Pathfinder 1E Dwarven Forge 3d Terrain & Pathfinder

A while back, my wife and I backed a Kickstarter for Dwarven Forge 3d Terrain.

I haven't used them yet because I haven't been DMing. Now that I am starting a new group, I've decided to bring them out. My players are stoked to use them, since most of us are used to drawing on a battlemap, and others have had the pleasure of playing with a ceiling-mounted projector.

The next area of the campaign is going to be investigating a limestone cavern where the PCs believe Drow are holding a Sylph Druid captive. What they don't know, however, is that the cavern is also a Temple to Cyth-V'sug, where the Drow are experimenting on surface dwellers with different fungi for some nefarious goal. They'll also discover the cavern leads much deeper underground thanks to the Drow's use of burrowing creatures called Delvers (who are detailed in Misfit Monsters Redeemed). To the shock and horror of the residents of Fusil (in Andoran, where the game takes place), the limestone cavern is much deeper than anticipated and leads directly to Nar-Voth and even deeper into Sekamina, where the Drow make their homeland.

Here's a slideshow of the Limestone Cavern set up with Dwarven Forge I made in iPhoto! As well as individual pics from each of the levels (First Level & Second Level). In the folders for each of the levels I also have Word Docs that keep track of the pieces I've used so I can set them up more easily.

Has anybody else used Dwarven Forge before? If you have, I'd love to hear your experiences, especially if you have tips!

I hope you enjoy! If you want to get your own Dwarven Forge, I'm sure they're still available on their website.

Looks freaking awesome. I hadn't heard of them before, but look forward to hearing how they work. (I shouldn't have been surprised by the prices, but was at first). What's the feel of each piece like?

Well there's two types, the old style and the new ones made out of Dwarvenite (I think that's what they're calling it).

The old style feel and act a lot like ceramic... meaning when the dog knocked one of the doors onto the floor it immediately broke. They're also pretty hefty for how small they are.

The new style are extremely sturdy and much more lightweight. I think there's a video of a car driving over a piece with little or no damage. Using the old style, I feel as though I'd want to wrap each piece up in order to protect it if I was going to take it to someone else's house for a game. The new style I have no problem throwing them all into a backpack without worry of anything breaking.

That said, we play at our house and my wife bought me a special piece of furniture to store them all. Here's some pics of our Dwarven Forge drawer-thing.

Oh, by the way, the pieces on the corner of the Boss Room are from a limited edition Catacombs set... That's right. They LIGHT UP! (Light & Up are two separate pics)

We lucked out by supporting the Kickstarter and got the majority of our collection with that discount and freebies for supporting them.

I regularly use both Dwarven Forge and Dungeonstone. I have found that, because setting up rooms can take time and disrupt immersion, it is best to set up significant locations where combat is likely to occur on a foam core board so I can quickly deploy it at the right moment. I do this with set-piece battles and tend to just use a regular battle mat for less-significant encounters. This keeps things moving but also creates some "wow" moments when I bring out the 3-D terrain for a significant battle.

Setting them up beforehand on foamboard makes sense, except I don't have that many pieces, so I'm having to use and reuse the same pieces for the different levels I'm designing.

koesherbacon said:

That said, we play at our house and my wife bought me a special piece of furniture to store them all. Here's some pics of our Dwarven Forge drawer-thing.

Click to expand...

Care to share where she found that chest of drawers? It looks great for storing DF stuff and minis.

Rabulias said:

Care to share where she found that chest of drawers? It looks great for storing DF stuff and minis.

Click to expand...

My question, too. Have my eye out for storage for miniatures and terrain.

Thx!

TomB

Sure, I think it's from Home Decorators Collection (http://www.homedecorators.com/).

I also have what I like to call my "DM's Tower" from there too. I usually put my Macbook on top, and use the drawers to hold my minis, extra dice, books, pencils, and so forth. I used to use folding TV Table, but after the weenies (my daschunts Francis and Dunkin') ran into it and almost knocked my computer on the floor we decided I needed something more heavy duty. It clears up the head of the table, which makes seeing the encounters easier than looking over the computer like I used to do before using anything off to the side.

For any other DMs out there, I really recommend getting something like it!

Since I'm not 100% certain that's where we bought those pieces of furniture, I'll double check with my wife when she's home from work. I know we've definitely bought some furniture from there and have never had a problem with our order, setting them up, or them falling apart. Unlike Ikea (where I'm sure you could get similar furniture), they actually send you all the parts you need and they won't fall apart when an out of control weenie dog careens into it. (Weenie dogs have a +4 to attack and damage against furniture, you know).

I just checked Home Decorators Collection, and found those pieces of furniture

Dwarven Forge Drawer-Thing: http://goo.gl/X54cBI
DM Tower: http://goo.gl/EKYt4U

It looks like if you search for "Craft" in the "Furniture" section, there's a ton of options that would work for the Roleplayer: http://goo.gl/02E1iK

Hope that helps some of you organize your collections!

techno said:

I regularly use both Dwarven Forge and Dungeonstone. I have found that, because setting up rooms can take time and disrupt immersion, it is best to set up significant locations where combat is likely to occur on a foam core board so I can quickly deploy it at the right moment. I do this with set-piece battles and tend to just use a regular battle mat for less-significant encounters. This keeps things moving but also creates some "wow" moments when I bring out the 3-D terrain for a significant battle.

Click to expand...

I found it easy to just use the floor tiles during dungeon exploration, putting down tiles as the players explore. It's actually faster than drawing lines on a mat, and it feels cool to have some 3D. Unfortunately, it only works for smallish dungeons, and/or you have to go in sections, disassembling and moving the whole map when you're about to run off the table. Very large dungeons are just not doable (but the players should keep a more permanent map anyway).