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The Simplest Way to Annotate a Map

by Mike on 14 October 2024

Find a map that fits the location you need for your game. Print it out. Write evocative location names on the map with a pen.

I haven't found a method for annotating maps easier than that. Even if you use digital tools, printing the map, writing names on it, taking a picture with your phone, and adding it back into your digital notes is still faster than any other digital annotation tools I've used.

A map with handwritten annotations on it

5,000 Year Old Technology

Pencil and paper are often faster and simpler tools for prepping our game than digital tools. I've used Obsidian and Notion for RPG prep, but I still enjoy the days where I write my strong start, scenes, secrets and clues, and the rest longhand. There's something simple, direct, and pure about prepping with pen and paper. No distractions. No funky interface to get used to. Just the 5,000 year old technology of putting our thoughts and imagination down on a medium that can last a thousand years.

Simple Maps

I love Dyson Logos for simple, well-designed maps that fit all sorts of different situations. I've written about my love of Dyson maps before. They're easy to print, easy to write on, and easy to copy onto a battle mat using his key. They work well digitally and physically.

Evocative Names – Just For Us

Sometimes we GMs prep like we're prepping for someone else. We write out read-aloud text, develop large random tables, and add details to notes as though we're going to hand our prep over to another GM to run.

Our notes are just for us and they serve one purpose – to help us run our next game. Our notes aren't for anyone else. They're just for us. They don't need to be complete and they don't need to be pretty.

When we annotate our map, we don't need to fill in lots of details. Often a single evocative name for each chamber does the trick. Here are some examples:

Shrine of Heretical Aten
Well of Worlds
Howling sinkhole
Sinister armory
Moss-covered mosaics
Crumbling statues
Profane dias and altar
Fiery dragon skulls
Cracked stone bridge
Delicate laboratory

These one to three word descriptions, when we write them ourselves, gives us enough of a reminder to fill in further details when it comes to running those rooms. We don't need paragraphs of text for each room – many of them the characters never see.

Our notes are just for us. Our annotations are just for us. We don't need a lot written down to remember what we had in mind or to riff off of should the characters go into a chamber we didn't expect.

Keep Things Simple

Focus on tools that help you run your game – the ones that help you improvise during the game. The more complicated your stack of tools, the harder it is to find the right tool the moment you need it. Often these tools are the oldest ones in existence – a sheet of paper, a pencil, and some dice.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Last week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Organizing and Searching RPG PDFs on a Mac and Mugdulblub – Shadowdark Gloaming Session 44 Lazy GM Prep.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video:

Patreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Give each improvised monster an interesting trait to define its story in mechanics.
At 7th level, don't expect any single monster to bring a significant challenge unless it has legendary resistance.
Prepare one major scene for every 45 minutes of gameplay.
Show characters the breadth of cultures from the humanoid creatures they meet.
Keep a list of names of previous NPCs you can quickly reference when an old NPC comes back into the spotlight.
Let players level up characters together and discuss the new abilities they're considering.
Build historical layers to your dungeons. What is it now? What did it used to be? And what was it before that?

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