Over a year ago I wrote about my sandbox game. The current map is even bigger than it was back then (download PDF). I thought about the maps I make for my players when Stuart Robertson asked on Twitter:
@RobertsonGames: What are the best DIY props or game accessories you’ve made for an RPG? @kensanata: Maps. Perfectly balanced regarding time required, beauty, and utility at the table. @RobertsonGames: But the players usually don’t see the maps – unless it’s a battlemat. @kensanata: Oh, my maps are made to be written upon: essentially black and white line art with enough whitespace.
So, talking about maps as props. No battlemaps, no dungeon levels. Nothing that gets drawn at the table. I’m talking stuff I prepared ahead of time and bring to the table for my players.
Often these are regional maps – maps that make players say “let’s go *there*!” The following example I’ve used for a campaign start in 2006:
The *utility at the table* is what I care about the most. I don’t like maps that are perfect pieces of art. Players cannot make them their own. They can’t scribble on them. In this example, the players are living in Grezneck, a goblin city I took from *Rappan Athuk*:
Even if I invest more time on a map, I will always keep a lot of empty space on it for players to add more stuff. And they will. The example below is a map I gave my players as treasure in one of the first encounters of *Empire of the Ghouls*:
In this example, the players were playing through *The Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale* and I gave them a map of the area after the first session. Players didn’t add too much stuff, but I did. As time passed more features got added, resources were found, encounters were marked, lairs looted – I kept adding to the map.
In addition to that, maps can work as *treasure*, *providing background information* for the players that like this kind of thing, and maps can work as adventure hooks. In this example, one of my players is a shadow elf looking for her ancestral home. There’s something about lizard men, underground cities, the *Caves of Thracia* and so on. And she got the following as a reward from a local sage and archaeologist:
#Maps #RPG
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What about some of the awesome maps you drew as a player when we were playing Shackled City? I think those were pretty neat, too.
– Adrian 2010-03-17 12:25 UTC
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Thanks. 😄 Those aren’t props I prepared ahead of time, however. Those are just maps a player draws as they explore the dungeon. Maybe I should collect some of those for a blog post as well.
– Alex Schroeder 2010-03-17 13:33 UTC
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Definitely agree on that score. The old world map I use has “Tomb of the Lizard King” marked on it, eveybody always wants to go there for some reason. :D
– Matthew James Stanham 2010-03-18 16:09 UTC
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Who wouldn’t! 😄
– Alex Schroeder 2010-03-18 23:44 UTC
