Does anybody use Master Maze for their gaming?

[Ravensblood]

I was considering using the Master Maze line of products from Dwarven Forge in my gaming. They look a little expensive from what I saw. But before I decide to spend what will probably cost me a lot of money to set up decent dungeons and caverns, I thought I'd ask what others experiences have been like with the products. I'd also like to ask if there are any similar alternative products out there and what their prices are like.

 

[Dagger75]

My roomate has TONS of the stuff. Like 6 boxes of different types, cavernes, corners, circles, a couple of rooms you get the picture. It looks nice. Never use it. To much of a PITA to use. You got to lug it out, find the right pieces and it takes up lots of space.

In order for it to really work each room need to be seperated by a hall way. You look like you have a lot of but I can only build about 10 rooms at most. Its time consuming to build each room when the players use them. The only time I really use it for end encounters. Like making a temple, a wizards lab thing like that. I find it more useful that way than entire dungeons.

Hope that helps.

 

[pogre]

I always use mastermaze. The key is you have to have an area that is readily accessible to use them quickly to set up an encounter. Right now we have my massive MM collection in a set of drawers near the gaming table. I can set up an area about as fast as you can draw it out on a grid map. If you have to drag it out of the boxes for every gaming session I thinbk it would be much less usable.

An alternative is Hirst Arts Castle Molds. I own nearly the entire line and create a lot of stuff that is compatible with master maze. I really like to create entire rooms that I can lay down, exspecially when we are coming to a climax in the adventure. The downside of Hirst Arts stuff is it does require a time commitment and some painting and modelling skills.

There are going to be folks who wander into the thread and say MM is not worth the time. To those folks: If you own some MM sets you no longer use I would be happy to take them off your hands!

 

[pogre]

My roomate has TONS of the stuff. Like 6 boxes of different types, cavernes, corners, circles, a couple of rooms you get the picture.

That's not a TON of the stuff

However, I agree if you do not have it readily at hand and cannot keep it near the table on a semi-permanent basis it would be very time consuming.

 

[zoroaster100]

I absolutely love it and use it for all dungeon and cavern encounters and for most indoor town/city encounters. For large or complex dungeon/cavern set ups it can be a bit time consuming to set up. I think this type of use is where Dwarven Forge is best.

I use it one of two ways. For large set ups, I set up the entire dungeon or level of the dungeon ahead of time, often a day or two before the game, with all the furnishings, etc. already set in the dungeon. For small setups such as just one or two rooms at a time, etc. I set it up on the fly right before the encounter, and it takes me only five minutes or so to set up a small room, or five to fifteen minutes or so to build a large room or complex/furnished room. While I build the room(s) the players take a quick snack break or else I build the room while they select spells when their characters are resting for the night.

There is nothing like having a 3-D representation of the battlefield, especially when there are multiple levels involved, such as a large room or cavern with balconies, stairs, cliffs, etc.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I've played in a campaign that used it before.

I hate it. Hate, hate, hate, with the burning fire of a thousand suns. In addition to the amount of set-up time required, my main complaint is that I can't see anything. In order to actually see the placement of minis or markers, you have to basically stand and hover over the thing.

Not even remotely worth it, IMO. It actually detracts from the gaming experience, at least for me.

 

[Frida]

I seldom use mine collection nowadays, but if I do it´s for special encounters, endbattles and other things that are ment to mark something special for the PCs. So when I start using MM there is always a buzz of exitment among the players.

But in regualr play, no I don´t feel that I need to.

And as stated above, Hirts molds are as beautiful and far more priceworthy then MM.

 

[Yellow Sign]

Our gaming group has used it for a long time now. We love it!

 

[Kestrel]

I use it at my games. I have one set of the standard maze. I also bought 2 each of the 4 x 6 and 6 x 6 extras for my game. I find that I rarely use the walled parts, prefering to use the flat pieces most of the time. The only time I use the walled ones is when I run out.

A friend bought me the small scale set, with 5' passages, but I almost never use it, since they are too small for efficient use of the minis.

Thinking about trying out tact tiles soon. I love my MM flat peices but the walled ones are just view-obstructive for constant use.

 

[DethStryke]

Two DMs I know actually bought them when they first came out (One got a discount from the distributor because he worked there), and I have played with them in a few different ways. Here's my experience and stand on each, including alternatives I've seen/tried:

1. Master Maze: Bring them out and play randomly, setting up on the fly - I agree with Pogre, that if you can have them near the table in shelves or anything other than the original boxes, it's not as quick and potentially not worth the trouble. Like anything, it takes getting used to. Back then, there were ALOT less variety in parts.... so we had to improvise for many things that are common pieces now.

2. Master Maze: Pre-set up - This is a decent way to use them which lends itself to dungeon crawls or even tournament style games. One of the DMs I know used black felt/velvet to cover the entire dungeon, pulling back pieces as we explored. Especially handy is having more than one table to use... so you can go over to the dungeon table when you need to. I thought this was a neat way of doing it, but very time/space consuming. If you use your dining room or coffee table to play, then this would clearly not be good for you.

3. Hirst Arts - This is something I would only advise you to get into if you love Legos. If Legos were your thing, you will essentially be a kid in a candy shop with these. Bruce Hirst does quality mold work, the molds hold up well as long as you follow directions. The flexibility of design FAR outstrips the Master Maze items. I find making these kinds of things VERY relaxing, and I don't watch TV (not at all. Yes, I'm weird. I like TV, just don't watch it) so the times people would be watching TV, I'm probably doing this or painting minis. That's how I have the "extra time" to do it, so consider that if you're interested.

Additionally if you are serious about doing the molds, I recommend making some space you can set up as a permanent work area. The website also has a How-To for building a vibrating table (!) which helps making good casts in ANY mold ALOT(!!) easier.

4. Cardboard/Cardstock miniatures - This is currently where I found a balance at. The best provider I've found so far for fantasy and present day type architecture is World Works Games. They have expanded their lines and have a great message board that has tips on everything including the best tools, best practices, and even the best printers for 110lbs Card Stock. For those of you looking for Space (or like me, Star Wars) themed stuff, let me direct you to the following places: http://www.swminiatures.com/ - http://www.basecontact.com/. Though I've also used the First Light & Mars Station from World Works to great effect in my SW campaign. It also helps that I was able to get a color laser printer for two hundred bucks that can handle the thicker card stock in the feed tray. This is the fastest way to make scenery for any game that I've found so far that doesn't take forever and a day but still looks pretty good.

5. The Space Between - A battle map with things drawn on them, then a model house (perhaps the kind that model railroads use) and some scale trees and bushes (Games Workshop type stuff, or from any craft store) can add just a splash of scenery and get the imagination flowing, but without all the cost/time/aggravation of anything else. Sometimes just that is better than nothing.

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All that being said about Master Maze, I also agree somewhat with Mouseferatu on the "can't see anything(!)" comment; you can't. I end up standing up during gaming a fair amount though (6'2" height, with most of that in my legs, so I'm either slouched or standing. ), so it's not a big deal for me as it is for him evidently. I think the immersiveness gained by using scenery with miniatures makes up for the not being able to see easily from a seated position.

The bottom line is that if you are going to use ANY scenery, line of sight from a chair at low angles is going to be a problem. Period. For my money, what the scenery adds to the game is greater than the (questionable?) inconvenience of standing. A combination of MM and Hirst or Card Stock may make the money part not as bad.

In the final analysis, I like making crafts... A lot. I'm crafty. So molding with Hirst or Designing/cut-pasting/printing scenery is right up my alley and something that I really, really enjoy doing. I have a lot of practice at it now, and I was a computer-aided designer for a number of years professionally... there is no real "learning curve" for me anymore. Be forewarned though, especially with the Hirst Arts molds... The time needed to make any scenery if you are a perfectionist is HUGE! I can easily spend days on the scenery for something that took me an hour to prep as a DM, but I know for a fact that I am slower than a fair amount of people at it because of that anal-retentive attention to detail :\

Woo... that took a long time. I hope all that helps!