The Unseen Servant forums

Apols for the ongoing delay here, gang. Been working long hours coming back to it this week and these fires in the North Bay have been more of a distraction than I anticipated. They are completely out of control and the air is actually becoming dangerous to breathe without a mask or respirator...

RL always comes first.

Glad your ride went well... JEALOUS! Steer clear of those infernos regardless of everything else.

Rxx

Figured this would come up here sooner or later. Again. I still don't have a scanner to upload maps & images but also know I've threatened to do so for awhile, and on more than a couple occasions. Something else with RL always comes up that demands those extra funds, right? Correspondingly, I've consistently had getting one move to the back burner...

I know I've been relying on you guys as players to do the mapping as you progressed. I've always strived to give as much detail as I can by way of footages, compass directions with rights & lefts, angles/shapes and such in my descriptors, so you could more easily draw & sketch things up as you progressed. That's the way I/we did it when I learned and began playing with my first group. No battlemat, no figures. Just a pencil, graph paper & dice. Pelor's Light, I loved it! We'd typically only had one player at the table mapping at a time (me, of course), but it was something I enjoyed doing and found I needed for visualization. Some of the older players never even looked at the maps when we played, other than to commend my work and attention to detail. I was amazed they could play so well without a map, let alone taking any kind of detailed game notes.

Initially, I felt I always needed a map. I can say I was new (coming back to the game from my teens decades later) and perhaps had too analytically-obsessive a mindset to think outside the lines and boxes on the graph paper, but not quite sure that's it, or all of it. When I questioned one of the elder guys about why the DM wouldn't give you the map to a dungeon till the party had cleared it, he said that's because it's not his job to do so, citing that if we were really our characters in that dungeon, we would have to commit to memory where we went and explored and be the ones responsible for knowing where we were going in relation to where we'd been. A fancy way of explaining "mapping" versus having a map provided, so as not to become easily turned around or lost, right? Perhaps...

But then time progressed and I began playing with another group. They were battlemat and figure heavy and couldn't play without them. They were the exact opposite of the original guys I'd started gaming with. Yeah, it was fun hanging out drinking, smoking and eating badly whilst rolling the bones with these guys but the game was different. It took on more of a one-dimensional feel. Of course, my obsession for detail eventually kicked in and I got used to it. This was my only chance to game on a regular basis and pbp gaming was not yet a prevalent or viable alternative...

Then one day someone forgot the figures and the DM misplaced or lent out the battlemat. Everyone stood around like deer in the headlights saying, "well, now we can't game..." I said, "Huh? Yeah we can. Use your imagination." Still got the dazed and confused visages. Then I said, "Okay, then use a piece of graph paper to map and a coin or token or some such to mark your PC's position in the marching order on the game table, or in relation to the others..." Well, with 6 players with multiple PCs and a score of NPCs vs many times just as big or a bigger group of baddies, things got confusing. I admit things like keeping track of who was where and accessible and where spells go off & who gets caught in their AOE was the biggest issues. That style of play almost demanded the use of figs and battlemats, or perhaps became the norm because of their use. Of course, it was really more like a board game at that rate, and with characters rolling individual initiatives, each round took between 30 minutes to an hour to resolve...


Above and beyond all that, here we are. My personal gaming history aside, I'm not going to argue that mapping is a more realistic correlation to how it was done in the "old school", nor that it proffers a much better proposed sense of realism in how a player's character would see & remember things. Fair to say that if I had a scanner that worked from the start? Yeah, I would've likely been posting maps and pictures/images this entire time. But I didn't and still don't.

So in the interest of addressing and confronting the issue, I wanted to discuss and get your thoughts. Has anyone been mapping here? Ever? Confusion about the geography PCs hds already covered/traversed seemed a potential clue it hasn't been happening, or been ongoing if undertaken previously.

Anyways, I'm once again trying to figure out how to get a scanner. One of the copier/printer/scanner combos is likely my best bet as I need a copier & printer for work. Never used the online map-making programs and am admittedly loath to have to try and spend more free time I don't have trying to learn how to use them and keep them updated for every single round...


Thoughts??

Not at all...

I tried keeping some maps of things, like the underwater caves Bog swam in. But I find mapping above ground to be much more difficult because of the lack of boundaries. Just something I've always struggled with.

Bottom line, though, if providing maps causes you this much consternation, Mitch, then don't do it. We'll blunder through it. Or we'll figure it out. No worries.

You can always just take a pic of it instead of using a scanner. It would work as well 95 percent of the time

Most of the time, the verbal descriptions are enough. However, lots of being in a confined space with the possibility of AoE magic, just thinking a map would be helpful.

You can always just take a pic of it instead of using a scanner. It would work as well 95 percent of the time

+1

As an artist who has consistently had to replace scanner/printers due to irresponsible children continually frying the tool of my trade (Or rather, my favorite hobby), cameras in this day and age are nearly as good as said scanners. A little tweaking with a visual program and I'm digi-painting again. Like Mitch, I'm a pencil and graph kind of guy, so any tweaking needs beyond cropping should be minor.

Alethan wrote:I tried keeping some maps of things, like the underwater caves Bog swam in. But I find mapping above ground to be much more difficult because of the lack of boundaries. Just something I've always struggled with.

Bottom line, though, if providing maps causes you this much consternation, Mitch, then don't do it. We'll blunder through it. Or we'll figure it out. No worries.

+1. I haven't been mapping, mostly due to lack of time/resources. But we can manage, maps or no.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate everyone's input. And understanding. Apologies for being combative and venting on you guys like that. Know I had a bad day at work but it's really other personal stuff going on that has me on edge. Embarrassingly and worriedly, sometimes over it...

Anyways, I'll try the picture thing and see how it works. Unfortunately, these maps are fully complete with everything, including colors, notes & things players aren't supposed to see. I have zero skill with any photoshop programs or how to edit pictures so thinking the best bet will be for me to just draw new ones and update them as you guys progress.

Anyone hear from Mitch? Hope he's ok, and hope everybody has a good Christmas.

Don't think I've seen anything from him since October on the Mod pages.

Regardless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Thanks Alethan. Happy Holidays.

tkrexx wrote:Anyone hear from Mitch? Hope he's ok, and hope everybody has a good Christmas.

I've pinged him... I'll post here if I hear anything.
--Ron--

Thanks, Ron.

I heard from Mitch. He had a crazy busy end of the year - we can all relate, especially as the end of the year is also beset by bunches of holidays.
So he's okay, but life has been too frantic for him to check in.
Happy holidays all!

W00t! Thanks Ron!

Thanks again, Ron.

Anytime guys. Have a great New Years!