Monday, June 30, 2008

A Review

Well, last nights session was surprising on many levels. The most pleasant of which was a gift of sorts from people that few of us have ever even met. The dm revealed some awesome new eye candy for us to ogle over. 3-d dungeon tiles! Let me say on the record, these things looked very professional and extremely well built. The detail was incredible. If the dm had not said anything about their origins I would have thought he lost his mind and bought $1000 worth of stuff from The Red Dragon or something. It turns out that it was all scratch built to the dm's specs! Simply amazing!

The good:
-Very high degree of detail
-Tiles fit together very well
-The everburning flame rocked!
-Felt durable and solidly constructed
-Good variety of pieces
-The doors open!!

The not-so-good (I didn't see anything I would consider bad):
-The scale on the candlesticks was way off, too large
-Using the gravel for coals is a good idea but I don't think it will work well in practice
-Sarcophagi would have looked better with raised relief patterns not depressions
-I didn't see a use for the torches (no wall sconces) and they were a little large also

Suggestions:
-Removable lids for sarcophagi
-Curved wall sections (not every tunnel/corridor is straight)
-More "play testing" time!
-Floor tiles larger than 2x2 would speed up build time of larger rooms

As you can see most of this stuff is nitpicking, overall this tile set blew my mind, it was great! It looked like a ton of time and effort went into this project. A big thank you goes out to the R&D team behind this product!


9 comments:

  1. I agree with most of the things that were said about this product so far I do disagree with the durability of the product though. It did feel solid and everything but how is the longevity of the product and what happens if something were to accidently spill on them? As far as the candlesticks go the floor ones were the perect hight I thought but the ones that were made for a table top were way to large and needed to be scaled down a bit. The hand torch is not needed unless they were made to hang in a wall which would be cool to have the ability to do. Another very good thing to have might be a treasure chest (Even if jim never lets us have them lol) but all in all I was very pleased with the way the product looks and its usability and im very glad that the peices don't lock together so that its easy to set up and take down with no real chances of breaking the pieces. So to the people behind the product excellent first run and thank you.

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  2. I'd like to thank you all for trying out the new gear. It was a lot of fun building it, and I hope that as it progresses, it will be a bit faster to produce. The floor model candle sticks were to scale, but I had no frame of reference for the small one. Sorry about that, it must have been imported from a giant's lair. I will work on the scale, and thanks for the heads up.

    Spilling... aye. We considered that greatly. They are latex acrylic painted, and should withstand a spill or two, but hey, throw some elvish miruvor, tankard of ale, or other beverage of choice on some and see what happens. We considered/tried a sealant, wish made the tiles look too glossy and unrealistic. Feel free to torture test them at will. They probably wouldn't survive a fish tank, but should wipe up with a paper towel just fine. Try it.

    The next coffins have opening doors,( we have two already )treasure chests, gold, swiveling walls, trap floors, stocks, and other cool and nasty products coming your way. The torches were sized to fit in the wall pieces with torch holders to give lighting for those without keen elvish sight. I am guessing that those peices weren't used, and I apologize, as I really didn't get a chance to get with the DM on that. We did make smaller ones, but they were cumbersome for larger fingers, slipped their holders, and so were scrapped in favor of the ones the size of DF. Patch, you will be happy to know there is a plan in the works for a sap, but I am lothing the thought of sending it, as it is far greater entertainment with an iron pot, which by the way, I have already acquired for your next set of goodies.

    Raised lettering sounds good. I will have to try some. By the way, for those that can read runic, there are some interesting things said on those with carved letters.

    There will be more to come, larger pieces are drying, and I will be happy to try out some curves.Once again, I really thank you for your input, as it is invaluable to me. I can't wait to see what happens next. I will be peering from the clouds...

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  3. Loomis says: "I'm gonna dip my tile in Portscale Wine! HEH!"

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  4. Loomis, stop wasting good wine, and for the gods sake put some pants on!!

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  5. Put his pants on. Hell if he doesn't do what he's told they might take his shirt then were really in for a world of hurt.

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  6. I have it on good word that Loomis left his pants at the Fiesta.

    The tiles were tested today with the help of a two liter of Diet Pepsi (dad's favorite). The tiles got a good drenching and then were wiped off with a paper towel with no apparent problem. We rinsed some with water and they too lived through it. We then took one, stuffed it in a glass of water, and left it in there for about 8 minutes. It did eventually soak up some water and became a bit squishy. It dried back out after we left it out on the table, with no apparent harm to the finish. It was breakable in it's squishy state, so (of course we had to) we purposely destroyed a piece by ripping it in half,left it to dry, and glued it back together without a problem. A new batch will be created with some new additives to give it a longer soak time, and I will keep you posted on those as we see if there is any improvement. I wouldn't be concerned however about a spilled tankard or two.

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  7. So, as long as we don't experience floods on an Iowan scale we should be good to go. Nice.

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  8. Next, coming to your gaming table, old brick for those who need some color, and some very tiny candlesticks.

    The workshop will be a bit behind, as we attempted last week to improve on the special batter. Well, let me tell you, it was not an improvement that we received!It was a more like a disaster. I believe the whole batch to be unsalvageable. There were some cool peices made that were lost. So I am disappointed, and we will be back to the original formula.

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