I am rating Hand Drawn Maps, Volume 1 at a solid three stars. It only costs $1.50, which gives you several interesting dungeon maps and one actually usable castle keep.

Liked: There is a three level map of a castle keep on a grid that could easily be a standard five foot per square scale. You get a courtyard and walls as well as a main Norman or Roman style keep interior. (There is no map showing the rooftops.) One of the dungeon maps is also attached to the keep, although there are no design elements other than the title that associate it with the keep above the dungeon. This map alone is worth three stars. The time it might save you on game night is worth the $1.50 price even if there were no other maps in the publication.

If you are one of those guys who cannot draw his own dungeon maps, the other maps in this product will probably be useful to you. I have a pencil, graph paper and ten minutes to spare, so these have no value to me. The dungeon maps are well-drawn for amateur artwork, and they all include grid overlays that could make them useful in some games.

There is also a color map of a larger castle roughly shaped like Chepstowe (but not of the same complicated design as that real castle). It is a slightly advaced motte and bailey style. Unfortunately, no grid overlay accompanies the map, so what you really have is a gamer quality hand-drawn picture that you might find in a low production value book about castles. Some people might like this sort of thing.

Disliked: Only one useable building or castle map in a product that could have been crammed with them. One wonders why pdf companies do not put more quality into these publications. They have nothing to lose and much to gain. This could be a company to watch, if they get their feet under them and bulk up the quality in their products. This one is three stars and I do not regret buying it.

Caverns, Tunnels, and Caves: Battlemaps 3 is the latest set of battlemaps from The Fantasy Cartographic. This product is the third set of cavern and cave battlemaps released in this product line, and features 5 complete maps of different subterranean locations, including one-inch scale versions of each of the maps. The large-scale maps are taken directly from TFC's product Caverns, Tunnels, and Caves: Vol 2, although that product is not required to use this one. This product is suitable for any gaming system where one-inch scale battlemaps are required.

The product comes as a single 109 page pdf file. The product is organised by presenting a large-scale map (DM's map), followed by a sectioned large-scale map indicating the locations of each one-inch scale section, and lastly the one-inch scale map sections. This pattern repeats for the five different locations presented in this product. A brief outline of the product is provided to allow you to jump right in and start printing these maps. All maps are black and white, which assists in saving ink on printing, but at the same time naturally doesn't look as impressive on the gaming table. One useful feature for such a large pdf that's been left out is bookmarks - to find, for example, the third of the five maps, you have to actually scan through the pdf using the table of contents for a page number. Bookmarks would've made this a lot easier.

The battlemaps presented in this product are fairly generic and old-school, the latter in the sense of them being simply caverns with no distinguishing features or other details of note. In fact, these maps are simply grids with caverns carved into them to form a larger battlemap. This kind of approach has both its advantages and its disadvantages, the latter being that they don't look that great, while for the former you're allowed maximum customization. I think both approaches have their merits, and although I haven't seen the product these maps were drawn from, I can only image that they will have more use if used with that product and any adventure hooks or plot details. Each map contains about 20 sections with each section being 9 by 7 inches. Sections between different maps cannot really be joined together to form new maps.

The cavern and cave maps each contain up to about ten possible locations that can be fleshed out to fill with encounters or possible key areas. Having looked through the maps there's plenty of scope to be creative, and I think any DM interested in these maps should be aware that using them will require extra work since they are generic in the most basic sense. I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to simply create a set of tiles that can actually be joined together to create any kind of map rather than only the ones presented here. While these are certainly unique, a little added versatility would've been really useful. I think in the long run one-inch scale generic cavern tiles that can be used to create hundreds of different caverns go a lot further than those that can only be used to create 5 maps.

I think this is a useful but fairly average product. It offers a lot in the area of customization and allows one full scope for creativity, but at the other doesn't offer much in terms of versatility or presentability of the individual tiles. Essentially this product is a quick and dirty way of creating a battlemap with no frills attached.

This set of maps is different from the first product from The Fantasy Cartographic. In Locales Vol 1, you have several high quality, clean lined maps. This set provides you with six map sets. Some are single maps, others include different levels. All of the maps are hand drawn, and bring back visions of my own hand drawn maps. This is not to lessen their quality. These are still good quality maps, most are done in color, and are similar in style to the maps from Locales, Vol 1. (Only doors, and secret doors provided, no interior details, etc.)

My biggest disappointment with these maps is the lack of scenario ideas to support each map. That was one of the things I liked about Locales, Vol 1. This product is all maps, and nothing but maps. There are a few notes written in the maps, and space for a GM to make his own notes, but the inspiration that came from the scenarios in Locales, Vol 1 is missing.

Overall, a good product, but not up to the standard I think that was set with Locales, Vol 1. If later volumes in this series include some scenario ideas, then I think this will greatly improve the quality of the Hand Drwan Maps product line.

I found this product to be a wonderful tool for any GM. The scenarios presented with each map set are plenty to start the creative juices flowing, even if you decide to not follow that scenario. I enjoyed the inclusion of the photos that head each map set as well, allowing me a chance to become immersed in the authors vision of the map location.

The maps themselves are great. In a day when many maps seem to go for glitz and glammor - lots of color, cool borders, etc., these maps harken back to the great days when RPGs were in their infancy. The maps are clean and elegant in their simplicity. They become the framework that I, as the GM, can then build my fantasy setting upon.

The maps for the Caverns are wonderful, creating an entire underground complex ready for adventuring. The only complaint I have for these maps is there is no map for the ruined city.

The map for the Temple Tomb does take a minute to wrap your mind about it and understand how it flows, but once you do you realize the uniqueness and creativity of such a map.

The other maps in the set are very simple and basic. They don't have the unique feel that the Caverns and Temple Tomb have, though they are great quality maps.

A great asset for any GM.

Locales Volume 1 is a 46 page pdf product and the first product from a new publisher, The Fantasy Cartographic. This product is a collection of unique maps for interesting and distinct locations that any DM can use to include in his or her game world. Volume 1 of the Locales series offers nine new maps, complete with a large number of plot hooks, story ideas and other bits of useful adventure information.

This product comes as a single pdf file. The product is devoted to maps, and provides more than 30 pages of good quality, detailed, black-and-white maps that DMs can use to create adventures from. The product layout and general look of the pdf is good, and most locations have additional 'stock art' that gives a deeper and more visual addition to the maps themselves. The writing and descriptive text associated with each location shows good creativity and imagination, with some unusual and unique locations presented. The product includes a table of contents, and useful introductory text, although there are no bookmarks. Maps are provided on a single page per map, in most cases with room for making notes on each map.

Locales Volume 1 provides 9 new locations with over 30 pages of maps for use in any campaign world. Most locations consist of multiple maps per location, with a page or more of descriptive text, plot ideas or general adventuring hints and tips. These maps provide a wide range of varied and interesting, even exotic locations, for DMs to use. Locations include The Cavern at S’siyerteresk Falls (a large natural underground cavern with a lake, river, fungus garden and stalactite and stalagmite columns hosting various denizens of the underdark), the Column Fortress of Deep Rushing (an enormous natural column within the aforementioned cavern and consisting of multiple levels), The Temple Tomb of Bgixilidynon (a vast dimensional fortress wrapped around itself), and The Lair of Ancient Malice (a secret lair, the entrance of which is submerged beneath a lake).

The locales offer exciting opportunities for adventuring, and provide promising and challenging locations for novice and experienced adventures to explore. The write-ups and details provided for each location give many new ideas and insightful plot hooks for use with these locations. This is one of the more unique products in this regard, offering something more unique and interesting than the typical product of its kind. I was impressed by the variety and possibilities of the various locations, and well as the creativity that had gone into creating each of the locations presented.

The maps themselves are all in black-and-white, and provide a detailed view of the nine locations presented. The maps don't include any interior details, barring the usual doors and stuff, but things like beds, altars, and other interior furnishing are not included. This allows the DM to create his own unique character using the map provided. The product is not intended as a plug-and-play product, but rather as a collection of maps that would inspire DMs to create something magical from. I generally found the maps very clear and good, although in some instances the detail over multiple levels takes a little more studying to appreciate the true scope of these maps. The map complexity ranges from ten level complexity to smaller maps containing only a handful of chambers or interior locations.

I was pleased with this product. It provides good maps with excellent background supporting material, and is very useful as it doesn't constrain the DM in any way when using this product. If you don't like the story for a particular map, just use the map. If you like the story but would like to create your own map interior, you're free to do that as well. The product offers good versatility, and achieves what it intended to achieve in providing good maps for DMs to create their own adventures from in unique locations. The maps aren't brilliant, but they provide enough to create something memorable and build on the ideas provided. A very good product from the Fantasy Cartographic.