Players sketching map as they go

[Octavious]

Hi, I am creating a small campaign which the players are shipwrecked on a island with nothing but what they wear. It is basically a survival and escape sandbox which involves 2 or 3 islands > I was curious what others (players and dms)thought of players actually sketching their own map as they go . I could supply the map and just show the areas they have explored. But many things still can be assumed and guessed this way .In any case I would like some input if players would shy away from a game that you had to keep track of where you are and where you came from by yourself .
many of the areas they explore I do have encounter maps that may or may not have any relevance to solving their dilemma .. I have made all the maps myself about 70 of them here is a few .

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[damned]

Go for it!
This used to be the norm around the table.
If you can work out a way - using tiles/tokens etc then try it for a while.

[LordEntrails]

One of my groups is doing Undermountain, they have to map it themselves. I just have maps for various areas that I show them for encounters.

[Octavious]

Hey thanks for the replies. I believe I will have the players draw their own maps as they go ..so ill make sure they know before they join the game ..

[LordEntrails]

Or hand then a pad of graph paper and a pencil when they show up. They should get the hint :)

[damned]

Use a combination of their efforts and what LordEntrails suggests. As the GM have a bunch of room maps that you can do your encounters on but never share a bigger map - except maybe at the appropriate time when you want to show the players just how good their effort was :)

[Varsuuk]

I always loved to map and when I DMed the players did too - sometimes too much time was spent getting things just right, but that was their choice and they enjoyed it hehe.

Always fun to compare after as well. This was in person, of course. But yeah, I would draw out halls and rooms as they became necessary if there was combat or some physical placement aspects on the megamat but they would need to integrate it to their own map(s).

[ravenloft713]

I love the graphic quality of the maps though I would advise putting variety into the trees--they all have the same rotation and scale. I'm assuming Photoshop or similar software. Take each tree and give it a bit of rotation, 5 degrees on this one, 192 on that one... and adjust the scale. .6 for this one, and 1.2 on the one next to it until you feel it's more natural. Not using the same drop shadow also gives degrees of realism because it shows some tree canopies are thicker than others.

Another thing that caught my eye from someone else's map is they put elevations on some landmarks (a "L" formation of rock in the center of the map) and they put a light grey "+10" and a "+20" on a few areas of the rock formation. I'm not certain I'm going to do it for my maps, but it was very clean and caught my eye. Tree maps tend to have lots of trees (go figure!) and numbers all over could be distracting.

I only point this out to give you future options for your maps.

[Octavious]

Hey guys . thanks for the input on the map drawing. and thanks for the info on the trees too Ravenloft713. I have not been into D&D very long but I have a background in the old text adventure games in which you had to draw a map as you went. I really liked those old games because you put the whole scene in your imagination of what you think it looked like .Which made the room much more vivid than what a graphic layout would be. Much more like reading a book then seeing the movie. The book was better than the movie because of how you perceived it in your imagination.
So I believe I will run my games this way and as you all suggested have the room or area maps for any encounters etc.. ..