Masterwork Maps: Temples & Shrines

By Alan "Psion" Kohler (repost from ENWorld), November 19, 2004.

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 Moseley 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

The original post can be found HERE.