Quote from: S'mon;304351Thanks, that seems a good approach - 1 square = 1 meter rather than 5' allows for much more plausibly sized areas.

Quote from: 1e DMG, pg 10...it is usually necessary to use a ground scale twice that of the actual scale for HO, and squares of about 1 actual inch per side are suggested. Each ground scale inch can then be used ta equal 3% linear feet, so a 10' wide scale corridor is 3 actual inches in width and shown as 3 separate squares. This allows depiction of the typical array of three figures abreast, and also enables easy handling of such figures when they are moved.

Quote from: Windjammer;304211As part of WotC' DM Rewards program people got mailed a 4E version of T1. Interestingly, it's not the first version thereof - Mearls did one for the RPGA last year, and it was a blast to play. Alas, this time things suck.

You see. The idea of playing T1 in 4E obviously capitalizes on playing it with minis on a map. So they provided DDM maps to scale - printed in colour with high production values. Laudable. Recommendable for their usability for players interested in using them for their 1E or 3E games. Or so I thought.

You see, WotC messed up the scale of the moat house on these maps by 1/3. The entrance room, right after crossing the drawbridge, should be 12 by 12 squares. It's now 8 by 8. Same for all the other rooms. All dimensions shrunk by a third. There's a hilarious 3 by 3 squares room in one corner. The tactical usability of such rooms for 4E play is practically nil - it's all window dressing. What used to be a dungeon (even before the module hit underground) in T1 is now a single encounter. If this abominable reduction of dungeon terrain to one room (because, as stated, most peripheral rooms are too small to come into the encounter) isn't grist to Settembrini's "4E = Encounterization" motto, I don't know what is.

And messing with the scales sort of beats the whole point of revisiting the moathouse for 4E. I mean, what's the point of having a DDM-map, of apparently high production quality, for an old, classic module when you shrink it so drastically as to make it into something else?

I'm lost. Mearls' "Return to the Moathouse" respected the room measurements of the original. Since Andy Collins didn't respect the room measurements this time, not only will whatever he did be something entirely non-related to the original (which I'm actually ok with). Also, the re-usability of the maps when running some genuine T1 Moathouse encounters, replete with nostalgia and all, has just been tossed out of the window. For no good reason.

Not that I mind WotC doing an adventure - moreover, a free one! - and giving it to people. But if they were going to shrink the moathouse into an altogether different dungeon, they might as well have done a fresh one. Not that you can't redesign a classic dungeon for 4E. Mearls' moathouse is ample proof of that.

But honestly, people. You wanna run the Moathouse in 4E, give Andy Collins a pass and head over to Daniel Rivera's beautiful maps - in perfect scale, both to miniature play and in loyalty to the original:

Surface

Underground .