There is usually one argument among my group when we start on a dungeon crawl. Who's doing the mapping?!

As time has gone on, we do it less and less - either trying to remember the layout of the dungeon or relying on the DM to let us find our way without the bind of getting lost.

So, do you still map?

If you have time, maybe you can explain what you think of mapping in general.

Do you keep track of time and provisions (especially torches)?

We don't do dungeons*, so no maps.

*=Well, not a long time ago we started playing D&D with the Rules Cyclopedia (and yeah, there was a dungeon), but one of the players didn't like the game, so we let it die.

I encourage my players to make maps, as well as write journals and the like. Most are too lazy, so they spend a lot of time lost.

My players indeed map.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;281722I encourage my players to make maps, as well as write journals and the like. Most are too lazy, so they spend a lot of time lost.

Ditto.

We don't do dungeons, so we don't map. If we are playing past historical, the GM (me) supplies maps and charts. Current and future gaming the payers can access orbital mapping anytime. So, though we use maps all the time, map is not used as a verb.

That may change as we start in with SH... I should think at least a schematic map would be needed!

-clash

Not into dungeons or mapping.

Quote from: flyingmice;281733That may change as we start in with SH... I should think at least a schematic map would be needed!

-clash

'Tis true! I have an actual play thread to post when i get the time to write it up - complete with shitty map.

As far as mapping dungeons goes, we sort of gave up on it a few years ago. The DM just tells us how many resources we get through and warns us when/if we are going to run out. This falls down a bit with big places, so instead of mapping, we roll an Int check or something similar to determine if we can find our way again.

Personally, I don't.  However I'm running an old-school style 1e 'Greyhawk classics' chatroom campaign with C&C rules, one of the players maps from my room descriptions and does an excellent job.

Mapping in the "traditional" gaming sense: no.

Mapping to get a feel of the layout of a place: yes.

With the advent of battlemats, Dungeon Tiles and the focus on encounters rather than exploration, mapping the dungeon is pretty redundant for our group.

Early on I adopted the "Lay the map out on the table" route. This means I make a map of the dungeon, with no labels, and lay it out for the players to look at and decide where to go.

Why?
1. I found it to be an immense pain to constantly be updating and correcting the mapper.

2. My players (across multiple groups) found it to be an immense pain to constantly be updating and correcting the map.

3. It added nothing to the campaign for us. I fully acknowledge others might get a sense of drama or puzzle solving but it does little to me.

4. I started with two gamers who could hold perfect representations of the maps in their heads and got spoiled by them.

In the end, I think it is a choice of the group but I have found it really does not take away from the coolness factor. My style evolved so that it was not what the dungeon mapped out to be so much as what was in the dungeon.

Ooh, split right down the middle.

No mapping for my last group, usually. We made a really nice map for one super-dungeon, but that aside, we usually just map on the erasable mat.

Seanchai