Simon Collins
Explorer
Battlemaps: Dungeon Rooms Vol. 1 is the first in a new line of products from 01 Games, providing series' of maps for standard locations in adventures.
Battlemaps is a 22 page .pdf file, 4.38 MB in size, and costing $6. The file is bookmarked to each colour map. Immediately after each colour map is its equivalent in mono for those who wish to save their colour ink. Each map has a natural 1" grid effect in the form of tiles or flagstones, which can be used as a battle map for miniatures. All the maps but one can be printed on a single A4 piece of paper (the temple map must be printed on 2 sheets and then meshed together). The view on all maps is top down.
The maps offered in Vol 1 are as follows:
* The Crypt - a gloomy tomb, containing a single stone sarcophagus with a sword lying atop (this could be taken to be a real sword or one engraved into the sarcophagus). The crypt is lit both by candles and an excellent lighting effect of weak sunshine (or maybe torchlight) filtering through a wrought iron gate at the entrance.
* Alchemist's Laboratory - a busy-looking room with a central table filled with books and a variety of vessels whilst racks of jars, bottles, books, barrels, and amphorae line the walls.
* Armory - a large variety of weapons and shields line the walls of this room, along with chests and barrels that may hold ammunition or other goods.
* Dark Temple - two wrought iron gates bleed light into this eerie temple. The walls are decorated with demonic-looking gargoyles, blood stains the floor, and a single weapon lies on top of the brazier-lit obsidian altar. Behind the altar lies a mysterious gate.
* Torture Chamber - this gruesome room is even more heavily bloodstained than the dark temple, a skeleton lies streched on the rack, whilst another hangs from manacles on the wall and another lies at the bottom of a dark pool in the corner. Various other machines of torture lie around the room.
* Entrance Room - a standard entry to a dungeon area, with a long set of stairs leading to a small entrance room with three doors - left, right, and in front.
* Fountain Room - every dungeon seems to have one - this a beautifully designed circular room with arched doorways and that great lighting effect through a wrought iron gate again. The edge of the fountain is decorated with a swirling design, whilst the water in the fountain pool itself looks incredibly realistic.
* Library - a comparatively cosy-looking room filled with warm light and many a book.
The file also contains an idea for linking the rooms together to create a small dungeon, showing thumbnail maps with links to the page the colour and greyscale maps are on.
Conclusion:
These are really fabulous maps, by far the best in the d20 business, and 0one have made a wise move to market their strength (their weak text is thankfully short but includes an amusing reference to the wonderful "lightning effects" in the rooms - it should read "lighting effects"). In an even cannier move, 0one are offering $15 of free product to those who write the best short encounter for each room - the winning entries will also be available for free download on the 0one website - this gets others with a better grasp of the language to provide example encounters to go with the maps. If you want to enter, you better hurry, as the cut-off date is the 20th December. The contest will hopefully fill what felt like a missing aspect of the product.
On the downside, some maps contain aspects the GM may not want in their rooms and they are mostly of a similar size (an A4 sheet allows roughly a 40 x 25-foot 1" grid). This may preclude their use if the GM has a set idea for their room size or contents, or was hoping to use it as is with a published product. However, the quality of the images, the availability of the greyscale option, the natural-looking grid effects, and the marvellous "lightning effects" ;-) provide a high quality product that reflects the amount of time that 0one have put into the production of this product. It made me want to go write an encounter for the best of the rooms like the crypt, dark temple, and fountain room, just so I could use them.
Battlemaps is a 22 page .pdf file, 4.38 MB in size, and costing $6. The file is bookmarked to each colour map. Immediately after each colour map is its equivalent in mono for those who wish to save their colour ink. Each map has a natural 1" grid effect in the form of tiles or flagstones, which can be used as a battle map for miniatures. All the maps but one can be printed on a single A4 piece of paper (the temple map must be printed on 2 sheets and then meshed together). The view on all maps is top down.
The maps offered in Vol 1 are as follows:
* The Crypt - a gloomy tomb, containing a single stone sarcophagus with a sword lying atop (this could be taken to be a real sword or one engraved into the sarcophagus). The crypt is lit both by candles and an excellent lighting effect of weak sunshine (or maybe torchlight) filtering through a wrought iron gate at the entrance.
* Alchemist's Laboratory - a busy-looking room with a central table filled with books and a variety of vessels whilst racks of jars, bottles, books, barrels, and amphorae line the walls.
* Armory - a large variety of weapons and shields line the walls of this room, along with chests and barrels that may hold ammunition or other goods.
* Dark Temple - two wrought iron gates bleed light into this eerie temple. The walls are decorated with demonic-looking gargoyles, blood stains the floor, and a single weapon lies on top of the brazier-lit obsidian altar. Behind the altar lies a mysterious gate.
* Torture Chamber - this gruesome room is even more heavily bloodstained than the dark temple, a skeleton lies streched on the rack, whilst another hangs from manacles on the wall and another lies at the bottom of a dark pool in the corner. Various other machines of torture lie around the room.
* Entrance Room - a standard entry to a dungeon area, with a long set of stairs leading to a small entrance room with three doors - left, right, and in front.
* Fountain Room - every dungeon seems to have one - this a beautifully designed circular room with arched doorways and that great lighting effect through a wrought iron gate again. The edge of the fountain is decorated with a swirling design, whilst the water in the fountain pool itself looks incredibly realistic.
* Library - a comparatively cosy-looking room filled with warm light and many a book.
The file also contains an idea for linking the rooms together to create a small dungeon, showing thumbnail maps with links to the page the colour and greyscale maps are on.
Conclusion:
These are really fabulous maps, by far the best in the d20 business, and 0one have made a wise move to market their strength (their weak text is thankfully short but includes an amusing reference to the wonderful "lightning effects" in the rooms - it should read "lighting effects"). In an even cannier move, 0one are offering $15 of free product to those who write the best short encounter for each room - the winning entries will also be available for free download on the 0one website - this gets others with a better grasp of the language to provide example encounters to go with the maps. If you want to enter, you better hurry, as the cut-off date is the 20th December. The contest will hopefully fill what felt like a missing aspect of the product.
On the downside, some maps contain aspects the GM may not want in their rooms and they are mostly of a similar size (an A4 sheet allows roughly a 40 x 25-foot 1" grid). This may preclude their use if the GM has a set idea for their room size or contents, or was hoping to use it as is with a published product. However, the quality of the images, the availability of the greyscale option, the natural-looking grid effects, and the marvellous "lightning effects" ;-) provide a high quality product that reflects the amount of time that 0one have put into the production of this product. It made me want to go write an encounter for the best of the rooms like the crypt, dark temple, and fountain room, just so I could use them.
