Background: I'm running Rise of the Runelords. I have 7 players and two are pretty loud and chatty. I'm working on keeping them focused so I can be in control of the game pace. They also talk over other people however, like I said, we are working on this issue. But the game is still moving slow.
I do feedback sessions after every game and something I need to improve on is my map drawing time. I like maps. I love to draw areas of adventures as PC's encounter them. They enjoy the exploration aspect but sometimes I can take 5 to 10 min to draw a map only to erase it after they are done with the room (combat or not). This wasn't really a problem in my old group. They sat quietly to let me concentrate on drawing the map. I've never really thought about it as a problem but the time I take is really detrimental to our game now.
How can I speed up drawing maps and my game in general without sacrificing the joy of exploration?
I've thought about pre-drawing everything then using index cards to block what the PC's can't see. But I use a Chessex 26x23 Battlemat to draw on and it's porus. The wet earse marker will stain if I leave the map on the mat for too long.