So, I thought maybe I could share with the other new players on some ways to keep track of where you're at, where you're going, and where you've been in unmapped areas. It can get pretty frustrating when you're lost and the only option is to use your Newbie Crystal(1) to recall out of there. I'll teach you a way to keep track of your movements with pencil and paper, how to leave breadcrumbs in-game, and how to convert your paper map in to an ASCII map so that you can save for later. Even though there are already maps out there for a lot of the unmapped areas, as a true mud'r a lot of the fun is exploring and finding things out on your own!


The first thing you want to is grab a sheet of paper and a pencil. Once you get to the well in newbie village, go ahead and 'enter well'. Now, you're in the starting room of the dungeon. So, take your pencil and draw a small square or circle or whatever on the paper. I emphasize small because you never really know in what directions you'll be heading and we don't want to run out of space on our paper! I usually shade in the starting square or mark it in some way so that I know that's where I started and that's where I need to go to get back out (mostly). Once you draw your square or circle, take a look at the known exits. In this case, they are 'w' and 'e'. So, from your starting room draw two small lines coming from the room to the west and to the east (left and right).


Now, the next thing we want to do is start leaving our breadcrumbs! The method I use is looking in my inventory and seeing what coins I have. generally I'll use the highest number of coins that I have that are less than gold. So here, in this starting room, 'drop 1 zinc coin'.(2) This will let us know that we've already been in this room.

So now, we will systematically travel to and log each room, and exits for those rooms, one by one until we have mapped the entire dungeon. Remember to read room descriptions because there may be hidden exits that don't show up in the list of obvious exits. Also take notes on important rooms and rooms with important items, objects or people.

So, just to show some progression on our map, we will travel to the west from our starting room.

Here we're presented with a new direction. Down. This is where we will be splitting of from our starting map and starting another map somewhere on the same page or on a new page. Though, if possible, always finish mapping all the rooms on the level that you are on before you go up or down a level. That way you're not jumping back and forth between maps trying to keep track of what you have and haven't drawn already. But for learning purposes, this is how I would document a room with a direction like up or down.



That's the basics of it there. I've attached an image below so you can get an idea of how I map out dungeons on paper before I take the time to convert them in to ASCII maps. I'll also add the full map for the Newbie Village dungeon to the end of this post so you can get an idea of a good way to build your maps.




(1): see 'crystal help'
(2): Sometimes the breadcrumb method can be frustrating. If there is high player traffic in the area and the other players stop to pick up your one tiny coin then you'll come back to the room and not know if you've been there already. This hasn't been much of a problem for me but there have been occasions.



Newbie Village Well Cave
Level 1

#################################
#############-########-##########
############|a|------| |#########
#############-########-##########
#############|################### Legend:
#############|################### S - Starting Room
#############-########-########-# a - Boulder Room ('push boulder')
############| |------| |------| | 1d - down to level 2 (1u)
#############-########-########-#
######################|##########
######################|##########
#--#####-#####-#######-##########
|1d|---| |---|S|-----| |#########
#--#####-#####-#######-\#########
########|###############\########
########|#################-######
########-################| |#####
#######| |################-######
########-########################


Newbie Village Well Cave
Level 2

#################################
#################################
#--#####-#####--########-########
|1u|---| |###|2d|######| |####### Legend:
#--#####-#####--########-######## 1u - Up to level 1 (1d)
########|#####|#########|######## 2d - Down to level 3 (2u)
##-#####-#####-#########|######## a - slimy water
#| |---| |---| |########-#####-## b - creeper
##-#####-#####-########| |---|b|#
##|###########|########/-#####-##
##-###########-#####-#/##########
#|a|#########| |---| |###########
##-###########-#####-############
#################################
#################################


Newbie Village Well Cave
Level 3

#################################
##############--#################
#############|2u|################
#############/-------############
############/#########\########## Legend:
####-#####-/#######-###\-####-### 2u - Up to level 2 (2d)
###| |---| |######| |--| |--| |## a - King Spider
####-#####-\#######-####-####-### b - Queen Spider
############\################|###
#############\###############-###
###############-#####-######| |##
##############| |---|a|######-###
###############-#####-###########
###############|#################
###############|#################
#########-#####-#################
########|b|---| |################
#########-#####-#################
#################################