By Dave (repost from ENWorld.org), June 16, 2004.
I've had a good look at Darkfuries: Castle and Keep Floorplans (Electronic Software Download (ESD)
Copyright © 2002 by Brian K. Moseley.
The ESD is an excellent way to obtain this product and I highly recommend a download -- your
enjoyment will be immediate that way -- because this is an excellent product. ESD makes this
product really affordable and very useful.
I've spent a great deal of time trying to locate and create maps for my D&D 3E game, and this
batch of books from Darkfuries is about the best I've come across. (Columbia Games also puts
out excellent maps, but that is a seperate review).
Castles & Keeps contains a collection of 5 Castle/Keeps in 32 maps. Each map (GIF) is easily
accessible through an HTML browser (which works perfect in IE5). Each map is very detailed along
with contents, doors, windows and other important structural elements, the cartography is crisp and
clear -- with no stylized presentation elements often found on other maps.
The cartography is very realistic, with well planned castles that add a great deal of verisimilitude to
product. More importantly all 5 castles are *complete* castles unlike some other products which
present only parts of structures or only a few levels of a castle.
The scale of the maps is a bit off for my purposes -- Darkfuries has each map sized for 25mm minis --
but since the images are provided in GIF format, you can easily resize to whatever page size (e.g. 8x11)
you require. Having a source file in anycase is a good idea -- so you can create player and DM versions of maps.
The interactive HTML formating (which should run in any internet browser) presents each castle in an
image gallery and then more detailed pages for each floor of each castle. Reviewing each castle takes
seconds, and access any level of that castle is very easy -- with a single click.
Castles:
Grimbarith - 4 above ground levels - 2 below ground levels - 1 roof level
Halestorm - 4 above ground levels (my favorite out of the five)
Lurfell - 8 above ground levels - 2 below ground levels
Pelgurn - 3 above ground levels - 1 below ground level - 1 roof level
Roshefain - 4 above ground level - 1 roof level (my second favorite out of the five)
Overall, this product is excellent value for the money. I highly recommend the ESD even if you are just curious.
Dave
The original post can be found
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