RPG a Day 2021 #2 Maps

 

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

I’ll be honest I’ve thought about this one for a bit. I almost did one of the alternate ideas but decided to go ahead with Maps anyway. There isn’t a specific map that I can think of as a great example. Because of this I’ve decided to talk about how I do my own maps.

There’s a lot of map making software out there and I will on occasion use it to get me what I need especially if I need to share the maps with my players. But if I have my choice I prefer to work with a packet of graph paper and a pencil. I really enjoy the tactile feeling of drawing the map myself. I like having to get out a ruler to keep the lines straight and tidy. It’s a similar feeling to painting miniatures for me. I want the hands on approach. It’s restful.

It does limit my handouts as I’m not as great a map maker as I’d like to be and for towns and such I’ll tend to modify maps from other campaigns and settings; if possible. One example of this is playing Tales from the Loop which encourages you to set the adventure in your own home town. We used a Google map of our area and I took a separate copy and made notes on it for myself. I added in things the group wouldn’t be aware of, like government facilities, and where the mystery was leading them that adventure. I tried to keep things color coded for that setting so I could easily remember at a glance where the location was used.

I’m also currently creating a modern day D&D setting where I’ll be setting it in and around my area. I’ve already set up a couple of maps using Google to figure out where some things are and what’s in certain locations. I’ve also pulled up things like the local mall map to figure out how to modify it for my purposes since that’ll be their first dungeon. It’s also fun, since they’ll be able to pull up the malls layout on their phones. Their characters will have phones so they’ll have access to these as well. Though I’m not sure if I’ll point it out to them or let them figure it on their own.

That’s Maps. I’ll see you tomorrow for Tactics.