Dungeon Maps in your game

[Ascension]

Yeah, that is pretty cool. Looks like a huge time killer but if it's worth it or if it's fun then it's all good.

[Nebulous]

I desperately want to buy some Dwarven Forge, but the cost is just too high for me to justify the use. Maybe one day. I typically use printed maps taped together.

Here's the one i did for Shadowfell Keep:




Here's one i put together recently for a big aboleth encounter:



One thing i've been using extensively recently, starting with Shadowfell, is mapping out an entire complex on huge posterboard for the players. It gives them an excellent sense of place, rather than having a little map scribbled on notebook paper.

[Gandwarf]

Hehe... time consuming indeed.
This is why I started playing Descent
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/100699

It's a boardgame version of D&D basically. Even D&D players love it, but it's not for everyone of course. There's several expansions and one called "The Road to Legend" bringing campaigns to the campaign (which could span 100+ hours).

[Nebulous]

Hehe... time consuming indeed.
This is why I started playing Descent
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/100699

It's a boardgame version of D&D basically. Even D&D players love it, but it's not for everyone of course. There's several expansions and one called "The Road to Legend" bringing campaigns to the campaign (which could span 100+ hours).

Indeed, i've played my fair share of Descent long before 4e rolled around.

Tiles look familiar? This is from the same campaign as the aboleth one above.



I liked Descent well enough (and the tiles and monsters are top notch, and i've plundered the tokens too) but the game itself was too slow. For our tastes, 4e does everything Descent did and does it better and faster. They both have some strong similarities though. If the Road to Legend or future expansions have cool tiles and monsters, i'll grab those too.

[Gandwarf]

I saw you were a Descent player as you used the Descent doors in earlier photos.
Descent base game was really slow and not a lot like D&D. The Road to Legend expansion is a lot better and dungeons can be played very quickly. The other two expansions have added a ton of monsters and cards. Be sure to check it out... it's really my favorite boardgame. I have even won over a few 4E players

[Nebulous]

Be sure to check it out... it's really my favorite boardgame. I have even won over a few 4E players

I might do that. Right now Arkham Horror and its gazillion expansions has my love as best board game ever, and it's hard to juggle so many good games with so little time.

[Rahva]

Arkham Horror hell yeah
Nebulous, when you have the huge paper maps for your players, like the Keep, and they haven't discovered an area yet, how do you cover it?

[Nebulous]

Arkham Horror hell yeah
Nebulous, when you have the huge paper maps for your players, like the Keep, and they haven't discovered an area yet, how do you cover it?

I keep large and small sheets of black construction paper around and just cover them up. Sometimes the full maps are in "chunks" and i just fit them together as they come across new areas. I'll say "Ok, guys, look away for a sec," i'll load the map on the table, cover the areas with black paper, and i'm done. Takes about 10 seconds. But it takes a bit of prep, having your maps handy, and knowing exactly what you want covered up.

[Redrobes]

As another VTT app author it would be silly of me to suggest anything other than using my app. I mean, I wrote it to do exactly what I wanted the way I would want an app to do it. If I GM then I make it with the app naturally but sometimes I get to play and then its really down to the GM too and what needs mapping. I usually still use my app but its a lot more approximate and rough as it has to be done live. If I GM I put the map on a big TV behind me and if I am playing then I use my laptop and show the players in our party huddle.

A long time ago we used to have this large sheet of chipboard veneered white (melomane plastic ?) and we drew a grid on it for 5ft squares and then sticky plastic coated that. Then use dry erase markers and miniatures on top. Whilst that is absolutely the quickest way to map, its rough and you lose it after its wiped whether thats for the next session or you just want to keep your old maps. Another issue is that you would like to draw the room from the corridor on the map glued to that corridor but with limited chipboard you have to erase the corridor and then put a new one on it at the edge and then put the room on. Using the live app mapping you at least keep the map for the future like this one below where we were in some Egyptian pyramid kind of tomb thing.

The GM used to call out 5ft north, 20ft east, east door, 10ft east, 20ft north etc but now he has to say something like 30x20ft room with 10x10 alcove on the east wall, door on north wall far east. Or something like that because you have to grab blocks of floor and patch the rooms together instead of specifying the outline.

In my app the map is not one large bitmap but is made up of lots of bits of map. Those bits can be simple sections or groupings of lots of tokens which might make up a whole room for example. So I dont use fog of war like most apps, you might put down a corridor with all the doors closed then when the party open one you get that room and put it down like a print template thing. So secret doors don't exist on the map even under any kind of fog of war till the players find it then you pop it down. I might use some black fog of war icons to mask bits of the template that they haven't seen yet tho.

On the chipboard we used real lead minis. On the PC we use top down tokens. People like the tactile nature of real minis but players used to continuously pick them up and move them when the GM was paying attention to somewhere else like "I'm heading over here" out of turn. So having GM control the tokens or specifically granting access to move them stops that nonsense. I write a dice app too but I still like my real dice even though they roll onto the floor and go under the bookcase... Oh and as a player I like real paper character sheets but as a GM I keep duplicate virtual ones which I update and reprint for them now and again (wipe that incoherent scrawl and doodles off them). I still like to play the pen and paper style game. I don't like the computer calculating all the damage, adjusting stuff for me etc. Might as well let a bunch of laptops play the game and go off and do something else.

Showing height has always been a problem in both real minis and VTT versions tho. Was hoping to see RPMillers post about the chap using polystyrene blocks under the projector - that sounds like an excellent strategy. We used to pop our mini on a D6 and put another D6 next to it with the height in 10's of feet on the die. Any more than 60 ft and your pretty stuffed if you fall.

Well thats a little RR insight and history from my ole times.

[Gandwarf]

I might do that. Right now Arkham Horror and its gazillion expansions has my love as best board game ever, and it's hard to juggle so many good games with so little time.

Yes, Arkham Horror is very cool as well. I own a lot of Fantasy Flight Games products. And I mean a *lot* I need a bigger house to store all my games.

I have been playing Battlestar Galactica lately and that game is pure evil fun. It's so funny to play a game where everyone seems to be working towards a common goal, but some are actually traitors.