Masterwork Maps: Temples & Shrines

[Brian K. Moseley]

Halls of Hallowed Ground!

Grand temples with golden walls,
dark chambers and tunnels of filth,
woodland shrines and dens of greed,
the sacred realms of the powers that be.

This product showcases medieval fantasy religious structures suitable for adventures and as recurring settings for ongoing campaigns. Each is devoted to one of 34 fully described deities (that are easily exchangeable with deities in existing campaigns) to provide meaningful floor plan information.

Contents include:

* Highly detailed grayscale floor plans.
* 34 deities comprising an extensive and complex pantheon.
* Concisely described areas and rooms.
* d20 System ™ (3.0 & 3.5) NPC clergy and worshippers.
* Stats for furnishings and buildings.
* Intricate backgrounds, secret locations, adventure hooks.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

The latest in Darkfuries Publishing Masterwork Maps line of books, Temples & Shrines continues to do what the other books in the line have done in the past: provide clear and detailed maps, presented in a context that allows for easy use in almost any fantasy game, and providing plenty of details that are useful and easily adapted to a game masters world. The author and cartographer is Brian Moseley, and interior artists are Shafali Anand and Sergio Villa Isala.

My copy of the book is review copy from the publisher. This is not a play test review.

The cover of the book, designed by Terry Pavlet, is simple but well designed, using the basic framework that many other d20 books have used before, that of an old book. The tropes here are simple and used sparingly: a few brass corner plates and latches on a worn leather background. The centerpiece of the cover is one of the maps from the interior, showing the amount of detail present on each of the maps. Overall, the cover is good, and gets to the point of the book: clear, easy to read, detailed maps. I am getting a bit tired of seeing so many d20 books use the “tome of knowledge” look, but this one is subtle and the design fits the books content.

Before I start reviewing the content of the book, I’d like to discuss its layout and organization. I have one issue with the layout of the book, and it is not in the text or artwork, but in the large border found on each page. While many publishers use borders in their books, I personally find them to be distracting and unnecessary, especially when they are large and busy with artwork, as I found these to be. The border consists of intricate scrollwork across the top of the page and a column down the outside edge. The top outside corner of each column, where it meets the scrollwork, is flared in at an angle and takes up a fair amount of text space. Aside from the borders, the rest of the book is laid out very nicely, with a minimal amount of white space (except where necessary around the maps). The text density is good, laid out in two columns per page, and easily readable.

While not apparent from the title or back cover, Temples & Shrines presents not just maps of temples and shrines, but a complete pantheon of 34 gods and goddesses that can easily be used in a campaign or replaced with gods from the game masters own world. If you are not looking for a full pantheon of gods, this could be disappointing, as it is a large amount of the books content, although taken in context with the maps, is a very good method of presenting the books focus. The gods are presented by alignment, from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil, and have fairly typical areas of influence. There is a goddess of magic, god of night, god of justice, god of travel, goddess of water, and so on. Each god has a complete description, including a stat block, description of relations to the other gods, appearance, and any additional information needed to use them in a campaign. This description isn’t overly long and detailed, and provides plenty of room for the game master to adapt or change things as necessary for his game. If he wants to use the gods as is, there is enough information given to start using them as presented and fill in additional details as needed. The entries start with a picture of the god’s symbol, then a simple stat block consisting of Alignment, Priest Alignment, Domains, Symbol, Favored Weapon, Associated Animal, Associated Colors, Holy Days, and Sacrifice Forms. After this comes the god’s description, then a complete presentation of one or more typical places of worship, complete with maps and tables of information.

Temples & Shrines starts with a table listing all 34 gods, their title (Goddess of Law, God of Combat, etc.), Alignment, Domains, and Typical Worshipers. There is also a chart of map symbols, which include such things as altars, desks, crates, coffins, beds, statues, and so on. The list is fairly extensive, and the symbols are detailed, yet easy to read.

Each entry includes one or more structures used for the worship of the god. There are 5 categories of structures detailed in the book, although no god has all 5 detailed (most only have one). The 5 categories, from smallest to largest, are Shrines (little more than an altar and the room surrounding it), Chapels (small buildings with a clergyman of some sort in attendance), Temples (the most common sized building, with several priests and well established in the community), Churches (large buildings important to the faith, with many priests and multiple altars and halls), and Cathedrals (the center of a religions hierarchy, huge monuments and massive buildings, designed to impress all who see it). Overall, there are 6 Shrines, 16 Chapels, 9 Temples, 4 Churches, and 2 Cathedrals detailed.

After the description of the god being presented, the entry next describes the structure presented for that god, and the number of clergy present in it. For example, under the entry for the god Ankaris, we are presented with the Temple of Ankaris, described as follows: “This small temple is a single-story structure. It houses 3 priests (1 Clr8 and 2 Clr3-5) and 4 novices.” We are then given construction notes which detail the design of the structure, any unusual features, details on the walls, floors, and windows, and anything else that may be useful to know about the building. A small table is also present in each entry listing the various features ( for example: Roof), a description (16 ft. A-frame; 1 in. slate tile), DC (15), HRD (8), and HP (15). I found this table to be very useful, as any given feature that could be broken or affected in the course of a battle or entry/escape scenario is listed. After the construction notes, we are presented with any defensive spells that are present in the structure, and what rooms/areas they effect. If there is a difference in the spells between 3e and 3.5e, this is noted and replacement spells are given for both editions of the game. Then we are given a room-by-room breakdown of the structure, with a fairly detailed description of the contents, all keyed to the map. I did find the numbering system used to be slightly odd, as the maps are numbered with a two digit code and the corresponding entry with a three digit code (room 09 on the map corresponds to room 009 in the description, 10 and 010, and so on). A minor annoyance, but one that I found distracting and could not find any reason for it, as none of the buildings presented have rooms that number in the triple digits.

The highlight of the book is by far the maps. Built on a 5 ft. grid, the maps are finely detailed and very easy to read, scaled at ¼ inch square = 5 feet. Nicely shaded, and containing small, clear, and detailed features (doors, windows, beds, tools, altars, chairs, etc.), the maps are by far some of the most useful maps I have ever found in a d20 product. Walls of varying thickness actually have different thickness on the maps, roof tiles are finely drawn, different floor surfaces have different textures, different items of furniture are easy to tell apart, and so on. These maps easily highlight why I feel that as far as buildings are concerned, author and cartographer Brian Moseley is one of the best currently working in the RPG field.

After the maps, we are presented with one, if not more, inhabitants of the structure. Usually it is the head priest, although if others are detailed, they may be a second in command, an interesting underling, or a guard. All the detailed inhabitants are given full stat blocks and a short physical description with some easily identifiable character traits for ease of role-playing. Where differences occur between 3e and 3.5e, full stat blocks are given for both editions of the game. I found this to be a very helpful feature, as it makes the book just a tiny bit more user friendly to players of either edition. Not a necessary feature, but certainly one that I appreciate.

As far as the other artwork in the book, I found it to be serviceable, but not outstanding or memorable in any way. It is heavy on shading which makes for several very dark images. Some structures are given an illustration of the buildings exterior, which I would have very much like to have seen for each building. While the maps may be the focus of the book, exterior artwork would be very nice to have to get an even more detailed feeling of the temples or churches, and something to show to players when describing the building as they see it from the exterior.

I found Temples & Shrines to be a very useful book, and one that I would easily recommend to GMs who are looking for ways to flesh out their campaigns, or if they are in need of maps for religious structures. The various buildings have a wide variety of physical forms including huge cathedrals, large churches, small urban temples, forest shrines, waterside workshops, secret cellar temples, and a large sewer complexe, among many others. Many of the maps could easily be used for other buildings with a few simple changes. The NPCs presented have a wide variety of built in adventure seeds, and many of the buildings are ready to be used as a home base, infiltrated, or escaped from by players in a campaign. I do have to admit that a good portion of the book might be of limited or diminished use if you already have a detailed cosmology present in your game, as a large portion would not be applicable to you, although it is easy enough to substitute your own gods for the gods presented in the book. This potentially limiting factor, as well as the average artwork and a few design flaws, leaves me to rate this portion of the book at 3 stars. The maps and accompanying descriptions I easily rate 5 stars. Taken together, my final score is 4 out of 5 stars.

 

[GameWyrd]

It's been more than two years since a review of Temples and Shrines first appeared on GameWyrd. Darkfuries have put these two years to good use, their product range has expanded, they've moved from HTML products, to PDF and to paper and they've built on their reputation.

The original Temples and Shrines was an HTML bundle of maps. It just meant that you flicked between the cartography in the same way as you'd navigate a web site. This version of Temples and Shrines is less hi-tech but more familiar with gamers. The paperback version is greatly enhanced; we've fully detailed NPCs (d20 system 3.0 and notes for 3.5) and even the maps have been spruced up with more detail.

I don't think the two versions of the products are mutually exclusive though. The great advantage of the HTML edition is that you could print out what you needed for your adventure and slide it seamlessly into your notes. You could print out the floor plans move miniatures around on them. If needs be you could edit things electronically to suit your needs. You can't do with the book.

Castles and Keeps has seen life as a paper product but there's difference. Castles and Keeps are large buildings, often very large. Temples and Shrines aren't so large. Whereas the small scale maps suffice for the large buildings, helping to give a clear picture of what the impressive structure looks like, the smaller buildings like the shrines and chapels would be better off, I think, with larger scale maps. I'm glad I have the HTML version, I'll continue to use the print offs it gives me.

I'm glad I have the book too. Whereas the HTML version can be used with forethought the book provides a better panic response. Given the presence of NPCs in Masterwork Maps: Temples and Shrines it is possible to quickly whisk up an encounter or a delay that'll keep players distracted while you adapt your notes. I'm rarely all that impressed by NPCs though. I'd rather make my own. I see the NPCs here as added extra, as inspiration or perhaps even as a guide to appropriate levels and skill sets for the temples and shrine. That later point makes a lot of sense. For each religious locale we're told which type of character class (priest, wizards, perhaps fighters or barbarians for defence, etc) would be there and in what quantity.

The single biggest improvement isn't with the fine extra detail added to the cartography but with the descriptions of the shrines, chapels, temples, churches and cathedrals themselves. These buildings are designed for fantasy d20 and therefore ooze with magic. The magical nature, normally magical defences, are charted and allocated to each location. There's a fire trap in the senior wizard's bedroom in the cathedral of Jasamai. Jasamai's the Goddess of Magic and so if you're snooping around in the head wizard's room in her cathedral then you've no one other than yourself to blame if you loose your eyebrows.

There's actually 34 different deities covered by the book; loads. The design allows for the full sweep of alignment combinations to be covered; everything through from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. That's perfect, that's exactly what you need from the book. We're told what the deity's alignment is, what their priests' alignments tend to be, their domains, symbols, favourite weapon, associate animal and colour as well as their holy days and would what count as a sacrifice for them.

There's a mythology here too. The gods and goddesses are related and there are a couple of pantheons within the three dozen deities. We're told how the deities sometimes appear (if, when and how that differs among the core D&D races), what they like, what they tend to think and which other gods they get on well with and which they're at odds with.

Shrines and Temples could easily be seen as a supplement for clerics - just one that doesn't succumb to introducing yet another new domain.

In fact, there is a lot to be said for using Shrines and Temples at the start of your game rather than as a plug in for later. Use it at the start and you can use the deities here as they are or at least have easy conversions ready. There's also the building bias to take into consideration. It seems that starting at the lawful good side of the scale we'll find followers more willing to build large buildings. The evil gods tend to make do with small shrines - or that's all their unsophisticated or persecuted follows can build. The result is that the buildings the characters are most likely to be in danger in, or in combat in, are the least impressive. The cartography, especially for the large buildings, is so impressive that you'll likely to want to use them. I suppose there's always the siege option but I like going with the idea these good cathedrals and churches are the characters' base of operations. This way you get to share the cartography with the players.

It's worth noting too, that not all the temples and shrines in the book are buildings. Buildings don't suit all the deities. Some of the religious locales are caves or sacred groves. Once again this is exactly right and the sort of attention to detail-cum-common sense that you can expect from Darkfuries.

Temples and Shrines is one of those annoyingly good but hard to use books. There's no doubting the quality, the cartography is superb and writing excellent. It's just hard to see a way to get the most out of it. Nevertheless, Masterwork Maps: Temple and Shrines is like a warm safety blanket. With it you shouldn't have to worry about the architecture of an encounter in any temple.

* This Temples and Shrines review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[Psion]

Temples and Shrines

Temples and Shrines is a book of religious structure maps complete with interior descriptions as well as religious descriptions and inhabitant NPC stat blocks. The book is by Brian Mosley of Darkfuries, part of their Masterwork Map series. It shares a title with a prior electronic publication by Darkfuries, but is not strictly a printing of that product.

A First Look

Temples and Shrines is a 96-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $19.95.

The cover of the book is a leather brown, with a map drawn from the interior (the third floor of the Cathedral of Jasamai) on the front cover.

The interior is black-and-white. Brian Mosley did his trademark maps, which are of excellent quality, depicting the components in detail. Artwork is by Shefali Anand and Sergio Villa Asaza. The artwork falls into two categories: NPC illustrations (which are decent) and drawings of building exteriors and scenes set within the buildings (which are excellent.)

A Deeper Look

As the name of the series implies, the primary content of the book is the maps. As stated, the maps are nicely done and very detailed. None are even close to miniature size, however, so use in conjunction with miniatures will require the DM to sketch the area or get a blown up photocopy of areas of interest. Note that there is no "permission to copy for personal use" statement, so those who don’t have convenient access to a photocopier are at the mercy of the copy bullies at Kinkos.

As with the Temples and Shrines ESD, each of the buildings has comprehensive descriptions keyed to the interior. Though the maps herein appeared in the ESD, there are several new maps that did not appear there.

Also as with the original ESD, there is a variety of deity descriptions that are provided as the backdrop for these structures. However, this aspect of the book has changed as well. In the original ESD, the deities had generic descriptions with no actual mechanical context. Herein, the deities are actually given d20 game pertinent statistics, such as alignment, clerical domains, and favored weapons. They also retain some of their old roleplaying-pertinent original depth, with aspects such as holy days and titles.

The immediate and perhaps unavoidable problem one may have is that deities in D20 System settings vary widely, and the default set in the PHB are closed content. The deities depicted here, however, are not that unusual for fantasy setting deities. For example, the lawful good magic goddess Jasamai could pass for the NG Mystra from the Forgotten Realms or the Core/Greyhawk LN goddes of magic Wee Jas... or, for that matter, my own campaign’s LG goddess of magic.

However, in recognizing this problem, I also recognize a possible benefit of this book beyond the utility of the maps herein. The publisher has kindly submitted all text herein as open game content. Which means in an era where many publishers are reluctant to wholly embrace the idea of creating a shared pool of content that can be referred to again and again, someone has finally put forth a whole fairly general, well detailed pantheon as open content. Which also means that if you happen to use this book’s deities as is in your games, and you feel the need to republish it, put it on a website, etc., you can do so with little fear.

Finally, while this is but a small addition to the ESD, the ESD totally lacked game content. Temples and Shrines provides statistics for major clergy in each building, complete with stat blocks and background and descriptive information. This should allow the DM to quickly insert populated and detailed buildings from the book when the players give you that unexpected "let’s go find a temple of a god of magic" (or healing or knowledge).

Conclusions

This is a nice book, with some advantages over the electronic product. The maps are of very high quality, and the addition of new game material makes it especially convenient for quick insertion of a temple. The OGC pantheon is just icing on the cake.

The one thing that might have made the book a little more immediately useful would be a few plot hooks to help you tie in and actually use certain temples and religions.

Overall Grade: B+

-Alan D. Kohler