What makes a good map good?

[Theo R Cwithin]

Thumbs down, it communicates nothing of what the space is used for, why the rooms are arranged as they are, or who might use it. Purely from the image it makes no sense at all, and it's impossible to infer anything about the place, it's full of repeated objects that seem to form a maze, that's it.

Lots of the One Page Dungeons seem to have lots of good ideas.
I like this one, by Will Doyle (One-Page Dungeon 2017: Temple of the Moon Priests)

I'm definitely a fan of a lot of what I've seen in OPDs, as far as useful perspectives and compressing a lot of info into a small space. I've found, though, that that information density often is what makes them hard to refer to at the table/on the fly.
I think the descriptions on this one are about the right level of helpful for me. The map layout is good for a little dungeon, too, with a few ins/outs, some obvious dimensionality, and a couple different routes to the macguffin. The presentation is clear enough and nice to look at, but I think it would definitely benefit from simplification; eg, a clear printable version.

 

[Lanefan]

For what it's worth I'm in all cases assuming the map is already in my hand in hard-copy form, because it came with the adventure or module or whatever I just purchased at the FLGS.

If I have to print it myself it's an absolute non-starter, at least until-unless I ever get a printer that doesn't gobble overpriced ink like this one does.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Dungeon layout, map flow, and old school game design

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Dungeon layout, map flow, and old school game design

I've only just started looking at it, but that's a great thread. Thanks for digging it up!

 

[Nytmare]

My pet peeves:

Building/dungeon layouts that just don't make any logical sense. Dead end corridor? Three otherwise empty rooms in a row, each with big scary monsters in them that have just been hanging out for a thousand years waiting for an adventurer to wander in? If things live in your dungeon, make their living there make sense. If you're designing a fortress, make the rooms have a purpose and have them be defendable. If the players are exploring an orphanage, there probably won't be a maze full of traps in it.

Try not to give away meta information from a bird's eye view. Fighting internally for a first person perspective of the adventure is already work enough, don't broadcast to me that there's a secret room by leaving a giant hole in the map where the secret room is obviously hiding.

Don't design a giant dungeon that just barely doesn't fit on a typical battle map. I mean seriously, the things are pretty standardized, don't make me erase the entire thing so that I can fit the last 3 rooms of the dungeon on there.

 

[Lanefan]

My pet peeves:

Building/dungeon layouts that just don't make any logical sense. Dead end corridor? Three otherwise empty rooms in a row, each with big scary monsters in them that have just been hanging out for a thousand years waiting for an adventurer to wander in? If things live in your dungeon, make their living there make sense. If you're designing a fortress, make the rooms have a purpose and have them be defendable. If the players are exploring an orphanage, there probably won't be a maze full of traps in it.

Agreed.

Try not to give away meta information from a bird's eye view. Fighting internally for a first person perspective of the adventure is already work enough, don't broadcast to me that there's a secret room by leaving a giant hole in the map where the secret room is obviously hiding.

Two things here.

1 - finding that big hole is a reward for careful mapping by the PCs/players. If they don't map, they don't get that info.

2 - failing that, it's easy to avoid by having numerous big holes, most of which are just solid rock...

Don't design a giant dungeon that just barely doesn't fit on a typical battle map. I mean seriously, the things are pretty standardized, don't make me erase the entire thing so that I can fit the last 3 rooms of the dungeon on there.

This goes against your point above re meta-info. If a wall's near the edge of the battlemap your players/PCs will have no reason to check it out once they realize your maps don't go beyond the edge.

Also, it's on the DM to always start drawing in the middle of the battlemap anyway, so the players/PCs don't get any meta-hint of where the explorable areas might be.

 

[LordEntrails]

I think the color is fine. It's subtle enough that if someone can't see it-- or prints it out in b/w-- the map is still useful. I would definitely need a symbol reference, though. I instantly recognized the "soft" bits as shadow, but I was interpreting them as pickets sticking up from the floor rather than curtains hanging down, heh! And still not sure about the fuzzy peach things: sleeping pallets, graves, or piles of sand?

Note to self: use a legend!

Actually, that is just part of my version of the Dungeon Level of Undermountain. So the poster size map of the whole level has a legend on it. This is just a part of that map done at battlemap scale.

So some of the things you see there are sleeping pallets, a broken table, and rubbish piles.

This map does depend upon a room description, or familiarity with some of the hundreds of other rooms detailed on the map.

 

[Nytmare]

Two things here.

Point 1 - I would prefer the design to have characters find something secret as an aspect of the game that isn't delivered via google maps. Investigation, rumors, clues, innate Dwarven suspicions.

Point 2 - You can design a dungeon to fit on a battlemap without it providing meta information that sullies players' experiences. Just like how they try to edit movies down to be under 120 minutes. Yes players can figure out that the dungeon won't go off the edge of the table, that doesn't mean you have to make that information important.

Furthermore, by your example, if exploration and starting the party in the middle of the map is what's important, there's still absolutely no reason why it can't be designed to not be 1 room larger than what can fit on the map.

 

[3catcircus]

Are those printable? A lot of the mapping programs I have seen are only for digital use.

Depends. If you have CC2, the Mappa Harnica templates are free to download. That give you all the macros, styles and templates. You can print any map in CC2/CC3. I normally do them in CC2/MH and then import into CC3.

 

[3catcircus]

I see no reason why a modern map can not be full color, be detailed, and be clear. Sure, it might depend upon a room description to add comprehension to somethings, but for the most part it stands alone while still being interesting and useful.

Take this map for an example;
View attachment 120753
It's not monochrome. It's clear where the walls are, which way the doors open and even what most of the 'stuff' is. The only thing that comes to me as needing a room description are the hanging curtains. But once you understand this map shows shadows it seems pretty clear.

Thoughts?

Compare that to this: