Sorry for the book here, but I think I very much agree with you. I JUST started playing D&D along with a group of friends of which everyone is a newbie, including the DM. I don’t mean to bash my DM here, but when we reached our first town I wasn’t expecting him to slam down to entire town map with surrounding areas on the table. I’m not sure if I have the right expectations from D&D since I just started to play it, but I lived under the impression that almost the sole user interface to the game would be the voice of the DM. The first reason why I think that would be preferrable is what you mention in your video. The joy of exploration and seeing the world from the characters eyes. The assasins creed map analogy you made actually reseble one I came up with just last night. A well known fact among Zelda Breath of the Wild conneseours is that how well made the exploration is in that game. Instead of letting the map guide the player the game lets the player set goals by observations made in the world, using the map only as a secondary tool. I want my D&D adventure to be world driven (DM voice) instead of map driven. The second reason why I think no-maps is probably better is that it makes the world feel believable and real. In a voice-, world-, text-(whatever)driven game the edges of the world are fussy and the densities of interactables and interesting things are invisible. On a map things like these become obvious to the player and making the things in between, be it space, houses or NPCs seem like padding. Thirdly and not least importantly (but probably most pretentiously, as I’ve come to discover from browsing forums today) maps takes away from the imagination of the player. Books have this amazing feature of discribing things while letting the reader imagine it in their mind. In the D&D community I’ve now come to understand that this is referred to as the theatre of the mind. I actually played one D&D session a year ago with this group (before the pandemic hit). And the other day when we came back after a year I was astounded by the fact that I remembered the look, layout and feel of the places we’d experienced one year prior. But what I remembered wasn’t a grid or a map (because we hadn’t been shown one at that point). I remembered the environment I had preciously imagined in my head. I had really gotten a feel for those places. What I remember from exploring the town the other day with the map is a list of points of interest with their associated function. Nothing more. And that’s a shame. PS. I’m not angry with my DM, nor do I claim to know everything, I barely know anything, and he’s my friend. Also, I forgot to say, I’m talking about dungeon maps or maps of the environment. Not battlemaps.
I think that's what I'm mostly gonna do. Wonderdraft has a neat little feature where you can add obscuring cloud symbols on top of your maps. Make one detailed and the other explorable. Also theres nothing that tells you that your world maps need to be insanely detailed. You could just have the cities and major mountain ranges in the world map and with regional maps, you can zoom in for more detail, obscuring parts of the map with clouds to give players places to explore.
I do something similar to this but take it a step further. I create my GM map (all the detail), and then I make a new layer and draw a worse detail version. Make a few of those depending on the context. Like maybe someone has a personal hand drawn map, but the scale is bad or the detail isn't there. It hasn't really come up yet, but I also had a silent option where characters can draw their own maps. So if they take the time, have the skill and do the work, they can "make their own" decently effective maps. For context I draw the maps, but I just talk to the players about the kinds of details they are looking to record etc I'm also developing a personal technique where a lot of the content is random generated, like encounter generators etc I get some options, find one I think could fit or be interesting and tweak/rebuild something based on the ideas (building a world is hard when you want to build in the deeper lore and culture to homebrew lol). This tends to come out in two main flavours. If they are going to somewhere they've been before they get a slightly lower detail, fog of war version. So they might remember the basic lay out but not details, and wouldn't know something was changed unless they had seen or been informed. But if it's somewhere new and it isn't a major location I try to generate a new map based on something that makes the encounter make sense. Like a nearby pre-explored area might have a river that heads in the direction of the new map (maybe they decided to follow it), so I could include that detail. But if it forks or something I might decide to turn a little random encounter into an attempt to toll a road or something. Then I sew those pieces together to build out the world as the players explore it. Helps me not have to constantly get exhausted creating from nothing, and it gives me interesting ideas I wouldn't have thought of or suggest enemies or non combat encounters based on environmental factors. It's not all random generated content, I do have a few major locations at least head cannoned. But it's a fun way to fill in a forest or plain when you have a bunch of undefined area between places for story reasons. Works best with forests, mountains usually I think. TL;DR I have a basic map and idea of lay out of certain world details. But mostly use the players exploration and in the moment inspiration to drive the story and build the world.
You make some really good points here. One thing that I like to use maps for though is to give players a representation of what is known to their characters. They've lived in the world for decades, so they generally wouldn't be completely ignorant of the important (or rumored) places around them. Then, when adventure calls them out into the greater world, they have to leave this place of comfort.
I was directed to your Foundry VTT videos, and they were very useful to look up stuff and translate those techniques to do my own things. They were very helpful, but I didn't have notifications on for when you put out a new video. You were more a 'check when I needed it' kinda channel. This video has changed that. Abstract conversations and opinions are a joy to listen to with RPG's for me, and your delivery was spot on. If this is an example of the direction you plan to head in, you're getting that bell click.
I love the take on this, but one point, and a very game specific one. If you're playing at any kind of 'army management' or other types of management at that. Having information on geography is vital. In a recent game we were bumbling quite significantly and being constantly out maneuvered by a foe. Once the GM actually gave us a map of the general geography and terrain it immediately drove the players to create a plan to catch him. Reasoning out his location by his tactics, experience, and advantageous camp locations. Without that map, that session would have been an incredibly frustrating affair.
I agree, but at the same time, think there's space for a compromise that achieves the benefits you mention of a mapless adventure, without going out of your way to justify their absence, or even risk having your players feel like you're limiting their experience on purpose. After all, most players, specially new players, now, are very used to navigating through maps, many times even enjoy looking at them, not because it's an easy way to find adventure, but because they stimulate their imagination, aid in their immersion. So, what I think works well is having a map that's quite incomplete, even though it looks like it's complete. Then, as soon as possible, have players find locations in between journeys that were not marked on the map. Make sure you tell them the map did not have that there, and make that location a worthwhile place to visit. A single instance of it will be more than enough to convince them the entire map is filled with possibilities they can't foresee.
More!!!! I like the format. The thing I like the most is that it is unique content. I can go anywhere to have people read me the rules of a subclass and rank spell choices. Please keep it up!
there is a game called forbidden lands that relies heavily on the map. But the way they use it is to find something in the hex that you are by exploring. The map only gives you the type of terrain and a way to count the days and distance traveled, but the players fill the map with what they find (with stickers), giving a sense of exploration that i really like.
This video cured me of my inner pain and insecurity in regard of mapmaking XD I THANK YOU HONESTLY If any of my players ask me in the future "Where's the map" or "Can we get a map?" then i'll show them this video and say NO! with PROUD! Lucky me that i use a NICE-looking Hexcrawl-Editor, where i can atleast measure routes and distances out. XD
Couldn't agree more, much like like you I learned this 'backwards'. Giving players inaccurate/flawed maps (while you track their progress on the real one) is also fun.
Really enjoyed this. In my world the players are roughly familiar with the structure of the continents in their local region but will need to explore quite a bit to discover any details.
Great video dude I've been learning some foundry stuff from you recently & I've been thinking my games pace is slowed down too much because the party explores every inch of the map. I'll put what you said into practice. Keep them coming man, these deffo help!
Great video!! I sometimes have this issue even with battlemaps, where players become too obsessed with the literal map in front of them (often one made by someone else for somethign else) as opposed to interacting with what I'm actually describing. I think giving the glimpse of a map is a great idea, or maybe only letting one player read off of it at a time and then have to use their words to help the party navigate. I also think sometimes it's just good to tell the players "this map is not 100% accurate and does not enumerate every single location or encounter you'll have here. Rely on it at your peril" and make sure some of those "easy" oasis type locations have some unexpected dangers. Great content all in all!
You're becoming one of my fav dnd channels. Every video so far has been a gem and the way you used AC to make your point was well done! It makes me want to try an story based open world game without looking at the map
Playing an open-world game without the map would be incredible, but since these games are built around the map, it'd be really difficult to navigate. NPCs don't often give very good directions lol
Interesting idea, having a map really does drive the players in a certain direction. In your assassins creed example though I feel like the map enhanced your game. Say you were looking at a map in a palace and spotted the scar in the earth and then went to explore that area, that’s the map driving the game. The problem is when you can pop up a waypoint and go exactly to that location. When the map stops being a map and becomes a world interface
Thanks for the video! I had a whole world map for my last campaign, but the continuation of it that will be happening next year takes place in a long forgotten land. The players are going to have to go with only very crude maps with whatever notes they can take until they are able to find pieces of lost maps. One of the characters became a cartographer (it's been 7 years in-game since the last campaign) so I think I'll give him brief glances at the pieces of the map that they visit so he can more accurately draw them... if he rolls high enough of course ;)
Absolutely loved this, had the same moment of missed opportunity with my homebrew worlds map im just lucky that my players crave to explore some of the more dangerous and interesting spots on my world map.
Love this! My players will soon start hex crawling and I decided that they can buy some maps of the region, but they are not high quality and only present info that is known to that NPC and not a detailed world map
One massive advantage of not using maps is the GM can run the entire adventure off random tables. If they want to make a world, instead of making a map with specific locations on a map, they can make random tables with the types of events, surroundings encounters, they want the party to experience. Doing it this way means the creative work of world building won't be wasted and the GM is always prepared for anything. If the party goes somewhere unexpected the GM can still use the same encounter table. Something they've put on the random table can always be used. This same method is also great for solo role playing.
I came in with the mindset that this will be a hards sell, but I'm curious about your points. Upon ending the video, damn I better remove access to that World Map. Love the format and the video, your Foundry videos are succinct and this style elegantly and quickly delivered an insight into an otherwise unexplored topic.
As someone who love the exploration part of video games and prefer the adventure side or TRPGs, I think an approximate map with the points the players know about is an easy way to introduce and explain, but not a mandatory one. it's especially not needed on TRPGs where the players and DM can discuss and ask questions. Detailed maps should be kept for places the player have already explored/visited (and in TRPGs, it's up to the players to create such maps, but they can ask help from the GM for better accurracy as the character traveled, but not the actual player).
I loved the new style of video you're trying out! Please keep it up (alongside the Foundry VTT videos of course). How would you approach this topic running a module? I am currently preparing a "Descent into Avernus" campaign and I'm not sure if I should not give my players a map for Avernus. (You'll be jumping from location to location and I can imagine that the players without a map can lose the overview of the world quite easily.) Do you think it could be a good idea to reveal the already found places on the map (similar like the "Tomb of Annihilation Hexcrawl")?
I ran Descent into Avernus and the fact that the players had a map made for pretty boring A to B travel. Without a map you have more more leeway in describing what they come across on their journey. Want them to run into a volcano? You can do that. If the players have nothing to reference, the possibilities for what they can encounter on their journey becomes limitless. Revealing places they've already been is a good idea too. I'd say have a complete terra incognita where there is nothing that betrays the lay of the land that they haven't explored.
Great advice. You should definitely do more. Most of us RPG nerds are pretty opinionated so I’m sure you have a plethora of ideas and thoughts about ttrpgs.
i like your line of thinking, the only problem is that the players are playing characters that are living inside that world, and those characters should already have a general knowledge of known locations in the realms where they live, and a map that only details things like known settments, coastlines, mountain ridges, and biomes like woods, swamps, and deserts, is a good way for a dm/gm to quickly share with their players an overview of what they're character's should know of the world.
This is why I always leave out details on my blank maps. Npcs can point to locations, but that doesn't mean they are right. so many of my games have avoided exploration at the players' requests, but I hope that by keeping things very simple, and by making sure players aren't just pointed to the goal, it can still be fun. Edit: and by details, I mean basically anything except rivers and mountains. deserts are just blank, and not even volcanoes are marked. I've also partitioned my maps into groups, leaving anything the character wouldn't know about out of the maps. Maps have edges, but that doesn't mean the world does.
You may be overstating ability to spot unmarked points of interest on the map. I gave a region map to my players on session 2. 3 years later they either still did not spot or did not recognize as a interesting that one tree in the forest is 5x the size of all other trees on the map :) (Also I use fog of war, + partial map where players go out of bounds sometimes + players leave notes on the map in Foundry what was interesting on given hex)
Well, this depends greatly on what group you have. Some people prefer combat in theory of the mind, while others (my group) insist on minis - because they like having visual reference points. For some, they like looking at maps in order to get their bearings. Saying that it "is best without maps" will not fly then.
Good ideas, though I think there might be a little more depth and detail needed to deal with the alternatives to just using a map. Perhaps gathering ideas from the community and making a follow up video going through them would be a nice idea? Cheers for the vid, keep up the good work.
Absolutely agree. Of course, fantasy literature is full of maps and we all love them, but It's nice to see a critical take on map use in gameplay. Having a global sense of the world absolutely affects gameplay and also strains the suspension of disbelief that makes immersion possible - i.e. why should a fledgling adventurer in pseudo-antiquity know anything besides legends of realms far outside their homeland?
Easy, I have FoW on the map. I have a GM layer with all the PoI and a blank map of the player and their start zone. Map gets reveal as players pass through the zone or learn more about the area.
I love the vid! I’ll definitely be implementing this method of exploration in my upcoming campaign!! Btw, are you planning on ever uploading your Kobold campaign to the channel? I’d love to give it a listen!
But, sometimes, the players may be new to a place but they characters aren't. Giving the name of places and general descriptions is a good way to create interest for a player to visit.
I agree with all of your points, but I'm having trouble reconciling this approach with the origin of a campaign. If you have 4 or 5 party members that don't know each other before the campaign, how do you justify their ignorance of geography? It's easy to understand that a villager might only know the direction to the 3 closest towns that he visits twice a year to trade with, but for (insert random PC here) how did they get to the metaphorical tavern to start the campaign?
I wanna point you one moment. Printing Press is invented even before discovery of America. And most of DnD like setting has huge literacy amon common folk so it's clear that there is a printing press available for long years.
Sorry for the book here, but I think I very much agree with you. I JUST started playing D&D along with a group of friends of which everyone is a newbie, including the DM. I don’t mean to bash my DM here, but when we reached our first town I wasn’t expecting him to slam down to entire town map with surrounding areas on the table. I’m not sure if I have the right expectations from D&D since I just started to play it, but I lived under the impression that almost the sole user interface to the game would be the voice of the DM. The first reason why I think that would be preferrable is what you mention in your video. The joy of exploration and seeing the world from the characters eyes. The assasins creed map analogy you made actually reseble one I came up with just last night. A well known fact among Zelda Breath of the Wild conneseours is that how well made the exploration is in that game. Instead of letting the map guide the player the game lets the player set goals by observations made in the world, using the map only as a secondary tool. I want my D&D adventure to be world driven (DM voice) instead of map driven. The second reason why I think no-maps is probably better is that it makes the world feel believable and real. In a voice-, world-, text-(whatever)driven game the edges of the world are fussy and the densities of interactables and interesting things are invisible. On a map things like these become obvious to the player and making the things in between, be it space, houses or NPCs seem like padding.
Thirdly and not least importantly (but probably most pretentiously, as I’ve come to discover from browsing forums today) maps takes away from the imagination of the player. Books have this amazing feature of discribing things while letting the reader imagine it in their mind. In the D&D community I’ve now come to understand that this is referred to as the theatre of the mind. I actually played one D&D session a year ago with this group (before the pandemic hit). And the other day when we came back after a year I was astounded by the fact that I remembered the look, layout and feel of the places we’d experienced one year prior. But what I remembered wasn’t a grid or a map (because we hadn’t been shown one at that point). I remembered the environment I had preciously imagined in my head. I had really gotten a feel for those places. What I remember from exploring the town the other day with the map is a list of points of interest with their associated function. Nothing more. And that’s a shame.
PS. I’m not angry with my DM, nor do I claim to know everything, I barely know anything, and he’s my friend. Also, I forgot to say, I’m talking about dungeon maps or maps of the environment. Not battlemaps.
I was having this same dilemma. I went with a hybrid, where the Maps have a fog of war. There is a "party" token and when they travel it reveals.
I think that's what I'm mostly gonna do. Wonderdraft has a neat little feature where you can add obscuring cloud symbols on top of your maps. Make one detailed and the other explorable. Also theres nothing that tells you that your world maps need to be insanely detailed. You could just have the cities and major mountain ranges in the world map and with regional maps, you can zoom in for more detail, obscuring parts of the map with clouds to give players places to explore.
I do something similar to this but take it a step further. I create my GM map (all the detail), and then I make a new layer and draw a worse detail version. Make a few of those depending on the context.
Like maybe someone has a personal hand drawn map, but the scale is bad or the detail isn't there.
It hasn't really come up yet, but I also had a silent option where characters can draw their own maps. So if they take the time, have the skill and do the work, they can "make their own" decently effective maps. For context I draw the maps, but I just talk to the players about the kinds of details they are looking to record etc
I'm also developing a personal technique where a lot of the content is random generated, like encounter generators etc
I get some options, find one I think could fit or be interesting and tweak/rebuild something based on the ideas (building a world is hard when you want to build in the deeper lore and culture to homebrew lol).
This tends to come out in two main flavours.
If they are going to somewhere they've been before they get a slightly lower detail, fog of war version. So they might remember the basic lay out but not details, and wouldn't know something was changed unless they had seen or been informed.
But if it's somewhere new and it isn't a major location I try to generate a new map based on something that makes the encounter make sense.
Like a nearby pre-explored area might have a river that heads in the direction of the new map (maybe they decided to follow it), so I could include that detail. But if it forks or something I might decide to turn a little random encounter into an attempt to toll a road or something. Then I sew those pieces together to build out the world as the players explore it. Helps me not have to constantly get exhausted creating from nothing, and it gives me interesting ideas I wouldn't have thought of or suggest enemies or non combat encounters based on environmental factors.
It's not all random generated content, I do have a few major locations at least head cannoned. But it's a fun way to fill in a forest or plain when you have a bunch of undefined area between places for story reasons. Works best with forests, mountains usually I think.
TL;DR I have a basic map and idea of lay out of certain world details. But mostly use the players exploration and in the moment inspiration to drive the story and build the world.
You make some really good points here. One thing that I like to use maps for though is to give players a representation of what is known to their characters. They've lived in the world for decades, so they generally wouldn't be completely ignorant of the important (or rumored) places around them. Then, when adventure calls them out into the greater world, they have to leave this place of comfort.
I was directed to your Foundry VTT videos, and they were very useful to look up stuff and translate those techniques to do my own things. They were very helpful, but I didn't have notifications on for when you put out a new video. You were more a 'check when I needed it' kinda channel.
This video has changed that. Abstract conversations and opinions are a joy to listen to with RPG's for me, and your delivery was spot on. If this is an example of the direction you plan to head in, you're getting that bell click.
I love the take on this, but one point, and a very game specific one. If you're playing at any kind of 'army management' or other types of management at that. Having information on geography is vital.
In a recent game we were bumbling quite significantly and being constantly out maneuvered by a foe. Once the GM actually gave us a map of the general geography and terrain it immediately drove the players to create a plan to catch him. Reasoning out his location by his tactics, experience, and advantageous camp locations. Without that map, that session would have been an incredibly frustrating affair.
I agree, but at the same time, think there's space for a compromise that achieves the benefits you mention of a mapless adventure, without going out of your way to justify their absence, or even risk having your players feel like you're limiting their experience on purpose. After all, most players, specially new players, now, are very used to navigating through maps, many times even enjoy looking at them, not because it's an easy way to find adventure, but because they stimulate their imagination, aid in their immersion.
So, what I think works well is having a map that's quite incomplete, even though it looks like it's complete. Then, as soon as possible, have players find locations in between journeys that were not marked on the map. Make sure you tell them the map did not have that there, and make that location a worthwhile place to visit. A single instance of it will be more than enough to convince them the entire map is filled with possibilities they can't foresee.
More!!!! I like the format. The thing I like the most is that it is unique content. I can go anywhere to have people read me the rules of a subclass and rank spell choices. Please keep it up!
there is a game called forbidden lands that relies heavily on the map. But the way they use it is to find something in the hex that you are by exploring. The map only gives you the type of terrain and a way to count the days and distance traveled, but the players fill the map with what they find (with stickers), giving a sense of exploration that i really like.
This video cured me of my inner pain and insecurity in regard of mapmaking XD I THANK YOU HONESTLY
If any of my players ask me in the future "Where's the map" or "Can we get a map?" then i'll show them this video and say NO! with PROUD!
Lucky me that i use a NICE-looking Hexcrawl-Editor, where i can atleast measure routes and distances out. XD
That was a really great format. And I agree with you, for fantasy role-playing games, not showing a map works really well.
Love this style of content delving into the philosophy of adventuring/dming
woah, awesome content. I was always looking for every type of map or battle map in my preparations and forggeting the basics of being a storyteller...
Couldn't agree more, much like like you I learned this 'backwards'. Giving players inaccurate/flawed maps (while you track their progress on the real one) is also fun.
Really enjoyed this. In my world the players are roughly familiar with the structure of the continents in their local region but will need to explore quite a bit to discover any details.
Great content! Playing Forbidden Lands, I realized the value of having a hidden map, the players have too much fun exploring it.
🥳🫂👍🏿
What a great take on maps - haven’t seen many people bring up this point
I plan to utilize your advice in my upcoming sessions. Thank you!
Great video dude I've been learning some foundry stuff from you recently & I've been thinking my games pace is slowed down too much because the party explores every inch of the map. I'll put what you said into practice. Keep them coming man, these deffo help!
Great video!! I sometimes have this issue even with battlemaps, where players become too obsessed with the literal map in front of them (often one made by someone else for somethign else) as opposed to interacting with what I'm actually describing. I think giving the glimpse of a map is a great idea, or maybe only letting one player read off of it at a time and then have to use their words to help the party navigate. I also think sometimes it's just good to tell the players "this map is not 100% accurate and does not enumerate every single location or encounter you'll have here. Rely on it at your peril" and make sure some of those "easy" oasis type locations have some unexpected dangers.
Great content all in all!
Amazing video, you bring up some excellent points
Great content, keep up the good work! Love your foundry videos too!
You're becoming one of my fav dnd channels. Every video so far has been a gem and the way you used AC to make your point was well done! It makes me want to try an story based open world game without looking at the map
Playing an open-world game without the map would be incredible, but since these games are built around the map, it'd be really difficult to navigate. NPCs don't often give very good directions lol
I like it. Food for thought and I'll take it on board 👍🏻
Interesting idea, having a map really does drive the players in a certain direction.
In your assassins creed example though I feel like the map enhanced your game. Say you were looking at a map in a palace and spotted the scar in the earth and then went to explore that area, that’s the map driving the game. The problem is when you can pop up a waypoint and go exactly to that location. When the map stops being a map and becomes a world interface
Thanks for the video! I had a whole world map for my last campaign, but the continuation of it that will be happening next year takes place in a long forgotten land. The players are going to have to go with only very crude maps with whatever notes they can take until they are able to find pieces of lost maps. One of the characters became a cartographer (it's been 7 years in-game since the last campaign) so I think I'll give him brief glances at the pieces of the map that they visit so he can more accurately draw them... if he rolls high enough of course ;)
Absolutely loved this, had the same moment of missed opportunity with my homebrew worlds map im just lucky that my players crave to explore some of the more dangerous and interesting spots on my world map.
Love this! My players will soon start hex crawling and I decided that they can buy some maps of the region, but they are not high quality and only present info that is known to that NPC and not a detailed world map
One massive advantage of not using maps is the GM can run the entire adventure off random tables. If they want to make a world, instead of making a map with specific locations on a map, they can make random tables with the types of events, surroundings encounters, they want the party to experience.
Doing it this way means the creative work of world building won't be wasted and the GM is always prepared for anything. If the party goes somewhere unexpected the GM can still use the same encounter table. Something they've put on the random table can always be used.
This same method is also great for solo role playing.
Those were some nice points, I think I will go for a fog-of-war map for my campaign
Well done, I like the new format.
I came in with the mindset that this will be a hards sell, but I'm curious about your points. Upon ending the video, damn I better remove access to that World Map.
Love the format and the video, your Foundry videos are succinct and this style elegantly and quickly delivered an insight into an otherwise unexplored topic.
Thank you, I really appreciate hearing that!
As someone who love the exploration part of video games and prefer the adventure side or TRPGs, I think an approximate map with the points the players know about is an easy way to introduce and explain, but not a mandatory one. it's especially not needed on TRPGs where the players and DM can discuss and ask questions. Detailed maps should be kept for places the player have already explored/visited (and in TRPGs, it's up to the players to create such maps, but they can ask help from the GM for better accurracy as the character traveled, but not the actual player).
I loved the new style of video you're trying out! Please keep it up (alongside the Foundry VTT videos of course). How would you approach this topic running a module? I am currently preparing a "Descent into Avernus" campaign and I'm not sure if I should not give my players a map for Avernus. (You'll be jumping from location to location and I can imagine that the players without a map can lose the overview of the world quite easily.) Do you think it could be a good idea to reveal the already found places on the map (similar like the "Tomb of Annihilation Hexcrawl")?
I ran Descent into Avernus and the fact that the players had a map made for pretty boring A to B travel. Without a map you have more more leeway in describing what they come across on their journey. Want them to run into a volcano? You can do that. If the players have nothing to reference, the possibilities for what they can encounter on their journey becomes limitless. Revealing places they've already been is a good idea too. I'd say have a complete terra incognita where there is nothing that betrays the lay of the land that they haven't explored.
Great advice. You should definitely do more. Most of us RPG nerds are pretty opinionated so I’m sure you have a plethora of ideas and thoughts about ttrpgs.
i like your line of thinking, the only problem is that the players are playing characters that are living inside that world, and those characters should already have a general knowledge of known locations in the realms where they live, and a map that only details things like known settments, coastlines, mountain ridges, and biomes like woods, swamps, and deserts, is a good way for a dm/gm to quickly share with their players an overview of what they're character's should know of the world.
This is why I always leave out details on my blank maps. Npcs can point to locations, but that doesn't mean they are right. so many of my games have avoided exploration at the players' requests, but I hope that by keeping things very simple, and by making sure players aren't just pointed to the goal, it can still be fun.
Edit: and by details, I mean basically anything except rivers and mountains. deserts are just blank, and not even volcanoes are marked.
I've also partitioned my maps into groups, leaving anything the character wouldn't know about out of the maps. Maps have edges, but that doesn't mean the world does.
You may be overstating ability to spot unmarked points of interest on the map. I gave a region map to my players on session 2. 3 years later they either still did not spot or did not recognize as a interesting that one tree in the forest is 5x the size of all other trees on the map :)
(Also I use fog of war, + partial map where players go out of bounds sometimes + players leave notes on the map in Foundry what was interesting on given hex)
Well, this depends greatly on what group you have.
Some people prefer combat in theory of the mind, while others (my group) insist on minis - because they like having visual reference points.
For some, they like looking at maps in order to get their bearings. Saying that it "is best without maps" will not fly then.
Fantastic video
Good ideas, though I think there might be a little more depth and detail needed to deal with the alternatives to just using a map. Perhaps gathering ideas from the community and making a follow up video going through them would be a nice idea? Cheers for the vid, keep up the good work.
Absolutely agree. Of course, fantasy literature is full of maps and we all love them, but It's nice to see a critical take on map use in gameplay. Having a global sense of the world absolutely affects gameplay and also strains the suspension of disbelief that makes immersion possible - i.e. why should a fledgling adventurer in pseudo-antiquity know anything besides legends of realms far outside their homeland?
Good stuff man.
Easy, I have FoW on the map. I have a GM layer with all the PoI and a blank map of the player and their start zone. Map gets reveal as players pass through the zone or learn more about the area.
super inspiring video. I now have to create really inaccurate bad maps for my players, for the next time the want to buy a map from a merchant :-D
I love the vid! I’ll definitely be implementing this method of exploration in my upcoming campaign!! Btw, are you planning on ever uploading your Kobold campaign to the channel? I’d love to give it a listen!
Unfortunately it's on a bit of a hiatus atm, but if we start back up I might!
But, sometimes, the players may be new to a place but they characters aren't. Giving the name of places and general descriptions is a good way to create interest for a player to visit.
I agree with all of your points, but I'm having trouble reconciling this approach with the origin of a campaign. If you have 4 or 5 party members that don't know each other before the campaign, how do you justify their ignorance of geography? It's easy to understand that a villager might only know the direction to the 3 closest towns that he visits twice a year to trade with, but for (insert random PC here) how did they get to the metaphorical tavern to start the campaign?
I wanna point you one moment. Printing Press is invented even before discovery of America. And most of DnD like setting has huge literacy amon common folk so it's clear that there is a printing press available for long years.
Your content is really good, +1 sub :)
I don't think the world should be unknown to the players. They are playing characters that have lived their whole lives in that world