Bog standard dungeon on left, Spiffy map with more information on the right.
It isn't real hard to see which one is more interesting and has more useful information on it does it?
The stop signs with #'s indicate lock difficulty (written in this example as a level for illustration purposes). Ceiling heights are shown in case anyone climbs, flies, levitates, or is just plain old big (there is an assumed default becasue ceiling height isn't noted everywhere). Things are spread out and given more interesting shapes, and some pillars are put in a room for eye-candy and illustration purposes. Room #4 was given a tilt to make it more interesting and the run of narrow corridor past the door connecting to room #3 creates a little more drama and sense (along with actual) distance. The intersection #1 is widen to give it some character and the tunnel leading to #1 from the west is also offset from the door to increase variety and to change sight-lines and firing arcs for dungeon explorers.
Just a little effort and a dungeon map can go from blah to interesting with increased utility.
Nice! Stop signs for lock difficulty is fairly intuitive. I should probably indicate ceiling height more often. I failed to do so recently and ended up with a description that was self contradictory.
ReplyDeleteIf there's room for it put it on the map. I put the monsters on the map sometimes as it really does help keep track of what is lurking nearby and may react to the PCs far better than does a # in a middle of a square (as i type I wonder why I don't do this more often).
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