My First Attempt at a Simple DnD Map

For our first proper project in our CAGD 270 class, we were given the task of making a map or series of maps to help teach players the simple mechanics and rules provided by the assignment. The rules weren't the same rules as actual DnD, but were instead dumbed down to be more simple and easy to learn, with some broken or unfinished parts put in. This is the map I created around the rules that were given:

I tried to make as simple of a map as possible to help teach mechanics, and I had a pretty beefy story to go along with it. The story for my map was set in the distant future involving robots, androids, cyborgs, and lots of futuristic technology. Since this was more of a tutorial level, I didn't want to incorporate too much combat since I didn't want this level to take too long and I didn't want the players to be too threatened or damaged from a simple tutorial level. However, this also was a mistake on my part.

Around this part of the map, I gave players an option within the story of choosing path A or path B, path A leading to a locked hut with some potions and health, and path B continuing down the main path. Just from how I set up the story, I already noticed that if they didn't choose path A for my playtest, we would've skipped a bigger portion of the story and they wouldn't have had the chance to get any health or swiftness potions, making it harder for players who continue along the main path as opposed to the players who choose to break off of the main path. However, thankfully in my playtest, the players chose to go down the main path. One huge thing that they really enjoyed about my map and kept them intrigued was the story I put into it. In my story, I gave the group many options that they could choose from at different parts in the story, and they really liked the idea of different pathways and choices to make to change the story around and to affect it down the road. In this part of the story, if they chose path A, they would come to a locked hut and they are given two times to search for a key. The first search gives them a shovel that gives them +1 attack for the next three attacks and the second search giving them the key, allowing them to grab one health and one swiftness potion, named Ener-G for the sake of my story.

I noticed something as they went along though, and they told me many times after the playtest: it kinda felt more like a walking simulator. They couldn't be any more right. Without the story that I had worked on for quite awhile for this map, both of the playtesters and myself believed that this map would be very enjoyable at all, and it would just feel tedious to get through. For my entire mapmaking process, I thought that combat would be a lot longer than it should be, so I only really incorporated one battle towards the end of the map, which was no short from easy. The battle probably took a maximum of only a few minutes, and after the fight, it didn't really feel too rewarding. It had the feeling of "Oh cool, we beat them, whatever." And most of my map did feel this way. Eventually they started to skip their turns for moving since there was nothing to encounter along the pathway, leading to the map being completed in a much quicker time than expected. However, what they thought was excellent was the storytelling and just how well it helped them learn how to do certain tasks and gameplay mechanics. In the above picture, I taught the players how to use their jump ability. You could either make it to the other side and be fine, or fall in the river and wash up ashore nearby. Both outcomes result in there being a battle afterwards, but the story I made made each of these battles seem like they were completely different, even though they were exactly the same.

What one of the playtesters loved so much about this part after they fell into the river was the fact that the story incorporated teamwork between the players despite where the other players were. In the story, if a player falls, they wash up on a bank nearby perfectly fine, but they get into a battle with two enemies. The story incorporates the other players by saying that "They raced back and jumped in to help out the other player," which then showed the beginning of the battle. They loved this example of the group working together to complete things and it made it more of a cooperative experience rather than an individual one.

Overall, they felt that with more combat, more team interaction in the story, and more choices and chances to get items, they felt like this could be quite a promising map, and I felt the exact same way.