Gothic Realms Review.
Gothic Realms is originally designed to be used for a dungeon setting. I purchased this set after seeing some of the pieces used in a Rezolution board. This was the first time I had thought of using sets outside their “realm”.
Gothic Realms has lots of possibilities beyond the normal dungeon. The set has black walls with skulls adorning lots of the support columns. The skulls definitely give it a menacing feel, and anyone interested in using it beyond the normal fantasy realms, would be at home using it for a supervillin hideout or horror settings.
The set is very well detailed, but lacks variety in different wall textures. One type of wall comes in 7 different sizes. From 1" to 7" lengths. It would have been nicer to have 4 different types of walls in 7 different sizes. There are enough different items to complete a dungeon, but the dungeon will look the same from one corridor to the next. Maybe I expect to much from my dungeons and most dungeons would be pretty boring since they are usually designed as a place of gloom and doom. This set does give the air of gloom and doom.
This set comes with straight corridors, a T-Section, Cross section, grand entrance doors (which has really great details). The floor tiles come in two varieties, checkered black and white and stone floor slabs. The stone floor slabs comes in two varieties, one with a skeleton and one without. The one with the skeleton has a single skeleton on a 7x7" tile. It probably would have been cooler to have skeletal transparencies that could be printed out so I could have as many as I wanted, instead of a single skeleton. The skeletal transparencies should have come in a variety of poses, and piles.
The water tiles come in different colors so the mood of the sewer is set by the type of water. I have only used the normal clean looking blue water and the green, I have not yet found a use for the yellow. What would have helped with the water tiles would have been some tiles for mixing the colors together. It would have been nice to have the yellow, green, and blue come together and have swirls of water in multiple colors, eventually settling to a combination of the three. Having trash in the water tiles would have been good too. They are very “clean”.
There are a variety of traps included with this set and they are very well detailed. There are the actual traps that you build, but there are also tiles that represent pits with spikes, but they are 2d, but look 3d due to the angles of the graphics. I am going to attempt to build a real pit using foam core and / or Pink insulation foam to make a pit and attempt to cover it with a tile. I do not know how that will work, but I believe that the designer used 2d so the players would not suspect anything and the GM could put the tile down when someone tripped the trap. Not a bad strategy.
This set uses the “clip it” system of holding them together. This system uses paper clips to join different sections that are built together. Making it very modular.
I recommend this set to the DM and War gamer who wants something a little different or if you need large sewers. There have been discussions on the World Works Forums about sewer size, etc, but for playability and the “fun” factor, using Gothic Realms as a sewer in any setting, modern or fantasy will spice up the adventure and give the players and DM (or just players in War gaming) many different options.
Gothic Realms is originally designed to be used for a dungeon setting. I purchased this set after seeing some of the pieces used in a Rezolution board. This was the first time I had thought of using sets outside their “realm”.
Gothic Realms has lots of possibilities beyond the normal dungeon. The set has black walls with skulls adorning lots of the support columns. The skulls definitely give it a menacing feel, and anyone interested in using it beyond the normal fantasy realms, would be at home using it for a supervillin hideout or horror settings.
The set is very well detailed, but lacks variety in different wall textures. One type of wall comes in 7 different sizes. From 1" to 7" lengths. It would have been nicer to have 4 different types of walls in 7 different sizes. There are enough different items to complete a dungeon, but the dungeon will look the same from one corridor to the next. Maybe I expect to much from my dungeons and most dungeons would be pretty boring since they are usually designed as a place of gloom and doom. This set does give the air of gloom and doom.
This set comes with straight corridors, a T-Section, Cross section, grand entrance doors (which has really great details). The floor tiles come in two varieties, checkered black and white and stone floor slabs. The stone floor slabs comes in two varieties, one with a skeleton and one without. The one with the skeleton has a single skeleton on a 7x7" tile. It probably would have been cooler to have skeletal transparencies that could be printed out so I could have as many as I wanted, instead of a single skeleton. The skeletal transparencies should have come in a variety of poses, and piles.
The water tiles come in different colors so the mood of the sewer is set by the type of water. I have only used the normal clean looking blue water and the green, I have not yet found a use for the yellow. What would have helped with the water tiles would have been some tiles for mixing the colors together. It would have been nice to have the yellow, green, and blue come together and have swirls of water in multiple colors, eventually settling to a combination of the three. Having trash in the water tiles would have been good too. They are very “clean”.
There are a variety of traps included with this set and they are very well detailed. There are the actual traps that you build, but there are also tiles that represent pits with spikes, but they are 2d, but look 3d due to the angles of the graphics. I am going to attempt to build a real pit using foam core and / or Pink insulation foam to make a pit and attempt to cover it with a tile. I do not know how that will work, but I believe that the designer used 2d so the players would not suspect anything and the GM could put the tile down when someone tripped the trap. Not a bad strategy.
This set uses the “clip it” system of holding them together. This system uses paper clips to join different sections that are built together. Making it very modular.
I recommend this set to the DM and War gamer who wants something a little different or if you need large sewers. There have been discussions on the World Works Forums about sewer size, etc, but for playability and the “fun” factor, using Gothic Realms as a sewer in any setting, modern or fantasy will spice up the adventure and give the players and DM (or just players in War gaming) many different options.
