Hello everyone!

I have been lurking this site for a few years now. I run weekly campaigns and have found this site to be a great help when running store-bought modules. I have utilized a lot of maps from this site and I thank you all.

I have run games for over 20 years and have played D&D almost from inception. I have also played a few other rpgs, Cthulu and Earthdawn, among them, but I enjoy D&D the most. Building a world of your own is a wonderful thing, but when you continue with a career, the time to do this shrinks dramatically; so relying on modules becomes crucial. Getting maps for the players can be a challenge, though.

I used to print out maps, but with monitors becoming so affordable, I found that purchasing a 25 inch ASUS flat monitor, taking the stand off and laying it on the table with a Plexiglas protective screen works fantastically for our purposes. We then use Maptool to layout the maps. With the maps provided from this site gaming has been very smooth the past few years.

Then I realized that I have to contribute. I have relied to long on the work of other kind posters. I purchased Campaign Cartographer several years ago but never sat down and really used it. There was a campaign coming up that I found no maps to my liking and decided to learn it while constructing the granddaddy of castles for the upcoming campaign: Castle Ravenloft.

I started last September and completed all 10 floors at the end of December. We started playing that month and I am now designing the maps for the encounters leading up to it.

I really want to share what I am doing and will be starting a new post in the proper discussion group for this purpose. The biggest challenge will be learning how to post these maps correctly, which will require a lot of reduction, formatting, etc. I will be asking for advice on this in that forum. I am by no means an accomplished web poster, so please forgive me for any silly mistakes I may make.

I hope that the work I have done will help repay all of the help I have received from this site these past few years.

Thank you, everyone.