This product is essentially a collection of "geomorphs". Basically an assortment of pre-drawn adventure maps where the gamemaster fills in the numbers and keys to his liking. But whereas the classic "geomorph" provided just maps, this also provides some adventure seeds as well, one primary background for the map and 2 or 3 smaller alternative ones.
It's systemless, being mostly maps, but the background and adventure seeds are fantasy. It seems fairly clearly intended for use with D&D or similar systems (Like C&C or Osric). Besides some of the races mentioned, like dark elfs who live underground, it also has a section that says "Notes for the DM".
Contents
It contains nine locations, but two of them are related, and combined take up about half the product. So whether or not you find that location useful goes a long way towards how valuable you'll find this product.
Said location is a giant cavern full of giant pillars, stalactites, and stalagmites. So big that various underworld races could mine them out and live in them. The cavern and one such inhabited column, meant to be more of a fortress than simply a home (it is a home, but to a warrior like group), is mapped out. 16 levels, plus one sublevel, so it's a fairly big place. Although the middle levels are quite thin.
Another fairly large location, 6 pages worth, is a dungeon (or tomb, according to the background) that folds back in on itself. That is, if you turned left and walked forward the same distance 4 times, you wouldn't be back in the same place.
This idea was pretty clever, I thought, somewhat Dr. Whovian, and could really torment players who made their own maps.
The rest of the maps/ideas are only a couple pages each. A keep (actually 4 pages), an elemental temple, 3 types of caverns/lairs, and some old ruins. These are probably all more generally useful for the typical fantasy campaign, especially the keep. Though the keep is also perhaps the one map where a key being provided would have been helpful, since some rooms look like they have a definite purpose in mine just from looking at how they are shown on the map.
Looks/Layout
It's a clean, clear, easy to read file. No weird fonts, the maps are black on white and printer friendly for the most part (some extended black areas in the cave pillar fortress, to indicate where the rock is). There are some small color photos of the locale in question in the background page of each one, but not on the page you'd actually want to print out (ie, the map of the locale itself). So a nice touch.
I'm not a big PDF person, so I don't keep up on the latest in advanced PDF technology. But this PDF didn't seem to use any bookmarks, which most ones have for quite some time now.
Final Thoughts
I personally have found products like this useful. Anyone can draw maps, but often unconsciously they can end up looking alike. I know for some reason all my maps end up looking like a portrait of Ernest Borgnine when viewed from a distance.
The selection is creative and fairly varied, though perhaps 3 cavern style locations is one too many.
On the other hand, I think it would have been nice, since the product is systemless, to be genre-less as well. For instance, including background or adventure seeds for things like horror or science fiction as well as fantasy.
Admittedly, that might clash with the name of the company, but it would broaden its appeal. And many of the maps in this could be used for other genres. For instance, the cavern and its fortress could be some sort of elder race city, like in HPL's At The Mountains of Madness or Basil Copper's Great White Space. Or in science fiction, it could be an underground moon or asteroid base or something. This isn't really a criticism, so much as a suggestion.
Value wise, comparing it to some of the other products on RPGNow, it seems like a pretty good deal. Similar maps of a location seem to go for $1 each. Perhaps not all the maps are useful to the average fantasy, but probably at least half are.
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