Maps

The GM may wish to prepare maps
in advance, to help him plan and to
keep track of events. He may also give
maps to the players as clues. And the
players themselves might want to map
their progress – whether it be through
jungles, dungeons, or downtown New
York City – to make sure they can find
their way back . . .
Maps in GURPS use hexagons, or
“hexes,” to regulate movement and
combat. Each hex is adjacent to six
other hexes. See Hexes (p. 384).
Whenever the PCs enter an area for which they have
no map – be it a dungeon, a laboratory complex, or a
network of jungle trails – the players will want to map
it themselves. (That is, they will if they are smart!)
However, mapping is not trivial. Unless the party
carries a tape measure and spends a lot of time using it,
you should not tell them, “You go 12 yards down the
stairs and turn north. The tunnel is seven feet wide and
nine feet high. It goes north for 120 yards and then
turns northeast. In another 20 yards, it opens out into
a room 10 yards by 6 yards.” That sort of information
would require several minutes per measurement and a
skill roll against Mathematics (Surveying) – not just a
stroll through the tunnel!
Instead, give them information like this:
“You walk down the stairs – they go down a little far-
ther than an ordinary flight of stairs. At the bottom,
there’s a tunnel going right. It’s wide enough for two to
walk side by side, and so high you can barely touch the
ceiling with your swords. It goes on for a ways in a fair-
ly straight line . . .”
“How far?” asks a player.
“Is somebody pacing it off? Okay. Around 128 paces.
It then turns to the right a bit . . .”
“How much?”
“Did you bring surveying tools? Anybody got
Absolute Direction? No? All right. Standing at the inter-
section, with the old tunnel behind you at six o’clock,
the new tunnel looks like it turns away at between one
o’clock and two o’clock. Got that? Now, it goes along for
another 19 or 20 paces, and then opens out into a big
room. The door is in the middle of the long wall. The
room is roughly rectangular. From where you stand, it
might be 10 yards long, 6 or 7 yards wide.”
Very different, yes? But also much more realistic.
The players receive only the information the PCs