A topic started by Daniel Dean has prompted me to write up something I've been thinking for a while, the idea of using templates/coordinates as a way of helping verbally talk through complex spaces (e.g. on an audio-only game with no VTT, or describing something to 8 players while you sit behind a GM's screen).

Imagine this picture is one of two or three similar templates printed on the back of the GM's screen. The GM says this:

"The corridor runs for 40' until it opens out into a room. We'll use Arrangement 2 to describe it. You come out in the south wall, at H. Areas ABC are raised, like a stage; there's a curtain along the north wall at the back of it. Creepy, rotating floor lamps are at A and C. There's also a catwalk suspended, diagonally across the room, way above your heads; it runs G to C."