Dwarven Forge Cities Untold Kickstarter - Yuck

Recently the folks at Dwarven Forge showed off more prototypes which are of course subject to change.

Here's a picture they provided and my thoughts on what it shows.

The building on the right is their Ashlar Stone design. The design itself is nice. The paint scheme however, is terrible. This is supposed to represent the higher class section of the city, but it looks like a much filthier version of the Tudor building colors.(Below)

Recommendation: Change the colors to not blend in with the Tudor buildings. Maybe go with an off-white, pale gray, light gray combo. It'll make it seem to be a higher quality stone and set it apart from mid and low town buildings.

The wooden building to the left would look better if the corner posts and floor matched much more closely to the walls, while still giving a slight difference.

The sea walls look terrible. I know these are prototypes, and they're probably trying to portray salt covered areas and wet areas, but presently, yuck. It looks more like a decaying sea wall. If it's meant to do so then they need to make some ruined sections crumbling into the sea.

The cobblestone design needs a re-do. I grew up by a port city with old sections having cobblestone streets. Cobblestones were used as ballast in ships to help maintain balance and reduce the chance of a cargo shift capsizing the ship. They would be loaded into the depths of the hold and during travel would rub and wear against one another. Cobblestones should not have sharp points or sharp edges. I'm biased by the ones I grew up around so maybe somewhere there could be sharp pointy stuff, but I dislike this look.

The miniatures shown do not appeal to me. I'll reserve my thoughts on these until I see more detailed images and what else they have in store.

The sea water terrain tray images look like stormy weather. Will the opposite sides be calmer?

And now a good thing. The window inserts look great. Stained glass and other designs will be available and they are talking about providing templates to help in making your own designs. There's also likely to be a magnetic picture frame you can put stuff in and hang on your building inside walls.

While I want to support the Kickstarter when it launches, the negatives so far have me hesitating. At least a lot of other people are asking for a clocktower like I am.

Vorpal Board - Covering More Square Footage With The Camera

When deciding to get a Virtual Tabletop to play remotely with my friends from other states, the choice was narrowed almost by default to Vorpal Board. As I use many sets of Dwarven Forge terrain and really love to show them off, a live visual stream was a no-brainer.

There are some great reviews and tutorials for using VB with terrain, but most of them seem to have the same thing in common, the small display area coverage of the camera on the arm. Reviews and how-tos seemed to indicate that the most likely display area was about 2 feet by 2 feet or 4 square feet. After playing around with the space I had available for use, a solution occurred that has led to an increased display area, well within the reach of the 49 inch camera boom VB offers.

My computer desk happens to be the only reasonable option to run sessions from since others would require negotiating for dining room table use for a few hours, and constantly tearing down and resetting the terrain. The lower deck of the desk is 46 inches wide by 23 inches deep, with half of that taken up by my computer gear. The upper shelf is 46 inches wide by 11 inches deep. So far it sounds like there's not much display space, but stick with me.

The available half of the lower deck allows me to comfortably use about 20 inches by 16 inches, and room to build two or three levels high (maybe more with limitations). The upper shelf narrowness is solved by using Gator foam core boards in thicknesses from 1/4 inch to 2 inches depending on build plan. The foam core boards are 12 inches by 8 inches, or 6 inches by 4 inches. The boards make it possible to increase the shelf width to a supported 16 inches. 

I also have available for occasional use for space a small folding snack tray that can sit beside me to the right, in line with the available desk space. The tray adds over another foot and a half square of horizontal space and some vertical levels.

Most of the reviews and how-to videos showed the placement of the camera boom to the side of the build area, but in this situation that was far too limiting. It is situated almost in the center front of the desk which allows it to span the entire length and height of the currently described display base with range for more.

So far this area has proven to be quite nice and allowed for multiple small vignettes to share it. I however have bigger plans that require new wall shelves above and to the side of the desk. 

In come two 36 inch by 12 inch wall mounted shelves with heavy duty brackets to feel safe loading up the terrain above everything else. This proved to be a bit of an investment, around $90, but will give at least another 6 square feet (more with foam core boards involved) to play with. 

Altogether the display area is approximately 15 square feet compared to the estimated 2 foot by 2 foot shown and discussed in videos. It will be a lot easier to have various scenes prepared for my Ptolus campaign with all of this space. If your situation permits, you could further surround yourself with shelves adding even more playable space.

It is now possible to have the city and sewers on the top level, dungeons on the desk shelf and below, plus still have room for some smaller special environments.

The key to giving yourself more terrain coverage is entirely down to where you situate the camera arm.

So how am I liking Vorpal Board? It's proving to be an excellent choice for my remote gaming purposes.

A quick note on lighting issues with multiple levels above lower ones. Before the new shelves I could turn on the overhead light, a lamp across the room, and pull aside the curtains to let in daylight (I play early where I live). Now there is the issue of some light being blocked from above. No problem, the powerful LED multi-colored lighting (tealight sized) pods I have can be Blu-tacked under the top shelf and set to whatever color mood lighting I want in the dungeon. The actual amount of blocked light turns out to be minimal once the shelves were in place.

A Bit Ptoo Much Ptolus for your Ptaste? Well Ptough!

Forgive me or not, but I am focused quite heavily on my current campaign set in Monte Cook's Ptolus: City By The Spire. Obsessed you might say. I am taking the opportunity to include on the blog plenty of ideas for other Ptolus DMs as repayment and paying it forward for the many cool ideas they have made available for others like myself to use. 

Fear not, there will be other non-Ptolus posts appearing here as well. 

There will be some posts coming up about miniatures, reviews of books that can be useful for your game, old school spells, magic items both old school and for 5e, monsters both old school and new, journals from other campaigns, props and terrain pieces, and sometimes some non-d&d related subjects.

I considered putting a to-do list up showing planned posts, but things change far too frequently for that to remain on target. There are however a growing stack of gaming books on my desk that need reading and those will certainly get a mention when completed.

So there we have it. There will be plenty of variety to look forward to. 

This post is not a Ptroll.

Dwarven Forge Wildlands Kickstarter Rewards Have Arrived

I backed the Dwarven Forge Wildlands Kickstarter for a small amount and really wish I had both the storage space and the money to have picked up a bit more than I eventually did.

Over the last three DF Kickstarters (Dungeon of Doom, Caverns Deep, Wildlands) I have had to limit my participation below what in better times I would have invested. One of the many types of items it would have been good to get are the Terrain Trays and the magnetized pieces instead of non-magnetized. In hind sight it is easy to recognize just how handy they are, but sadly they are all currently out of stock. Of course with the cost of my storage locker increasing every year I'm at a loss for where to put it if I had backed for more stuff.

The Dwarven Forge collection began with a Master Maze Room and Passage set. It started small, but as my income grew, so too did my appetite for the terrain. Now that my income has fallen to a bare trickle my ability to collect is about as limited as when I first got bit by the DF bug.

The Reliquaries Kickstarter was skipped since it held little usefulness for my terrain needs and displaying dice on top of stuff is a recipe for disaster with cantankerous cats lurking about.

Here are the Wildlands rewards I've received (pictures are from the Dwarven Forge website). I'll be taking them to the next game session since they'll either get used then or the session afterward (most likely).

And here are the aforementioned cats.

The Pile of Shame

Among the miniature painting community I have seen the phrase pile of shame referring to an accumulation of as yet unpainted miniature figures. It's a pile that grows as more unpainted figures are purchased despite not having completed painting the already owned figures. I now have a growing pile of shame.

I decided in the fall of 2021 that despite the physical ailments and obstacles I have, that I would throw myself into painting minis to use in my campaign. Sure, there are tons of pre-painted minis available and I have been buying a bunch to use as well, but sometimes what you want to represent isn't available pre-painted. So far I have completed zero.

I am afflicted by Essential Tremors which kicks in mostly when I try to do detailed work with my hands. As if that isn't enough of a problem when it comes to painting miniatures, I also have Tardive Dyskinesia brought on as a permanent side-effect of taking a certain anti-depressant. The shaking from one set of tremors gets highly amplified by the other. You should see me try to chop veggies up for stir-fry, it's terrifying waiting to see who'll get maimed.

As the process was getting started and some terrain was being completed, Dwarven Forge and stuff from 3d printers, a couple of minis started getting paint thrown on them. First I repainted a few of the pre-painted minis to help build some positive encouragement and then started on three Reaper minis to represent opposition for the characters in my game. That's when  disaster struck.

I also have Diabetic Retinopathy and it hit me hard. I had sudden severe hemorrhaging in the left eye and some small amount in the right eye. I couldn't see well enough to do anything detailed or to even trust myself driving a car. This was a major emergency since without taking immediate action I could easily have gone blind, and definitely would within three years.

Well, an invasive eye surgery and laser surgery on my retinas, as well as medicine delivered by needles into both eyes, and I can see again. Painting has resumed and is proceeding slowly as I build back the enthusiasm I had prior to the vision problem.

There is a to-do list of specific miniatures and terrain for an adventure I want to run sometime in the not too distant future. It includes three people, a dog, another creature, and a bunch of terrain. The terrain will come after the people and critters since even if not completely painted, the terrain will still be fine for my purposes. No expectation exists that the paint jobs will be anything special, but good enough for the table would make me happy.

Will the pile of shame be diminished? Not by much, but at least the effort is underway.

Dwarven Forge Kickstarter 5 - HOLY SNAKE SHIT

The Dungeon of Doom kickstarter is about half way through and already has eclipsed 1.6 million dollars on the way toward what could be well over 2 million by the end.

After looking carefully through the video of the kickstarter at the 3:38 mark you can see this amazing reveal of the heart and soul of this kickstarter: the real reason it is called the Dungeon of Doom; it may be inhabited by the bigger, badder brother of Conan's enemy Thulsa Doom.

Take a gander at these amazing pieces! The LED statue, the various wall pieces with intricate carvings, some with eyes, and the LED brazier with green flame. Wow!

At the time of writing this post, this has not been revealed in the kickstarter, but it isn't a secret since others have discovered it like I did by going through the video with frequent pauses to look for the cool pieces.

This truly is the dungeon of doom to your wallet; so much awesome stuff!

Dwarven Forge Kickstarter #5 forward look

Sometime in May, perhaps, Dwarven Forge will launch their 5th Kickstarter project which takes things back to the dungeon. Here are some preview pictures of prototypes for what is likely a big part of the new project.

The pillar and arch design provides the basic set a sufficiently different look and helps vary the appearance of the dungeon environment.

Here's what really grabbed my attention, the ability to build decent sized circular rooms using some freestanding curved walls and other pieces.

Additionally DF are working on alternative basic corners, diagonal walls, broken pillars, etc.

Does anyone recall if the snake design floor pieces below are old or new?

I currently have no available budget to speak of, but I would certainly like to add to my existing collection of DF terrain given the opportunity.

Getting Hammered part 6

Dan Fisher of Hammered Game Tables is a huge fan of Dwarven Forge terrain, as am I, and made the decision to have every bit of space inside his own table and any table he sold, to be fully usable for terrain in the scale of one inch to five feet. The inside of the Phoenix works out to 2.5 scale acres of space. That area can be filled with an enormous amount of Dwarven Forge terrain.

Until you are actually looking into one of these tables it is hard to understand just what that means.

 Let's not get stuck thinking two dimensional, you can also go vertical.

What you see above is not stable since I grabbed a few pieces to quickly illustrate the depths to which adventurers can sink, er, I mean the incredible opportunity for fantastic dungeon builds on more than one level.

The time is fast approaching when the gaming group will get together for their first session at the new Phoenix and I will attempt to build out the entire dungeon their characters are exploring. Knowing the size of that dungeon, I can tell you it will not come close to filling the belly of this beast.

This was just a brief look at what can be done with the table. Stay tuned because more will be coming as I break out the Dwarven Forge pieces and prepare for the adventure to continue on February 21st.

Next up . . . some highlights from the building process and a short story of just how excited Dan can get when working on tables.