The sheer variety, the wealth of locations, that you get makes this map-set stand out. Never mind a straightforward mine for dwarves to go around their traditional pursuits - there's a whole mining camp for them to live in, shafts and mines galore and an underground defensive position to deal with any unwelcome visitors (or rival prospectors). Sophisticated fellows, the dwarves have laid trackways throughout their complex to move ore and other materials, plus of course lifting gear at the head of the main shaft.

Each of the four maps - mining camp, mine tunnels, main shaft and military outpost - is presented as both a full colour and a greyscale sheet; and each can be tailored to a certain extent by the "Rule the Dungeon" feature. This allows you to select a scale grid, north symbol, determine the presence or absence of furniture, choose to print the background texture and so on. This can be done for all four maps or individually, and you can choose to print all the colour maps or all the greyscale ones at once. There are also some sheets for you to make notes on, relating to each map.

If an organised dwarven mining colony features anywhere in your campaign world, you need look no further should you need maps of it. Exploring it (if the dwarves will permit) or even assaulting it should prove interesting, and of course the opportunities for the dwarves to disturb something they should not and need your adventurers' help to regain control of their mine are obvious.

Return to Dwarven Excavation page.

Reviewed: 4 May 2008