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Do you show the map for the players?

Started by jux, March 30, 2017, 02:30:59 PM

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Skarg

Quote from: Azraele;955198Yeah I didn't mean to crap on your awesome suggestions Skargy old chum. I just happen to have another filter that I guess you lack at your table; my player's limited knowledge and attention spans. Between that and the telephone game of their personalities there's a staggering warping effect even on the most accurate of props.

Yeah it certainly varies by player. Some of my long-time regulars have/had a lot of attention and would sometimes apply great effort to what information they had (both different errors and omissions, but also other sorts of clues and notes from previous owners). Also, by providing prop maps with different information about places, some players got very excited about collecting maps and analyzing the details and differences between them. Also sometimes going to explore places where the maps lack information or disagree with each other. That was one of the levels of play I liked most, and it made me sensitive to what sorts of things can be fun to not provide in maps the players get to see.

Tristram Evans

Maps don't work in my fantasy world, because time and space folds in on itself at certain points and geography shifts. The only true maps are forged by the elves and resemble holographic projections in crystal balls composed of concentric circles folding in on themselves. Otherwise, there are general maps of smaller kingdoms that are relatively stable in size, but there are only as accurate as typical medieval maps.

S'mon

Quote from: Azraele;955198Yeah I didn't mean to crap on your awesome suggestions Skargy old chum. I just happen to have another filter that I guess you lack at your table; my player's limited knowledge and attention spans. Between that and the telephone game of their personalities there's a staggering warping effect even on the most accurate of props.

Yes, for me this is always the big issue. Players always know far less than a Player Character ought to. The PCs can look around and see the hills and mountains and forests and rivers. Players in a ttrpg can't. There needs to be a substitute source of info and I generally find maps work well for that.