The great thing about published adventures is that, generally, the maps are already drawn. The important areas of the adventure already have their requisite furnishings and encounters placed. You don’t have to worry about visualizing the space around your adventurers; the adventure designers have done that work for you.

But, how do you use these maps? More than that, how do you run these maps? Let’s talk about it!

We’ll use the free introductory adventure to Curse of Strahd as an example. This adventure, “Death House,” comes with a map of the eponymous house.

How to Read a Map

I’m not particularly good at visualizing scale or spacing, so maps help me a lot. This full-color map is especially helpful, and it gives DMs a sense of the area’s aesthetic.

The first thing I do when looking at a map like this is find where the scale is notated. Scale tells the reader how big each square (or hex, in some cases) on the map is. These squares are an abstraction for the reader—your adventurers won’t see them marked on the floor. They’re there to help the DM see how big the space is.

Scale is usually noted on the bottom of the map. We see near the bottom-right corner that “One square = 5 feet.” Thus, a Medium-sized adventurer takes up one square, and with a movement speed of 30 feet per round, can cover six of those squares per round.

Next, check to see if the adventure includes any general rules about what’s depicted in the map. How tall are the ceilings? What are the walls made of? What’s the DC to, say, break down or lockpick a door? Are the doors usually locked or unlocked? Is there lighting at all, or is the area dark? Most of those types of questions are answered early in the adventure or near the map.

For “Death House,” there are two such sections. One is the box on page four called “Death House’s Features” and covers the house itself. The second is called “Dungeon Features” on page nine and covers the dungeon beneath the house. These sections might not answer all of your questions, but they’ll hopefully give you the gist of the area. More specific details would be in the sections corresponding to a given room.

After you’ve done that, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with how each room flows into the next. There are many different paths your characters might take when moving through “Death House,” since it’s, well, a house. There are usually a few different routes to explore this house and the dungeon below.

Doors generally look like white boxes between rooms, but an “S” in between rooms generally indicates a secret door. The short blue-white lines in the walls represent windows. If there are shapes on the map you don’t recognize, check the room description to see if that explains it. For example:

Room 18 in “Death House” has those odd white blobs. Checking the description clarifies things—this is a storage room, and the furniture is covered by white sheets.

Now that we have a good idea of this map’s layout, let’s prepare to run the adventure.

Prepping to Run a Map

You’ve already obtained some familiarity with the maps you’ll be using, so make sure to briefly review what you’re working with. Skim over any read-aloud text you’re planning on reading to your players, and make sure to find the answer to any questions you have about the map itself. It might be a good idea to make notes to yourself wherever you keep your session prep notes.

With the “Death House” map, I noted that the crypt area in the dungeon are marked with “23” three times. So, when the party reaches that area, I want to describe those small areas all at once. I printed out this map so I could make my own marks on it (the party’s path, for example). This also allowed me to highlight each fireplace in the house, in case the party triggered the house’s wrath by denying the cult in the dungeon (causing smoke to pour out of all the fireplaces).

It’s also a good idea to look over any monster stat blocks that you may use during the adventure. Even if the adventurers might not fight all the possible encounters, keeping these monsters on hand will help you run things smoothly.

Additionally, if the characters might run into some unusual rules, you might want to refamiliarize yourself with them. For example, if the party angered the shambling mound at the bottom of the dungeon in this adventure, you might have to use the chase rules. Other cases might include the drowning and suffocating rules, or rules surrounding a particular spell or magic item.

If you have the time, you can even tinker with some of the read-aloud text (or make your own) to highlight certain aspects of the adventure. Make things spookier, more lighthearted, darker or lighter just by changing the way you describe the space the characters are in.

Now you’re prepared, it’s time to run the adventure!

Running the Map

You’ve put in a lot of work to prepare, so this is where that work pays off.

Remember that it’s impossible to be fully prepared for every circumstance, and it’s okay to take some time to find what you need in the adventure document. Your players will understand if you need a minute, especially in more complex area layouts. Unusual circumstances are inevitable, and while you can prepare for them, there’s always going to be at least one thing that will catch you off guard. When that happens, it’s okay to take a minute to figure out your ruling, what’s going on, et cetera.

Be as clear as possible when describing the area to your players. Actually, it’s probably most important to be consistent. For example, if you start by describing a room from left to right, try do the same in all the other rooms. This will help your players visualize the space. Additionally, don’t be afraid to remind the players where they’ve already been to re-orient them.

Overall, though, have fun with it! Don’t be afraid to deviate from what’s written—the adventure is a guide for you to use, not anything to be chained to.

Do you have any other tips (or questions) about running pre-made adventure maps? Let me know in the comments!