What's your favorite haunted castle map?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm thinking of assembling a very quick and dirty vampire castle adventure for Shadowdark this October (since I'll theoretically be prepping for my first serious NaNoWriMo and should not go too deep down the rabbit hole of building a very large Halloween adventure).

My plan at the moment is to do it in Shadowdark, with good bespoke wandering monster tables for each section of the castle and a few set locations, like the vampire's lair, the room with the obligatory pipe organ, and a few others, and wing the rest with a book/PDF of color to pull from. (Raging Swan Press obviously makes multiple products that would work for this.)

But this approach requires a good castle for the player characters to get stuck at, presumably when their carriages get swamped in flash floods during a horrendous late-season thunderstorm and are forced to seek shelter in the nearby castle.

So what map would you recommend? 0one Games, whom I relied on for years pre-Dyson Logos, has several good vampire castle maps. I suspect @Dyson Logos has a bunch of good maps as well.

What I don't want to do is wrestle with Curse of Strahd if I'm going to be ignoring everything but the map.

Any suggestions on maps? And if you've run an adventure like this in the past, how did it work out?

 

[jdrakeh]

Tegel Manor. The module itself is, like a lot of JG stuff, kind of crap - but the map (also like a lot of JG maps) is great. I gather that there was a reprint of the module for 5e, but I have no experience with that. Another good map/bad module affair is The Palace of the Vampire Queen originally by Wee Warriors (link is to the reprint by Precis Intermedia).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Tegel Manor. The module itself is, like a lot of JG stuff, kind of crap - but the map (also like a lot of JG maps) is great. I gather that there was a reprint of the module for 5e, but I have no experience with that. Another good map/bad module affair is The Place of the Vampire Queen originally by Wee Warriors (link is to the reprint by Precis Intermedia).

Those are both good choices, thanks!

 

[ichabod]

I will do a second vote for Tegel Manor, but I admit that is mostly for nostalgia. The Death House from Strahd would be a more serious response. While it's small, that's good if you want to do a short adventure.

 

[Parmandur]

I just yesterday got OAR 5, Castle Amber, so that's fresh in my mind. Pretty over the top fun house, but the architecture isn't too kooky, and has old manor house grandeur.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I will do a second vote for Tegel Manor, but I admit that is mostly for nostalgia. The Death House from Strahd would be a more serious response. While it's small, that's good if you want to do a short adventure.

This is what I was going to say. Death House is great.

 

[jdrakeh]

I will do a second vote for Tegel Manor, but I admit that is mostly for nostalgia. The Death House from Strahd would be a more serious response. While it's small, that's good if you want to do a short adventure.

Another "great map, kind of pants adventure" nomination The "House of Lament" map in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is also pretty good (and that adventure is also pretty solid).

 

[aramis erak]

I'm thinking of assembling a very quick and dirty vampire castle adventure for Shadowdark this October (since I'll theoretically be prepping for my first serious NaNoWriMo and should not go too deep down the rabbit hole of building a very large Halloween adventure).

My plan at the moment is to do it in Shadowdark, with good bespoke wandering monster tables for each section of the castle and a few set locations, like the vampire's lair, the room with the obligatory pipe organ, and a few others, and wing the rest with a book/PDF of color to pull from. (Raging Swan Press obviously makes multiple products that would work for this.)

But this approach requires a good castle for the player characters to get stuck at, presumably when their carriages get swamped in flash floods during a horrendous late-season thunderstorm and are forced to seek shelter in the nearby castle.

So what map would you recommend? 0one Games, whom I relied on for years pre-Dyson Logos, has several good vampire castle maps. I suspect @Dyson Logos has a bunch of good maps as well.

What I don't want to do is wrestle with Curse of Strahd if I'm going to be ignoring everything but the map.

Any suggestions on maps? And if you've run an adventure like this in the past, how did it work out?

Since the internet, I've just gone for British Islander, French, German, and Italian historic castles. Many have good online maps.

Accommodations — Chateau du Pin

chateaudupinloire.com

Ground Plans

Dedicated to the study and promotion of British Castles

www.castles-of-britain.com

Before the internet, I used the Palladium Book of Weapons, Armors, and Castles. And other such resources.

I find most RPG castles ... too pat, too simple, too straightforward.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Since the internet, I've just gone for British Islander, French, German, and Italian historic castles. Many have good online maps.

Accommodations — Chateau du Pin

chateaudupinloire.com

Ground Plans

Dedicated to the study and promotion of British Castles

www.castles-of-britain.com

Before the internet, I used the Palladium Book of Weapons, Armors, and Castles. And other such resources.

I find most RPG castles ... too pat, too simple, too straightforward.

I wonder if there's an online map of Vlad Tepes' castle ...

 

[mamba]

I wonder if there's an online map of Vlad Tepes' castle ...

Bran