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Hi contestants
A few things to consider and ponder on your encounters.
a) Be consistent with dimensionality.
If the text says the area has particular dimensionality, does the scale of the map and the representation of the area on the map match?
If you describe entry/exits by compass, does the compass orientation on the map result in the representation of those entry/exit points match?
b) Houses aren't build on grid lines? Drunken dwarves rarely make perfectly straight corridors...
Consider the style of your map, does everything go old school and follow the graph paper grid lines, or is it a more natural evolution where the grid lines purley illustrate scale and spacing without effect on area orientation?
If your dungeon corridors are in hard rock, they would like follow the rock strata and the softer paths of least resistance. Make things gel coherently with the surrounding environment.
c) Symbols are never obvious to anyone but the drawer!
If you have symbols, numbered locations, points of interest, etc, have a key table that depicts those symbols and what they stand for. These may not appear on a flip mat but are invaluable to an artist rendering your map to that flip mat.
It could include a compass rose purely for the artist who may have to render your descriptions and room content onto a flip mat surface, but if your whole map is a single flip map and the orientation is easy to work out, it's not so important for flip mat maps.
Also include that scale - if you have pull outs of the map at different scales, don't forget to include those scales too! Again, the base map at flip mat scale is scaled for miniatures and gridded in 5 foot squares, so unless your map differs from that, it'snot so important.
d) leave room for combat!
If you have a party of 6, that's 6 occupied squares, if the encounter has an opposing forced of equal medium enemies, that's another 6 squares, so the encounter area where they are met must exceed 12 squares.
If you want to encourage tactics and movement into your encounter, use at least double that, 24 squares.
A 20 x 20 room is 4 squares by 4 squares with 5 foot squares, that's only 16 squares and so is unsuitable for a 12 medium creature encounter - be aware of this sort of space on your encounters.
Also consider the "dungeon dressings", if you have chairs, tables, altars, pillars, things that eat up free space, bear that in mind on your encounter design too.
e)Sound carries, dynamise your encounters
If combat breaks out in an area of your encounter map, what nearby will hear and come to investigate or aid the enemy? Monsters won't sit idly by, they will come and make things difficult for the PCs and at the same time minimize the risks to themselves.
Monsters who have survived any length of time will hunt naturally and use whatever advantages they can get, so not these possibilities too. It may take a round or two for them to react and arrive, just make sure you have covered this eventuality if you need to!
f)What makes your encounter unique/exciting?
Consider your local environment - is the area highly flammable, slippery with snow, running across slippery rooftops, dangers of precipice edges nearby (like falling from a third story balcony or roof top), chance of discovery by a night patrol, etc. The urban environment provides many opportunities to affect the encounter.
Is there anything else heightening the danger, a time limit visually represented in some way, a rescue where someone is sinking fast in the towns river or well, the lower floor of a building is fast ablaze and spreading to the upper floor where the PCs awaken, a running ranged combat where the boat on the river is fast heading to clear and wide waters out of town leaving the PC's helpless behind, catching the culprits in the act just as the guard dogs awaken from the magically induced slumber, etc.
Hope you find these initial gotchas useful, and best of luck with the reveal tonight.