RPG Mapping Solved

Here I discussed some of my problems with accepted mapping practices for RPGs and some thoughts on possible solutions. Just now I think I hit on an something that just might be the solution to all my problems.

For a while now I have come to the conclusion that we should treat campaign setting and general overland maps for RPGs the same as we do maps in the real world. My issue for a long time was how to best incorporate all the disparate elements representing different things in a single map. I came up with ideas dealing with the coloring of interior of hexes, the color of the hex border, the design of hex borders, and symbols placed inside of hexes. I would't say it's impossible to include everything and still have a single readable map, but it is certainly unnecessary. When mapping the earth each map is tailored to a specific purpose. We have topographic maps, and climactic maps, and road maps, and political maps, etc. Putting all these elements on a single map is rarely the best way to go. So I came to this conclusion quite some time ago, it feels like a couple of months, but it was probably more than a year ago; basically we should use different maps of our RPG campaign world for different purposes. We don't need all the details in one map and different elements can be better captured on their own specialized map than being a giant jumbled mess. And this is made even easier with modern technology and overlapping layers, this can even be implemented in pdf format.

What has I have been racking my brain for the longest time was how to deal with dungeon/interior building maps. Because as I said in my previous post I really think the key and location description format should be a thing of the past, and honestly the short little adventure Hole in the Oak that was designed for Old School Essentials is a huge step forward, but it's still not exactly what I'm looking for.

So here's my great big Genius Idea (if I may indulge in some hyperbole): Present dungeons in the form of an atlas.

What do I mean by that? Well, I'm applying the same principles of outdoor maps to indoor maps. Basically, atlases start with different small scale maps of the world, have some text with general descriptions, then they are organized into regions with text about those regions and then those regions and even more detailed large scale maps. One of my main goals with dungeon maps was to translate everything to the map so there isn't a great need to reference a key during the running of the game. this can be done with maps that have a large enough scale and can fit those kind of details.

This would result in a dungeon module looking like this. A few general overview large scale maps showing the entire dungeon, maybe a faction map, a cross section map, etc. These maps would take up a page and on the opposing page would be a description of the factions or whatever the map depicts. Then there would be regional map, say of a particular faction, with more detailed description of how the faction makes use of the different sections of their lair, and who is likely to be in what rooms at what times and wandering monsters, etc. and then follows hyper detailed maps of each room in that region. These room maps would aim to include every detail of the room, furniture, decorations, traps, etc. and the opposing page would include the consequences of interacting with said objects (reference the Hole in the Oak for the format that could possible take). Following all the room maps of a single region would be the next regional map and it's associated room maps, and so on. With maybe an index or other reference material at the back of the module.

EDIT: just realized I had a half written post about the purposes of maps in rpgs meant to follow up on my post linked above. Maybe I will finish it sometime this week; in this post I've just presented the how, without delving deeper into the why of rpg maps.