The Wonders of Premade Maps

So for my first and second adventures I used a preset map that came with the D&D starter kit. When I first looked at the Monster Lair map my initial reaction was that it was very basic and very rigid. It was very well drawn and had a lot of visual depth, but I wondered how the map could be used outside of the preset adventure that had come with the map.

Crossroad and Monster Lair

I played through the second part of the adventure. The adventure consisted of assaulting the goblins lair and retrieving an item for the injured driver. My two friends assaulted the cave, it went pretty much as the starter kit adventure had laid out. I added an Orc into the mix, mostly because my two friends breezed through the adventure and retrieved the item for the driver very quickly.

In more then a years time since that game, I have come to use the Monster Lair map more then any other premade map to date. I have also gone out of my way to find and collect as many premade maps as I could. They have been a life saver for when I have not had the time to fully plot out and design an encounter area or full dungeon. Many times I would overlay a tile from a tile set or a custom print out onto the map in order to avoid giving the players any red herrings. So far It worked out very well.

I would definitely suggest that any new or current DM, to pick up as many of the premade maps as they possibly can. A lot of the starter sets and bundles come with at least two types of maps. Not to mention that the bundle adventures will always come with some specific for that adventure. For example the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure came with a two maps. One was a generic set of roads/rivers/bone pit and the other was a cathedral/shadow pit. The cathedral/shadow pit was a map that made up the last two encounters of the adventure and had the most role played and interesting encounters of the entire bundle.

Cathedral                                                Shadow Pit

I liked that the adventure came with very detailed adventure specific maps, and while they are more limiting then the generic roads or monster lair, I have learned to work them in at different times when the location fit the map setting. The players never seemed to mind and I love having the flexibility of pulling out any random location whenever I need.

My next post will be the building of the Keep on the Shadowfell dungeon, lucky I took some pictures.