Nifty new gaming aid. Chunky Dungeons- Darkstone Halls

[Stone Dog]

Hey there everybody!

So I took my weekly cruise down to Do or Dice, since it is just around the corner from me, and I found this little gem. They only had a few of them set up at the moment, but let me tell you it looks sweet! I can't wait to see more of it set up. The colors are great, the treasure chests are perfect little props, they have these octagonal columns with leering faces that just scream "evil temple" and tall square pillars with bloodstains and manacles printed on them.

Sure, for $39.99 it may seem like a bit much, but all those images are on CD so you can expand the things yourself if you need too! They are publishing the sets themselves and since they are nice people anyway I thought I would spread the word. Do you like the look of Dwarven Forge's Master Mazes but think they are too expensive/heavy? You just might want to check these out!

 

[Stone Dog]

Bumping just for the sake of shilling like mad.

 

[Bagpuss]

This stuff has been available and with many, many more designs, for over a year via WorldWorks at RPGNow, only you had to print your own sheets obviously.

 

[Stone Dog]

Whoo hoo! Hooray for finding new/old nifty things! Thanks for that link too! I suppose Do or Dice actually helping to produce it is the only new part. Oh well, I am sure that some one besides me didn't know and are glad to have this information. [sleep deprivation induced pompousness]If even one of these 80(at the moment) people have had their game improved by this thread, then it was all worth it. [/ridiculously long faux html]

 

[poilbrun]

This looks good, but that gives even more prep work to the DM... I personally prefer to spend more time preparing the story and NPC's than the dungeon itself... And it saves me money!

 

[ephemeron]

This looks good, but that gives even more prep work to the DM... I personally prefer to spend more time preparing the story and NPC's than the dungeon itself... And it saves me money!

I've been using Dungeonworks Classic for several sessions now. I thought briefly about setting up entire dungeons at once or as the PC's moved through them, but found it more practical to only break out the scenery for combat. There's a pause as I set up the area and fumble around for the right paper minis or right number of counters for the monsters, but we kept getting headaches over which monsters could get at which PC's and it's worth it to not have those anymore.

Building a decent range of dungeon parts took me a few hours, but since then, I haven't had to spend any of my prep time on DW.

 

[Conaill]

For some more of WorldWorks Games' beautiful work, have a look at the Maiden of the High Seas:

 

[poilbrun]

I've been using Dungeonworks Classic for several sessions now. I thought briefly about setting up entire dungeons at once or as the PC's moved through them, but found it more practical to only break out the scenery for combat. There's a pause as I set up the area and fumble around for the right paper minis or right number of counters for the monsters, but we kept getting headaches over which monsters could get at which PC's and it's worth it to not have those anymore.

Building a decent range of dungeon parts took me a few hours, but since then, I haven't had to spend any of my prep time on DW.

It might be fun to give it a try...

I still think that fumbling for the right part and setting up the dungeon room would take me more time than drawing it as I do now, but that may be a misconception.

I tried once to game with dungeon tiles, and that's the problem I encountered, looking for the right tile to set at the proper time... For the next session, I decided to prepare things better, and put a number on each tile corresponding to a number on my map. End result: I had to prepare the whole dungeon before hand in case the players went rapidly through it, and ended up spending more time on tile preparation than actual game preparation. Since then, I've returned to drawing my maps on our 1 inch-squares board, and it works nicely...

My problem may also be with my players, though. If I try to play with miniatures, I always get someone to say when I set up the climactic fight: "Wow, this new mini looks good, let me have a look!". That kind of ruins it for me

 

[Piratecat]

Holy crap. That ship must be mine.

 

[ephemeron]

I still think that fumbling for the right part and setting up the dungeon room would take me more time than drawing it as I do now, but that may be a misconception.

It probably would.

There are also a couple of things about DungeonWorks Classic (and thus probably WorldWorks' other stuff, but DWC is all I've bought) that are better for dioramas than for play -- the detail is mostly wasted when you're looking at it from across the table, and if I were redesigning it, I'd make the walls shorter so that they couldn't get in the way of picking up and moving figures.

Scenery is cool, though, and it's pretty scenery.