DnD Map V1

 

I’d like to begin with mentioning that this was the first time I've not only made a DnD map, but actually played the game. Going into this with zero experience very notably negatively affected the map I created. Sure I watched a few Youtube tutorials on the game's basics, but not ever having played the game, I did a rather poor job balancing the stats and amounts of enemies. I also was quick to notice that I lacked the imagination to create lore or stories to go along with the map, enemies, and characters.

To start with what went right, I would say using the Roll20 program. Again, this was all new to me, so being able to understand and effectively use a map maker for a game I had never played was unlikely. In the end though, I not only successfully created a rudimentary map, but at the time, was quite proud of my accomplishments. I even added grass and rocks in the background to try to give the map more life. Funnily enough, though these details are present in the screenshot below, the version playtested did not seem to save these decorations sadly.

I'm afraid this is where the positives end. After playtesting the maps of Tommy L. and Anthoney J. I realized that I missed the point of how to correctly design a map. Tommy’s was about ¼ of the size of mine, with roughly 10 enemies, while Anthony's was roughly 1/10 of my scale, with around 6 enemies. Not only did my map have more than double Tommy’s enemies, but mine also had double the stats. I rialzied that DnD is seemingly driven by the dungeon master’s storytelling skills as it is by the actual map. Not only was my map in comparison ridiculously difficult, but simply lacked creativity and any level of story.

To improve upon my map, I think it would actually be best to completely scrap everything I have made and begin from scratch. Instead of having each enemy/hero take up a single tile, I will also scale them to be 2x2 tiles, Greatly reducing the new map size. Most importantly, I will try to build a story of some sort to go along with the map, as this was the most notable thing I was lacking. I think the issue with the original build was that I treated it like a video game. If I was single handedly controlling the heroes and killing AI enemies, I would have finished the map in under 5 minutes. But that's not how DnD works, there's rng dice rolling and storytelling. Now that I have the right mentality going forwards, my second iteration should have some pretty significant and much needed improvements.

Regarding flow, my playtesters knew where to go, and though they commented on there being too many enemies, their placement locations were seemingly acceptable. My map did not include any fancy jumping or trap mechanics, so nothing was needed to be taught to the players that they didn’t already know. By making the new map at a much smaller scale, It will also give me the opportunity to put more effort into the assets used, as there will be less of them.

(hallway with clearly one way to go)

Something I might also try to change is cube and rectangular shaped walls. For the most part they seemed very unnatural, and now that I have more experience with Roll20, I believe I'm capable of making more advanced shapes that give the map a more interesting look. In the first map I only dabbled with smoother angels once, now I plan on using a whole lot more.