Making Maps

To an extent I agree that while the maps I see on the Dundjinni forums and other other places look really great, there is often just too much "content". Too many little gegaws and such placed in the rooms of dungeons such that I end up having to account for everything when using it in a gaming session. Now sometimes it is a good thing as I'll see a map and the contents, the objects on the map, kind of write the story for the place. Of course if you use it in a session and the players start moving stuff around it becomes problematic.

Player: I pick up the chair and use it to bar the door.
GM: Sorry the dwarf ate the chair earlier.
Player: But I can still see it!

On the other foot, a map that really comes across as place that people used and lived in really helps with the immersion. Up until the immovable table breaks it anyway. :)

Of course what you are really wanting is an Open Map Format standard for gaming maps. Kind of an image format with layers but also sub-images that are located on those layers. A program like Dundjinni could easily export such a thing and then programs like MapTool could bring it in where the GM could turn off/on layers. Move objects around. Add/remove objects

Doesn't Flash kind of have that ability already just not normally used for 3K x 3K bitmapped battle maps?

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Visit Dark Isle for photos of castles, burial cairns and other ancient sites in the British Isles.

While I'm not confident that such a standard could be developed and adhered to, it's a nice idea.

I think it's just a matter of awareness of what GMs are really wanting. I know some mapmakers are, or have been GMs, but until you use a map as a complex gaming tool, you're not really seeing the problem.

Of course we're mainly talking about dungeon or encounter maps. City and overland maps might be a different story. I sure wouldn't want to place every building, tree, etc on a city or overland map just to play a game. There's a reasonable limit, I think.

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RPGMapShare.com admin

Hard Structure like Doors and Windows need to be mapped out

I don't place the secret doors, passages, and rooms onto the map unless they are discovered.

I also always save a player's version and a Dm's Version of the Map and can post both if needed be.

I agree about using minimal art to map with mainly because I just switched to Wireless High speed after being on Dial up forever. I skipped alot of art and Maps because of Download speeds. Plus the fact I can't afford to printout highly detailed maps and If I do it takes forever to do it. Digital folks playing with Fantasygroups and Battlegrounds don't have to worry about that.

John Paul Stoddard
Wichita Falls Texas
Playing Dungeons and Dragons Since 1978

Doors are movable and destructible, however. Some GM's might wish to realistically portray an open or closed door, or a door that's been battered down.

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RPGMapShare.com admin

Yeah, it is easy to want to place doors all over the map but my players strategically leave them opened and closed to directs or fool others wandering through the map.. As a GM, I need to know what doors are opened and which are closed so I strongly suggest that we leave the doors off the map..

Now, that being said, I think it is good for a map provider to post an identical map with doors, traps, tricks and notes for the GM downloading it. That can make figuring out the map a lot easier. I think the hardest part of downloading maps is that we have no idea what it all means or what was going on in your minds eye when you created it. That is where a GM's map would come in handy.

So my vote is No Doors on players maps. Leave that to the programs to open and close.

Leaving doors off the map isn't really a big problem, IMHO. The GM is going to decide if there is a door to that particular room at all, anyway. Maybe it's just a corridor emptying into a room with no door?

A separate door overlay would be cool, but might be a pain to do.

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Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin

Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin

Good points, Varl. However, I think one goal here is to offer useful base maps for those who don't own any of the mapping applications, but can still use something like MapTool to use a base and add to it with the objects from here and other places as needed.

There is a limit, of course. Once you get down to it, ANYTHING on a map can be altered in the course of gaming, in any genre. Whether it's a high-level fireball spell that fries all the trees in a 100 foot radius, or a nuke that flattens a city. We can't really take everything into account, otherwise we have just a plain blank slate. 

Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin

I see what you mean, SR. Base maps, yeah. The kind of base maps I prefer are generic approaches to an adventure site, such as the trail leading up to the cave, the small ruin just outside the dungeon entrance, the abandoned/ruined house like the moathouse in Temple of Elemental Evil, the huge dead tree that has had its roots undermined and is an entrance to some underground place (and the region around it). Places like these are what anyone can use imo. 

Basically, any type of outdoor environment can have these jump off points from which to kickstart an adventure.  

[quote]I see what you mean, SR. Base maps, yeah. The kind of base maps I prefer are generic approaches to an adventure site, such as the trail leading up to the cave, the small ruin just outside the dungeon entrance, the abandoned/ruined house like the moathouse in Temple of Elemental Evil, the huge dead tree that has had its roots undermined and is an entrance to some underground place (and the region around it). Places like these are what anyone can use imo. Basically, any type of outdoor environment can have these jump off points from which to kickstart an adventure. [/quote] Exactly. Steel Rat RPGMapShare.com admin