By Alan "Psion" Kohler (repost from ENWorld.org), February 16, 2002.
Inns & Taverns is a software download product from Darkfuries available at
RPGnow (www.rpgnow.com.) It provides a variety of tavern and inn floorplans
for use in fantasy games. The download is priced at $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 each individual tavern and inn
floor. 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 the inns and one for the taverns. Finally, there is a legend page
that describes all of the individual icons used on the maps.
There are a total of 20 inns and 15 taverns. Each building has between one and four
floors, including cellar and dungeon levels. Each floor is an individual gif file.
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. When printed on a standard 8 ½ x 11 sheet, the map grid is scaled such
that it works well with standard 25mm miniatures.
My only complaint is that in the few cases where secret doors are used, they are
listed on the map. It would be nice if those maps that use secret doors had a
player and a GM version, so the GM doesn't give away the secret doors by using
miniatures on a printout of the map.
Conclusion
Inns & Taverns floorplans does exactly what it sets out to do: provides the GM with
a variety of prepackaged floorplans for use in the game. The presentation is excellent
and the html layout very convenient. Other than having two maps in those cases where
secret doors are used, I think it would be interesting to see a product like this with
descriptions of tavern staff and visitors, possibly even complete with d20 system stats.
That would truly give a GM everything they need to run tavern encounters. However, for
what you are provided with, five dollars is a bargain. There are just enough of each
type of map that you never have to re-use a map.
-Alan D. Kohler
The original post can be found
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