Dry erase boards. Flip mats. Graph paper. Lego. Theater of the Mind. All of these are valid, tried-and-true methods of tracking movement/combat in Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs. While I've employed all of these in the past, nothing has worked better for my games than the dungeon tile.
The new Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated sets from Wizards of the Coast provide a quick, inexpensive, and simple way to visually represent a variety of settings. Building on the release of last years D & D Adventure Grid, WoTC released three sets of Dungeon tiles on Jan 23, 2018—Wilderness, City and Dungeon.
The tiles retail for $24.99, but I purchased these for $15 apiece at my local FLGS. I have also seen them priced reasonably at Amazon and other online venues, so obtaining them won't break the bank. Let's see if they were worth the cost of admission. A simple search of YouTube will reveal plenty of unboxing videos for this set, so we won't go into that here.
Each set comes in a sturdy cardboard box—much like that of a board game—with a slip case cover. The isn't truly necessary, however, because the boxes are designed to match the theme of the set. For instance, the Dungeon set is covered with gray brick, while the Wilderness set is green and adorned with trees.
Each set contains 16 sheets of double-sided, high-quality dungeon tiles. Each sheet contains anywhere from two to six dungeon tiles of varying size, design, and shape. Each tile has two sides, with different images. The quantity and style of the individual tiles are dependent on the set.
The Dungeon set is the most varied, with its semi-circular stairwells, it's single-tile objects, triangular and arch-shaped tiles to denote larger areas and several corridors. The Wilderness set has several large single-tile pieces, showing rivers and heavily forested areas. There are bridges, a canoe, springs, wells and more. Suffice to say this set would certainly have come in handy when I ran the "Greenest in Flames" scenario from WoTC's Hoard of the Dragon Queen back in 2015.
Moving onto the next set—The City—the Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated line shows its true value. The City tile set has everything your generic village, town, city, or heavily populated area could need. The variety and size of the tiles lend themselves well to creating these areas and blend seamlessly with both the Wilderness and Dungeon sets.
Being able to mix and match the tiles is a nice touch. Despite some oblong shapes in the Dungeon set, the tiles fit and blend together easily. The artwork is top-notch and all of them are reversible. Overall, I now have over 100 brand new, varied tiles I can use in my D & D games and I'm quite happy with this set.
So, are the Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated worth the price? Well, it depends first on how you track movement/combat. The D & D Adventure Grid serves this purpose well, as do many other flip-mats currently on the market. Also, if you already own any of the D & D board games like Wrath of Ashardalon or Castle Ravenloft, then you already have similar tiles. I remember some of these images from older editions—and some users here on EN World have confirmed these to be reprints of various tile—so, if you have them already, these are just fancy, repackaged, and remixed versions of those older sets.
As a Dungeon Master who didn't even start using flip mats until two years ago—I'm a dedicated disciple of the Theatre of the Mind style of play—I'm happy to have these in my collection.
Contributed by David J. Buck
The new Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated sets from Wizards of the Coast provide a quick, inexpensive, and simple way to visually represent a variety of settings. Building on the release of last years D & D Adventure Grid, WoTC released three sets of Dungeon tiles on Jan 23, 2018—Wilderness, City and Dungeon.
The tiles retail for $24.99, but I purchased these for $15 apiece at my local FLGS. I have also seen them priced reasonably at Amazon and other online venues, so obtaining them won't break the bank. Let's see if they were worth the cost of admission. A simple search of YouTube will reveal plenty of unboxing videos for this set, so we won't go into that here.
Each set comes in a sturdy cardboard box—much like that of a board game—with a slip case cover. The isn't truly necessary, however, because the boxes are designed to match the theme of the set. For instance, the Dungeon set is covered with gray brick, while the Wilderness set is green and adorned with trees.
Each set contains 16 sheets of double-sided, high-quality dungeon tiles. Each sheet contains anywhere from two to six dungeon tiles of varying size, design, and shape. Each tile has two sides, with different images. The quantity and style of the individual tiles are dependent on the set.
The Dungeon set is the most varied, with its semi-circular stairwells, it's single-tile objects, triangular and arch-shaped tiles to denote larger areas and several corridors. The Wilderness set has several large single-tile pieces, showing rivers and heavily forested areas. There are bridges, a canoe, springs, wells and more. Suffice to say this set would certainly have come in handy when I ran the "Greenest in Flames" scenario from WoTC's Hoard of the Dragon Queen back in 2015.
Moving onto the next set—The City—the Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated line shows its true value. The City tile set has everything your generic village, town, city, or heavily populated area could need. The variety and size of the tiles lend themselves well to creating these areas and blend seamlessly with both the Wilderness and Dungeon sets.
Being able to mix and match the tiles is a nice touch. Despite some oblong shapes in the Dungeon set, the tiles fit and blend together easily. The artwork is top-notch and all of them are reversible. Overall, I now have over 100 brand new, varied tiles I can use in my D & D games and I'm quite happy with this set.
So, are the Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated worth the price? Well, it depends first on how you track movement/combat. The D & D Adventure Grid serves this purpose well, as do many other flip-mats currently on the market. Also, if you already own any of the D & D board games like Wrath of Ashardalon or Castle Ravenloft, then you already have similar tiles. I remember some of these images from older editions—and some users here on EN World have confirmed these to be reprints of various tile—so, if you have them already, these are just fancy, repackaged, and remixed versions of those older sets.
As a Dungeon Master who didn't even start using flip mats until two years ago—I'm a dedicated disciple of the Theatre of the Mind style of play—I'm happy to have these in my collection.
Contributed by David J. Buck
