Castles & Keeps

[Brian K. Moseley]

Thirty-two elaborately detailed floorplans showcase five massive and unique fortifications, containing a total of over 400 concisely described areas, rooms and buildings.

This is an HTML format product. Preview available at darkfuries.com.

 

[Psion]

Castles & Keeps

Castles & Keeps is a software download product from Darkfuries available at RPGnow (www.rpgnow.com.) Similar to Inns & Taverns in concept and scope, Castles & Keeps provides floorplans for use in fantasy games. The download is available for $5.00 US.

The product comes packaged as a zip file. When unpacked, the product consists of a number of html files that the user may navigate with a standard browser, and a subdirectory with the gif file maps.

When opened, the content.html file has two frames. The left side frame provides navigation between the different galleries and to each floor of each structure. The right hand frame is where the content appears when selected. Of course, you can use your own graphics viewer to browse the images directory.

In addition to the title page and introductory information, there is a thumbnail gallery page for each castle or keep. There are a total of five such structures presented: Grimbarith keep, Halestrom Gallery, Lurfell Tower, Pelgurn Tower, and Roshefain Keep.

Unlike Inns & Taverns, in addition to the floorplans for each level, Castles & Keeps has text descriptions of each location. The descriptions correspond to number keys on the map. The description only pertains to content and appearance of each room; no NPCs or other game specific information is provided.

The floorplans themselves are laid out with a dotted-line square grid, with each square 5' on a side (perfect for d20 system players). The icons are generally clear and the layout logical; the floorplans should fit nicely into a standard fantasy campaign.

Due to the size of some of the keeps, unlike the Inns & Taverns floorplans, the Castles & Keeps floorplans do not conform nicely accomodate 25mm miniatures when printed on a standard 8 ½ x 11 sheet. If you want to print the maps out and use them with miniatures, you will have to subdivide the map and print them seperately.

Conclusion

As with Inns & Taverns, Castles & Keeps provides a nice selection of floorplans that you will be eager to use in your fantasy campaign. The 5' square grid is very convenient for d20 system players. Albeit there are no convenient game statistics for castle guards, staff, and other inhabitants, the descriptions should give you some decent and essential descriptions for games in the keep.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I've had a good look at Darkfuries: Castle and Keep Floorplans (Electronic Software Download (ESD) Copyright © 2002 by Brian K. Moseley.

The ESD is an excellent way to obtain this product and I highly recommend a download -- your enjoyment will be immediate that way -- because this is an excellent product. ESD makes this product really affordable and very useful.

I've spent a great deal of time trying to locate and create maps for my D&D 3E game, and this batch of books from Darkfuries is about the best I've come across. (Columbia Games also puts out excellent maps, but that is a seperate review).

Castles & Keeps contains a collection of 5 Castle/Keeps in 32 maps. Each map (GIF) is easily accessible through an HTML browser (which works perfect in IE5). Each map is very detailed along with contents, doors, windows and other important structural elements, the cartography is crisp and clear -- with no stylized presentation elements often found on other maps.

The cartography is very realistic, with well planned castles that add a great deal of verisimilitude to product. More importantly all 5 castles are *complete* castles unlike some other products which present only parts of structures or only a few levels of a castle.

The scale of the maps is a bit off for my purposes -- Darkfuries has each map sized for 25mm minis -- but since the images are provided in GIF format, you can easily resize to whatever page size (e.g. 8x11) you require. Having a source file in anycase is a good idea -- so you can create player and DM versions of maps.

The interactive HTML formating (which should run in any internet browser) presents each castle in an image gallery and then more detailed pages for each floor of each castle. Reviewing each castle takes seconds, and access any level of that castle is very easy -- with a single click.

Castles:

Grimbarith - 4 above ground levels - 2 below ground levels - 1 roof level
Halestorm - 4 above ground levels (my favorite out of the five)
Lurfell - 8 above ground levels - 2 below ground levels
Pelgurn - 3 above ground levels - 1 below ground level - 1 roof level
Roshefain - 4 above ground level - 1 roof level (my second favorite out of the five)

Overall, this product is excellent value for the money. I highly recommend the ESD even if you are just curious.