I mean the world map. Especially for sandbox style games or hex crawls.

I am more against showing the map for the players, when it's like typical dark ages/fantasy world or post apocalypse. These first level murder-hobos most likely have never seen a map of their local area. I like the idea of using a map as a prop. It should be a valuable item when they find it.

And when travelling somewhere new, I like the idea of getting lost. Even with the map. I would not want to screw my players too often with that, but always pointing the right "gps coordinates" is not very immersive in my opinion.

So when doing a hex crawl, is it actually meant that players have the map in front of them and they choose which direction to go next? It may be player friendly, but seems they are too much in control in such case. Also, I am not a fan of showing battle maps either, but this is a different story.

I would argue that a tactical map view also does nothing for immersion.

When the players can see the whole map. The whole composition of an area. It sort of ruins a significant part of atmosphere of mystery.

For my current campaign I am using two...count 'em...two maps.

One has some very well known geographical locations along with some of the larger cities. Scattered within these areas and most of the map is blank area to be filled in. I have a master map that is hexed and "more" filled in but decided not to completely fill out that map to leave room for future inspiration to discover or myself.

I agree giving the map to the players subverts some of the versimilitude of the typical fantasy character not knowing much more than lies beyond their village but they probably have heard of other places and have a general idea of their general direction if there is any trade at all in the world.

Also, there was a thread earlier about characters finding inspiration to adventure and sometimes letting know that there are fantastic places out there is a good motivator, especially in a hex crawl.

I find the "bandwidth issue" - players get too little info from the GM - is a much bigger problem than "un-immersive too much info", so I tend to always give out campaign maps.

Quote from: S'mon;954398I find the "bandwidth issue" - players get too little info from the GM - is a much bigger problem than "un-immersive too much info", so I tend to always give out campaign maps.

Exactly, I do however craft the map to present only common knowledge. Defined in this case geographical knowledge easily gathered during conversation.

Quote from: estar;954401Exactly, I do however craft the map to present only common knowledge. Defined in this case geographical knowledge easily gathered during conversation.

Yeah, whereas I generally use the same map for players and GM, I don't include secret info on the map.

I have the world/major region map in front of the players the whole time. Gives them context and shows them what's known and unknown, interesting features, etc.

In my experience, without having that frame of reference, players don't have a clue as to what to do/where they might go.

I hired an artist to create hexes for my game, to solve this very problem. Introduce the map in whichever pieces I want.

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Quote from: Ashakyre;954461I hired an artist to create hexes for my game, to solve this very problem. Introduce the map in whichever pieces I want.

That's a really great gaming accessory.

I show the players the parts of the map that they know or have heard of.  So that allways depends on the start location and how much everyone knows of it or not.  And its allways just baser features and known settlements. Everything else they have to mark off on their own.

One group had me DM via Cyberboard online so they only saw those hexes they knew and the rest was a big bank that got added to as they traveled or got maps of areas they hadnt yet visited. Which as a player is something I have my characters usualy do when chance arises. I hit up cartographers and especially ports to grab some maps and start doing comparisons to see what matches and what doesnt.

Sometimes the town marked on the map you bought is long gone by the time you actually get there. Or ones spring up in between two points in the time since the map was made.

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;954463That's a really great gaming accessory.

Thanks. People seem to like how it looks. I was almost ready to release it... but I wanted to to redo the "jungle" ones. Those would be the ones in the lower left corner with the beehives and anthills. Now I want it to have thicker foliage. (My fault. Not the artist's. I changed my mind.)

Quote from: Ashakyre;954468Thanks. People seem to like how it looks. I was almost ready to release it... but I wanted to to redo the "jungle" ones. Those would be the ones in the lower left corner with the beehives and anthills. Now I want it to have thicker foliage. (My fault. Not the artist's. I changed my mind.)

Well if you ever should market them. Color me interested.

Quote from: Ashakyre;954461I hired an artist to create hexes for my game, to solve this very problem. Introduce the map in whichever pieces I want.

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Yes, we Catan!

I like prop maps, preferably stained or on some old paper I have lying around.

I provide a general knowledge map.

Ancient people knew lots of stuff about their local area and they had no TV and no cellphones. Instead, they had booze and gossip.

The booze leads to tall tales, exaggerated stories, and slips of the tongue about secrets.

The gossip - which includes bard song, oral storytelling, grandma's recollections - allowed people to understand what was where in relation to them. Maybe the average commoner couldn't draw an modern satellite map, but he could damn sure tell you where the roads went, what was the next towns, how many days to interesting locale XYZ and much more.

I know it sounds crazy but humans used to talk to each other...for freaking hours....about all sorts of random shit.

My general knowledge map is a physical representation of what the PCs know or have heard or have experienced as travelers themselves.

Characters have access to in-character maps. This is never the same thing I have behind the GM's screen and it's frequently quite different, particularly in hexcrawl games (which are, structurally speaking, always about exploration and, therefore, rarely happening in places where detailed maps of the territory already exist).