Looking for ideas

[jhall6766]

Hello All,
Im considering doing a homebrew exploration sandbox game... However Im trying to figure out the mapping prospects of doing so.... How do you prepare maps for such an adventure and still keep it sandbox....The basis of the story is that the Pc's after surviving a shipwreck get washed ashore on an unexplored land mass... How do other Gms handle the mapping issues???? What type of storylines would other Gms use??? What type of issues could arise??

[Trenloe]

If you really want to use maps a lot then you'll probably want at least a map of the landmass the players get shipwrecked on. Use the mask and slowly reveal the map as they explore. Have a high level geographic view, and a more detailed view of the region where they'll be starting if you feel so inclined.

I've been playing in a Kingmaker game for over two years now - this is fairly sandboxy, but the maps are set (pretty much a hex crawl in some respects). The GM uses the enhanced images extension to provide map layers, and this allows location/special feature tokens to be added to the map without getting in the way of the player's tokens. Be aware that there are limitations of the multi-layer extension, if you intend to use it make sure you read the whole of posts #1 and #2: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20231-Enhanced-Images-%28layers%29-for-FG-3-0-CoreRPG-%28and-rulesets-based-on-CoreRPG%29

Start compiling some generic encounter map modules - woods, plains, shorelines, etc.. A few threads containing maps to look at:
Torgaard's mapping thread is an excellent place to start: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?15833-Tor-s-Maps
IronDrake's is cool, more related to dungeons: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?21444-Irondrake-s-Maps/page2
SukEEt has a good range of outdoor maps too: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?22298-sukEEt-wants-you-to-have-some-maps

Also make sure you have creature modules available so you can generate random encounters in a matter of a couple of minutes - if not less.

You'll usually have a rough idea of where the players might go next session - if not, ask them. This will give you a chance to prepare dungeons, cities, special locations, etc.. If the players go well off base then either stop the session early to allow you to prepare properly for the next session, or take a 20 minute break to allow you to think about it and put something together to fill out the rest of the session and then prep between sessions.

Oh, and use voice for communications - this will allow you to wing it much easier and not need to prepare location descriptions in advance.

As far as storyline, it's good to have what's known as pushes and pulls. Usually one "push" is active at a time (or there may be more) - a push is something that is in the face of the players at any one point of time. For example, the first push in your shipwreck campaign would be finding somewhere safe to camp/recover and then finding out more about the surroundings. Pulls are more character background/motivation things, or "stuff" that comes up in the campaign that the characters want to check out - they very often sit in the background but they keep the players heading in a certain direction, or looking for someone/something, or some other long term goal.

Think of your sessions as a TV series - there is usually one or more underlying storyline to the season (or across multi-seasons) that doesn't appears every episode (these are pulls). But each episode there is usually something that the episode concentrates on and provides momentum and story line for that episode (these are usually pushes). Sometimes the pushes and pulls are the same for an episode (or multi-episodes: "To be continued...") and these are usually key episodes in the season/series.

[jhall6766]

I have 2 maps drawn up... One is kind of an aerial view of the whole land mass the second is the Southern Coastline that they wash up on... Im considering either using C&C or the new 5E ruleset... Would the prep be different in one or the other ???

[damned]

The prep wont differ as both have good NPCs to draw upon.
Use a fast tool like Pyromancers to build some generic locations, there are some inbuilt maps in FG too.
You want some common scenes like:
Forest
Forest with clearing
Roadside
Roadside with Roadhouse
Cave entrance
Small Cave system
etc
and then you can introduce them as you see fit.

You could create a couple of very large maps - say forest, beach, town and just use different sections of the map for different encounters. Close the map and remask it between encounters.
I did something similar in my one shot on the weekend.
Its a big map and much larger both in size and weight than I would normally use.
Its basically a large forest, with several clearings and quite dense in other parts and has a camp in the top right.
It was the only map I used for the 3 combat encounters.
9644

[jhall6766]

Nice... Depending on how well my prepping goes I may actually do something similar in both 5E as well as C&C... Currently Im working on it for 5E... Guess we're see what happens with it down the line..

[Mavrik6666]

You might want to look at Isle of Dread from the DND Next play-tests, shipwrecked island, exploration adventure..... worked in hexes, so you would explore a number of hexes a day, and there where some programmed encounters, and some randoms

[Mellock]

End the session with some idea of where your players will wanna go to next, then grab a fisful of maps from the web:

I usually scoured drivethrurpg or cartographersguild or google for a "generic" map. Just use the search function for "ship map" or something. If it took me longer than 15 seconds to come up with something, I just changed the setting to something that they either did have, or go without a map and use text to describe. But usually, you can stay under $5 on drivethrurpg and still get enough material for a few sessions. There's a few mapmakers who sell their work online now too, like Mike Schley and Jared Blando at https://mikeschley.zenfolio.com/ and https://theredepic.bigcartel.com/ respectively. (I get names from the credits section in published adventures and google them).

One of the last things I bought was the Winding Caverns map set from the FG store. I needed some caverns for a get-to-know-5e game, they were $4.99, and I think I can get a good session out of them now. And if I ever need caverns again, I can just recycle the tiles in a different way, or use another one of the premade maps included in the module.

I used to map meticulously in CC3, then photoshop it over to optimize, use tiles bought on other sites,... But you quickly discover that mapmaking is an entire -- and timeconsuming -- hobby on its own. Now I mainly use Artrage to make extra maps on my own. Draw a basic shape, colour it in, then use other art from the internet on top. There's a minimap art kit by Raymond Gaustadnes (https://www.rpgartkits.com/) that is great for using on top of generic basic self-drawn landmasses too.

So basically I spend a little cash to get as much time out of premade maps or components. Then reuse them a bit, and complement with self-drawn stuff. If I have more time, CC3. :p -- Don't plan too far ahead either. Just detail the generic stuff as players get near it.

[jhall6766]

Thank You for the advice Mellock, I also have the Winding caverns pack as well AS Map adventures vol 1 Mtn and forests .... Still looking for a forested beach type map... I may be able to make that on my own... But as you said it is a time consuming process....

Mavrik6666 where may I find that adventure... I didnt think that WOTC did any pdf releases for DND5E

[Mellock]

https://10x10room.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/shore-landing.jpg

or

https://robbdaman.deviantart.com/art/Island-of-the-Sirens-D-and-D-Map-279815339

More trees?

[Griogre]

Mavrik6666 where may I find that adventure... I didnt think that WOTC did any pdf releases for DND5E

Not Mavrik, but Isle of Dread was re-issued in PDF for the D&D Next Playtest leading up to 5E. There were a number of adventures released this way and while the monster stats would be outdated, you could just use the 5E monster stats though you might well need to rebalance the encounter numbers.

[jhall6766]

Thank You for the response Griogre... Im going to look into that particular adventure and see what I can use from it..

[Griogre]

You might also find the following adventures useful. They are the winners of a create a D&D Next adventure by Enworld. Once again they used the playtest rules and some old map a week maps. You can download them here: https://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1693-Congratulations-to-the-Winner-of-the-D-D-Next-Adventure-Contest!#.VTq43SG6dpg

[Mavrik6666]

Happy to send you a copy if you PM me, I have it kicking about .... another map program you might look at is https://pyromancers.com/
a free online mapping program that pretty cool