[DM 3.5] - Map reveals for dungeon crawls?

[killem2]

I'm the DM of course, and we had our first session yesterday, it was a little clunky, but over all, it went well. We normally will have a good and solid 6 hours with a possibility of up to 8 hours a month to play.

Is there a cleaner way to show the progress through a dungeon? We have a combat grid, that we can write on, but its a little difficult to accurately draw the graph paper grid to scale on the fly.

[Namfuak]

You could draw your maps on graph paper and use a scale of maybe 3 graph boxes per grid box. Or just get some of that graph paper that has big squares.

If you want to use lined paper, write down either the number of feet or number of grid squares (whichever is easier) on each line.

EDIT: Oh, you are using graph paper. Well, you could still write down the distances per line.

[CTrees]

For prepared maps (as opposed to the stuff I'm adlibing, or "it's a forest clearing"), I draw it out on graph paper ahead of time, during my prep phase. Then, as a game mat I use a sturdy piece of clear acrylic I prepared with 1" gridlines (sharpie) on one side. The other side works great with dry erase markers, so I can quickly sketch out the map during play. Working just to "what the players can see at a given point in time," and then building off that as they progress, the time it takes feels minimal, and on a 1"=5' scale, it's easy drawing, referencing my smaller, detailed map. If the players need a map (exploring more complicated caverns, for instance), well, they have pencils and paper - they can sketch one, as I'd assume their characters were sketching maps as they explored.

Picture of the acrylic I use, after they party has finished exploring the first part of a castle
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4217/maplz.jpg

Being shiny, it's a little tough to photograph, thus placement on the floor, and also the paper behind it (for contrast)

This is if I don't want to reveal the whole map immediately. If I don't care, then with the clear acrylic I can actually do drawing ahead of time, and simply lay it over the top. Google maps -> satellite view -> appropriate scaling can work really nicely when I need any natural setting (forests, swamps, mountains, etc).

[00dlez]

The "draw as we go" method is what my group uses as well, typically doesn't cause much delay. If its a more elaborate map with a big encounter coming up, we typically use the break to go to the bathroom and reload on Cheetos and Mountain Dew anyway.

We have had encounters where the the DM had a map pre-drawn on our grid and just pulled away paper covering areas as we went... worked okay too

[Urpriest]

I used to do a rather complicated arrangement in which I'd print out a map and cover it with "fog of war" post-its which got removed when players gained line of sight on an area.

These days I have an erasable battemap. The thing already has a grid on it, all I need to do is draw the rooms. It's really really handy.

[Palanan]

I used a thicket of post-its for one carefully-drawn map which had details much finer than the standard five-foot square; corridors three feet wide, niches and nooks and other customized features, all of which the characters were meant to explore. It took several weeks to lay out, which would've been impossible during the game. I had post-its cut into strips of every size and shape, laid out along the route of the characters' advance.

It actually worked out well for that session (some days, I amaze even myself ;) but it was extremely labor-intensive, and I've been trying to think of a better way to handle reveals. The narrow post-its helped heighten the suspense, but that wouldn't be as effective in a larger, more open space. Definitely not something you'd want to do every week.

[Kerrin]

I only draw out a room/area if precise movement tracking is required (e.g. combat or such). I just draw an arrow from one spot's exit to the next's entrance as the party goes along so they're hooked up by the lines/arrows.

I've never felt the need to draw out every hallway and such, so the rest of it's verbal descriptions.

Since I lay on the table a poster sized flip chart with 1-inch rules on them like can be found at most office supply stores, I can usually fit several decent sized rooms on a page.

[LansXero]

You could make the rooms out of cardboard tiles and add them up as they move along, sort of expanding the room; however you are bound to run out of space rather soon. What we do is the players keep a "minimap" on whatever way they so choose, and if they need more detail for X reason we "zoom in" and draw the room and surroundings on an erasable mat.

[jiriku]

We use a gridded magnetic white board, such as you can get in any major office supply store (or at a garage sale if you're lucky, which is where I found mine). You can draw (or nominate an artistic player to draw) on the board with dry-erase markers, then erase with a tissue or scrap of cloth. The same office stores that sell the boards also sell little magnets for use on them, and you can tape little labels onto the paper for use players to use as markers for their characters. The magnets even conveniently come in different sizes, for differently sized monsters.

[zanetheinsane]

We use a gridded magnetic white board, such as you can get in any major office supply store (or at a garage sale if you're lucky, which is where I found mine). You can draw (or nominate an artistic player to draw) on the board with dry-erase markers, then erase with a tissue or scrap of cloth. The same office stores that sell the boards also sell little magnets for use on them, and you can tape little labels onto the paper for use players to use as markers for their characters. The magnets even conveniently come in different sizes, for differently sized monsters.

If you don't mind spending a little money, Dark Platypus makes a battle map called the Magna-Map. It's magnetically receptive but not magnetic itself, and the coating on it is almost impossible to ruin. That means you can draw on it with wet-erase markers that would normally destroy most dry-erase boards.

I've used this feature to draw an "overworld" map ahead of a game session and leave it on there for a couple weeks. We would set the "overworld" map on a different table that we could use to track the party's movements while they were in a certain area. Even after weeks, it erased perfectly the first time and didn't leave a single mark on it. One of our older battle grids is a dry-erase style but still has faded color marks from supposedly dry-erase markers.

This would also work really well for some dungeon crawls. You could draw the dungeon ahead of time without fear of ruining your battlemap and then place pieces of paper or cardboard (one-sided wotc dungeon tiles turned upside down work well for this) on top of the rooms and areas. Simply remove one of the pieces for each room or area reveal.

Not trying to shill for DP's map or anything, but I really do love it (so much I bought a second one :smallbiggrin: ) Use it with our alea tools magnetic markers for pretty much everything.

[Keegan__D]

Drawing out a map on grid paper in prep time, then translating pieces of it onto the dry-erase board is the method all of my groups use. For PCs having maps, we either get a sketch pad and free-hand it (generally done for wilder settings), or we use another sheet of grid paper and replicate, taking turns copying things down while it's not our turn.

Since you're a PC as well, your character could take the roll of map-maker and just trace the grid paper version onto another piece of grid paper as you discover things.
Post-its as battle fog is also a neat idea.

[DigoDragon]

Grid Paper works for my group with "on the fly" dungeon mapping.

Alternatively, you can cut out specific sizes with the grid paper and glue them to something stiff like posterboard. Now you have a cheap way to make minimaps at the table for the dungeon (assuming you use a table).

[panaikhan]

For one adventure, our DM did one dungeon crawl in "bullet time". Everything was sorted out on a round-by-round fashion, even movement.

For that crawl, he had corridors and rooms laid out on pieces of cardboard, and simply put the next piece in when someone could see it, and removed pieces when people couldn't.
The tank player's job was keeping the map, as the DM never drew anything and the only stuff on the table was literally 100'-150' diameter around the party.

[Person_Man]

You may wish to invest in Castle Ravenloft (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/59946/dungeons-dragons-castle-ravenloft-board-game) and/or Claustrophobia (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/498683/claustrophobia-review-or-how-to-get-a-game-with-pa) and/or Heroscape (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11170/heroscape-master-set-rise-of-the-valkyrie) (for outdoor hex based combat) or any similar board game. They generally come with large number of interchangeable, interlocking tiles printed on heavy card stock or plastic. You can often find them for cheap if you're willing to buy them used and/or find an older game that's no longer popular. As an added bonus, they generally come with color miniatures and dice, and they give you another game to play.

[house.au]

I'm running a short one-shot campaign so I put together something a little special.

The room we play in has a roof-mounted projector (pointing at a wall unfortunately, not down onto a table) and so I hook my laptop up to that, running with a dual monitor setup (one screen just for me to see and I move windows over onto the "second monitor" to bring stuff onto the projector so the players can see).

I created my dungeon in GIMP as a layered image, there's the floor plan, a separate layer for furnishings etc, another for DM-only comments, another that has the room numbers (for referencing notes I've made about descriptions/encounters etc) and another which works as the "Fog Of War" which sits over the top of everything.

Whenever they move forward I simply move the window back onto the laptop screen, erase the appropriate section of the opaque "Fog Of War" layer and then after checking I haven't accidentally made anything I shouldn't have visible move it back to the projector.

Yes, it's been somewhat labor-intensive, but it was worth it when they hit the dungeon and I flicked the projector on :smallbiggrin:

It also means I can bring up images (eg: Monsters from the SRD, a MC Escher painting etc) if I have something prepared to give them a visual cue.

[Kerrin]

For PCs having maps, we either get a sketch pad and free-hand it (generally done for wilder settings), or we use another sheet of grid paper and replicate, taking turns copying things down while it's not our turn.
Years ago I gave up making the players have to keep meticulous maps of their own. For D&D 3.5 I've already drawn the map for them as-we-go.

Back in college when I played AD&D I'd draw out each room on a sheet using a computer and print them out ahead of time. Then when playing and the characters entered a room/area I'd just put the sheet of paper on the table. Since AD&D didn't have a battle map and grid-based movement, it was easy enough to just have each player put a die on the sheet of paper to represent approximately where their character was located.

Sometime I'm going to have to give the old AD&D way a try with a 3.5 game and see how it goes. Has anyone done that? If so, how'd it work out not having a movement grid?

[Draz74]

I'm running a short one-shot campaign so I put together something a little special.

The room we play in has a roof-mounted projector (pointing at a wall unfortunately, not down onto a table) and so I hook my laptop up to that, running with a dual monitor setup (one screen just for me to see and I move windows over onto the "second monitor" to bring stuff onto the projector so the players can see).

I created my dungeon in GIMP as a layered image, there's the floor plan, a separate layer for furnishings etc, another for DM-only comments, another that has the room numbers (for referencing notes I've made about descriptions/encounters etc) and another which works as the "Fog Of War" which sits over the top of everything.

Whenever they move forward I simply move the window back onto the laptop screen, erase the appropriate section of the opaque "Fog Of War" layer and then after checking I haven't accidentally made anything I shouldn't have visible move it back to the projector.

Yes, it's been somewhat labor-intensive, but it was worth it when they hit the dungeon and I flicked the projector on :smallbiggrin:

It also means I can bring up images (eg: Monsters from the SRD, a MC Escher painting etc) if I have something prepared to give them a visual cue.

Sounds like you, especially, should be checking out (http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/) MapTool (http://rptools.net/)!

(And a virtual tabletop could be a good option for the OP, too.)

[Malachei]

I've color-printed maps to mini-scale. There's a free software called PosteRazor (http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/) (I'm sure there are many others) that cuts a big map into a PDF with several pages you can print out at home. I cut them and glue them together, which takes about five to ten minutes for a large map.

I'm using MapTool for play-by-post, sometimes GIMP or Excel, but for a classic session, my players and I still prefer the old-school feel of moving miniatures on a physical map surface.