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MrZJunior
2022-02-03, 10:07 PM
I've been running my party through my first big dungeon. It's full of oddly shaped rooms, curvy corridors, and other interesting geography. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to keep a map of, as one of my players has discovered.

How can I make a dungeon easier for the party to map without turning it into a series of square corridors turning at right angles leading to rectangular rooms?

Algeh
2022-02-03, 11:44 PM
It's easier to map things if they have obvious structure and subunits. Everything being rectangles and right angles is certainly "easy mode" for that, but think about if you can at least give them part of that, maybe that corridors all are straight lines and 90 degree angles on a master grid even if the rooms themselves are weird, or that it's graphed on hexpaper or isometric dot paper and behaves similarly to a map full of squares but with that different underlying lattice. Even having all rooms and simple connections between them rather than spaces that are conceptually "hallways" with nothing interesting in them but lots of connections all along the same wall can make a difference.

Alternately, structure things in your DM style and adventure design so they can make a bubble map by not expecting them to creating a surveyor's map of the dungeon. They can put a bubble for each room/narratively interesting space and then lines connecting them to show the paths between them. If you let this be enough detail by doing things like letting the party say "We want to go back to 'The Room With The 17 Statues of Owlbears That Kind of Look Like They're Beatboxing'. The map says that from here we can get there from here by going down the hall from here to 'The Lumpy-Looking Room With 10 Different Colors of Paint (or Possibly Blood) on the Ceiling', then down the corridor to 'The Room That Was Full of Angry Geese', and from there to 'The Room With a Pipe Organ Made out of Something Squishy', which had the secret passage from the Beatboxing Owlbear room we want." rather than making them describe their exact set of turns as long as they can describe the connections and have those right, then it changes mapping to more of note-taking about interesting things you saw/did and the paths between them, which makes players more likely to listen to descriptions rather than pace off the width of corridors.

If you encourage that kind of non-literal map-making, you have to let go of the parts of dungeon design that reward finding that secret room because it's in the missing grid square, though.

Alternately, you can photocopy your DM map, remove notes/information from it, and hand players cut-up sections of it as they survey those areas if your group wants an accurate map but less hassle trying to draw one, and you want a dungeon design that's not conducive to quickly being mapped at the table.

DigoDragon
2022-02-04, 03:54 PM
Maybe invest in a protractor for unusual angled hallways? I find that angles of 30, 45, and 60 are relatively easy to map. That gives you some variety away from 90 degree corners.

Kol Korran
2022-02-05, 04:05 AM
I had a similar problem once. With dungeons that have more varied angles, or curved corridors or rooms (Such as an elliptical room). I found two solutions (The first is simpler, the second one builds upon the first and adds another element):

1. Dungeon parts Handouts: Basically, you take a copy of your dungeon map, and cut it up as chunks to present to your players as they explore. They got to the first room? You lay it down on the table. They opened the door to the western corridor? You put that part. They can either just look at those, or copy them on their own graph paper.
Some special nots on this:
# Obviously, it takes a bit more prep work. But not that much really.

# You need to make a dungeoun map without hints to hidden stuff (Such as secret doors, traps and such). This may be more problematic with published materials, though some actually do provide a sort of "blank player map" for simialr purposes. If you are drawing your own maps, I suggest to write one map for the players, and than a transparent hardened sheet with the DM notations on it. Then juat make a copy to cut for your dungeon parts.

# There are still some map parts which may be difficult, mainly maps who try to depict "natural/ animal burrows" and such, which may show small and frequently twisting tunnels, or caverns with a lot of very uneven and "wavy looking" walls.

# I do suggest the players alos have their own map, for tow main reasons:
- Using lots of map pieces all at once tends to get messy and they move a lot
- If you are using the dungeon also to hint at hidden locations ("There is a blank here, there there should be something, according to the space of the structure" and such), then it gives a better feeling of accomplishment if the party realizes this through their own mapping. If you are doing this, then present just one dungeon piece at a time (just for ease of mapping) and then remove it.

2. This method is mainly if you are using a grid for battles, and can help quicken battle preperation, and add some tactical decisions. It is an "add on" to the former method, or it can be used solely for battles. As part of your preparation, You take a transparent hardened sheet (I don't know the term for it in English, sorry), put it on the grid, and draw the rooms/ dungeon parts. Then you cut thos in a similar way to the dungeon parts in the previous method, only you use this for actual battle on the grid!

Instead of saying "You enter an elongated oval room, 80ft in length, 50 ft wide, with 8 supporting columns with 5 ft gaps, a 10 by 5 feet alter at the end, and rubble in...." and so on, and then drawing it on the grid, you simply put the transparent room on the grid, and say: You enter this room, those are columns, that's an alter, these here mark rubble, and as to your enemies..." and just put the minis. (Of course you can flourish the descriptions with great Flavor, but it still lessens the need to describe the mechanical parts) This helps keep the tension and excitment up, gets the party really excited and thinking, and also has some more subtle, yet powerful effects on the game:
# As the GM, working more on maps, and seeing those on the grid, makes you think and evalute more the tactical challenges, amd consider the environment and battlefield elements more (When most products and DMs usually focus on the monsters/ adverseries).

# As a GM, this makes it easier to set up more complex and rich encounter setting, since it lessens the load (and pace breaking) of drawing stuff on the grid.

# You can add dynamic effects! Such as a sudden oil spill from a trap, a purticullis the slams down adn seperate the room, a huge glowing ominous rune the fills the room, the spread of fire through a burning mansion, and more!

# For players, especially tactical and/ or visually stimulated players, this adds A LOT to their enjoyment.

# Also for players, especially those using area effects (Fireball? Stone spikes? Fog cloud? Cone of cold? Grease spell?) They can make their own transparent templates for their spells/ powers, to use in battle!

# It makes battles, especially more complex battles, flow much, much faster!

A few important notes:
# As mentioned in the previous section- this takes more prep work. At first it takes more, in order to get the hang of it, and see how it goes. But as you get used to it, it is actually quite managable.

# Also as written in the previous part- Make sure not to include hidden stuff (Such as traps and more) But you can have smaller cut-outs for such effects/ discoveries

# Depending on the size of your grid, you can actually have a whole dungeon/ major dungeon part, just be mapped on the grid itself! (Similar to tile sets, only simpler, cheapr, and custom made by you for your specific needs, and not limited by what the product provides) I've done that numerous times, and it has been most satisfying! (Once there was even a very large dungeon, with multiple opponents, but due to some party shenanigens, they ended up bringing all opposition towards them, while 2 of them tried to race against a specific villain towards another objective- Secret papers they wanted to retrieve, and the villain sought to destroy. Great session and battle!)

Ok, I may have gone a bit too long, but I hope it helps.

Incorrect
2022-02-08, 02:21 AM
Its a matter of mapping technique. The characters map should look like a flowchart, separated from the confines of reality. All hallways are straight lines, and all rooms are circles.
When the dungeon is finished, they can make a pretty, cinematic version if they want.

Kurt Kurageous
2022-02-10, 02:02 PM
Its a matter of mapping technique. The characters map should look like a flowchart, separated from the confines of reality. All hallways are straight lines, and all rooms are circles.
When the dungeon is finished, they can make a pretty, cinematic version if they want.

Ditto. You can go get a degree in drafting, or you can KISS. Lines/arcs connecting to rectangles/circles with dimensions is all you need and all they need. Anything more is DM "mapsturbation." If you enjoy it, great, but don't force your players to try and make a 1:1 recreation relying on your verbal descriptions. Unless the players also enjoy that sort of thing.

Imbalance
2022-02-11, 08:12 AM
As someone who holds a degree in drafting, I still support KISS from the player side of things. If the size and shape of the room are critically important, though, make a brief legend and still keep the shapes basic: L, 90'x50', 20'c; ○, 40', 10'c, G (stairs up); irr□, 60'x10', 10-30'c (slopes down) - describes an 'L' shaped great hall with a 20 foot high ceiling, the base of a round tower, and the rough dimensions of a natural cave tunnel, respectively. The quick shorthand makes it easier to jot down important details based on character perception rolls but still allows the DM to describe all the curves and non-linear passages.

In the case of someone insistent on doodling out the whole map on graph paper, at least give them the rough square area that the irregular shapes occupy: "it's a narrow 'S'-shaped tunnel that would fit within a 25'x25' square."
■□□□□
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There. Drafted.