The Alexandrian on Dungeon Mapping

I recently saw a few good posts on “The Alexandrian” related to dungeon mapping. As the author of the RPG map software “Dungeonographer” this topic is of particular interest to me. Here are links to the articles with short opinions/notes from me:

• Part 1: Doors: I like the final recommendation for doors and I think I’ll add a couple of icons to the software to match this approach. (It is more like the door symbol a draftsman would use.) However, there’s also the notion of whether the door is metal or wood and locked vs. barred vs. neither. It would be nice to communicate this information on the map as well if it can be done without overwhelming the reader. Previously when I used the traditional rectangles for doors I made the metal door symbol with a larger rectangle and a locked door had two dots inside it.
• Part 2: Stairs: For straight staircases I’ve already used the tapered technique where the smaller lines show the bottom of the stairs. That combined with whether there is access to the smaller or wider end shows which if the stairs go up or down. For spiral stairs I think the labeled arrows approach is the only way to go. However, the Alexandrian shows a narrow stair in the middle of the spiral which I don’t think makes sense or looks good.
• Part 3: Light Sources: Again, I think this is good additional information to provide on most maps. I actually think it is helpful to denote each light source on the map and perhaps even the type of light (candle, torch, lantern) because each illuminates a different area. If adding all those symbols seems to clutter the map, maybe the symbol is too complex. (However I actually don’t think the example “cluttered” map is too cluttered.) Lit areas can be very important. For example, if a character is near a torch but shooting down the hall where the target is not in a lit area there will likely be penalties due to lighting. Dungeonographer has lit and unlit torch symbols as well as a window. I believe I’ll be adding a few more light related symbols.