Building layouts with cards

Here is a technique I used to create the map(s) for my upcoming dungeon, The Castle Automatic. I think it has merit, and I think you should use it next time you have some rooms but no map. 

Important Note

Because of this project's nature, I used tarot cards as signifiers, but that is not the point. If you have a normal dungeon, write your room numbers/names down on index cards. Then, put them in the configuration you want them to be in. Then, move them around if they're not right yet. The important thing is that you have a signifier for every room. 

(You could also do this digitally by making a flowchart of squares in Miro! I just had fun doing it physically, and you might, too.)

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OK, so I had 80-some odd rooms. But how to lay them out? Something I did was physically start laying out cards that represented the rooms. This was a really fun exercise. 

The kitchen should be close to the feast hall. It should close to the wine cellar. And the commode too, I guess. 

This room is a guardian room meant to prevent people from entering the royal suites. It's a choke point. 

The characters will need to get a sacred candle to enter the sanctuary. But the Page of Cups won't interact with them before they get knighted by the Knight of Cups, so his room needs to be before the sanctuary.

And so on.

By laying the rooms out on cards before I committed ink to paper, I could move things around really easily. Then, I could ask myself some essential questions about the map.

Is it Jayquaysed? Are there hidden rooms? Are there easy paths and hard paths? Are there connections back to the start? Are there multiple entrances?

By having physical cards I could look at while asking these questions, I could solve the problems I perceived in real time. I could scoot them around into different configurations and do another spot check. 

This technique worked for me. Maybe it'd work for you, too!