ETCR - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in DD3

[Shindig]

I use the quick and dirty method on Windows still with my deskjet printer. Yes there are programs that will divide pics over many sheets for you and you can get any type of interface that you are comfortable working with, but Paint has everything I need. You don't have to be 'exact' either, if it comes out that the squares are 1.1 inches, no one will really notice
I just remember that a sheet is 8.5 x 11. I count the squares used (you may have to check the original maps out of the book since I don't include grids on these) and divide by either 8.5 or just 8 (for margins) or 11, depending on the orientation. That gives me the amount of pages across I'll need. Then repeat for top to bottom. When you set the page setup, take the horizontal and vertical centering off, and choose 'fit to' and put in the page counts that you came up with in the first part of this. Before printing, check the print preview and look at one of the pages that is fully covered. Make sure that you can count 8 to 9 squares for width and 10 to 11 squares in length. If it is too far off, add or delete a page in the 'fit to' section of the page setup. Recheck it until you have the best ratio.
Leave a quarter inch margin, cut the tops and right sides off with a straight edge, use a light paste and it will come out fine.
That is quick and dirty. And even though it sounds a little elementary, the results are way better than you would think.
If you have access to larger printing, just count up the squares each way and that will give you the dimensions in inches you need. I have found that there is usually at least one worker at a Kinkos that has worked with maps and knows what you're trying to do. But really, just playing around a bit before actually printing it, you'll figure it out.

If you have access to a laptop and decent flat monitor (25 inch), I highly recommend setting it flat with a plexiglass cover over it and using Maptool. Download it for free at their site (google will lead you right to it), they have a great forum to learn its functions and everyone will be impressed with the results.
This castle is somewhat of a three dimensional puzzle. For example, all of the rooms on the first floor cannot be accessed easily without going up or down a floor first. Having some form of 'fog of war' that emphasizes how the pcs can lose track of where they are in the castle adds greatly to the feel of the module. Printed maps lose this edge as the players can always see whether they are in the middle of the floor, or at the North end, no matter how much 'covering up' you try to do. And, once you have the monitor ($180.00 for 25"), you stop with the costs of printing. It pays for itself very quickly if you make a lot of maps.
I hope I answered your question well enough and maybe even given you some new ideas to think about.
Happy gaming!

[johnnywiggle]

Shindig - am deeply impressed by your efforts. Have been DMing ETCR for (embarrassing pause..............) the last year and my PCs have been in the castle for the last month or so. Well, the best excuse for the lengthy game time is that we game only fortnightly and I've been running them all over the countryside first.

Anyway, the biggest hassle I've found with running the game is accurately depicting the floor plans well. I've been generally using the freely available maps on wizards.com (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ag/20061031a) and blowing them up for use on my laptop screen (17") or printing them off. The laptop screen at 17" is generally too small for most of the bigger encounters; and the resolution of the maps too poor. Am deeply impressed with your rendition of the game's maps - there are so many inconsistencies between the encounter maps and the orthogonal maps. I've just been through every stairwell to see if they should climb anti-clockwise or clockwise, for example! I love the level of detail in your renditions - knowing little facts like the middle statue in Sergei's tomb is of cruder construction for example - only things that DMs would pick up on. I'm sure you're finding the book a challenge to DM too. As much as I love it, the constant cross referencing between the adventure text and the encounter maps is a nightmare. My bugbear is that information from both those sources within the book doesn't naturally correlate. I've been DMing encounters and suddenly realised the map is wrong or incomplete in the true description of the text. I thoroughly understand and appreciate how drawing out and mapping the entire castle has expanded your knowledge of the module.

Am slightly torn at the moment. Do I use your excellent maps (with due repping, hat doffing etc) by printing and/or maptooling on a new monitor. Or do I buy CC3 and go through the cathartic experience myself..........

Cheers for your excellent work

[Shindig]

@johnnywiggle
I totally understand the dilemma. When I started this, I didn't really...'want to' as much as I became frustrated at a) the inconsistencies, and b) Wizard's idiocy in providing only 'keyed' maps that, if you want to utilize for players, you have to edit anyways. (They finally started posting 'clean' maps in 4e.) Unlike many Ravenloft dms, I actually liked the 3.5 maps. Yes, they are inconsistent but I liked the style. I originally was going to keep all of the floors blue as they had done, but then, well, I just started getting carried away, lol.

The worst part of the inconsistencies in the maps is that they are so darned minor to casual observation until battle starts and you realize, "hey, the dining room door moved 5 or 10 feet from where it was on the other map, what gives?" It seems like such a little thing until you set the minis down and realize that it changes the tactics quite a bit. Great adventure, just wish they had not rushed it quite as much. Also, if you have not found it already, Fraternity of Shadows has a handy errata sheet for the adventure.

Stairs. Good grief! Thank goodness I had all three modules to work with. The 1st ed was the best and became the 'go to' map for figuring stuff out. Here is a good way to keep the stairs straight: Draw a mental line from the front entrance all the way to the back chapel, bisecting the chapel. Every spiral stairway NORTH of this goes UP as you walk clockwise. Every spiral stairway SOUTH of this goes DOWN as you walk clockwise. Once that was figured out, I just had to be careful to keep track of which tiles the stairways appeared at, as that was sort of a hodge-podge in some of the side areas. You'll see those areas as you run the game.

I strongly urge purchasing a flat 23"-24" monitor. $170.00 will get you one and it will pay for itself in a year with ink costs. Projectors also work, but I prefer the under-lighting (especially with some of the miniatures, like Caller in the Darkness, that has a hole underneath that captures the monitor light and gives it a nice, other-worldly glow.) If you're using Maptool, make sure to up the memory usage on the very first small screen that comes up after you click on the icon. It's default is 256 mb which will not load these maps well. I upped it to 1 G and that works nicely, especially on the 3rd floor with the outside walkways.

CC3 is a great program but has a tough learning curve if you are only used to Windows based programs and have not used a CAD based program before. Like me. But then I found some great tutorials that explained its functions quite well and now I love it. But I would not have attacked this whole thing if I could have found something online that I could use, that is why I HAD to post these when I completed them. I have 'borrowed' more than my share of maps for my game, and it was high time that I paid my dues back to the online community.

I am preparing another module and doing some map work again after being busy with work for the past year. I am going to figure out why I have not been getting e-mails from this site when someone tries to contact me or adds to this post and correct the problem. If you have any further questions, message me, and I will be checking this site weekly from now on.

Thanks for your kind words!

[Drakecoinus]

I have never had the pleasure of experiencing Castle Ravenloft in any format, but I will defiantly have to look into it now
hats off and JOB WELL DONE Look forward to seeing more of your work

[Blinded]

I lurk a lot and appropriate great maps for my D&D group - this is amazing. Thank you so much for your effort & kindness in sharing.

[Shindig]

I lurk a lot and appropriate great maps for my D&D group - this is amazing. Thank you so much for your effort & kindness in sharing.

No problem! It is about time that I gave back to the site that I lurked myself for years, downloading maps as needed. I am just thankful that people have taken to them so well. I am working on some new projects so I will post again soon.

Thanks!

[Shindig]

I have never had the pleasure of experiencing Castle Ravenloft in any format, but I will defiantly have to look into it now
hats off and JOB WELL DONE Look forward to seeing more of your work

Thank you for the kind words! Come to the darkside.
It's a well made castle with a well made villain. Not one that the pcs read about, meet once, and then battle to the death, but a villain that they meet many times and get defeated and pushed into doing his bidding. The hatred in my game group is seething for this guy. We are just in the last part of it. Two of my players are on their 5th characters for this module. I believe that once they defeat him (if they do, and I hope they do) they will be doing victory dances while their characters jump up and down on his corpse, lol.

I am back at the map making for a while now. I hope to post soon.

Again, thanks!

[Bogie]

Great set of maps Shindig! Nice work.
It was also fun spotting a number of pieces I had posted on the Dundjinni Forums in your maps. The first one that caught my eye was the round table in front of the fireplace. (and the floor in front of the fireplace uses the same original photo I took, it was a tiled floor in a hotel lobby, then I made a table out of it.)

[Shindig]

Great set of maps Shindig! Nice work.
It was also fun spotting a number of pieces I had posted on the Dundjinni Forums in your maps. The first one that caught my eye was the round table in front of the fireplace. (and the floor in front of the fireplace uses the same original photo I took, it was a tiled floor in a hotel lobby, then I made a table out of it.)

Thank you twice then, sir! Once for the compliment and one large one for posting your artwork for me to utilize! I used two main libraries besides the library that comes with CC3: Shessar's Map Art Collection (SMAC) and a Maptool art set that I am not sure who compiled, so one or the other probably included your work somehow. Glad it could come back to you in a format you enjoy. Thanks again!

[strike277]

I know this thread is 6 months silent at this point. But I wanted to give it a bump due to it being a fantastic one. Thank you for doing these maps. I ran the first module when it came out and have every rendition produced through out the years. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this project.