I remember getting into an discussion with someone here, who didn't like the fact that I didn't map by hand. But honestly I'm curious, is it really necessary to do this? Because to be honest I am horrible fumbling with making grids on pencil and papers and such. And it honestly seems way too time-consuming than it's worth. I mean, even the cluebook for MM1 outright acknowledges that and gives me pre-made maps.

So really, what I'm trying to say is. Does that make me less of a player, for skipping hours of busywork that would just make the game less enjoyable?

That's entirely up to you. I found map-making very enjoyable, since navigating the various places in the game is one of the major challenges. And it's a challenge that isn't found in modern games anymore, which all have automaps, so it made MM1 feel different and interesting. i also found that it made it less annoying when my party died, because while I lost any experience and items I'd found since the last save, I never lost the maps I drew.

But if mapmaking isn't fun for you, then you shouldn't force yourself to do it. That's why there are un-annotated maps in the cluebook, and fully annotated maps easily found online.

Do whatever you think is more enjoyable. Unlike Bard's Tale and early Wizardry games making your own maps is not really an integral part of the experience in the M&M games.

Thanks :3 I feel more self-assured of myself now :3

I wish that MM2 wouldn't have dropped the Region Letter/# off the Location Spell/Mapping. While I appreciate the Auto-Mapping it is hard to take notes when you don't even know what region you are in.

Self-drawn maps are definitely better than the ones you get from the cluebook. They are a lot more accurate and you can write down notes on them (which is very important). For me it was also part of the fun to draw my own maps.

You can probably play the game using the maps from the cluebook, but it makes much more sense to draw your own ones.

"my" self-drawn maps look like crap, are beyond sloppy and all over the place.

And keep in mind that with M&M1 I'd have to draw 55 of them. Not worth it...

It may be more fun for you, but it makes the game less fun for me. So I'm sorry :(

It isn't that hard to draw accurate maps once you keep in mind that each of them have 16x16 squares.

But if you don't enjoy drawing them, you should use the ones that come with the cluebook. But if you do so, I would recommend to print the maps. This way you can use them to take down notes and additional stuff that might not be included.

I believe it would work, but there is one major difference. In MM1 and MM2, walls and doors are thin. In other words, they are drawn on the graph paper lines. In MM3 through MM5, walls are thick, meaning they fill entire squares.

Well actually... I have a word program that allows me to make grids. So I can make a 16x16 grid really easily :3
And despite being a text doc I can still draw stuff so :D

You know, this was actually really fun, mapping out Sorpigal. To be honest, my biggest issue with the whole concept was drawing by hand fumbling with pencil and paper which honestly I am horrible at.

But doing a map on OpenOffice, this was not just simple, but put me in the groove :3 I'd upload my map, but GOG doesn't like ODF files. So I have to settle for screenshotting it.

And not just that, but wandering throughout Sorpigal while mapping, I ran into quite a few battles. Made quite a bit of money, so it paid off very well :3

Map-making by hand or in software is kind of fun in that you will get better and better at it as you play the game. But it undeniably takes a lot of time.

Making a map on graph-paper is pretty easy to do and make it up as you go along, but has some downsides. It's easy to lose your maps, and it doesn't work for mobile gaming.

On a computer, mapping can be, in some ways, easier and faster, but it's harder to get started, no matter what program you use.

If you choose to go with the cluebook maps for the most part, there's still the challenge of how to take notes on them, and how to remember where you've been. It might be good enough to just draw on a screenshot if you know any program well that will let you do that.

MM1 is the perfect game to learn mapping.

I just map in my head. I screw up sometimes, but for the most part, I end up fine.

MM2 is my baby. Drop me off anywhere without a map and I'll get you home.