In running my remixed version of Castle Blackmoor, I knew that the village of Blackmoor at the foot of the castle would become quite important. I printed out copies of some of the earliest maps of Blackmoor created by Arneson, but quickly discovered in actual play that they had not been made available at legible resolutions. With a little bit of research you could sort of figure things out, but the map ultimately proved more confusing than illuminating to most of my players.
What I needed was a copy of the map at a higher resolution so that I could print it out, put it in my GM screen, and have it be clearly visible to players at the opposite end of the table. On the other hand, I didn’t want to radically depart from Arneson’s original material. So what I ended up doing, basically, was redrawing the entire map.
The map above is based on this map from Domesday Book #13:
An even older version of this map was made available on Havard’s Blackmoor blog:
There were a few places where I was tempted to make alterations/corrections. But I ultimately decided to remain as true to this original map as possible. (There is exactly one exception to this, and it shouldn’t be too hard to spot.)
For the version given to my players, however, I did decide to roll the clock back: Jenkins Hill is not yet (and may never be) Jenkins Hill in this version of Blackmoor, nor has the Great Svenny built his freehold. So this will be the version of the map I give to my players:
You can click either of these maps to download high resolution copies.
