Fantastic Fortresses: Castles & Keeps

By Joe G. Kushner (repost from ENWorld), August 09, 2004.

Castles and Keeps is the latest book in the Masterwork Maps series by Brian Moseley through Darkfuries Publishing. This time around, we have five different castles. The book starts off with map symbols, showing everything from storage bins and animal pens, to catapults and coffins.

Each location starts off with some information of the keep. Often this is a personal view of the keep. Take Lurfell Tower. The reader is introduced to the keep through the view of a blind scribe. This individual lived here originally when his elven master started his war with the nearby orcs. Something that didn’t draw any attention to the keep or its inhabitants. It wasn’t until he started to attack the nearby human kingdoms that trouble started and the lands united against the elf and forced that dark magi to flee. Now the scribe notes that the master comes under the patronage of another, an exiled warrior, acting as that warrior’s guide and spellcaster. Of course the elven master hasn’t changed and his plans are starting to take shape again.

By providing these background elements, each castle has a little more feeling than if it were this just a book of maps. Now for me, the maps are the selling point. They’re well done, crisp, and clear. Easy to read and use. In terms of game stats, the author provides us with 3.0 and 3.5. I personally don’t see the need for both sets of stats but I’m sure that there are some 3.0 die hard fans out there. The art by Shafali Anand and Sergio Villa Isaza has a quite charcoal quality about it. It’s not the finest work I’ve seen, but it does have its own strength that lends itself to the product and the keepers of the various castles. For example, one can tell that Aerst Cerron is a dangerous and sly individual from the positioning of his body, as if he were pressed against a wall, peeking around the corner.

For those who’ve never seen the maps in the Dark Furies products, you’re missing some classic work that fits the spirit of 1st edition in that they are clear and easy to read. Each map is numbered and each location briefly described. Not every inhabitant is detailed, nor every item found in each room. This is not Seven Citadels. However, the details and art work as an excellent skeleton upon which a GM can build the meat of the encounters.

The book has a few uses. First, a GM can use the book as written with no changes. This allows him to get full utility out of it. Next, the GM can use it as simply a map book. Lastly, which I suspect most GMs will do, they will take bits and pieces that they like from the NPCs and populate the castles with the best ideas found here with their own material.

Joe G. Kushner

The original post can be found HERE.