Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures - Map Tiles

Cast your mind back to 2003 when WotC released the D&D Miniatures Game.  Each set came with a 5"x8" single sided cardboard map tile.

Dungeons & Dragons Pokemon

The D&D Miniatures Game was essentially WotC's attempt tocreate a D&D miniatures Collectible Card Game and cash in on the popularity of Pokemon which was everywhere at the time.  This isn't meant as a slight, basically every games company was trying to do the same.  It was popular among regular D&D players as a cheap way to get officially licensed versions of painted miniatures for your AD&D Game (3.5 at the time) and was instrumental in introducing D&D to a whole new audience of young players.

The Map Tiles

These maps are a useful addition to the Game Master's arsenal of tools either for inspiration or for that on the fly dungeon, the one that is inexplicable and doesn't make any sense.

A complete archive of the map tiles seems nowhere to be found.  Come on internet do your thang.

My collection includes:  

• Assembly Tile 3
• Assembly Tile 4
  
• Aftermath
  
• Ancient Temple 
  
• Blood Rock Cave 
• Burial Chamber
• Spike Stones Cave
  
• Torture Chamber

   

If you know of anywhere that has a complete listing of the tiles which were available or you would like to share your memories of playing the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures game please feel free to use the comments section below.

How Do I Start Playing Dungeons and Dragons

We've all had to begin somewhere and when I started playing nearly 40 years ago the internet didn't exist to help.

Find a Local Dungeons & Dragons Group

When you first start playing roleplaying games you need to learn from other players.  Critical Role and other streamed "Live" games are fine, but they are edited professional voice actors and that's going to give you an unrealistic expectation of what the game is like to play with normal people.  

Learning to play from experienced players is the best way

Joining a local group is the best way for you to learn the basics before you begin investing time and money into the hobby.  You will meet people who have been playing for years and can help you get up to speed straight away.

At my Friday night Tabletop Roleplay Group, Dragons Keep Roleplay Club, we are always welcoming to players new to the hobby and will help you to create a character and learn the basic rules.  We have experienced Games Masters who have been running Dungeons & Dragons for many years 

Google search terms like:

• Roleplaying Games Clubs near me
• Dungeons & Dragons Groups near me 
• Tabletop RPG Clubs near me

Roleplayers are everywhere and anyone

Even if you live in the back of beyond you will find that there are small groups of players in your town who have been quietly playing their games for years.  They will be from all walks of life and all kinds of people.  Roleplayers are some of the most diverse hobby groups I've ever come across.

 

They will advertise spaces on some of the many Roleplaying Forums like

• ENWorld - Gamers Seeking Gamers
  
• RPG.net - Ye Olde Tavern: Looking for Group
  
• BoardGameGeek - Game Groups Forum
  
• RPGGeek - Conventions and Meetups
  

Buy a starter set

Dungeons and Dragons has a long history of producing starter boxes which give you a simplified cut down version of the game, a starter adventure and even teach you how to play the game.  In fact they contain pretty much everything you need to get yourself up and running with the game.

Most game systems will have multiple starter set entry points.  Dungeons and Dragons has at least 3

• Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set -  
• Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit
• D&D Stranger Things / Rick & Morty cross over starter sets 

For younger players there is even a boardgame version of D&D called Adventure Begins which will get you started.

 

Jessie's Prints - Episode 13 - The Chardalyn Dragon

This week, I are mostly been printing...

The Chardalyn Dragon - Migeul Zavala - Shapeways

At my regular Friday night roleplay club Dragons Keep we often have at least one Dungeons & Dragons game running and at the moment this is Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden.

SPOILER ALERT: One of the big bad beasties you are probably going to encounter is the Chardalyn Dragon, a monstrous metallic magical construct which Wizkids have made available as an Icons of the Realm miniature. 

Wizkids Chardalyn Dragon - Buy one here

However, if your pockets aren't deep enough to afford that one, 3D miniature modelling guru Miguel Zavala (aka MZ4250 on Thingiverse)  has made his own for those of us who are lucky owners of 3D Printers.  You can download this for free on Shapeways.

Printing

This comes as a two piece model, a dragon with outstretched wings and a seperate flying base.  Great if you have a huge FDM printer.  However, if you are like me and restricted to a 200mm square build plate or a resin SLA printer you are going to need to cut this model up into smaller parts using meshmixer.

With the model cut into 4 parts, body, flying stand and two wings, I printed these in two batches at a fine 0.1mm layer height.  That's about 16 hours worth of printing.  I arranged the body on the bed with the legs pointing down.  From the players perspective they will be looking down on this miniature so having a metric ton of support lines hidden under the dragon was the way to go.  The wings were arranged vertically to minimise the need for support material.  

I don't know what it is with support material on my printer, it just seems to fuse itself to the model.  I don't know if this is a temperature thing, the filament I use always seems to want to print at the upper ends of the PLA temp range (200 to 220).  

I know that there is probably a setting in Cura that I can tweak, but if you have any advice please pop it in the comments below.

Assembly

I pinned the wings and glued them using 2 part epoxy.  Not my glue of choice for plastic miniatures but I had used up all my superglue on an exciting super secret mega project which I will reveal in due course when it is complete. I also opted to leave the flying base unglued so the DM can simulate a flying or landed version, the pose is a bit dual purpose unlike the wizkids version which is strictly ground based.

Note to self: when printing spindly objects with horizontal layer lines.  Remember they are fragile.  

The Kraken for King of Tokyo was exactly the same it had this bunch of octopus like leg tentacles.  They were an absolute nightmare to print and kept snapping.  Cura should invent a way to change the infill density for parts which are inherently week.  Something like and infill change at z-height or allow you to draw boxes round sections of an STL and change the infill.  

Anyway, the long and the short of it was that I broke the flying stand!!

Chardalyn Dragon in it's hot off the printer shade of brown

"Don't Panic" I thought "it was a bit short anyway" and so 10 minutes later it was sitting atop its new coat hanger wire stand.  This is a lot thinner and helps to give it that flying look which we were after in the first place.

Painting

This miniature was super easy to paint, "barely an inconvenience" a matt black primer coat and then a hit with a rattle can of "Wheel Silver".  This thing is supposed to be mechanical so I used a failed print of my 3D Printer control board cover to give it a subtle hexagonal pattern like mechanical scales.  I must invest in some fruit bags which would better conform to the shape and give a smaller pattern.

My attempt at a hexagonal wing pattern - too subtle?

The yellow details are not in the Miguel Zavala model but sometimes "You gotta fake it to make it" so I picked out the eyes and mouth in green and then overpainted in yellow to give it an alien looking vibe.

The flying base was shot in matt black as I have no idea what terrain the encounter will be using.

Chardalyn Dragon - Dungeons & Dragons - Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden

Jessie's Prints Episode 11 - Earth Elemental

This week, I are mostly been printing...

Earth Elemental - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3294553

Schlossbauer is one of my favourite designers on Thingiverse.  He manages to make his prints just detailed enough and yet not too detailed that they print awesome on my budget FDM Printer.  If you are into RPGs, Fantasy Miniatures or just want something different to print then check him/her out.

Schlossbauer Earth Elemental - (Reaper Miniatures Hellborn Rogue for scale)

I printed my Earth Elemental at 200% scale as I wanted him to be double as both a large and a huge creature.  He came out at a nicely sized 85mm high with a 62mm diameter base.

The model prints in 4 parts (2 x arms, 1 x torso and 1 x legs) and I made sure that I laid the arms down on the print bed with the palms facing down so that any stubble left over from the support structures are on the inside and less visible.  The parts went together like a dream.  Schlossbauer's designs are well sliced and have simple keys so there gap filling is always minimal.

Father's Day Gifts for the D&D Dad

Father's Day is on Sunday 21st June 2020 which is only 10 days away but there is still time to get that special something for your D&D Dad.

Here are 9 special gift ideas you can buy on Amazon.

Under £10 A Dice Rolling Tray Frankly I think these are an essential accessory to keep your dice rolling under control.  I have one of these and it folds flat for easy storage and carriage.  The larger size is especially welcome when you are rolling a fistfull of those damage dice.
A New Set of Dice It doesn't matter how many dice us D&D Dads have we can always do with some more.  I particularly like the wild colours on this set which make it look like they are on fire with magical flames. Which is basically how I roll...
A New Notebook Every Dungeon Dad needs a new notebook so he can fill it with campaign ideas or adventure journal entries.
£10 to £20 A New T-Shirt What better way for your Dad to say it loud and proud with a classy new T-Shirt.  I particularly like the Dragon's head artwork on this one and lets face it Dragons are always found at the heart of a Dungeon which is right where this gift will get your Dad.
A New Pint Glass What better way for your Dad to celebrate a particularly fraught campaign but to toast to fallen heroes from the skulls of their enemy. Also a great icebreaker at BBQs. "Could you bring me a drink in the head of Alfredo Garcia darling?"
An Area of Effect Template This is one of the best I've seen yet.  Made of transparent acrylic with clear marked areas of effect for all the popular spells. With this your Dad can finally end the argument of exactly who is getting hit by his fireball. I particularly like the additional random direction feature on the outer ring because there are just those times when a spell bounces and you don't want it to come towards you.
Over £20 A Big 3 Level Pirate Ship I was gobsmacked when I saw this.  I have been running games for over 35 years and have never found anything quite as practical as this 3 level pirate ship.  Made from laser cut plywood this is the perfect accessory for the Dungeon Dad who likes to make his players walk the plank.  It also doubles as an impressive display stand for the man cave. I'm just hoping that my step daughter sees this page and buys me one... fingers crossed.
Acrylic Condition Rings 72 Piece Set If your Dad is a dungeon master he has probably encountered this problem on many an occasion.  How to track the various states that your PCs and Monsters can get themselves into during the course of a frenetic xombat. Look no further because this set of clear acrylic condition rings puts an end to all that.  Colour coded for every one of 18 different combat conditions (4 rings of each type), these rings will help your dearest dad keep up with the upkeep of even the biggest skirmishes.
A Dice Tower Sometimes your Dad needs all the help he can get and that means taking the human element out of rolling those pesky polyhedrons. This is one of the tallest towers on the market and will cast an impressive shadow on everyone around the table.  It is made of cool blue transparent acrylic and is sure to mesmerise and randomise to equal effect.

Priceless

What every dad really wants is to spend some quality time with their kids.  So why not sit your dad down at the table and ask him to play a game.  He'll have memories of that special father's day forever.

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Jessie's Prints - Episode 7 - A Gloom Card Box and a 3 x 4 Dias

This week, I are mostly been printing...

Gloom Card Box -https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4377287

If you haven't heard of Gloom it's a very fun little story telling card game with a neat gimmick.  The cards are made of transparent plastic.  The idea is that you stack these cards on top of each other to increase your bonuses and create a winning tableau of cards.  The only issue I have is that it comes in one of those god awful-side-by-side boxes which are no good to man nor beast.  Fortunately there are a few designers on thingiverse who think as I do and have uploaded some alternative boxes.

Domestic 3D printing is still in its infancy and not quite at the Star Trek replicator phase of development.  Sometimes you download a model and ahave to do a bit of work to get it to print satisfactorily.  This was the case when I downloaded MVB01s Gloom Card Box.

If it doesn't fit... don't just quit!!

The model had been designed for a larger print bed than I own, the two parts were aligned on the long axis.  Firing up Sketchup I imported the STL file, exploded the model and reoriented the parts along the short axis.  Export the STL, slice it in Cura and load it into the printer.

It printed fine but was a smidge too small to fit the actual cards and there was no tolerance built in to accommodate the lid and the box sliding together.  They were far too tight to be useable.

I guess you could say that this was my own stupid fault for not checking the dimensions of the print before I commited to 3 hours and a few gramms of plastic.  However, I look upon this failure as an opportunity to upskill and so I went back to the model into Sketchup and redimensioned it to both fit the cards and to have a 1mm tolerance factor.  Second time's a charm as they say.

Now they fit - Download from Thingiverse

I've uploaded this to Thingiverse as a remix of MVB01s original model.


3"x4" Dias - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4376794

I am currently painting tiny plastic furniture as part of my Reaper Bones Marathon and one of those pieces is getting the full LED treatment but I need something to hide the battery.  When you have a 3d printer this is no problem, you just knock something together and hey presto a dias, the underside of which has a cavity just big enough to hide a CR2032 coin battery.

3" x 4" Dias - Download from Thingiverse

I've uploaded this to thingiverse so you can print one of yourself.  Just remember to like share and tip the designer a few beans if you like the model.

5 Free D&D Things I Bought on Wish.com - Part 1

Sometimes you do CRAZY things and today I ordered 5 random D&D things from Wish.com.

The Rules

Yes, there have to be rules, without rules there would be "Anarchy in your D&D".

1. I can only buy items which list for the search term "D&D"
2. I can only buy items with a list price of free, no limited availability items and shipping must cost no more than £3 per item.
3. I can only buy 1 item of a type, so no buying 5 different sets of dice.
4. No NSFW items please, we're British! 

Please wait 6 to 8 weeks for this post to conclude... 

Jessie's Prints: Episode 3 - Prismatic Walls, Hellraiser Jewellery Box

This week, I are mostly been printing... 

Prismatic Walls - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4292839

I'm really pleased how these came out and I covered the design and painting processes in earlier posts.  Thanks once again to RedBeardBoss without whose video I would never have have started this project.





Hellraiser Lament Configuration Jewellery Box - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1277931

Another prop print which has been on the bucket list for since forever.  Of course once you've printed the classic Lament Configuration you have all the other configurations thanks to the sterling work of designer Crashjensen although, I think his soul will have paid a heavy price to have this much knowledge.