A round-up of some recent and interesting tiles and map products in DriveThru/RPGNow (complied from several blog entries). All of the picture links point to products on DriveThru and they are all almost certainly available on RPGNow.com and Wargame Vault.
Pwork's (Paper Wargames) Fantasy Tiles Master Dungeon Set appears to be a fantasy offshoot of their Space Hulk inspired
sci-fi sets. I'm guessing that this would explain why the squares are 3cm wide which is friendly to larger Warhammer bases. There's not a great deal of margin space on the pages, but as a result very little paper or card will be wasted. I rather like the stand-up doors but I haven't tried to construct them since the instructions in my copy are in Italian only and there's no self-explanatory tabs in the designs. The dungeon pieces would make a very satisfying blocky set of basic floor plans especially if glued to corrugated card or foam card. I'll be honest, the larger scale puts me off these a little, but the art is good and all of the parts and props are generic enough for simple dungeons ran in many systems. This is a fairly good value product for 24 pages, with repeatable designs at $7. Certainly worth considering if your figures seem a little crowded on that 1-inch scale battlemat.
Into the Wilderness Map 0 is free PDF and JPG file of yet more excellent art from CSP - who have received far too much praise for their dungeon work from me already. ;) The PDF is for printing whereas the jpg is for moving around in your chosen VTT software, hi-tech game table or tablet. It's always nice to have the option. Download this, you have nothing to lose. If you like the style his other forest maps are modestly priced.
If you're on Facebook, you may like to be dazzled by the maps-in-progress posted by artist
Alyssa Faden who hand draws and digitally composes maps for Torn World publishing. As you may know, dear reader, I am always intrigued by real pen and ink (usually so I can steal ideas, ahem, I mean learn techniques...). Volumes
1 and
2 of
Torn World's Hand-Drawn Cities are for the more discerning map appreciator. These two black and white products nestle amongst the other gorgeous colour maps and accessories provided by Torn World, but for me these are the bright treasures. Everywhere you look in these sprawling cities there are details, and yet they are plain enough to make those cities your own. As is the fashion these days, the PDF comes with graphics files (.png and jpg) which can be imported into other packages (perhaps you would like to give to different districts your own shades your reference?) All of Alyssa Faden's cities appear to have grown organically, developing in sections - the awkward geometries imply social history and civil expansion. Every block of buildings is depicted, so that the streets are very detailed. However, the details do create a flaw when using the graphics files... Basically, these maps will make you want to zoom right into street level, which results in mild blur and pixelation. Again, I have to stress that this is because the overhead detail is so amazing that you just have to see how far it goes! The good news is that all of the files in these packs are small enough in size to be usable in many applications and platforms without any sluggish scrolling. Bonus.
I've been spying
this product but I know that I'd never have the patience to assemble everything contained, but LZW are providing customers with a respectable alternative to Fat Dragon's packs. LZW seem to be doing some fairly clever things with PDF layers by allowing the customer to choose different feature details. So make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader before looking an LZW product. I reckon that this is one of those deceptive packs, i.e. the cover displays a mere handful of walls and pillars, when you are in fact buying a complete modular building system for dungeon interiors and small stone buildings. Seriously inventive stuff.
I really like the art and ingenuity of Skeleton Key's
2E Adventure Tiles Labyrinth Core Set. You get a whopping 73 small square tiles. There are two main types of exit - and a mixture of curved walls with straights. The light grey browns will give you a maze reminiscent of dusty classical settings or from the films like Labyrinth or Barbarella, whilst still fitting within grey castle environments.
As with many geomorphic designs, some referees may not like the fact that players can see beyond the walls to an inaccessible part of a tile, but I'm sure that a creative DM can find an explanation to allow for this meta-game awareness - perhaps just a sense that there's a hollow chamber or corridor beyond the wall - all the party need to do is go around the next corner to get there... - which is pretty much what mazes are about. Certainly, the visual impact and compressed nature of the tiles mean that a maze will feel less laborourious than elongated zig zagging corridors. It might be a bit of a struggle to run 4E D&D encounters in such small areas, but many other FRP rules should be okay.
Good looking, professional and (again) inventive.
Eric Chaussin of Old School Dungeons (
my earlier post on EC's work) has managed to woo me again with another 1980's style release.
Vos Donjons Comme Vous Le Voulez "Your dungeons -as you like them" is an 11 page dungeon accessory pack which seems deceptively small considering its many applications. I thought at first that the pages 1-5 were A4/letter size battlemats, but no, EC is going back to the early days of trim-to-fit floor plans - much easier when you're not using walls - basically the "black spaces" between the cut-out shapes become the walls - as is the way of the old Dungeon Floorplans and some modern irregular tiles. Included as well as these flagstone designs are stairs, doorways, beds, a table and chest (the furniture is 3D). Eric has had considerable experience in drawing fantasy heroes, so it comes as no surprise that he also includes 11 flat-foldable back-to-back minis on simple circular bases.
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| Thumbnails of the pages in the Vos Donjons... PDF |
I've included a screenshot thumbnail of the pages here because I believe his description doesn't do the product full justice (hopefully he'll be fine with this!).
The price may seem a little high ($10.40 as I type), but if you're a fan of MB HeroQuest game boards, Warhammer Quest and DungeonBowl then you will appreciate where Eric Chaussin is coming from with his
one-size fits all "Old School Dungeons". The graphic work is bold and slick, also it looks relatively easy to assemble. This is a perfect basic starter pack for use with a straightforward dungeon setting.
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