Sunday, November 21, 2010

Medieval Castles As Adventure Locations

I've been searching around, trying to find a suitable nexus floor plan for a mega dungeon entrance, without much success. However, in the course of my wanderings, I came across a website with a plethora of imaginary castles, many designed in the Harn-esque fashion of Castles of Harn. Sadly, the author of the website passed away in 2006. Someone has maintained the site, presumably in tribute to his creativity and imagination. I did a google search for "castle floor plan", and came across several other castles, including some really huge modern homes.


I like to use real castle and catacomb maps upon which to base my own dungeons and adventure environs. Doing so gives me some assurance that the environments are structurally sound and believable. Now, the castles from the above site are not real, but they are designed in such a way as they could be.

What I also like is when the layout appears to have been added to over time, giving the map a labyrinthine feel. This tends to give me an opportunity to have several areas that are more difficult to access. If the map has secret passages, staircases and the like, so much the better.

8 comments:

  1. Cool! Thanks for the link. It looks like a great resource.

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  2. Always nice to stumble upon such discoveries. Thanks for the tip.

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  3. History and archeology are loaded with tons of great stuff you can mine for ideas and settings. Some of those Osprey Military History books on fortifications are beautifully illustrated and full of interesting information. Check out maps for actual ruins, catacombs, tombs, etc. at university libraries (some unis let you enter even if you aren't a student--you just can't take out books, that's all).

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  4. This one is a castle that belongs to my family. In the site you shall find many plans as well as pics, among with some hints about its history. I was never able to find secret passages in it since I was a child, but I think you could easily place them somewhere in the great tower. Moreover, the castle stands around a hundred meters over the river, so you can place the dungeon therein.

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  5. Il Male, I envy your family! (although I don't know what it costs to keep up the castle).

    You can also find some nice ground plans here:
    http://www.images.british-towns.net/album/album_3_thumbnails.asp?GetPT=268&PassP1=9&PassP2=36

    Cheers, and thanks for the ideas and links

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  6. Using real castles (or castles designed to seem real) also makes it easier to have the inhabitants react in a realistic manner. You probably wouldn't just hang around in your bedroom if there was fighting and screaming outside.

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