Hi I've been running Storm King Thunders campaign for nearly 2 years.
We are now getting to the end, which involves big giant and dragon lairs. My problem is the maps for combat. I'm fine drawing a mini map for the players to explore but when it turns to combat, the maps are too big. Even when I scale down so one square equals 10 feet. The map would cover the whole table. We are a group of 7 and space is tight. I can fit about 4 pieces of a4 paper together and thats it.
I dont have the means to do the maps digital either.
I've normal been using a gridded A4 piece of paper inside a wallet. Then I draw the map on top with a dry maker pen. So I can wipe off and reuse. But this would be too small if trying to do to scale.
I have little round tokens with the player's names on and different size tokens for monsters.
I dont know whither to try more theater of the mind and just have a rough map. Or try a different scale system. But some of my players get very tactical and want it precise.
This is a tricky one. You could try actually making the map smaller. If it's 100 squares across, you could try to drop it to 60 or 75. Some number that works well for the other length.
If the maps aren't working for you, just shrink them. Dragons do thrive on mobility and space, but you can make the lairs vertically larger. Add some more obstacles to make the space more dynamic and have the players focus less on size. I actually made the mistake of having too much open space in one of my maps today and my players gunned down a fleeing minion, so large open stretches are not always the best.
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He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
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Hi I've been running Storm King Thunders campaign for nearly 2 years.
We are now getting to the end, which involves big giant and dragon lairs. My problem is the maps for combat. I'm fine drawing a mini map for the players to explore but when it turns to combat, the maps are too big. Even when I scale down so one square equals 10 feet. The map would cover the whole table. We are a group of 7 and space is tight. I can fit about 4 pieces of a4 paper together and thats it.
I dont have the means to do the maps digital either.
I've normal been using a gridded A4 piece of paper inside a wallet. Then I draw the map on top with a dry maker pen. So I can wipe off and reuse. But this would be too small if trying to do to scale.
I have little round tokens with the player's names on and different size tokens for monsters.
I dont know whither to try more theater of the mind and just have a rough map. Or try a different scale system. But some of my players get very tactical and want it precise.
Any ideas or tips would be great.
This is a tricky one. You could try actually making the map smaller. If it's 100 squares across, you could try to drop it to 60 or 75. Some number that works well for the other length.
If the maps aren't working for you, just shrink them. Dragons do thrive on mobility and space, but you can make the lairs vertically larger. Add some more obstacles to make the space more dynamic and have the players focus less on size. I actually made the mistake of having too much open space in one of my maps today and my players gunned down a fleeing minion, so large open stretches are not always the best.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"