A superb product that is bound to be of great use to DM's everywhere. This is a fully realised map of a medieval style city wherein each and every building has been designated as to its purpose - I really like this aspect of the map, it takes a lot of hard work out of city design. Illustrations are in black and white throughout meaning printing it won't cost a fortune in ink!

Also included are notes on the socio-political/economic structure of the city (very much reminded me of historical Venice), random tables for determining a building's residents and an exhaustive list of potential street names that the DM can assign as s/he sees fit.

Without question this product is generic enough to be slotted into any campaign with a minimum of fuss, yet there is just enough background given to ensure that Gorglis has a "personality" on which you can build.

Conjuring up a typical mediaeval city layout, here's an entire township to explore. Whilst it is given a reasonable background should you wish to use it, the actual maps are left unlabelled - save for generic indications as to possible use for each building - so if preferred you can drop it somewhere suitable in an existing campaign world. It does need to be built around a river mouth, fairly flat with forests and fields beyond the city walls, otherwise it can go most anywhere.

The suggested name for the place is Gorglis and it is supposed to be quite a haven for thieves and other urban rogues. Cramped twisty streets, houses and businesses jumbled up together, and more open areas where the rich have their palaces, courtyards with wells or fountains and more set the scene for a teeming environment where both rogues and more honest entrepreneurs can thrive. Divided into 'quarters' - distinctive areas rather than actual geometric ones - there are shipyards and other nautical establishments near the sea and on the river banks as well as areas for rich and poor to dwell. Various temples are scattered throughout, as are a wide variety of businesses (although I'm a little concerned at the juxtaposition of an undertaker's shop and a butcher!). Livestock markets (complete with stockyards), even a menagerie and theatres... and a Doge's Palace for whoever's in charge.

If you are installing the entire city 'as is' there are several essays describing the governance, buildings, docks, trade and more so you can plonk the city down and run it with little effort. There are even lists of inhabitants (mostly described by trade rather than named) that you can use to detail who is around for your characters to meet on the streets or in their homes and places of work. As a bonus, there's a collection of street names which you can apply to the city streets, which have been left unnamed.

This is a comprehensive mediaeval-style city in copious detail that should prove a joy to visit or run urban adventures through the streets.

For a freebie, this is most excellent. Normally, I'd rate it a 4/5 if I had paid around a couple of bucks for it. But make it free? Nice.

Tombs and Tumuli is a product after my very own dark heart. Not only does this 8-page gem cover the portal tomb, the long barrow, a many chambered tumulus, and a large stone tomb, but it also provides a brief explanation. The tomb-plans are stark, black & white line drawings, giving a GM just enough to use in order to quickly plop it into their games-- whether it's for an evening's play, or a full campaign world.

I enjoy these sorts of illustrations, and I'm sure OSR and Old World WFRP types will, too, but your mileage may vary. I mean, come on, it's free, so you have nothing to lose.

I'll be sure to keep my eye on more products from DreamWorlds.

NICE FREEBEE MAN. WELL OF USE. WILL BE HELPING ME LOTS WITH WHAT I WANT. MORE HEX TYPES WOULD BE COOL THOUGH. THANKS AND RESPECT

This is an excellent and very realistic mediaeval fishing village to drop complete into a suitable location in your campaign world. It's clearly based on existing real-world villages and old maps, always a good source of inspiration in designing fantasy settings (along with a good working knowledge of archaeology) as these give an air of authenticity as most fantasy worlds are basically mediaeval in style.

But it's a lot more than a map. There is a full-page map of the entire village and four further maps showing each part in greater detail. The detail maps are labelled with who lives where, and the accompanying text tells you quite a bit more about their inhabitants - but in general terms, so you can tweak them to suit your particular world. No names are given, so if you are not good at coming up with names find one of the many good 'lists of names' products available elsewhere on this site to inspire you.

There is also some background to the village as a whole, describing the local landowner (the lord of the manor) and his relationship with the other inhabitatants. Again, just the right level of detail, sufficient to add a realistic flavour, but not a straitjacket that inhibits your adding whatever is needed to suit your campaign setting or the particular plot elements that will bring the characters to this village. The feeling that it's a real village and life goes on here irrespective of whether or not any adventurers might happen by is strong, and this adds to the realism. An excellent piece of work!

This product has information on each of the rooms and their purpose in the Victorian middle class home. But, there is no information on the sizes listed for any of the rooms. The floor plans seem hand drawn but the layout of the home is there and one could scale the rooms from the size of the doorways, if you have the time to do that. If you are looking for a map of this place with a square or hex grid on it, this is NOT that. If you are looking for views of this place from the outside, this does not have that, either. It could be improved by adding information on the size of each room to their description or by putting a scale on the floor plans. But, for free, it's not a bad value.

Nothing specially exciting, but a fairly well detailed Victorian villa, with some background information, that allows you to get ready in minutes instead of hours to game master your next scene (mystery murder, hounted house, time travel...) based in a Victorian villa. I'm happy I have this material in my folder as I know can turn up to be very useful in a short time.

Whether your game is fantasy or historical, when you need a defensive base a good starting-point is an actual historical castle style. Here is one of the fairly early styles, the shell keep - basically you build a solid circular or square structure with a space in the middle, and defend yourself from all directions at once.

This shell keep castle is presented in clear detail, in a style familiar from the 'castle plans' I collected from every castle I visited all over England and Wales as a child (even before I took up role-playing I loved castles and boy, have those plans come in useful since!). Suggestions for how various rooms in the castle might be used are given, and there's plenty of scope to develop from there.

Possibly best suited to low-fantasy, as if both defenders and assailants have access to lots of high-powered magic, flying creatures and so on, the way in which you defend yourself is going to change from the historical build a solid wall, hide behind it and fire arrows at those who'd attack you model to something quite different. Even so, if your enemies come mounted on dragons or giant eagles, why not spread a stout net over the central open area to stop them landing? You can fire offensive spells through arrow slits just as well as arrows... and so on, and this is a delightful starting point in developing your own castles and ways to defend them.

Good descriptive detail too in the accompanying text about the history, design and construction of this type of castle: it's not just a set of floorplans, but a considered introduction to this type of castle.

So what exactly do dwarves do when not out adventuring, drinking lots of ale and singing songs about gold?

They build fantastic underground cities, that's what. Then invite Dreamworlds to drop by and map them!

This product consists of a wealth of maps and floorplans covering the entire underground City of Dolg - 40 maps covering 17 levels and thousands of chambers. It begins with a brief history written in scholarly style by a surface-dwelling academic - if you choose to use the city 'as is' you could supply this as an in-character account that diligent characters could find through research before visiting Dolg - and then provides further detail for the GM on how the city is laid out and some of the ways in which you can use it. Perhaps it is a flourishing community with which the characters wish to trade or establish diplomatic relations, it may be under threat and needing the characters' help, or it may be a deserted ruin with few traces of its former grandeur...

An overview plan (side elevation) and a surface map is followed by a host of level and sub-level ones, all drawn clearly but in a neat hand-drawn style. The areas on each level are numbered with a brief key that gives the suggested use of each chamber. There's a lot going on - trading and residential areas, a military section, forges and warehouses, extensive coal, silver and ore mines, a royal palace, and even a cemetary complete with embalming facilities. It is perhaps a little short on santitary facilities, we hope that the rather few chambers designated as 'closets' are well-signposted for dwarves in search of relief!

Appendices cover details of mine shafts and the railway system that serves to transport rock and metals around the city, quite an engineering feat - as is, indeed, the entire city.

If dwarves in your campaign world construct underground cities, here is one ready-made, and a fine one at that. However you decide to use it, it is an impressive and coherent place that should provide plenty of memorable adventure.