How should you map out caves, Veeky Forums? It seems rather difficult compared to normal...

How should you map out caves, Veeky Forums? It seems rather difficult compared to normal, constructed castles and dungeons.

This is now a maps of caves thread.

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I don't know, but I hear Veins of the Earth knows

>now
I mean it was already from the OP.

Why is that giant pile of gold so close to an entrance? It should be like in the center where the kitchen looking area is so people couldn't just sneak up the stairs, see the huge loot pile, grab some gold and run off while the kobolds are asleep, and the kitchen should be by the water for easy access.

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It's a kobold cave, so it's probably a trap.

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Life-sized clay models, because you just *know* your players are gonna obsess over pointless minutiae.

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Read Veins of the Earth. Fantastic sourcebook for all things subterranean, including cave mapping.

I got you in 28mm.

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its fucking impossible
irl, caves change elevation constantly and tunnels overlap each other and the walls/ceilings/floors are never constant and are full of unmappable little cracks and crannies and canyons, not to mention all the stalagwhatevers and fallen rocks
theres no way to realistically map a cave, because no human can know exactly how the rock composition is laid out and where the water would erode first and blah blah blah
would this tunnel shrink to a size too small for a person? how long does this tunnel stay underwater? realistically how long will a cave go before coming out of a hillside or something?

the only sane way to do it is however you fucking want

MY biggest problem is how to do both local and "underland" travel in caves; like I want detailed grid maps for battles and "dungeon" caves, but then I also want hours/days long travel through cave networks and i can't possible map all of it, and how to decide when the former becomes the latter?

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>and how to decide when the former becomes the latter?
well obviously you have your map whenever there's a battle or 'dungeon' cave and then you just have an undefined 'you travel for hours/days through a cave network' when the caves aren't being all D&Dy

Yuo can even do stuff like 'as you travel along the Underroad to Caer Cannogh for the 2nd time, some crab-gnomes menace you in this location and whip out a more detailed map

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is there a pdf floating around somewhere? I'm not shilling out 66 euros for a book ive never looked at

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>thread filled with 2D maps of caves ignoring OPs problem

This is my favorite in this thread, and imo easily the best. Isometric seems like a necessity for caves, even if the end results comes out a little too clean or convenient. But shit, drawing all that out can be difficult to keep in proper perspective.

So here's my method for mapping large cave systems that can't be covered by the styles already shown in thread, it ends up looking sort of like a convoluted subway map:

Different and distinct(important!) colors for different elevations, and different line patterns for the varying sizes of tunnel.
Say for example higher elevations close to the surface that are small might be drawn as dotted blue lines, larger tunnels or chambers on the same level would be drawn I. The same color but would be dashed lines for larger tunnels turning to solid lines for very open cave systems that may include larger rooms, as the cave depth increases I move down the color spectrum, green, then yellow, then orange and reds for the bottom most caverns.
Important features get symbols or letter call outs for detail maps.
From there random encounters are pre planned maps that can quantum ogre into whatever place the dice say they occur, and the map gets a new note saying that map X is now the relevant feature here.

theres one in the /osrg/ trove, it might still be in the inbox section

Here's a related question:

How do YOU reveal maps to your players? Cover parts with other paper and reveal as they go? Have an NPC give them a map, or have them find one, and just hand the map over to the party? Use the map for your personal reference and describe each room/chamber as they go, letting them draw out their own map?

im sorry, what?

i dont know what that is

>How should you map out caves, Veeky Forums?
Step 1) Get a feel for the general layout and features of real caves by studying actual maps.
Step 2) Using what you learned, scribble the basic layout of your cave map, then fill out the details.
Step 3) Your map is done.

found it, and found the part of the book where it talks about making cave maps

it's something anybody who cares about this should check out

The mega folder linked on the OP of the Old School Renaissance general