I do apologise. Here is part 4 of How To Write an RPG Journal – Maps. Turns out maps are quite big enough to warrant their own section. For those of you who missed the series back in January, have a look at RPG Journal Part I – The Basics, RPG Journal Part II – The Categories, and RPG Journal Part III – Information.

Maps

Maps are important. Incredibly important. Even when your game isn’t the size of World of Warcraft. I know, it’s not the sort of thing that gets mentioned in reviews. Trust me, the map feature is sorely missed if it’s not there.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. If I recall, it didn’t have a map. If it did have a map, it was next-to-useless. Remember that giant bird cage in the menagerie? I climbed all the way to the top of that. Then I went on holiday. When I came back a month later I had no idea where I’d been or where I was going. I spent a few days running around in large but unproductive circles before moving on to a more rewarding game. Seamlessly-blended levels are pretty and immersive but make everything look very samey.

In other words:

Distinguish between explored and unexplored areas. Please do it. I don’t care if you use a fog-of-war or just change the colour. Choose the best internally-consistent logic for you. If I’m in a city then it makes sense to have a visible map. If I’m wandering around unexplored countryside, it’s fair to hide the fine detail of an unexplored area. ’tis all good as long as I can tell where I’ve already been.

Make notes: Notes are the second most significant part of mapping. Please, if you’re going to say things like “Meet me at Moire’s house” then have the courtesy to mark it on the map. If you can’t be bothered to do that, let me add my own notes. I have to say, the Cartographer add-in for World of Warcraft is indispensable. With the number of ‘get me x amount of y‘ quests, I don’t know what I’d do without the ability to mark “Here Be Sunscale Scytheclaws”.

Well, okay, I do know. I’d look it up on Thottbot. I don’t like doing that because it breaks my immersion and is sort of cheating-ish. Give me the tools to do it myself.

Come back next week for part 5 – Inventory. I promise it will be here. I’ve already written most of it.