Tabletop Review: The Little Book of Dungeons Geomorphs

Little Book of Dungeons Geomorphs
Publisher: Crooked Staff Publishing
Pages: 16
Size: 20.02 MB
Cost: $1.00
Release Date: 12/26/2011
Get it Here: DriveThruRPG.com

As a GM, anytime I can get some resources to help me save time when prepping for a game is good. I’ve had Crooked Staff Production’s website bookmarked for over a year now because they’ve had some great little GM aids available for download. On their site they have, free for download, a set of 30 dungeon geomorphs. Each geomorph has been gathered into a single PDF usable as a GM map. This PDF is not secured, allowing the GM to extract pages as needed, and is a 5.42 MB download. Each map page of the PDF is additionally available as an individual download. These individual downloads start with the same GM map as before, but subsequent pages break the GM map into smaller sections sized to print out for miniature use with the almost standard 1″ = 5′.

All these maps are black & white, and not optimized for printing, but are absolutely free.

This $1 offering is similarly black & white and not optimized for printing, but the similarity to the superior free product ends there. Instead of one geomorph per page, this product has six per page at a small scale, and a few larger geomorphs. The last couple of pages have some examples of use and several dungeon entrances. The PDF is rather large at 20.2 MB, and contains some security. The only apparent use for this PDF is to print out the geomorphs and then cut them out to create small maps for GM use. With 63 individual geomorphs, including the 30 that were available for free online, it can easily be worth $1.

If the maps were optimized for black & printing and/or full color, along with being made available for use with miniatures, I’d pay a premium to be able to print up a random dungeon for my table. Being able to also use them in my Maptools game would make me ecstatic. In this current format, their usage is severely limited, and the $1 download seems more a donation or a thanks to Crooked Staff Productions for their freely available products.