grodog wrote:I agree with Guy's initial assessment, but I think my impression is a bit more favorable, overall.
I reread my post, and it came across more lukewarm than I intended. I didn't stress the strengths of the maps as much as I should have. So:
The level designs include some of the best old-school level designs I've seen.
Map design is fairly easy. Lots of people do it. But
great old-school map design is (apparently) very hard, given that so few products have truly intriguing, devious, and well-constructed levels that promote and/or reinforce the various old-school play principles.
The Dungeon Sets have: Multiple paths that encourage searching and that reward player ingenuity, tricks that force the players to replan or rethink their goals for a particular foray, plenty of room & corridor variety, verticality, and so on. The visually pleasing room layouts also test, promote, and reward good mapping skills.
They don't perfectly fit my preferences for level design -- they tend to fill the majority of available space on each page, when prefer levels that aren't essentially big rectangular areas -- but as a whole they're probably in the top 5% of old-school level designs.
(To give an idea regarding my preferences, I think Matthew Finch's maps in Tomb of the Iron God are more examples of a great old-school level designs. The best designs in the Dungeon Sets are better than those.)
As I mentioned before, the levels aren't all equally awesome, but most of them are very, very good. Only a few strike me as just average. Here's a run down, and take this with a grain of salt because I still haven't studied them all super carefully...
Set #1:
Levels 1 - 3: Grade A. These are fantastic, with levels 1 & 2 being the best of the three. These three levels could easily be fodder for months of play, including re-exploration of the same site over time after various breaks, as new clues give reason for the players to explore things they may have missed. A group could play through these levels for many sessions without fully revealing all of its secrets ... and not simply by virtue of missing a secret door here or there, either.
Levels 4 and 6: Grade B. These aren't as strong as levels 1 - 3, but certainly aren't weak, either. Not flashy, or super inspirational, but certainly better than most other old-school level attempts out there. Level 4 benefits from a gimmick (one-way door maze), whereas level 6 is fairly plain, but has a very balanced feel.
Level 5: Grade C. The weakest of Set #1. In addition to not having any inspirational gimmicks/goodies, it feels like many of the rooms are there just to fill space on the page.
Set #2:
Level 7: Grade C, for basically the same reasons as level 5 above.
Level 8: Grade A. This one is fantastic, with a very unique layout that includes water features and really big areas. This could very easily be used as a fantastic standalone map.
Level 9: Grade B+. Good visual variety, including a few areas that really give inspiration about what might have gone on here in the past, as well as what might currently occupy the level.
Level 10: Grade B. I like the large rooms here, and also the maze that doesn't have the problem of immediately screaming out "I'm a maze!"
Level 11: Grade A-. This the catacombs/tombs level that I mentioned in my previous post. Breaks visually from most of the others, but includes several inspirational areas, and rewards player pattern matching.
Level 12: Grade C+. This is average in the way some of the Temple of Elemental Evil node maps are. At least they have some visual variety though.
Overall, I think Set #1 is stronger than Set #2, but both include at least two
great level designs.
