Wait... Where was that barrel again? How to NOT use battle maps, a GM tip

N

Natural 20

Guest
Original poster
Alrighty folks, back again with another tip, and this time, it's all about utilising a Roleplayers greatest strength. Imagination.
As the GM/DM, you control the world, and if it's your own homebrew world, it's like clay, free for you to mold and shape as you see fit. If this is a pre-built world, like the Forgotten Realms/Ebberon/Dark Sun/ Dragonlance/ Greyhawk/ Ravnica/ Golarion/ Dominaria/ Middle Earth or even just plain old Earth, see if you can find a map of the general location and then use that to describe it to your players, adding your own twist of creativity to make it flow more into your campaign or roleplay. If you are playing with people with vivid imaginations, this is a perfect situation to enrapture them and drag their minds to your world. Being descriptive is KEY in this sort of time. Describe the wooden Drawer sitting in the corner of the room, the varnish reflecting the light from the torch in the sconce embedded into the dwarvish stonework in the middle of this dank, mouldy dungeon that gives the characters a sense of unease and dread.

However, there are some downsides to this, like research... Most of us have lives of our own outside RP, with school, work, family and other things taking priority in life before this, and we sometimes just don't have the time to research lore or how things work to add realism to a fantasy game such as acid and even Napalm to compare to a dragon's breath. Another downside it also relies on your players having an active imagination, having to visualise the scenario you're giving to them.

hanks for reading, if you have any questions or found anything that I missed, post it down below or tell me through a message.

Natural 20, signing off