Mapping out dungeons:

[Mooseman]

How does everyone do it? I mean, what stuff do you use to represent walls, and doors, and staircases and such?

[Saph]

I don't. I hate it. It's SO much work, especially when you have non-rectangular rooms. "Five feet to the south, ten feet to the east, then ten feet south-east, then another five feet south, then . . ."

I just do sketchmaps as a player, and as a DM I'll hand out a map when it's really important for the players to know the geography.

- Saph

[That Lanky Bugger]

I let the players map based on my descriptions alone, but I use words like "roughly" and "roundish" instead of giving exact details. The map's not important unless I say it is to them.

[clericwithnogod]

I usually find a pre-existing map. Between old modules that you can pick up for pennies on the dollar and free stuff around the net (like at the Dunjinni forums). you can find pretty near anything. Dunjinni isn't bad itself if you want to make things yourself.

[Mooseman]

But doesn't that make combat difficult? That's the main problem I'm running into with my group (I'm the DM). I've tried using maps just drawn from a predrawn model onto a sheet of paper that the player's pieces are on, but that makes everything so muddled.

[Saph]

Re: combat, the group I'm playing in now uses a battle mat with eraseable markers. When it's important to know the combat positions, the DM draws the room and we place our figures. Works well and it's much faster than having the players try and draw it on DM descriptions.

- Saph

[Arceliar]

You can still use a blank grid to combat on when you need to. Inside a dungeon crawl my group and I usually use a map, else just a blank grid to keep track of movement and stuff.

[Quietus]

I use a rough map based on what the DM describes, just to remember where I've been in the dungeon. However, we don't use a map grid when we play, so muddled maps aren't an issue.

[Mooseman]

a battle mat with eraseable markers.

That is a great idea. I'm going to try to find one of those now.

[Matthew]

If I ever get a bit of spare cash together, I might spend some on those Dungeon Tile things I keep seeing. Currently, and when such things become important, I use my own cardboard versions drawn on the back of cereal packets!

[Ghast_Eyeson]

Mapping becomes difficult in the evil campaign I play in. A demo-expert planting blast disks everywhere tends to cause a lot of damage. Maps have basically become non existant in these games, as it become a nighmare re-draw them in-game due to my destroying walls/ceilings/floors and the like

[JaronK]

Measurement works fine. 1"=5'. That way you can draw in eraseable markers freehand and still get exact distances when you need.

JaronK

[Twisted.Fate]

I work at EB Games, so I get to scam stuff that's getting field destroyed when its not saleable anymore. Best thing I ever snagged?

Everquest II Atlas. Map upon map upon map of cities, dungeons, coves, caves, crypts, towers...wonderful.

[Jarlax]

one option, laminate the battle mat you get in the back of the DMG. its not super transportable but once its laminated you can draw over is with no troubles and its a reasonably large space to work with.

when i plan my dungons i draw them down on a book of grid paper with wall length written down, so when i begin revealing the map on the battle grid i only have to count out the wall on the grid and draw it in.

[its_all_ogre]

the biggest problem i have is that fights tend to take up a huge area, especially as my players tend to want to kill anything that attacks them, not letting enemies flee.
and as i have 2 scouts and a monk i have a high movement group to play with, i cannot just keep area's small cause if players run in opposite directions i suddenly have a huge area to keep track on!

[clericwithnogod]

the biggest problem i have is that fights tend to take up a huge area, especially as my players tend to want to kill anything that attacks them, not letting enemies flee.
and as i have 2 scouts and a monk i have a high movement group to play with, i cannot just keep area's small cause if players run in opposite directions i suddenly have a huge area to keep track on!

Some of the Dunjinni posts contain modular passageways, such as sewers that you can lay down either in sequence or as a certain point when a chase turns into a combat or vice versa. A smaller overall map in combinition with a series of encounter scaled maps works pretty well (use little chits on the overall map and your minis or whatever on the modular passageways).

I've played D20 modern games where chase rules came up and you essentially stayed on the same map segmant with relative position changes noted rather than moving across the map, but I don't recall anyone using a specific chase rule kind of thing in 3.x DND games I've played in (there are a couple things in DMG2 about chases, but nothing special).

[Altair_the_Vexed]

That is a great idea. I'm going to try to find one of those now.

Paizo.com have a bunch. I like the Steel Sqwire battle mats, they let dry-wipe markers erase really well.

Of course, you can get by with using self-adhesive laminate on the back of an old Monoploy board, but it doesn't look as neat.

[Xerillum]

one option, laminate the battle mat you get in the back of the DMG.

also, my concern with that method is the invariable folding-up and it becoming a mess. I still use it!

[LotharBot]

I went to costco and bought a magnetic whiteboard with a 1" grid (not lines, just dots.) I removed the border and backing and glued just the whiteboard surface to my gaming table (an adjustable height folding table, also from Costco.) It works really, really well.

Whenever we enter a room, I sketch out the geometry on the table, including (sometimes) where there are large obstacles and such. My players move their miniatures around on the grid, and we all take notes in our own corners of the board. Initiative, spells in effect, barbarian's stats during rage, you name it, if it's relevant to combat it ends up written somewhere on the board.

The custom gaming table does not work so well if you're not playing D&D at your own house... but it works OK to just take a whiteboard or a gaming mat.