Getting dungeons back onto the tabletop

Folding fantasy dungeon tilesVirtual tabletops are wonderful things. My personal preference is maptool, but I’ve played with (and been really impressed by) Fantasy Grounds and TTopRPG.

This post is not about those.

Recently I was approached with a novel proposal – why not create dungeons that can be used on the tabletop? Now I’ve been creating map packs that can be used on the tabletop for some time (the Fantastic Maps store now has 23 map packs you can print and use at the table – or in virtual tabletops) but this was something more exciting. Brian Bartlow was suggesting we make 3D terrain.

Now Brian is a remarkable guy. Where I would approach the problem by creating boxes with glue tabs and colouring them pretty colours and calling them tables, Fold-n-Go dungeons are a little different – all due to Brian’s excellent design chops. He believes that it can (almost) all be done gluelessly.

Curtain photo for fantasy dungeon tilesWe started off with a classic dungeon. Everyone needs stone walls, flagstone floors (with each flagstone sized to be a 1 inch square), chests and barrels. Brian added a curtained doorway – that looks like rippling fabric! We threw in tables and chairs, and chests full of gold – with opening lids! Crates and barrels, opening doors. This is a set that really will allow you to build a dungeon that your evil villain will be proud of.

There’s even a spiked pit.

Chest full of gold for fantasy dungeon setThe files themselves are pdfs, but Brian also introduced me to the concept of a robotic cutter. In case you happen to dislike cutting out lots of small pieces and you have a little spare cash lying around, the dungeon pack comes with cutter files. You pass these to the cutter and it will automagically cut out all the pieces! I’ve seen the results and they are great.

I currently play online (too much country hopping to keep a local game going) but I am very jealous of anyone who gets to use these at the gametable. And I really can’t wait to show you what we’ve got planned for next month…

Until then, head over to LoneTree Games for the pictures and the videos, and check out RPGNow or Paizo for the pack itself.

2 thoughts on “Getting dungeons back onto the tabletop”

  1. Good post. I love table-top dungeons and some of the resin set ups are too expensive. If you keep making them, please add lots of “dungeon dressing” (chairs, chests, altars, etc), because you can never has too much and that is what really makes a 3d dungeon pop (and there are very few people making any). Nicely Done.

    1. We certainly will be 🙂

      This pack contains chests, chairs, tables, beds and more. Future packs will absolutely be expanding upon this. I personally love the pillars – especially as they can be easily adapted into ruined and broken pillars to ‘grunge up’ the dungeon.

      Glad you like them and please keep the suggestions coming – either here on on the Lone Tree Games forum: http://lonetreegames.com/forums/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *