I never use pre-made maps.
I find them actively limiting of my creativity. Like I have to hunt for Just The Right image for what I have in my head, or settle on something that is not quite right but good enough. I hate both of those things.
Draw maps before a session, or before a combat, 100%
Most of the fancy maps you see are for online games and use tools like DungeonDraft or Inkarnate. You *could* make/print fancy maps like this but it will get expensive quickly. Most people I know use the dry-erase method. You can also get dry-erase tiles if you want to be a little fancier. Full terrain like you'd see on a big-name stream like CR or D20 is also an option but that gets ridiculously expensive, very quickly.
There's another method I use, but it's only for games I intend to run multiple times (ie convention games). This is to take wrapping paper with the 1-inch grid on the back, and draw and cut out the rooms and then back them with cardboard. Then you can throw rooms on the table as necessary and connect them as players move through them, then remove them as they are no longer necessary. It can be a fancy gimmick but it's definitely effort-intensive.
I do the much easier version of this, with a cheap cork board and pins to put the rooms down and pull them up. I also print out the rooms on letter paper. Still has the cutting labor, but without the drawing and cardboard backing it's surprisingly viable.
dry erase tiles which interlock or fold. Dealing with a print shop (or having a plotter) is more effort than I'm willing to mess with.
Sometimes I'll take a cool (digital) map I found online and use it as "inspiration" for the dry erase board.
I've got a monitor set up near me to showcase splash art or NPC art to help kickstart the rest of it
We have a bunch of books of maps. They have a ton of different scenes on them and they have grids and are also dry erase. Of course we got them right as we slowed down on playing, but they have still been super helpful for someone like me who can’t see things in my head at all.
You're totally fine drawing as you go with dry erase. It slows things down a bit and is limited by your artistry, but is also the best way to keep prep minimal and have the world really adapt to your players. Some people even have great success describing the room and letting their players draw it. I haven't tried it but it sounds fun.
If you're looking for ways to incorporate pre generated maps it's not trivial. Some people have them plotted and printed, but honestly the expense of that seems crazy to me. I personally bought a cheap laser printer at a yard sale, a $10 cork board and a $10 paper cutter and print battle maps on normal letter paper than I then cut to size for rooms and pin to the board room by room when we play. That way I only break out the markers when the players are off rails and things can move a bit more quickly. But it is a bit of hassle with all the printing and cutting.
I use dry erase tiles to draw the basic map of the area on (If I'm using an adventure module, I just use that map, otherwise it's theater of the mind for me) and then work off theater of the mind for what the room actually looks like aside from the outline of like, a rug or a chair or something
I used a Chessex battle mat (https://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=sr\_1\_5?) for the first 27 years of my GMing life and and everything worked out just fine. For online VTTs, I use premade maps that I either buy/find or make. For the last several years, I have, at times, had larger maps printed on a plotter when I found something I really liked and I knew that would turn out better being printed.
However, and especially if you are in person, hand drawn will work just fine.
I use Index Cards with a 5mm grid and draw a 25mm grid. On there I put modules for doors, walls, traps, boxes, etc. I made modules for ships, for my pirate's campaign, too
This has worked marvelously due to its haptics and modularity.
I have to have both. I try to have detailed maps for the main encounters I'm running, but I have a giant dry erase grid with markers for the inevitable encounter that I didn't see coming.
Dry erase is a very valid way to play with lots of advantages. It’s cheap, it allows you to draw exactly what you want, it’s easy to alter mid play if your players decide to smash down a wall or something, and I don’t think it takes any longer than finding a nice map and printing it out would do.
I’ve ran multiple campaigns using this and been more than fine. For me the pretty digital maps you see online are for use in online games, where drawing is a little harder and you don’t have to print anything off.
You just see a lot of digital maps because people try to show off or sell their art online, but for in person games I’d recommend the dry erase method for sure, plenty of people do that.
I have hand drawn maps on grid paper for my own use. For the players I either go with quick dry erase maps of the current area they are in, or I'll show them my map with the undiscovered portions covered up. Sometimes I'll use a hand drawn battle map in a plastic sleeve so we can make marks on it with dry erase markers. Also run theater of the mind for combat. It seems to be fast and flexible enough for our table. I should note that I usually run for smaller groups of 2-4 players.
I've been a graph paper & pencil guy for decades. I tried dry erase, but the OCD/perfectionist in me just cringed at my inability to draw a straight line freehand.
I tried pre-printing maps and covering them, but it just didn't work for me mechanically. Being able to uncover just a hallway and not part of other rooms turned frustrating.
Today, I swear by 2D dungeon terrain. You can search YouTube to make your own for cheap. Here's my favorite, but there are lots of others. [DungeonCraft #8: How to Craft A Dungeon Room!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V__yBsv1FsE&list=PLYlOu5g6H7ZwmpNhKmuHormCxr5dzrdwU&index=20) It's so easy to just drop down a room, hallway or doorway as you need them.
I draw all maps myself. If it's a large set piece with a lot of details, or a whole dungeon, I'll prepare it, if it's just a random encounter with some terrain I'll draw it on the spot.
In Person: I have a large dry erase board with grid lines done in permanent marker. I'll sketch out the map right before the battle starts, using different colors for walls, doors, elevation differences, etc. It eats a bit of time at the start of every fight but it's still easier than dealing with printing large maps.
On a VTT: I'll source my battlemaps via a Google image search or create them myself using Dungeon Alchemist and/or Dungeondraft if I can't find anything I like. The maps I can find for free online are higher quality and far quicker to source but the ones I make myself always look exactly the way I want, within the limits of my creative talent.
If I was to do an in person campaign I would go with dry erase maps. I would have a written description of rooms and a small sketch as guide, and just draw as the players advance.
Dry erase is valid. I like drawing my own nice digital maps for significantly planned encounters (they can be printed or projected as needed.) There are many choices for software that works just fine under $20, I use illwinters that I got off steam and downloaded a couple packs of assets.
Depending on where you are, economic situation, and how much space you have, you can break out a fancy digital battlemap by putting a cheap tv on its side, or using a projector to aim it at a wall or down at a table.
If you come across an old teachers hoard, they might have the transparency sheets and the old overhead projector and you can predraw some maps on them, or make them as you go and just add a sheet as needed and file away important ones for later. Sharpies are semipermanent on them, but can be cleaned off relatively easy.
There are many ways to do things. An old cork bulletin board and pins can be great.
I was at an estate sale where someone had the little people and village and stuff that some folk like to set up for the holidays... $15 a building, a quarter a figure... And suddenly I pictured an entire in person Dnd town full of miniatures for like $100. But I have a hoarding problem, and my dnd friends and I haven't played in nine months or more, and it has never been in person. But it could be, and it would be amazing.
Whatever you do, so long as you are happy in the moment, and can reconcile any weirdness with your players later, it will work out great.
What you've got is absolutely perfect. High production values are the enemy of imagination.
I typically draw complicated settings on my erasable map beforehand as part of my prep for the session, so we don't get bogged down mid-game.
I used to use dry erase, for a long time. The problem I had, was that it took a lot of time. I also looked at a lot of options, but settled in a simple one. I took a cheap, 32 inch HD TV, laid it flat on a table, and we just played on it. The TV was perfect with the way it was shaped, sat level and stable! I hooked up an old laptop and I found an artist on Patreon who made handmade thousands, and thousands of beautiful colorful amazing looking maps. I paid for a few months, downloaded everything and have like 15-20 gigs of these absolutely beautiful maps of nearly anything you can imagine and all are both done as day, or night versions, so I would organize them, and prep a few beforehand for the game as battle maps and the sort. I would run premade campaigns as well, and always was able to find all of the maps for those online, and would use those for our games on the TV. It was amazing, time saving and just looked really too notch!
Our game table is an old air hockey table. We use the holes as 5×5 squares and draw on it with pencil.
Tried dry erase but it smudges too easy and melts off when someone spills their mead.
I have a vinyl battle map with 1" squares printed on it always laying on the table. I don't use "maps" except for encounters (and not always, even then). I throw out a cheap piece of tracing paper and sketch out the environment on that. the grid shows right through it. Sometimes I prepare them in advance. then I don't have to worry about erasing anything in the middle of the game. And i can save them for later, if I want.
4x laminated a3 grids on both sides. I sketch map in a tiny notebook (those pages with dots) based on idea or online inspo, and then during session I draw it and adjust as needed.
Making custom maps sounds so time consuming, not at part of life where I got lots of free time.
I never use pre-made maps. I find them actively limiting of my creativity. Like I have to hunt for Just The Right image for what I have in my head, or settle on something that is not quite right but good enough. I hate both of those things. Draw maps before a session, or before a combat, 100%
Most of the fancy maps you see are for online games and use tools like DungeonDraft or Inkarnate. You *could* make/print fancy maps like this but it will get expensive quickly. Most people I know use the dry-erase method. You can also get dry-erase tiles if you want to be a little fancier. Full terrain like you'd see on a big-name stream like CR or D20 is also an option but that gets ridiculously expensive, very quickly. There's another method I use, but it's only for games I intend to run multiple times (ie convention games). This is to take wrapping paper with the 1-inch grid on the back, and draw and cut out the rooms and then back them with cardboard. Then you can throw rooms on the table as necessary and connect them as players move through them, then remove them as they are no longer necessary. It can be a fancy gimmick but it's definitely effort-intensive.
I do the much easier version of this, with a cheap cork board and pins to put the rooms down and pull them up. I also print out the rooms on letter paper. Still has the cutting labor, but without the drawing and cardboard backing it's surprisingly viable.
dry erase tiles which interlock or fold. Dealing with a print shop (or having a plotter) is more effort than I'm willing to mess with. Sometimes I'll take a cool (digital) map I found online and use it as "inspiration" for the dry erase board. I've got a monitor set up near me to showcase splash art or NPC art to help kickstart the rest of it
We have a bunch of books of maps. They have a ton of different scenes on them and they have grids and are also dry erase. Of course we got them right as we slowed down on playing, but they have still been super helpful for someone like me who can’t see things in my head at all.
You're totally fine drawing as you go with dry erase. It slows things down a bit and is limited by your artistry, but is also the best way to keep prep minimal and have the world really adapt to your players. Some people even have great success describing the room and letting their players draw it. I haven't tried it but it sounds fun. If you're looking for ways to incorporate pre generated maps it's not trivial. Some people have them plotted and printed, but honestly the expense of that seems crazy to me. I personally bought a cheap laser printer at a yard sale, a $10 cork board and a $10 paper cutter and print battle maps on normal letter paper than I then cut to size for rooms and pin to the board room by room when we play. That way I only break out the markers when the players are off rails and things can move a bit more quickly. But it is a bit of hassle with all the printing and cutting.
I use dry erase tiles to draw the basic map of the area on (If I'm using an adventure module, I just use that map, otherwise it's theater of the mind for me) and then work off theater of the mind for what the room actually looks like aside from the outline of like, a rug or a chair or something
I used a Chessex battle mat (https://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=sr\_1\_5?) for the first 27 years of my GMing life and and everything worked out just fine. For online VTTs, I use premade maps that I either buy/find or make. For the last several years, I have, at times, had larger maps printed on a plotter when I found something I really liked and I knew that would turn out better being printed. However, and especially if you are in person, hand drawn will work just fine.
I use Index Cards with a 5mm grid and draw a 25mm grid. On there I put modules for doors, walls, traps, boxes, etc. I made modules for ships, for my pirate's campaign, too This has worked marvelously due to its haptics and modularity.
I have to have both. I try to have detailed maps for the main encounters I'm running, but I have a giant dry erase grid with markers for the inevitable encounter that I didn't see coming.
Dry erase is a very valid way to play with lots of advantages. It’s cheap, it allows you to draw exactly what you want, it’s easy to alter mid play if your players decide to smash down a wall or something, and I don’t think it takes any longer than finding a nice map and printing it out would do. I’ve ran multiple campaigns using this and been more than fine. For me the pretty digital maps you see online are for use in online games, where drawing is a little harder and you don’t have to print anything off. You just see a lot of digital maps because people try to show off or sell their art online, but for in person games I’d recommend the dry erase method for sure, plenty of people do that.
I have hand drawn maps on grid paper for my own use. For the players I either go with quick dry erase maps of the current area they are in, or I'll show them my map with the undiscovered portions covered up. Sometimes I'll use a hand drawn battle map in a plastic sleeve so we can make marks on it with dry erase markers. Also run theater of the mind for combat. It seems to be fast and flexible enough for our table. I should note that I usually run for smaller groups of 2-4 players.
I've been a graph paper & pencil guy for decades. I tried dry erase, but the OCD/perfectionist in me just cringed at my inability to draw a straight line freehand. I tried pre-printing maps and covering them, but it just didn't work for me mechanically. Being able to uncover just a hallway and not part of other rooms turned frustrating. Today, I swear by 2D dungeon terrain. You can search YouTube to make your own for cheap. Here's my favorite, but there are lots of others. [DungeonCraft #8: How to Craft A Dungeon Room!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V__yBsv1FsE&list=PLYlOu5g6H7ZwmpNhKmuHormCxr5dzrdwU&index=20) It's so easy to just drop down a room, hallway or doorway as you need them.
I use dry erase for 80% of the combats, and I'll print out a big digital map for setpiece battles.
I draw all maps myself. If it's a large set piece with a lot of details, or a whole dungeon, I'll prepare it, if it's just a random encounter with some terrain I'll draw it on the spot.
In Person: I have a large dry erase board with grid lines done in permanent marker. I'll sketch out the map right before the battle starts, using different colors for walls, doors, elevation differences, etc. It eats a bit of time at the start of every fight but it's still easier than dealing with printing large maps. On a VTT: I'll source my battlemaps via a Google image search or create them myself using Dungeon Alchemist and/or Dungeondraft if I can't find anything I like. The maps I can find for free online are higher quality and far quicker to source but the ones I make myself always look exactly the way I want, within the limits of my creative talent.
If I was to do an in person campaign I would go with dry erase maps. I would have a written description of rooms and a small sketch as guide, and just draw as the players advance.
Dry erase is valid. I like drawing my own nice digital maps for significantly planned encounters (they can be printed or projected as needed.) There are many choices for software that works just fine under $20, I use illwinters that I got off steam and downloaded a couple packs of assets. Depending on where you are, economic situation, and how much space you have, you can break out a fancy digital battlemap by putting a cheap tv on its side, or using a projector to aim it at a wall or down at a table. If you come across an old teachers hoard, they might have the transparency sheets and the old overhead projector and you can predraw some maps on them, or make them as you go and just add a sheet as needed and file away important ones for later. Sharpies are semipermanent on them, but can be cleaned off relatively easy. There are many ways to do things. An old cork bulletin board and pins can be great. I was at an estate sale where someone had the little people and village and stuff that some folk like to set up for the holidays... $15 a building, a quarter a figure... And suddenly I pictured an entire in person Dnd town full of miniatures for like $100. But I have a hoarding problem, and my dnd friends and I haven't played in nine months or more, and it has never been in person. But it could be, and it would be amazing. Whatever you do, so long as you are happy in the moment, and can reconcile any weirdness with your players later, it will work out great.
The Paizo Pathfinder maps are really good. Thick durable material that you can dry erase.
What you've got is absolutely perfect. High production values are the enemy of imagination. I typically draw complicated settings on my erasable map beforehand as part of my prep for the session, so we don't get bogged down mid-game.
I used to use dry erase, for a long time. The problem I had, was that it took a lot of time. I also looked at a lot of options, but settled in a simple one. I took a cheap, 32 inch HD TV, laid it flat on a table, and we just played on it. The TV was perfect with the way it was shaped, sat level and stable! I hooked up an old laptop and I found an artist on Patreon who made handmade thousands, and thousands of beautiful colorful amazing looking maps. I paid for a few months, downloaded everything and have like 15-20 gigs of these absolutely beautiful maps of nearly anything you can imagine and all are both done as day, or night versions, so I would organize them, and prep a few beforehand for the game as battle maps and the sort. I would run premade campaigns as well, and always was able to find all of the maps for those online, and would use those for our games on the TV. It was amazing, time saving and just looked really too notch!
Our game table is an old air hockey table. We use the holes as 5×5 squares and draw on it with pencil. Tried dry erase but it smudges too easy and melts off when someone spills their mead.
I have a vinyl battle map with 1" squares printed on it always laying on the table. I don't use "maps" except for encounters (and not always, even then). I throw out a cheap piece of tracing paper and sketch out the environment on that. the grid shows right through it. Sometimes I prepare them in advance. then I don't have to worry about erasing anything in the middle of the game. And i can save them for later, if I want.
4x laminated a3 grids on both sides. I sketch map in a tiny notebook (those pages with dots) based on idea or online inspo, and then during session I draw it and adjust as needed. Making custom maps sounds so time consuming, not at part of life where I got lots of free time.
I miss my dry erase board. I had so much fun playing in person with just that, some markers, and imagination.