plotter. I cut up pieces of cardboard to match up with the room numbers and I just pulled them away as needed to reveal the rooms beneath.