Utilities for the Busy GM, and The Well of Easy Access

I’ve used CC3 and its add-ons a lot in my time; creating the Jaw Peninsular map, cities, villages, dungeons and 3D areas for my campaign world.

But a campaign world is a big place, and there isn’t always time to put something together in advance of session. We’ve released large collections of detailed maps mostly based on real-world examples, ready to print in 2D and 3D views called the Source Maps series. They even include images and information, as well as suggested adventure material.

So, for me, the Source Maps series have been the most important resource for my gaming in recent years.

Let’s take a recent game. The PCs were King’s Marshalls, supposedly escorting some peace-loving priests to a six-way ecumenical council to resolve some issues surrounding a magnificent temple on an ancient holy site – the Temple of the Five Gods. I need a massive, detailed temple with an underground area for my ritual. We’ve released large collections of detailed maps mostly based on real-world examples, called the So, I turned to the the 140 page PDF which comes with Temples, Tombs and Catacombs and scoured it for something suitable.  I settled on one based on Christchurch Cathedral:

I made a few changes in CC3, and printed them out. Ralf had even kindly added a secret section with golems and traps I incorporated.

A few weeks ago I did a full weekend of gaming playing high-level AD&D, and had no doubt this would be a world-spanning adventure, and they’d go to places I didn’t expect, so I printed out a selection of cities from Source Maps: Cities, the complete set of Temples, Tombs and Catacombs (the most useful to me) and four castles from Source Maps: Castles. When it came the time, I was able to reveal beautifully crafted, detailed and realistic maps, and now they are part of my campaign world.

However, I do have a bone to pick with Ralf over the Mad Wizard’s Dungeon. You’ll notice the rather conveniently placed well on the image below. So did my players. When they asked me if it was trapped or occupied, not thinking, I said it wasn’t. I hadn’t noticed that the well takes them all the way down to the bottom, avoiding some unpleasantness on the way down.

In fairness to Ralf, though, the wizard was mad!

I’ll leave you with this question:

What would you like to see in version 3 updates to Source Maps? The current maps updated to the new style, or leave them as they are and spend the same resources adding new maps in a newer style

4 Responses to “Utilities for the Busy GM, and The Well of Easy Access”

  1. I would love to see Source Maps products updated to the new styles. I would instantly buy any collection of DD3 battle maps that would easily integrate with virtual tabletop tools such as MapTool.

  2. I think I would love to purchase new-style maps. The old styles doesn’t blend in with my own maps.

  3. To get the source maps in the new style of CC3 or DD3 would be great and I would purchase them all. The option to integrate them to maptool is very great idea.

  4. […] Tips for the busy GM – using Source Maps in your campaign […]