Cartography is an art and a science, yet adventurers running through a daedalus of underground caves and passages while being pursued by evil creatures draw maps with extreme precision. I hate that. So I have developed a way to screw the players over when they’re trying to find their way out of a maze.
Never draw precise maps
Drawing maps that reflect the time characters spend on cartography is one of my favorite dungeon master tricks. Unless the players are taking the time to map their surroundings professionally - which could take hours if not days - I will not draw the maps professionally either.
- Wrong scale. I will not draw the exact dimensions of any large location. If it’s more than 30 feet long or wide it becomes harder to estimate the real size of a room or passage.
- Small drawing area. I perfected this technique unknowingly. I’ve often played D&D on a small table and a smaller drawing map. So I had to constantly erase what I just drew as the characters advanced in their dungeon crawl.
-
A quick reproduction of
what I call a graphic break
which higlights my lack of
graphic design skills.Graphic breaks. There’s probably a technical term for this. I draw part of a map and when I run out of room I add a break (see picture) and keep drawing on some other blank area of the map. That way I don’t have to erase the whole map all the time and whatever I’m drawing becomes a jumble of lines and breaks very quickly - hopefully confusing the players and getting them lost.
8 Comments
1:15 am on August 14th, 2007
The next session I run I’m so gonna ask the players if they have ranks in Craft (Cartography) and if not the map is going to look like a kender drew it. Negative reinforcement always seems to work that way lol.
1:28 am on August 14th, 2007
Who gets rank in Craft (cartography)?
5:38 am on August 14th, 2007
r u saying that u actuly let PC’s look at your maps??
i keep them 2 my self nd just tell them about how big it is… unless they go to the battle grid 4 an incounted but then u have 2 do it the rite size!!!
and how long do it take 2 make a good map?…spose it a fair while but it worth it nd half the fun!
i just think u r a lazy poor excuss 4 a DM :P
10:17 am on August 14th, 2007
Actually not only does he let us see the maps he show us where the secret passage are. True story!!!
11:15 am on August 14th, 2007
Now, now. That was 10 years ago. Let it go. Please. I only drew the secret passage once. I was tired. No need to mention it too often.
6:20 pm on April 9th, 2008
“i just think u r a lazy poor excuss 4 a DM ”
Says the guy who can’t take the time to type short words like “to”, “you” and “are”
11:16 pm on April 9th, 2008
Couldn’t have said it better. And might I add: lol.
:|
7:33 pm on July 21st, 2008
People like Stunibu really need to gtfo. Thanks for the article. All of them, in fact, as you seem to be the author of nearly every article I’ve read on this site.