Dungeon 166 Map Gallery up

[jfrazierjr]

New maps from this month's Dungeon:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4map/20090527

I don't like the new direction of using map tiles to create published maps. Map tiles are inherently restrictive whereas magazine maps should have no restrictions at all. It's a shame. The other maps are rather nice though.

I don't like it either, but it does make (at least from a quick glance) business sense. 1) they don't have to pay an artist for each map needed for an adventure 2) the adventure author does not have to do any back and forth changes with the author which takes up valuable time 3) it pushes the sales of their products. 4) if you are the GM and already have the tiles, no money or time spent printing out the maps to be used on a battlemap.

On the down side, these map tiles are like collectible cards in that they are only available for 6-9-12 months or so and then are out of print. At this point, if you get the adventure and don't have the tiles you need you are screwed.... Secondly, they are really horrifically tiled at the seams, it just looks cheesy.