How can I tell if the templates for random maps are working?

I see you're using Heroes of Might and Magic. Perhaps you're launching SoD from your desktop, which might be causing confusion. Or something might be interfering with the game's launch, like another version installed in a different folder (possibly causing registry issues). Try launching the executable directly from the Heroes folder. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what the problem is. I downloaded Heroes version 3.58f, but I launch it through Heroes3.exe to play the classic SoD. Here's another thing that bothered me. To play a pure SoD, there shouldn't be anything extra in it. Otherwise, you might end up with situations like in some TE scenarios, where the dimension door is in the water, and the portal to the other world is in the fire, and there's a slowdown on the second level.