These things are GREAT!
At first, I thought that they might be a bit difficult to work with since it takes so many pieces to create what you want. That was before I took into account the quality finish these things are printed on. Using regular ol' tape, either on top or under the tiles makes it quick and simple to pre-assemble your encounter locations ahead of time. The finish holds up well as you peel the tape off after the session.
Recently, I picked up a roll of matte, transparent, re-positionable shelf paper from a DIY store. With this, I cut off a sheet larger than the size I need (it's very inexpensive), peel off the backing and place this sticky side up on the table. I then fold over the four corners (Just a bit) to make it easier to peel off the tiles after the session, and begin placing the tiles onto the sticky.
When I'm done I trim the access away and fold over the newly cut corners under the tiles. The shelf paper is now the bottom surface of the encounter, making it unnecessary to use transparent paper.
Now I just need you guys to make more sets - though I own and love each set you've made so far - several sets of most - so I'm not complaining.
Can't wait to get the sinister woods set!
Another nice touch, since you have access to plastic mold factories, would be to offer sets of tile connectors of various sizes and shapes:
* Doors - Vertical door miniature that clips two or more tiles together of various sizes
* Walls - Same as above but walls - Dungeon set and Cavern set
* Vegetation - Rising only slightly from the top of the tile, a strip of grass, mud and stone - Higher versions for trees, shrubs and caves
* Town - Outer walls for buildings and walls, etc.,
Just some quick starter ideas. None of these would need to be significant models, but more of a clip to hold your dungeon tiles together.
Using the same plastic used on your miniatures, you could even make strips of ten inches in length that have the clip-groove the length of both sides - A whole package of these
These can then be easily cut to the appropriate length depending upon the arrangement needed. Some corner pieces that work equally well for inner and outer corners would complete the set.
The ultra-durable transparent miniature plastic you have in use would work perfectly for this!
Of course, the additional terrain-based clips mentioned above would still be most welcome along with this.
Thanks!, never thought about that but it's going to save lots of trouble having pre-made encounter tilesets and dungeons.
And can't wait either for Sinister Woods.
Any thoughts on the other wilderness (ruins of the wild) tileset? I have seen pictures on the web but my local store doesn't hold it, so any comment on this one before i buy it online? Thx.
MawOfAcamar
Drawing lines and objects on them is really handy though.
I am stealing your transparent tape idea!
Thanks!, never thought about that but it's going to save lots of trouble having pre-made encounter tilesets and dungeons.
Glad you found my idea useful!
And can't wait either for Sinister Woods.
Any thoughts on the other wilderness (ruins of the wild) tileset? I have seen pictures on the web but my local store doesn't hold it, so any comment on this one before i buy it online? Thx.
MawOfAcamar
As with any of the Dungeon Tiles sets, what you see in adds and from the outside packaging is NOTHING compared to what you truly get. I have Ruins of the Wild and love it. Very nice assortment of wilderness travel goodies along with the terrain itself. As of 2 hours ago, I own at least one copy of all sets except for Dire Tombs - which will come when I get down to a more distant store that carries the whole D&D line. At which time I plan to get another Ruins of the Wild and at least one more of the First Dungeon Tiles set and Lost Caverns of the Underdark. I bought two of the Streets of Shadow today as I have some great ideas using some of the tiles in duplicate, which I love to do with most of them. The new Caves of Carnage is the perfect supplement to the Lost Caverns and the new Arcane Towers, along with all of the dungeon style sets greatly enhance the use of the original set as well. The more sets you have, the better experience you'll have getting prepared for your sessions - plus you end up with more of the larger whole sheet building interiors.
As for the quality of the finish, I feel that they are the finest product on the market. I've tried many different kinds that are made to be used with dry-erase, an found that I don't like using markers on my tiles anyways. They're nowhere near as glossy or ridiculously flimsy and burdensome as many others. I either print out a section of wall or chit, etc., rather than use markers.
Hope that helps.
You need a special hand saw hole drill to make the holes though, otherwise the cardboard rips up pretty good. I keep the magnets in place using zap-a-gap glue.
This works two ways, though...I've taken to buying at least two sets of new dungeon tiles sight unseen. Fortunately, the last two sets haven't been a disappointment! :D
I own a couple of tile sets but was told by my FLGS that all of the other sets are OOP. I've tried to put together dungeons from a couple of adventurers AND the delve book but I've been frustrated time and again because I'm always missing something (from a set I don't own because it's OOP) so that I cant complete the map.
It's so frustrating that the tile sets that I DO own never get used now and instead of spending my money on more sets other, third party, companies get my money for easier to use and more reliable products.
Bottom line: If you want my money WotC then take your thumb out of your posterior and reprint all of the tile sets.
End of rant.
Luckily for me, several game stores within range still have a good supply of DT series tiles.
Better get what I need now!
All I can find at my FLGS is Dire tombs (would love to exchange one set with you for Ruins of the Wild :D) and Arcane Corridors.
I will definetely be picking two copies of Ruins of the Wild if I ever find it! Your arguments convinced me.
Anyone knows if another product will be replacing the Dungeon Tiles?
There is good money to be made there by WOTC, so why let them go OOP?
Halls of the Giant Kings...5 bucks more...but worth it for an OOP set if you need it.
here's a list of the rest
http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-and-Dragons-Dungeon-Tiles/lm/R2D9H4HZ8PSZPI/ref=cm_lmt_srch_f_1_rsrsrs0
some are insanely expensive
I think someone at Wizards of the Coast really dropped the ball with the Dungeon Delve book. At least one third of the encounters in the book use DU1: Hall of the Giant Kings (WHICH IS OUT OF PRINT). How ridiculous is it to put out a brand new product and suggest that people use a product that you can't get anymore?? At the very least they should have highlighted the newer tiles sets in hopes that it would increase sales.
The OOP problem affects the new sets, too. Several adventures use Streets of Shadow, and that one is also impossible to get. Dungeon Delve suggests to me that they will be reprinting these...especially the 4E series...and that there's just a problem with production at the moment. It makes no sense whatsoever to put a product like Dungeon Delve out there and keep it in print while most of the tiles used in the book are now impossible to get.
Most of the older sets weren't actually all that hard to get up until a few months ago...and some of the good ones are still available. Seems like around the time Streets of Shadow came out was when it started to get really bad, and availability has continued to sink ever since. There has to be some kind of issue with their products printed on card stock; even the DM screen has been out of print for awhile. Still, there are a few older sets available, such as Fane of the Forgotten Gods, Lost Caverns of the Underdark and Dire Tombs. And it looks like they will continue to put out a new set every few months, so even if the tileset type you want is OOP there will be something similar printed soon. The next set is the first wilderness set since Ruins of the Wild...I can't wait for that one.
I would just start collecting them if you're on the fence, hope that you can get the old OOP sets someday, but in the meantime snag the newer ones. They've drastically improved in quality anyway. Arcane Towers is my second favorite tile set (behind Streets of Shadow)...and you'll want a second if you buy one. Unless you're completely obsessive about collecting from start to finish, I'd just start buying 'em. Who knows, they might vanish while you waver.
I can sympathize with those who bought Dungeon Delve (or who buy it unawares) and couldn't get several of the sets needed for the book. Yeah, you can use a battlemat instead, that's what everyone will tell you...but the whole point of Dungeon Delve is something that can be thrown together without any fuss on a lazy afternoon. Tiles are much better suited to that activity than a battlemat...and they help a great deal with suspension of disbelief when used well.
When WotC first introduced Dungeon Tiles, I couldn't help but notice (by looking at the side of the package) that these, too, were on that super-heavy card stock that I like so well. Once I got from the bookstore to my car, I opened the package and was absolutely amazed with the incredible high quality of the finish on the tiles... great selection of pieces as well. I've had the urge to buy them as soon as they become available ever since. Glad I did.
I have to say, however, that I doubt (very much) that WotC is going to leave us all hanging for long. Perhaps they've even come up with a better solution ( as hinted upon above).
Worse comes to worst, you could always take your DMG to a printer, point out to them the message that gives permission to copy for personal use, and have them print up a bunch of color copies of the included battle mat on heavy card stock. Hmmm... that's an 8" x 10" room that can be cut into any shape... maybe I'll do that too!
When we were designing Dungeon Delve--back in June & July of 2008--we had reason to believe, based on the sales rate of all the other sets, that there would still be plenty of DU1 on the shelf. Even wildly optimistic projections based on it being the first set to follow the 4E release didn't assume the product would be hard to find that quickly.
We realized, far too late to do anything about Dungeon Delve, that our assumptions were incorrect.
And while I've certainly seen a number of folks online who've had difficulty finding a copy of DU1 at their local store, I'll add two tidbits of information to that issue:
1) If you were asking your store for it, they weren't asking their distributor for it (or the distributors weren't asking us).
An unfortunate side effect of the common distribution model for RPGs is that Wizards can only really respond to the folks who're buying directly from us (which mostly means Random House and the major RPG distributors). If those folks aren't saying "we want more of Product X, and here's our money," then all the internet chatter in the world won't sway the business people to authorize a reprint.
2) Even though we've been sold out of DU1 since last year, that doesn't mean there haven't been any copies in the distribution/retail channel. (In fact, we have reasonable evidence to suggest that unsold copies have been floating around out there since last fall.)
Again, the inefficiency of the distributed sales model is to blame here. Store A might need 10 more copies of Product X, while Store B can't sell a single copy. Customers at Store A walk away empty handed, while Store B's inventory gathers dust. A frustrating situation, to be sure, but one that's extraordinarily difficult for top-down organization to handle (as opposed to individualized efforts such as, oh, I don't know, putting your slow-moving inventory on sale via the Interwebz).
I'm not going to claim that the Dungeon Tiles product line has been free of issues. Sometimes we run out of a title so quickly that it hampers efforts to use that title in support of another product (such as DU1 and Dungeon Delve). Sometimes we don't return to a theme as quickly as folks would like (see the delay between dungeon-themed releases in DU1 and DU4). And yes, some folks don't like the fact that we intentionally don't keep every tile set in stock, instead allowing old sets to go OOP and be replaced on the shelf with newer sets.
Crafting the tile product schedule requires constant compromises and guessing (since we're producing sets over a year before they're published). I certainly think we've gotten it right more than we've gotten it wrong, but that can just make the miscues all the more frustrating (for us, too, I assure you). But remember, we're making all of this up as we go--there's really no existing model to follow in building this product line.
Personally, I think the last year-plus of tiles have been awesome as we've learned from mistakes and listened to fan feedback regarding what you want to see. We know folks use Halls of the Giant Kings, or you wouldn't be asking for more of it. I love using Streets of Shadow for all my town & city encounters, and Caves of Carnage is way easier to sort and use than the first cavern set we made (sorry, James!).
And not to give too much away, but I'm even more excited about what's on tap for the next few sets...I think y'all will be pleasantly surprised by the themes and innovations on the way.
Long Live Dungeon Tiles!
huh? so is that a no to reprints then?
Moreover, make sets have more large generic pieces. These are the common things I hear from the dungeon masters I chat and play with and as a DM they are what I also would like to see.
Just my 2 cents worth :D
For what it's worth, Halls of the Giant Kings sold faster--WAY faster--than any of our previous Dungeon Tile sets.
Whoa... Andy Collins?
I Love Andy Collins!
When we were designing Dungeon Delve--back in June & July of 2008--we had reason to believe, based on the sales rate of all the other sets, that there would still be plenty of DU1 on the shelf. Even wildly optimistic projections based on it being the first set to follow the 4E release didn't assume the product would be hard to find that quickly.
How true. For the whole of the year, it almost felt (to me) as if I was the only gamer in Northeast Wisconsin purchasing the tiles - so buy them I did.
If you were asking your store for it, they weren't asking their distributor for it (or the distributors weren't asking us).
An unfortunate side effect of the common distribution model for RPGs is that Wizards can only really respond to the folks who're buying directly from us (which mostly means Random House and the major RPG distributors). If those folks aren't saying "we want more of Product X, and here's our money," then all the internet chatter in the world won't sway the business people to authorize a reprint.
The above quote is, perhaps, the best (and closest to an official) answer to the above "so, is that a 'no' to a reprint?" question. Keep in mind that any company has to pay attention to supply and demand. If nobody is asking for the product (the distributors), there is no need for a reprint. If every last copy of any one of the core rulebooks sold out tomorrow, Wizards would undoubtedly find out about it.
As mentioned above, some book stores have these awesome products sitting on their shelves - go find them and you'll pay just MSRP for them - before they're gone for good.
I still feel that if more of us were buying them when they first came out, the stores, and hence, the distributors, would have been more hip on keeping their shelves full of them.
Live and learn... I guess.
I love using Streets of Shadow for all my town & city encounters, and Caves of Carnage is way easier to sort and use than the first cavern set we made (sorry, James!).
I totally agree with the Streets of Shadow comment - but I must state how much I love the Lost Caverns of the Underdark set. Caves of Carnage adds a great deal of needed content to that set, but they both work together VERY nicely! (Thanks, James!)
And not to give too much away, but I'm even more excited about what's on tap for the next few sets...I think y'all will be pleasantly surprised by the themes and innovations on the way.
Yes!!! I can't Wait!
Long Live Dungeon Tiles!
"Long Live Dungeon Tiles!"
Moreover, make sets have more large generic pieces. These are the common things I hear from the dungeon masters I chat and play with and as a DM they are what I also would like to see. :D
Totally!
I completely agree!
*****************************************************
One more thing to ponder:
If there does become a great demand for previous OOP tiles, I'm fairly confident that Wizards will reprint or replace them in some way, shape or form. If you really need one of the older sets, they are available at Amazon, all of them. Some are quite high in price, but if it's Dungeon Tiles you need, nothing on the market today quite lives up to their excellence - so just fork out that $$$ and get what you need before it gets even worse!
Well this stuff turns out to work far superior to tape - and a roll of it, which is a beautiful 18" wide, is very cheap!
I'm glad I got the transparent stuff since it allows me to see what's printed on the back of the tile. Sometimes it turns out that you can create two encounter maps at the same time - a flip map, if you will. It also works well if you find the need to adhere a tile on the top of the original flat map - which I do all the time.
For those who are still considering buying these, I must throw in the fact that one set makes it possible to create an awful lot of dungeons. Just because I like to collect a lot of them doesn't mean such a collection is necessary. A single set can truly take you places!
The players really groove on a giant Dungeon Tile layout coming out with only a few seconds of effort, which makes the prep time totally worth it.
(Granted, I game in my house--this is less useful if you have to tote your materials cross-campus or cross-town. Been there, done that, not interested in going back...)
Warning--the putty can leave small grease stains on your tiles. I haven't found it a big issue yet, but you should test it before you commit to this method.
Tangent--I could imagine my previous note coming off as slamming the current distribution/retail method of RPG sales, which wasn't my intent. As a former participant in the retail chain, I'm well aware that there are plenty of advantages to the current model that I didn't bother to list--for example, your FLGS can do a better job evangelizing products to you than any internet sales site--but that wasn't the point of that particular message regarding the issues with Dungeon Tile availability. Sorry for any confusion on that.
What about now? :P
We went with forest rather than jungle because it scored significantly higher on a "what types of terrain do you want" poll we ran a couple years ago.
FYI, city was desired by more than 2/3 of the respondents, followed by castle, ships, forest, temple, battlefield, natural caverns, sewers, mountains, swamp, jungle, and then it starts trailing off into smaller numbers.
As you can see, our recent & upcoming sets have targeted a number of these desired terrains--city & sewer in Streets of Shadow, forest in Sinister Woods, and caverns in Caves of Carnage.
I'd love to hit all those other themes and more in the future, and we're looking to find ways to explore the more unusual themes without shortchanging the classic dungeon theme.
And I'm sure you've all seen the exclusive ship tile available as part of the *FREE* DM Rewards program run by the RPGA? Of course you have, but in case you weren't paying attention:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drrep/2009June
As a side note on making sure the tiles you want to use in a product like Dungeon Delve (which I love by the way) are available when people pick up that supplement, how about integrating the dungeon delves in the same package as the tiles? A short adventure booklet could be put together in the same packaging as the tiles (which it uses of course) making for one stop shopping for a one-shot game. Maybe not one delve for each of 30 levels, but one or two that use just those tiles would be nice. If you want to save money you could include these mini delve scenarios as online DDI content that comes out the same time as the tiles. Not quite as good, but still a good idea I think.
To advance that a notch for bigger scenarios, a boxed set with even more tiles and minis of major NPCs, player handouts, pre-gens, battle mats, etc. would be great to have.
L
L
And I'm sure you've all seen the exclusive ship tile available as part of the *FREE* DM Rewards program run by the RPGA? Of course you have, but in case you weren't paying attention:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drrep/2009June
Just got mine in the mail yesterday. Very nice, and thanks for making it two sets, making ship-to-ship possible.
Time to save up more money. Oh DnD, if I had a drug addiction it'd be cheaper (but not as fun.)
As a side note on making sure the tiles you want to use in a product like Dungeon Delve (which I love by the way) are available when people pick up that supplement, how about integrating the dungeon delves in the same package as the tiles? A short adventure booklet could be put together in the same packaging as the tiles (which it uses of course) making for one stop shopping for a one-shot game. Maybe not one delve for each of 30 levels, but one or two that use just those tiles would be nice. If you want to save money you could include these mini delve scenarios as online DDI content that comes out the same time as the tiles. Not quite as good, but still a good idea I think.
To advance that a notch for bigger scenarios, a boxed set with even more tiles and minis of major NPCs, player handouts, pre-gens, battle mats, etc. would be great to have.
L
Ditto!
We realized, far too late to do anything about Dungeon Delve, that our assumptions were incorrect.
Yeah, it's unfortunate. That's been the single biggest thing that has bugged me not only for the Dungeon Delve book, but many recent online articles as well.
1) If you were asking your store for it, they weren't asking their distributor for it (or the distributors weren't asking us).
I've asked many many stores, and I imagine others have as well. Some (but not all) of these stores checked with their distributors for me. I can't claim my experience is anything like many others, but I doubt I'm alone.
An unfortunate side effect of the common distribution model for RPGs is that Wizards can only really respond to the folks who're buying directly from us (which mostly means Random House and the major RPG distributors). If those folks aren't saying "we want more of Product X, and here's our money," then all the internet chatter in the world won't sway the business people to authorize a reprint.
So, if enough of us ask our FLGS, and enough FLGS ask their distributors, is there a chance that it can happen?
Honestly, in the case of a couple sets, I'd be willing pre-order sets, if enough pre-orders would sway them.
2) Even though we've been sold out of DU1 since last year, that doesn't mean there haven't been any copies in the distribution/retail channel. (In fact, we have reasonable evidence to suggest that unsold copies have been floating around out there since last fall.)
Could these be like the unsold copies being offered at 2, 3, 10, or 20 times the retail price by Amazon affiliates?
And yes, some folks don't like the fact that we intentionally don't keep every tile set in stock, instead allowing old sets to go OOP and be replaced on the shelf with newer sets.
I don't mind so much that they go out of print... I mean, I don't expect the very first set to still be in print (though a few specific tiles in there I wish I could have more of... like the inn interiors)... But I am annoyed with sets that become unavailable within 6 months.
I love using Streets of Shadow for all my town & city encounters....
I'd love to use them as well, but I've been unable to find them for a reasonable price. I refuse to pay $30 to $50 from the scalpers, and the only fair price I've seen for them never delivered my order.
And not to give too much away, but I'm even more excited about what's on tap for the next few sets...I think y'all will be pleasantly surprised by the themes and innovations on the way.
Do you mean the "3D" bits? Or is there something more than that?
Thanks for the information though, if for nothing else to let us know that WotC acknowledges that there have been shortages and that there is a demand for reprints.
Though I was kind of hoping my contacts with WotC CSRs would have done that too.
This MASTER TILE SET sounds like a great idea. I can't wait to see which sets it comes with. Even though I already own at least two of each set, I'll most likely purchase this as well!
I probably sound a bit obsessive, but the truth is that I find it much quicker on my end, if I have a large set from which to chose. That's why I titled this thread: "Dungeon Tiles: Never Enough!"
I personally think they are a waste of money. I can just draw on my map with marker. I don't need more to carry to the table. I would like modules like the fantastic locations in the 3.5 system. At least those I could use with the DDM.
I personally think they are a waste of money. I can just draw on my map with marker. I don't need more to carry to the table. I would like modules like the fantastic locations in the 3.5 system. At least those I could use with the DDM.
Yeah, I really like the battle maps that come in the new adventure folders (H1-3, P1-3 & E1-2, 3 coming soon) and as a player, it never bothers me when the DM uses a simple grid and a marker. I'm not picky at all in that regard (always had a strong imagination).
For running my own games, however, I have found that I prefer the more realistic visuals. I think that the main problem with them is that there is no 'official' product that connects them together, making them a bit cumbersome to work with, for some folks. A little imagination can rectify this (several suggestions mentioned earlier in this thread), but I'd still like to see Wizards create a nice set of plastic clips specially designed to connect them in all manner of positions.
Still, with the method I use, I love this product as the encounter maps turn out looking so darned awesome!
And I'm sure you've all seen the exclusive ship tile available as part of the *FREE* DM Rewards program run by the RPGA? Of course you have, but in case you weren't paying attention:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drrep/2009June
No, I haven't, because the USPS is slow at getting me stuff other than bills...
And I'm sure you've all seen the exclusive ship tile available as part of the *FREE* DM Rewards program run by the RPGA? Of course you have, but in case you weren't paying attention:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drrep/2009June
Oh god, please tell me those (or something similar) will be available within the next year. I don't want to have to scalp them off of ebay, I really don't.
But I will if I must. Because I've wanted a (DT) ship for so very long now.
A shop nearby that was doing a stock clearance was selling Ruins of the Wild for half retail a couple of months ago!
I've bought the odd set of Amazon for quite reasonable prices to.
I'm looking forward to all the next sets as well, linking doors would also be appreciated. (Like Advanced Heroquest had)
The master set sounds awesome. Put me down for two copies! :D
Daniel.