I’ve been reading a little about not using maps in 5e, using a “Theater of the Mind” approach. Running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen using as few maps as I can (so far only one drawn for reference – no grids) has me liking it. In my previous games, including the Star Wars game I ran last weekend, I’ve used maps extensively. I actually like maps, especially for tech scenes where there can be lots of nooks and crannies and cables and consoles and computers and – well you get the idea.

But 5e is different. Using maps is actually an optional rule. So I’m going with it.

It isn’t easy for a few different reasons. First this is my home group and focused we are not. If you aren’t listening, there isn’t a map to use as a reference. You can’t just look at the table and make a good guess. There also isn’t any central object to focus on. Nothing is actively drawing everyone’s attention. Second, no matter how good I am at describing thing (hint – just OK), everyone will have a slightly different idea of what things look like, what objects are where, and more importantly where exactly everyone is. Lastly, many of the abilities are described by an absolute measure – move 30ft, diameter 20 feet, 20 foot cube. If you don’t have character on a grid how can you determine distance?

Third edition, Fourth edition were grid based games. Star Wars d20 and Saga also grid based. It was what I was used to. So why change with the problems listed above and honestly a LARGE collection of maps.

Most important is fun. I think it’s fun to use my imagination like this. It stretches me to think like this in a descriptive way. I’m blaming Dungeon World. I started out playing Dungeon World with maps and eventually moved away, except for dungeon crawls. DW got me started thinking about giving up maps entirely. Second is to encourage participation. If you know that you need to pay more attention to keep up, maybe you pay more attention and contribute to the description of the scene. That is the last and best reason. If the players are contributing more, I get more chances to say yes to their ideas. They hear yes more, and they contribute more – like a feed back loop of fun. Well, these are my hopes, I’m still working on getting more active participation. Not everyone is buying in yet.

I want to thank Mike Shea and Dave Chalker for a lot of the ideas both stolen and reinforced.