Maps: The Known Dungeon of Montporte After 60 Sessions

Elementalist Monastery Level 1

Elementalist Monastery Sub-Level 1

Elementalist Monastery Level 2

Elementalist Monastery Level 3

Elementalist Monastery Level 4

The Deep Dark - 21 Miles Down Level A

The Deep Dark - 21 Miles Down Level B

The Deep Dark - 28 Miles Down (Goblin Way Station)

The Deep Dark - 42 Miles Down (Gnome Kingdom/Stone Giant Forest)

Messing With Dungeon Maps

I did the map below in AutoREALM. Not really happy with the way it came out...coloring, perspective, etc all somewhat off.

My goal is to create a single map of the discovered portion of the Montporte Dungeon, with just enough detail so that the players can maintain their bearings as we move from map to map. The map below only contains the three levels that the players have down in terms of location. They have explored a lot more, but thanks to a teleport, they do not know where they are in relationship to the area displayed on the map below. They are in a whole other area of the dungeon.

It feels a little too small and plain. But it is a start...and maybe some of the Montporte players will find it helpful.

Transit Dungeon Maps?

My wedding anniversary was this past Monday and one of the very cool gifts my wife to me (besides the green light to participate in game night on Monday*) was a book about mass transit maps, cleverly entitled Mass Transit Maps of the World.

New York City Subway Map

I have loved maps of all sorts since I was a child--I regularly created room-sized maps by taping together sheets of paper when staying with my grandparents (I was 6 or 7 years old...I didn't do it at home because of our dogs). I started working on a cartography specialization when I was an undergrad, but it required me to do a double major and I didn't complete all of the course work for the second major by time I graduated.

Istanbul Rail Transit Map

I am thinking that creating a transit map might be a groovy way to present the Montporte Dungeon, at least as it has been explored so far, to the players. As we are closing in on 50 sessions of play, it is hard to keep track of how the dungeon all fits together. I know the players seem to really struggle with this as they only see a small piece of the dungeon at any one time in Roll20.

Final Fantasy VII Transit Map

I am not sure how much work it would be to create a dungeon map as a transit map. I think the map creation would be the easier task. Figuring out the best way to graphically represent the dungeon and its connections might be brain-numbing.

Cardiac Transportation Routes

There is also the reality that a map that only represents to the players what has been explored so far becomes obsolete as soon as they begin mapping out new areas. The level of abstraction in a transit map might extend the useful life of the map, but at a certain point, the map would have to be modified or even completely recreated.

Sofia Public Transit Map

I am not sure how to represent the 3-D aspect of the dungeon. The Sofia Public Transit Map (above) gives enough of a 3-D perspective that it could be the basis for a good dungeon map. That would really challenge my rusty cartography skills.

Milky Way Transit Map

I might try to sketch out a rudimentary map and then see if I can create it on the computer (without investing too much time or any $$$ in software).

Springfield Transit Map

Doing Some Dungeon Mapping

I am mapping additional levels of the Montporte Dungeon, using AutoREALM, and I am doing some experimenting as I go. My goals are to: (1) Speed up the mapping process; (2) Make the maps a little more interesting; (3) Make the maps bigger so that I do not have to flip back and forth so often in Roll20.

I have been creating maps with a grid that is 60 x 60. With 5' squares, that creates a 300' x 300' map. That's the size of the maps used in Michael Curtis' (The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope) Stonehell. He uses 10' squares, but I wanted a scale that would support tactical virtual mini play on Roll20.

My current maps are functional, but each level of Montporte is big and so each 60 x 60 map (at 5' per square) only represents a small area. Players cannot zoom out in Roll20 and see the bigger picture. And for me creating maps of entire levels has involved the tedious tiling of smaller maps into a giant grid in MS Publisher and then saving it as a JPG file. I am sure there are other ways to do it, but I just testing to see what works.

My first attempt at a 180 x 180 maps (900' x 900') yielded this map (I am only showing a small portion so as to not give the Montporte players too much info):

Meh. It is blurry and the graphics using for the flooring in AutoREALM did not scale properly when I saved the map as a JPG. The rectangular rooms on the right are 30' x 60' rooms with brick floors. Those bricks are mighty big.

I messed around with the size and shape of the JPG file, which can be modified in AutoREALM when saving the file and I ended up with a much better looking map:

Much better. This will work, although I still need to test it Roll20 [Later edit: It works fine in Roll20].

My next questions are:

• Leave the grid out of the map and use the grid in Roll20 as needed?
• Set up these levels with the dynamic lighting feature in Roll20? I can always give the players updated maps (in the journal section of Roll20) of what their characters have mapped so far. I am not sure how much work this would be on my end or if it would make a really big megadungeon unplayable for the players. Thoughts anyone?

Montporte Dungeon Maps--After 25 Sessions

I posted the maps of the Montporte Dungeon after 15 Sessions back in September 2013. Here are the maps of the same dungeon after 25 sessions of play. I have kept the maps simple this time. I placed a purple "U" next to any unexplored door, corridor, room, or area. I placed a red "U" for the two ladders that lead down from Level 2 to an area still unexplored (maybe Level 3?).

Click on the maps to enlarge them. 1 square on the map equals 5 feet.

LEVEL 1

LEVEL 2

(1 square = 5 feet)

Montporte Dungeon Maps--After 15 Sessions

The brave adventurers are starting to get find their way around the Montporte Dungeon. There has been a significant amount of territory explored (compare maps below with the maps after session 5 and after session 10). Because they were teleported during Session 13, the maps below are still a bit disjointed and jumbled.

The Key
A = 25' ladder between Level 1 and Sub-Level 1
B = 25' ladder between Level 1 and Sub-Level 1
C = Unexplored Corridors and Spaces
D = Unopened/Unexplored Doors
E = Exit/Entrance to the Dungeon
F = 100' Deep Spiral Staircase Between Level 1 and Level 2
G = 100' Deep Staircase Between Level 1 and Level 2
H = 100' Deep Spiral Staircase Between Level 1 and Level 2
I = Teleport Pad from Level 2 to Level 1
S = Unexplored Stairs Down
T = Unexplored Stairs Up
U = Unexplored Ladder Down

Scale: 1 Square = 5 Feet
Click on a map to enlarge it.

Level 1 Maps

Level 1 (1 square = 5 feet)

Level 1-Exact Location Unknown

Level 1: Sub-Level

Level 2 Maps

Level 2 East

Level 2 West

Level 2-Exact Location Unknown

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: Jaquaying the Dungeon

A "Jaquayed" Keep

I was late to the game in discovering Justin Alexander's excellent blog, The Alexanderian, which means that I initially missed out on his series, Jaquaying the Dungeon, which was posted in 2010. Justin invents the word "Jaquaying" based on the game, dungeon, and adventure design principles of Jennell Jaquays (formerly Paul Jaquays).

Justin does a fantastic job of systematizing Jaquays' approach to designing highly interactive, dynamic, and complex gaming environments. These dynamic gaming environments, in turn, provide for interesting strategic and tactical options for players that stand up to repeated play. The essential design element is to provide multiple options and paths so that game play is non-linear (Melan offers similar conclusions in his analysis of some classic D&D modules in Dungeon Mapping, another Megadungeon Hall of Fame article).

Homebrew dungeon and adventure design often focus on (1) genre; (2) cool, unique atmospheric elements; or (3) rationalizations as to why the dungeon or other physical environment exists. All are important, but what often is missed is how the dungeon will be experienced by the players in terms of an adventure path and geographic decision-tree. Justin's series provides an instructional corrective to this omission.

You can read Justin's seven part opus for yourself:

• Jaquaying the Dungeon [Part 1]  
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 2: The Jaquays Techniques 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 3: The Philosophy of Jaquaying 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 4: Jaquaying the Keep on the Shadowfell  
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 5: Jaquaying for Fun and Profit 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Addendum: Dungeon Level Connections 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Addendum, Part 2: Tips & Tricks

Dungeon Mapping

Patrick (Renovating the Temple) asked me how I created the maps I use for my Montporte Dungeon campaign. I use AutoREALM, a free RPG mapping software package. Given my experience with cartographic and GIS programs, it has been a fairly easy program to use. While creating maps can be a bit tedious in AutoREALM (at least compared to drawing them by hand), I can save the final products as JPEG files so that they are ready to go with a virtual tabletop program.

Map A

Dungeon Maps for Gameplay
We use Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, so it is great having a map in JPEG format that can be uploaded into whatever VTT we happen to be using. All of my dungeon maps represent 300' x 300', the same size as the Stonehell Dungeon maps. My scale of choice is each square representing 5'. I find that this scale works perfect with virtual figures or pogs, so that the map can double as an online battlemap. The map above (Map A) is actually a composite of four JPEG files.

Map B

I start with the above template (Map B). The first thing that I do is mark any of the corridors or other features that come into the the map from adjacent maps. I do the same thing with stairs or other features that connect with levels above and below. Then I superimpose the map I am working on with the adjacent maps, just to double-check the alignment 

For regular dungeon features, I draw straight lines and use the AutoREALM snap grid feature to line them up with the grid. I use the draw polygon function to fill in the spaces between the rooms/corridors. For caverns and other irregular features, I use the freehand drawing feature and draw closed shapes. I keep doing that until I get the features I want. You can see the results of both methods on Map A above.

In order to publish the maps on my blog, I first create a Publisher file and line up the JPEG map files next to each other. Then I draw and fill black squares to cover up the unexplored areas. I save the resultant map as a JPEG file and crop it. That is how I created Map A above; it is a composite of four separate JPEG maps with the unexplored areas covered and cropped.

Other AutoREALM Maps
I am not particularly good at creating maps in AutoREALM, mainly because I haven't spent enough time playing around with it. I created the following maps for my Castles & Crusades Emmon Campaign.

Map C: Elbow Bay

Map D: Sali Isle

Map E: Village of Melford

I had two different groups of players for the Emmon Campaign. One group started in Melford (Map E) where I used a number of modules from Dragonsfoot (The Melford Murder was a huge success!). The second group started on a small island, where I used Death Frost Doom. The results of that adventure forced the player characters to flee the island and they ended up in Elbow Bay (Map C).

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: "Dungeon Mapping" by Melan

The online world is much like my desk: The newest stuff is on top, right in plain view, while the older stuff gets buried. Sometimes good stuff gets lost.

Melan's little article, Dungeon Mapping, is good stuff. Melan presents a careful analysis of a number of classic early Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules by means of diagramming the physical path available to the adventurers. This is a primer for anyone creating a megadungeon or adventurer module on how to take advantage of the physical boundaries imposed on players within a dungeon or similar structure.

Dungeon Mapping was critically important a few years ago as bloggers wrote about dungeon design and play. Melan's analysis continues to challenge me as a GM in my approach to dungeon design as well as my overall approach to gaming.