Dungeon Scrawler

In my last post I established my preference for Abstract Player Mapping. The summary is this: making players draw the map yields lots of fun benefits, and making sure the map they draw is abstract and minimal prevents player mapping from becoming so burdensome as to overwhelm its benefits.  Today I'm going to give you some tips on how to verbally deliver such a map with as few hitches as possible. Classes of detail The first idea I want to acknowledge is that certain details (and levels of precision) are suited to specific needs. As a game master, you should always be tuned into what your players want to accomplish, and by paying careful attention to what level of detail is needed for that purpose you will save time and attention in the long run. For our purposes, there are at least three classes of detail: Visceral.  The aesthetics of a space--what do the players see, hear, smell, etc? These details focus players on the world , and are therefore the most important for immer...

(Note: to my "usual audience", the next entry in the Dungeon Room Index has been slowly moving forward for months now. New baby is starting to settle into routines, so I hope to get back to completing the Index sooner than later, but who knows. I can't make promises right now. In the meantime, this piece has been mostly done for like 9 months, and a recent flash of oomph inspired me to cut it in half and publish the first part. Enjoy!) Welcome to a new Dungeon Room Index category: Opinions! Where my usual focus is to provide lego blocks and inspiration fuel, this is going to be more of an examination of some especially  subjective principles. I hope it will still be helpful. Introduction If you make dungeon crawling a serious part of your fantasy adventure games, then the question will inevitably arise "should I make my players draw the map? Or, should I give them one".  My opinion is this: you should make your players draw the map, and  you should push them t...