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.

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.