Review of Domesday Maps and Charts

There's very little writing in this book, short of some descriptions and notes - what it does consist of are full page sketches and maps of a variety of medieval locations. As such, content will mostly focus on what is portrayed and how useful the illustrations are, and style with focus on the look of the thing.

Concerning style, the maps are almost all done in the familiar Domesday style - which is not my cup of tea. They're made by placing icons together, and don't look that great to my mind, though there are some exceptions. The first map is of England and Wales in 1086, and is, at least, better than the one in the main core book, in that it also features some terrain icons (though limited in the main to mountains and hills) as well as some important towns as well as the major cities of the period. Still, there are better maps out there that reflect the period, and I use them rather than this one.

The second map depicts the 'wapentakes" of Yorkshire - smaller divisions of land akin to hundreds. This one is better, and really quite useful, since not only does it give you a good idea of the locale around York (the initial base of the core book and the adventure Beast of Ledsham), but it also gives you a good reference to look up locations in the actual Domesday Book (available online, and translated, for free) which can offer some great ideas.

The third to eighth maps are all generic buildings of one sort or another - an abbey, a motte and bailey castle, Norman planned town, church, village house and town house, Apart from the planned town, these are given as both line drawings (taken from the core book) and floorplans, with a short description (often involving construction materials) and labels of the various parts. These are the kind of pictures often found in illustrated guides to medieval villages and towns, but are useful, and the notes are good ones that can help in setting a scene.

The next map is a sketch of a manor, and one of my favourites in the book - an actual sketch, and not just a map thrown together from icons - and which does a much better job of portraying life in a medieval village, as a result. It's followed by a village plan reminiscent of the ones found in the various Harn products (though in black and white) which is also very useful.

Next comes some maps of small barrows, always a bonus when you're running a game that includes spooky goings on, and then another useful map of a manor complex (the manor house and surrounding buildings itself rather than the village as a whole, as above). The final six maps are village maps done in the icon style (two small, two medium, two large), which just don't do it for me.

It's hard to recommend this book; part of it can be surpassed from looking online for depictions of churches, houses etc (though the ones given here are pretty good), part of it is really good (the manor complex, the Harn-like village map, and the manor sketch map), and part of it is a bit "meh" to my taste (the icon maps). Given that this book is shorter than the Beast of Ledsham scenario, but more expensive, I don't think it's worth getting. It does have some use, but not enough for me. If you're looking for books to buy for the Maelstrom Domesday line, I'd leave this one unless you're a completionist.