Old-School Essentials is a project from Necrotic Gnome (by Gavin Norman, also the writer of Dolmenwood) that seeks to capture the essence of the retro age of TTRPGs. It conjures memories of delving through dusty boxes I found in my parent’s attic, unearthing their scribblings on ancient character sheets, and finding old maps they sketched on grid paper. So, what are good maps to use with Old-School Essentials? Czepeku has loads of maps that can help to capture that scrappy, wide-eyed attitude of adventurers setting out on their first quest into the unknown, armed only with their wits and a ten-foot pole.e
The game is designed to be rules-light, streamlined, and modular. You can run it smoothly, improvise where you want, and easily adapt it to your own table’s needs and desires. But it’s more than just a stripped-down version of modern D&D. To me, there’s a clear distinction between people who game and people who play, and I think Old-School Essentials and the philosophy that swims through it is about the closest to real play that I have seen in an RPG. The object is not to roll the highest possible number and get the game over with in short order but to delve deeply into the fantasy and investigate it as though you were really trying to solve its problems yourself.
Village Farmhouse
Czepeku has a great range of ‘starter village’ maps that include little shops and cottages in idyllic surroundings. A setting like this would work as an excellent opener to an Old-School Essentials campaign where the heroes are either from the village itself or responding to some plea that the villagers send to a nearby town. Perhaps their winter stores have been ransacked by unknown interlopers, or their children kidnapped in the night…
River Stronghold
Strongholds and castles dot the landscape of any classic fantasy adventure. Some function as useful stopping places on a long journey, a hub where players can buy supplies and repair their equipment while they rest their weary feet. Or, these structures could be a real impediment to their journey. When a fortress sits between you and your destination, and its gates are barred, how do you get past? Do you fashion a makeshift boat to cross the river or infiltrate the castle itself?
City Rooftop Chase
I love maps with multiple uses. This one could serve as a set dressing for a bit of shopping, the arena for tracking down a particularly troublesome merchant, or it could be the setting for a chase across the rooftops, as its name suggests. But are the players pursuing some vagabond purse thief, or are they themselves fleeing from the law?
Crossroads
This is the perfect map to break out when the party is on the road. Whether they’re waylaid by enemies and must defend themselves or just stumble across a troupe of villagers in need of a place to camp for the night, the Crossroads map is a great option. This could be an interesting place to revisit at various points in a campaign, too. Crossroads are well known for attracting interesting travellers who set up shop to see who comes by. Perhaps the players meet an elusive merchant with rare goods for sale.
Ropebridge Chasm
One of the core ideas of old-school role-playing is to give players a large range of choices and let them puzzle things out without making them simply roll to get past any obstacle. With a puzzle like this broken bridge (or even an intact bridge that could break easily — if you use some of the map’s variations), players will need to think of how they can cross to the other side without falling. If they come up with a decent plan to safely solve this puzzle, you should reward their problem-solving abilities by letting them pass without a roll!
Inside A Bag Of Holding
To be honest, I just really like this map. A classic magic item like a bag of holding is the perfect reward for a party of adventurers who end up lugging away more than their body weight in treasure. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, they said. You’d be mad to refuse it, they said. But what if the item itself were cursed? Perhaps it was a gift from someone who secretly wished the party ill. Once trapped, the party could easily be kidnapped by that very villain. A devious scheme. How will the players puzzle their way out of this one?
Medusa’s Wake
Since Old-School Essentials recreates that feel of ‘classic’ RPGs from long ago, you could include some similarly classic monsters to help them along. The Medusa is one such creature, being inspired by ancient Greek myths that originated in the Mediterranean over two thousand years ago! The medusa itself is a kind of puzzle. Encourage players to use clever thinking rather than brute force to overcome her petrifying gaze.
Burial Barrow
All of this travel would be for nothing without a destination. The promise of lost treasure and ancient magic lures adventurers like moths to a flame, but what lies within won’t be an easy obstacle for the players to overcome. Inside the dungeon, the normal world falls away, replaced with claustrophobic premonitions and shadows that dart and flicker. Traps, falling rocks, and monsters all lurk beneath the surface, ready to dash the hopes of the unwary and unprepared.
Forgotten Chapel Graveyard
Or perhaps the players are motivated by more altruistic values, and they must somehow sanctify this old chapel which has long since fallen to the depredations of the undead. Another thing that players must contend with is the aftereffects of their adventures. Curses and diseases are a staple of old-school RPGs and feature heavily when dealing with supernatural monsters like the undead. And undead in old-school RPGs are scary enough already, with their attacks not only draining some ability scores but levels and experience, too!
Cave Temple
With all this talk of curses and disease, perhaps the players require somewhere to visit after an adventure to seek healing. You could provide them with rumours of a temple in the mountains whose acolytes specialise in healing the sick and wounded. Don’t make it too much of a challenge to reach—the players are in a weakened state, after all. But once they’re there, perhaps the monks require someone to venture further into the mountains to find rare healing herbs or a vial of precious spring water. Instead of monsters to fight, this could be a survival challenge. Do the players have enough food for the journey? Does their equipment keep them warm amongst the frozen peaks?
This quick overview of Czepeku’s 10 best battlemaps to use with Old-School Essentials has hopefully given you a few ideas. Battlemaps are a great way of giving your players an appropriate and atmospheric backdrop for their adventures, and the perfect maps for Old-School Essentials can really help to evoke that nostalgia it strives to achieve. Check out more than 5,000 maps from our archive to inspire your Old-School Essentials campaigns and many more TTRPGs. Or, for high-resolution versions and first access to the latest releases, subscribe on Patreon!!