Gelatinous Cubes will happily slurp up chalk.  It contains carbon.

So...slurping and rubbing one out. I guess Phil and Dixie were right about D&D!!

Gronan, how often were maps destroyed in the dungeon (aka, area attacks, mapper falling into acid pits, etc) and what did the DM do?

How did maps alert people to hidden teleporters? That sounds neat.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1031981How did maps alert people to hidden teleporters? That sounds neat.

Typically, folks were alerted when a current dungeon hallway intersected one previously mapped but there was no sign of the previous hallway. At that point the mapper either knew he screwed up, or that the DM was playing with them somehow. In my games, the party would often retrace their steps to check their map and hit a brick wall somewhere or a part of the dungeon that also didn't match their map. That was usually the giveaway, as the teleporter didn't work both ways.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1031981How did maps alert people to hidden teleporters? That sounds neat.

When you run into a situation that cannot be. Say, the corridors does three left turns and you think, 'okay, well this will intersect with itself' and it doesn't. You look at your map, clarify with the DM to make sure you didn't put in a left turn when he said right*, check for some shenanigans like subtly sloping corridors such that you're really looping over or under the previous corridor, and finally confirming, 'nope, this doesn't make sense. We can't be on one contiguous 2D plane, and the DM says it's not because we've visibly changed elevation.'
*or meant to say right. Genuine mapping errors, in-my-experience, tend to be about 50:50 DM and mapper's fault.

Then, once the players have mastered the hidden teleport detection, some GMs get really mean:  They design a set of dungeon corridors with multiple teleports such that the areas before and after the teleport are seemingly identical.  You can end up teleporting several times without realizing it, until you finally come across a section of the dungeon that doesn't work.  

I never did that, because it's too much like a logic puzzle, which I detest.  But I admire the nastiness of the effort from an evil GM perspective.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;1031994When you run into a situation that cannot be. Say, the corridors does three left turns and you think, 'okay, well this will intersect with itself' and it doesn't. You look at your map, clarify with the DM to make sure you didn't put in a left turn when he said right*, check for some shenanigans like subtly sloping corridors such that you're really looping over or under the previous corridor, and finally confirming, 'nope, this doesn't make sense. We can't be on one contiguous 2D plane, and the DM says it's not because we've visibly changed elevation.'
*or meant to say right. Genuine mapping errors, in-my-experience, tend to be about 50:50 DM and mapper's fault.

Don't forget the 20 or so random monster checks that all this takes!  

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1032006Then, once the players have mastered the hidden teleport detection, some GMs get really mean:  They design a set of dungeon corridors with multiple teleports such that the areas before and after the teleport are seemingly identical.  You can end up teleporting several times without realizing it, until you finally come across a section of the dungeon that doesn't work.  

I never did that, because it's too much like a logic puzzle, which I detest.  But I admire the nastiness of the effort from an evil GM perspective.

Or a long corridor with a one way teleporter, so that when you traverse the corridor in one direction it's 120 feet, but in the other direction it's 50 feet.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1032031Don't forget the 20 or so random monster checks that all this takes!  

Well sure. But that's a feature of any 'maze-like' effect in a dungeon. It's all time-sinks and time sinks are opportunities for [strike]mayhem[/strike]fun .

Quick question-Dwarves originally could detect subtly sloping corridors, but some video I saw (I think by that Stronghold and Streaming guy people were talking about) said that they could only find like 1-2 instances of secretly sloped corridors in a game module. Did Gary use those in-game to surreptitiously move people into a lower dungeon level or the like?

Sometimes.

One of the earliest DMing lessons I learned came from my junior high friend.  I'd read the books.  I knew the rules.  I drew up dungeon maps and world maps and wrote histories.  I knew how the game was supposed to be played.  His parents bought him everything, I mean, really, seriously everything.  He couldn't make sense of the rules, he killed my characters off two or three times a session while loading others with magic items, dragon steeds, and power points (unable to figure out the experience rules he handed out arbitrary power points and levels at his whim), and everybody loved his DMing and loathed mine.  The thing is that he knew what people wanted, he had mad, crazy ideas, he could narrate a scene like nobody's business, while I was trying to play the game as described in the books he was running the game people imagined when they looked at the art.  So, what's my point?  He was a shitty DM.  He thought a waterslide / shooting gallery where you had a crossbow and shot at the monsters as you went down it and got a score at the bottom was a good adventure.  At least a rail road has stops and places where you can get off.  But people loved him and hated me.

The secret to good DMing is to find out what the players want and give it to them, tease them to be sure, but give them what they enjoy.

If you've got someone who loves mapping that's great, do that.  If your players want cart chases screaming down a winding cliff side road or to establish communism in your precious fantasy world do that instead.  Don't try to force them to play what you think is a great game, let them play what they think is a great game.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1031981How did maps alert people to hidden teleporters? That sounds neat.

In my case it was when I noticed the map started intersecting places I had allready mapped and there was no explanation for it. I was totally new to all this and so pointed it out to be sure I hadnt goofed something and... uh oh. Worse yet. It was a one way teleporter so if we hadnt noticed it we would have eventually backtracked and gotten totally lost as the exit wasnt there anymore. I may even still have the map.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1032031Don't forget the 20 or so random monster checks that all this takes!  

There shouldnt be as we have paused to ask for clarification of the data weve been given.

Player "Hey did I map this right?"
DM "Roll for random encounter for asking a question."
Player "No gaming is better than bad gaming"

Quote from: Omega;1032060There shouldnt be as we have paused to ask for clarification of the data weve been given.

Player "Hey did I map this right?"
DM "Roll for random encounter for asking a question."
Player "No gaming is better than bad gaming"

Well, it could be for going back and checking and/or rolling marbles around trying to find slopes, but your point is well-taken.

Quote from: Omega;1032060There shouldnt be as we have paused to ask for clarification of the data weve been given.

Player "Hey did I map this right?"
DM "Roll for random encounter for asking a question."
Player "No gaming is better than bad gaming"

"Hey did I map this right?"
"How do you know?  Who are you asking in the dungeon?"
"Not gaming is better than bad gaming."
"I agree completely.  Don't let the doorknob hit you in the ass, I've got six people waiting for your chair."