The maps referenced below can be found in the Map-A-Week Archive on the Wizards of the Coast website.
Map-A-Week Archive for August 2000.
8/10 Village 1: A simple map of a village that's probably been attacked. Good for placing on any asteroid in a dangerous area. The map is uninspiring with square-ish buildings and is only an overhead view. The DM will have to do all the other work.
8/10 Village 2: Village 2's map has the same usefulness as Village 1. Neither is inspiring.
8/17 Typical dwelling: This presents an interesting square building for SJ. The dwelling is semi-fortified in design and has three levels, all aboveground. It is apparently a communal dwelling of some sort, possibly for an extended family. It even includes storage areas, perfect for communities that see traffic rarely and rely on seasonal farming. Its apparent stone construction makes even more ideal in a setting where wood is at a premium and harvested primarily for ships. It answers the age old fantasy world question of how do you build fortifications in a world where creatures fly by adding a covered awning over the upper walkway. The steep, solid, sloped walls suggest it is meant to be able to hold off ground attackers. The eaves make it difficult for attackers to attempt to enter from the roof, especially if the DM adds grease, spikes, or some other deterrent that would keep ships from simply dropping their marines onto the roof. The building has an oriental style and is particularly suitable for oriental settlements. The suggestion that this building be used with the previous 2 village maps that is on the site is not compelling. This building does not seem to be designed to fit in a fortified, walled settlement as those maps depict. Instead it is probably its own homestead (possibly with a walled compound for animals) or part of a village of similarly designed buildings where each can support the others with missile fire. On a final note the map key exists but the symbols have not been identified. Some are obvious (e.g. stairs) while others DMs can make represent whatever they want.
8/24 City: Despite the description this depicts no more than a town-sized dwelling. As with the village dwellings this was obviously made with some sort of square map design technique and the layout is not only uninspiring, but also the placement of trees, while orderly, lacks logic. The town has once again apparently been attacked and suffered some damage.
Map-A-Week Archive for September 2000.
8/31 Ruins: These build-your-own-map sections are Ruin/ Tomb Geomorphs (F - J) from the the 2nd Edition Dungeon Builder's Guide Book. The map sections are generic enough for their purpose but generally detail too large a section each for extensive reusability (not all your ruins should have the same floorplans). They are useful enough for a subterranean area; possibly part of a damaged or in construction dwarven citadel whose asteroid included some natural caves and caverns before the dwarves began to delve. The lack of apparent waterways and wells makes them particularly well adapted to SJ.
9/7 Castle: These are the Castle Geomorphs (I - L and Focus) from the same product as those above. They have the same positive and negative qualities for the SJ DM and can be used in similar places (a fortress or a dwarven citadel). Using the two sets of maps in conjunction might help a DM better flesh out a large citadel.
9/14 Ruins 2: These map sections are the Ruin/ Tomb Geomorphs (K, L and Focus). They have the same usefulness as the Ruins map sections reviewed above. The size of one of the section makes it even less reusable and harder to place, however.
9/21 Undersea Caverns: These are the Undersea Geomorphs (E - J). They are a little smaller, making reuse easier. These are ideal for a water world with some submerged stone sections or even an earth world asteroid that's covered by water. The broken galleon hull is particularly SJ inspiring.
9/28 Volcanic Fortress: This is the Interdimensional Focus Geomorph. The volcanic building is actually a river (presumably of lava) crossing with a building on each end. One building has suffered some slight damage while the other is enclosed. In SJ, with ships able to fly, the premise of the bridge as an internal fortress defense is less compelling. DMs can add permanent walls of force if they wish to maintain this idea, however. Those not wishing to use this with lava (unlikely to be naturally present on an asteroid) can easily make the stream an empty chasm or water filled (or oil, green slime, etc.). The map given may even be better suited for a subterranean structure than a surface one.
Map-A-Week Archive for October 2000.
10/5 The Journey: A small map perfect for DMs to use when PCs land on the shore of a lake, either on a wooded asteroid with streams or on a planet.
10/12 The Secret Graveyard: While the description on the site says this is a close-up of an area on the Journey map, it doesn't fit any of locations 2, 3, or 4. Still, it's ideal for a simple wooded asteroid with a farming or wood cutting colony. Perhaps gnomes or halflings live here (the humanistic style doesn't really suggest elves). The makeshift (and probably mobile) barricades around the town indicate there may also be danger in the surrounding woods . . .
10/19 The Old Tower: Once more the description suggests this tower is a location on the Journey map but the terrain doesn't fit location 2, 3, or 4 thereon. This is an ideal map for a simple tower or a hut on a nice asteroid (the map shows an underground area and stairs going up—either to a second level or the roof) and can be plunked down anywhere.
10/26 Haunted Temple: This map is extremely confusing when trying to figure out exactly what terrain it's set in (in looks to be built on top of trees?) but otherwise is a very nice map of a small, fortified dwelling (it needn't be a shrine). While the description suggests an inventor's workshop (perfect for tinker gnomes), the orderliness and design suggest dwarves to me. There's no sign of any haunting (or requirement for it to be haunted) on the map so put it anywhere you want it, it'll work great.
10/31 Halloween Bonus Haunted House: Other than ignoring the 3 small people (two adults and a child—possibly dolls?) in area 20 this is perfect for a spacious manner, whether in a city or on its own. Again, there is no sign of haunting on the map but whoever built it definitely had wealth.
Map-A-Week Archive for November 2000.
11/2 Surface level, 11/9 Catacombs, and 11/16 Side View: These maps seem to support the "Greyhawk 2000" article from the November 2000 issue of Dragon Magazine, and are not Medieval/ Renaissance fantasy period maps. The only potentially salvageable one is the catacombs map, if you want a sewer system.
11/23 Arena: While linked to the previous 3 maps by the description, this one is so generic it could be placed anywhere. This is perfect for a scro arena or even a slave selling area used by a Chainmen enclave. With a little work DMs could make this part of a spacestation that's grown up from various ships being put together over time (like the human station in the movie Titan AE). In this case neogi spider ships were probably used for this section.
Map-A-Week Archive for December 2000.
12/7 Master Key: A handy key for all dungeon maps. Print it out and give it to your players (and keep a copy for yourself) for those times when they get a map lacking a key (like most of the maps reviewed in this article). People with creative cut and paste skills might even be able to use this to add some of the symbols to other maps they've made.
12/7 Two maps in one!: Both these maps make for excellent complexes built into a cliff-face next to a body of water. Perfect for SJ! The smaller one even has siege weapon defenses (ballistae) for uninvited guests while the upper apparently has a submerged ramp. Perhaps ships can be hauled up it and hidden from aerial view once they've landed in the water. The bars are undoubtedly removable or retractable in such an event.
12/14 Deeper levels: Supposed to be deeper levels for the Two Maps in One maps, the upper map could easily be its own stand-alone complex. (What is that to the right?).
12/21 Complex: While the description says this is part of a dwarven city this level obviously isn't the general living or even mining level (though there are some areas that might be quarters and barracks). A more public level, such as one containing shrines, workshops, shops, and public areas (note the theater) is more likely. Good for any subterranean port or possibly a section of dwarven citadel.
12/28 Sacred Caverns: This area looks more like a general living area though there area apparently some shrines and even mining/natural cave areas. Again, quite useful for any subterranean complex.
