Is Mapping Really Old School?

This post is to support my podcast of the same name, Is Mapping Really Old School?

I'm a big fan of player mapping but sadly it seems to be something I've seldom encountered in games, the exception being a monthly B/X game I play in where a map is produced each session.

Personally, I find mapping one of the most enjoyable parts of a session and enjoy mapping both Dungeons and Wilderness. I always find it particularly amusing when a map seems to go back over ,usually because of an error, and that in itself can often lead to amusing player character interactions and often ongoing jokes about map making abilities.

As you can see in the maps below the fact I have little to no drawing ability has not held me back from producing the maps. I have no definitive legend, although I try and stick to the old, "standard" symbols but I can be inconsistent at times.

I play a bi-weekly face to face GURPS 4e/Dungeon Fantasy game and a couple of sessions ago we ventured into the Dungeons of Thraal for the first time. I took it upon myself to do the mapping and came up with the map you see. It uses approx 10' per hex.

The Dungeons of Thraal

At the latest session I added to the original map and needless to say the map immediately went off the square paper, a common issue with mapping. When this happens I usually add the same letter on each piece to denote where they join together.

This map is one I did retrospectively of an online game I played in mid week using the Black Hack system. It was theatre of the mind so the map is produced from the written notes I took from the GM's description. The scale of the rooms should be fairly accurate but not the corridors.  I produced it mainly to see how difficult it was to produce a map from a written description, bearing in mind my written notes may have been inaccurate. It quickly became apparent to me that corridor lengths were something that we'd deemed unimportant. I made this 5' per hex to allow for more legible drawings to be added.