Friday, February 28, 2020

When playing Dungeons & Dragons I love to use dioramas made from Dwarven Forge tiles.

I think I've mentioned it a time or two that I play a game called Dungeons & Dragons. For the uninitiated, this is a tabletop roleplaying game where friends come over once a week, and we sit around for a few hours drinking soda or beer and eating snacks and taking on the roles of characters we've created to explore a fantasy world. The fantasy world varies from Dungeon Master to Dungeon Master. Currently, the one I play in the most is run by my friend Jake, but that will change as it always does as people take turns in the seat of DM.

Anyway, I have a small Dwarven Forge collection. In case you don't know, Dwarven Forge is a company that specializes in making hand-crafted terrain from the same material that PVC pipe in hardware stores is made from. They have a manufacturing plant based in China that (I assume) employs workers there to mould and then paint all of the pieces on an assembly line. These (in turn) get shipped back to the Americas where Dwarven Forge then takes and packages into boxes and ships to people who visit their online store.

I think that Dwarven Forge makes the majority of their money from multi-million dollar Kickstarters that launch about twice a year for new product lines. I've participated in one of these in the summer of 2019, and I haven't received my product because it takes a lot of time to manufacture these things. It was due to arrive sometime in April 2020. However, that's changed because of the corona virus (Covid 19). So we're looking at probably August 2020 or even the fall before I get any of the stuff I originally picked out for myself as a backer on Kickstarter. Such is life.

Anyway, Dwarven Forge is going to launch another Kickstarter in April for their new expansion called "The Wildlands," and they previewed some of this at PAX East, which is a conference for game enthusiasts and collectors. I didn't actually attend Pax East. Rather, these are pictures that someone else took from visiting the Dwarven Forge booth. I'm super impressed by the water tiles that you see in this miniature diorama that I could use in any D&D game. It looks like real water to me. Additionally, the tiles are full of details that catch the eye. See for yourself below.
Look at the way the growths on the tiles look. There's a neat purple looking flower, and the twisted branches on the tree look amazing, as does the log on the right side.
And here's a better picture of the water tiles. It looks incredible, in my opinion, and from at least a few feet away like real water. I love how the boat docks extend out over the water (I have those by the way), and I already have the rowboat and a bunch of the rocks and cavern stuff. Anyway, this all gets me extremely excited. I feel like I'm going to be a back on this Kickstarter, just like the last one I backed about nine months ago.

3 comments:

  1. Sorry the product is delayed.
    Those are a far cry from the cardboard dungeon walls i used thirty-forty years ago. I guess they had to keep up with the tabletop war gaming sets. I follow two guys who play regular and the photos they post of their games and from conventions are incredible.

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  2. I wouldn't have anywhere to put that lol

    Have a good weekend.

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  3. Those are stunning. You'll have to show off your new toys when they do arrive. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

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