Mapping a forest.

[Aval Penworth]

yep.. very respectable.. thats me *lol*... jokes aside I see what Mark is saying. When we play we ususally use a mix of "styles" to our mapping. Some mapping is done the "old-school" way, with the players drawing a map as they go along - this we only use in dungeons - and not nescecarrily in all dungeons. Sometimes we map with the mapping equivalent of stick figures = a stick is a corridor, a square a room and so forth. Sometimes we don't map at all just going with the flow if the DM says theres no need. Often everything is handled by 1 inch combat maps.
When we go outdoors, the maps are usually just displayed to the players, at least the overview maps. If a forrest were a challenge like a dungeon = the players had to find the "treasure" in there... we would probably either do some semblance of a map or just play it out in the challenge system in D&D4e - that works nicely. So a row of challenges could easily let the players wander around the forest looking for the herbs (nature challenge), and avoiding (or not) the monsters ... and having them make some rolls to not get lost in there. Unless it was a magic forest however - getting permanently lost would require abyssal skills in the group ... "moss, how the beep should moss be helping me find my way out.. should I eat it?" *lol*

I am running a "House Rules" version Rolemaster. So this forest adventure will have plenty of opportunities to use skills. I think that characters with region lore skills can have a rough personal "mind's eye" map of the area but I don't like the idea of plonking down a fully detailed map, unless the characters actually have the map, no matter what their skills might be. So I think I will make the two characters with some knowledge of the area maps that reflect their personal understanding of the place.

[mearrin69]

As a DM I think I'd want the map presented by the OP. It's nice and clear and contains potential encounter areas and "avenues of advance" plainly marked.

If I was making a map to hand out to my players, however, I would skip any kind of realistic satellite view and do a hand-drawn kind of thing with the things they might reasonably know about marked on there. Maybe it'd look like the Tolkien map of Mirkwood in The Hobbit. If you've got knowledge checks in Rolemaster (I bet you do...lol) you might give them the map and then let them ask around/remember stuff and fill it in as notes on the map. That gives them a map that can be discussed in-character...and a nice prop besides.

Just some thoughts.
M