It's been a while since my last post - where I ambitiously declared I'd not only post thrice a month, but also that I would publish something by year's end. That plan failed miserably, as public declarations tend to do. So we'll see how many posts I write before falling off the blogging wagon again.
As it happens, the Blog of Forlorn Encystment, and through there, Prismatic Wasteland, are welcoming bloggers to join them on the writing-about-maps bandwagon. So this is a good enough reason for me to write again.
Much like our favorite Hobbit, I do love maps.
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"Oh, I do love maps. I have quite a collection of them!" - Bilbo Baggins, according to the 1977 Rankin-Bass TV movie The Hobbit.
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While online games have their place and purpose, by their nature they prevent the use of tangible props that players can hold and feel and manipulate (and taste and smell and break). My favorite prop at the table is maps. (My second favorite is scrolls in general, as both scrolls and maps look the same until unrolled and read.)
Unrolled maps are examined by all players (and presumably PCs) and provide not only directions to new treasures and locations, but are an efficient means to loredump on your group without boring them to tears with 30 minutes of read aloud box text.
In theory, these at-table props can be elaborate and represent hours of work using fancy inks and fonts and artificially aging paper using coffee and heat (mine aren't) or just hasty markings with enough color, symbols, and words (my maps) to get the party to seriously consider heading that direction as soon as possible (but preferably not until next session, so I have time to better prepare the following of said map).
Regardless of what the actual prop looks like, players love them. So before your next in-person session, I recommend you grab some paper, sketch a map, roll or fold it up, and hand it to the players the next time one of them searches a body, book, or box.
Watch their eyes light up and your game-world expand with a simple sheet of paper.
Even if PC curiosity won't get them moving, player curiosity will. As RPGs are games for players and not PCs, take advantage of this meta curiosity and use maps.
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A cursory search on YouTube found several videos on how to make fancy maps for table props. Maybe I should take the hint and make a proper map instead of crayons on printer paper the next time we play.
