Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: Maps and the Delve Format

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Like apparently many fans of 3.5 D&D who played earlier editions, I was excited to pick up Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. While I like the addition of the Delve format to published adventures, the map inclusion leaves something to be desired.

Each map in the 2 page tactical encounters is a small replication of a larger (not included) 5 ft. squares scale map for use with miniatures. Almost every map is set askew, so that scanning for scaling up to battle mat use will be a great chore. Most of the ones from inside Castle Ravenloft I think I could recreate with clever use of the new Dungeon Tiles, but the outdoor ones contain too many features impossible to replicate (at least with my current capabilities).

On the Wizards message boards there is a thread on this same topic, and in it a poster thinks that some of the outdoor maps might have been repeated from the Fantastic Locations line.

Have any other purchasers of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft recognized these maps as being from another source like Fantastic Locations or Red Hand of Doom (which I think included pull out minis scale maps)?

If not, does anyone have suggestions about how to get the most out of the Delve format maps?

 

[Keith Robinson]

Like apparently many fans of 3.5 D&D who played earlier editions, I was excited to pick up Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. While I like the addition of the Delve format to published adventures, the map inclusion leaves something to be desired.

I thought the maps were pretty good. They're much clearer and it makes it easier to transfer these encounters to a battlemap. A good map with every encounter is very useful IMO.

Each map in the 2 page tactical encounters is a small replication of a larger (not included) 5 ft. squares scale map for use with miniatures.

I don't think they're a replication of a 'larger not included map' - I think they've just been designed that way, to make it easier to integrate the use of miniatures when using battlemaps. Given the ever closer ties between their minis range and D&D, this is not a major surprise. I also happen to think that it has worked well in this product.

Almost every map is set askew, so that scanning for scaling up to battle mat use will be a great chore. Most of the ones from inside Castle Ravenloft I think I could recreate with clever use of the new Dungeon Tiles, but the outdoor ones contain too many features impossible to replicate (at least with my current capabilities).

I'm not sure they were intended for replication in this way - I know some people did similar things as your suggestion with the red hand of doom maps, so I suspect that having tham set askew is going to make your life a little tougher. But in photoshop, it should be pretty easy to set the image straight and blow it up.

On the Wizards message boards there is a thread on this same topic, and in it a poster thinks that some of the outdoor maps might have been repeated from the Fantastic Locations line.

Have any other purchasers of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft recognized these maps as being from another source like Fantastic Locations or Red Hand of Doom (which I think included pull out minis scale maps)?

I couldn't see any repeated maps from the products you mention. I think you've just become a little hung up on the look of the maps. They do look like small maps of the kind you get in the products you mention - but I think they're just maps, designed to look that way. Who knows, maybe they'll release a whole bunch of tiles on the website or as a future product, but I doubt it. I think they've just taken the idea of the minis battlemap and applied it to maps in their product. I think it works quite well.