Posting this in three different locations as I'm looking for feedback from as many people and sources as possible (hopefully this is okay). The original post is located here:
http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=13528.msg173277#msg173277 I recently imported into the No Quarter document the maps for the second castle (one of several large locations covered by the module) and started working on the descriptions for this. However I'm a bit puzzled as to how best to handle this. I emailed Nicholas about it and he suggested that I post in the forums to get the opinions of others on the subject...
So here is the problem: For the first large castle (>100 rooms/areas) I have 7 area maps/floorplans and I detailed each area using a letter-number designation, with the letter indicating which map (level of the castle/dungeon/etc.) and the number indicating the specific location on that "level" which worked well. This type of designation is used quite frequently in modules, so is a tried and true method. However the second castle is much larger (several hundred rooms/areas). It not only has more levels, but each level is large enough that the floor plan needs to be split into sections (there is a single "Grounds" map that shows how the parts fit together while also showing the wall structure and topography of the large hill that it sits on and its surroundings, then there is a central structure, each of four different "wings" that extend of of the central structure, the gatehouse and towers, the many wall towers, as well as the dungeon levels beneath, all with multiple levels). And the maps for each level of each section are such that combining all the sections into a single level map the map scale would be such that the detail would be too small (would not even be able to fit numbers into many of the smaller rooms that would be readable). Thus the letter-number designation will not work for this as there are not enough letters in the alphabet (even if both upper and lower case were used) for each area-level map. And if I switched to a number-letter designation, then there are not enough letters for the number of rooms that are in some of the area-level maps.
I started detailing it using the technique explained in the next paragraph, however after thinking about it is different than what is normal for such descriptions, so I'm wondering if it is such a good idea. I also don't want to give away too much of the plot/story-line, but the way things play out, some of the locations will be entered by the characters more than once (in fact this particular castle, there is a good chance that the characters will be in it at least three different times under three very different conditions, and thus there will be (in many cases in this particular castle, as well as in another large location (a huge cavern/mine/dwarven-city complex) later in the module).
What I'm currently doing is simply writing up a description of each area-level map. Trying to describe it such that it is obvious which rooms are set up how and only the things that will be the same regardless of which "situation" or "state" it is in. Then my plan is to then include 3 or more paragraphs covering the changes from one "situation" or "state" to another.
As such this is a little different than the typical way of laying out descriptions for modules. It seems to me that is should work for those GM's who read things over thoroughly so that they fully understand each larger area before the characters ever enter that area. However I wanted to find out if others feel that such a way of handling things might be too complicated or not easy to follow.
So please provide feedback as to your thoughts on this subject here. I'll also be posting links to this thread in other threads that discuss layout and such.
