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12 Fortresses and Strongholds Map Set is a 22 page pdf product featuring more than a dozen maps suitable for any fantasy campaign setting. This product is one of several map sets presented by The Stainless Steel Dragon, although one of the first to appear in pdf form. This map set contains 16 maps of 12 different fortresses and strongholds, detailed with all manner of things within each map and each one also easily printable on a single page.
The product comes as a single pdf file that doesn't contain any bookmarks, nor a table of contents. The product includes useful front and back covers, although like the rest of the product the look and feel is quite dated. The very first page contains a rather stern copyright warning, and, if you're like me, you'll probably not appreciate being shouted out in bold letters with multiple exclamation marks. Given the fact that the second page contains an advertisement to buy their other products, I was not sure this pdf was off to the greatest start.
The product itself is made up entirely of maps, with no introductory or other text apart from that already mentioned (and the blurb on the back cover). The maps are dated, like they were drawn on a computer from 20 years ago, and are entirely in black and white. Each map is presented on a single page, with a small title at the bottom of the page. This should allow for easy printing. Overall, the product looks decent, if you can look past the dated maps to their content, and the rather uncalled-for shouting about copyright at the start.
The maps cover quite a variety of different fortifications, strongholds and castles. Some of the names (not terrible innovative, but descriptive) include Waterward Castle (built overlooking the docks), the three level Stormguard Mountain Peak Fortress, Castle Dreadnought (with numerous defences and fortifications), and Riverguard Castle (guarding the river, no less). These castles should be easy to insert into any likely location - the product does additionally provide a map of Voldaria where these castles are located, indicating likely locations. Again, this map is even more out of a 80's computer game, with repetitive use of the same icons to construct a larger image on the whole.
The maps themselves are incredibly detailed, including to the finest information such as the swords located on the weapon shop's counter. While this detail is to be appreciated in a sense, it makes the maps more difficult to use by cluttering them quite a lot. Do we really need to know the location of every single horse in the fortification? I found the detail very confusing, particularly because each map doesn't have its own legend, but shares a rather lengthy and detailed two page legend located at the back of the product.
The detail goes further in that there are several different map symbols for many items, such as horses (saddled or not), chests (different sizes), etc. This makes it really hard to identify a type of item as you need to be able to tell all the symbols for each item. The detail does, once you've figured it out for a particular part of the fortification (it's impossible to get an idea of the castle without a lengthy look that dismisses the detail), give one an impressive description of each feature, that you can use to describe that particular aspect of the castle. While the intent was probably to use these on the fly, I'd not consider that. The maps are far too detailed and complicated, particularly because the dated art makes it difficult to discern some features.
The other thing that bothers me about the maps, apart from the clutter, is that the clutter in places is just wrong. I realise we're working on fortification and castles here, but Castle Dreadnought, for example, has 12 catapults to a single tower. And there are six towers. On top of that, each wall has an army of a further 8 catapults. That's more than 100 catapults in a single castle! Which brings up the other point worth mentioning - the maps have no scale. There's no indication what the size of everything is, which makes it more difficult to get an idea of the scope of the castle. One can presumable assume the size based on the size of a horse, for example, but a scale would've been really helpful. Maps without scales are just layouts, not maps.
So, what's good and what's bad about this product? It's got good detail, making descriptions easier, and giving some hints as to the scope of the castle and its occupants. It's also got decent variety in castles, from mountains, to the sea, to rivers, to standard forts. The detail though, is also the product's undoing - far too complicated, far to cluttered, and far too confusing, particularly with the legend at the back of the product, rather than beside the map. Which means you need to print 3 pages for each map - two for the legends, and one for the map. From a medieval perspective the castles are also not realistic, although, for a fantasy castle they could be, barring perhaps the huge number of catapults. Why would you need so many to defend a castle? There are more catapults than there are beds for people to sleep in. Realism is not strong on these maps. There's good and there's bad - unfortunately the latter outweighs the former.
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