Post by Gilvan Blight on Mar 25, 2009 12:46:28 GMT -5
Quickly: Rather nice set, combines well with Caverns of the Underdark.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]This is the latest set of Dungeon Tiles from WotC and the second set since the release of 4th Edition of D&D. This particular set features underground areas.
On the front side of each tile is some form of rock formation/natural cavern. Many of these have interesting features like rough ground, stalagmites/stalactites, cliffs, etc. There are also a set of bridges and some small interesting features like a pile of furs, crystals and a nest filled with eggs.
On the back side of each of these tiles are more rock formations/natural caverns but all of these have some form of water feature. Even the backs of the feature pieces match well, the bridges have broken bridges on the back, the furs show a pit trap, etc.
What's nice is they also have some of what I will call transitional tiles. There are a couple of these and they include caverns as before but combined with features from other sets. There is the typical dungeon room tile (to go with most sets), a sewer tile (to go with the last set released, Streets of Chaos) and an outdoor tile (to go with the old Ruins of the Wild or the upcoming outdoor set). This makes this set really great for combining with the other sets and allows for tile layouts that move to different types of terrain.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Some very useful tiles here. I'm again impressed by the way they did the two sided thing again. It seems like they will be continuing this and for that I am glad. I was also happy to find that the colours used match well with the 3.5 edition Lost Caverns of the Underdark set and having both means I can make some really great layouts. The transitional tiles are a big bonus in this set. Being able to lay out a forest encounter with a cave and map that cave as well on on the same table at once is nice. The wide variety of bridges will be nice as they can be used with any set.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Why all the dead people? The last couple of sets of Dungeon tiles, actually all of them since 4e have been released keep coming with a bunch of tiles with dead and bloody human bodies on them. Why? Do you really need that many? Shouldn't that be a feature on a separate tile that can be added anywhere? Worse so far is this set as one of the rather interesting tiles with multiple layers has these dumb bodies on them.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]This set has the same problem as all dungeon tiles sets: not enough. You will only be able to make the smallest of dungeons with just one copy of this set. Thankfully this set combines with the previous underground set and the sets are cheap enough that even stingy GMs could probably afford two (Under $12). This one wasn't nearly as bad as the last set though, and you may be able to get buy with only one set if you just want to add some natural cave sections to larger worked dungeons.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]I'm more impressed with this set then the last one. I feel I will get a good bit of use out of these tiles (actually already have an encounter made with the old Underdark set, greatly enhanced by adding a few of these tiles ready to go for Saturday). WotC continues to be smarter with the two sided nature of these tiles. I don't see any reason I wouldn't keep picking these up. The only problem is that I find you need at least two of each to keep things interesting, but that's not much of a problem at about $12 each.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]This is the latest set of Dungeon Tiles from WotC and the second set since the release of 4th Edition of D&D. This particular set features underground areas.
On the front side of each tile is some form of rock formation/natural cavern. Many of these have interesting features like rough ground, stalagmites/stalactites, cliffs, etc. There are also a set of bridges and some small interesting features like a pile of furs, crystals and a nest filled with eggs.
On the back side of each of these tiles are more rock formations/natural caverns but all of these have some form of water feature. Even the backs of the feature pieces match well, the bridges have broken bridges on the back, the furs show a pit trap, etc.
What's nice is they also have some of what I will call transitional tiles. There are a couple of these and they include caverns as before but combined with features from other sets. There is the typical dungeon room tile (to go with most sets), a sewer tile (to go with the last set released, Streets of Chaos) and an outdoor tile (to go with the old Ruins of the Wild or the upcoming outdoor set). This makes this set really great for combining with the other sets and allows for tile layouts that move to different types of terrain.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Some very useful tiles here. I'm again impressed by the way they did the two sided thing again. It seems like they will be continuing this and for that I am glad. I was also happy to find that the colours used match well with the 3.5 edition Lost Caverns of the Underdark set and having both means I can make some really great layouts. The transitional tiles are a big bonus in this set. Being able to lay out a forest encounter with a cave and map that cave as well on on the same table at once is nice. The wide variety of bridges will be nice as they can be used with any set.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Why all the dead people? The last couple of sets of Dungeon tiles, actually all of them since 4e have been released keep coming with a bunch of tiles with dead and bloody human bodies on them. Why? Do you really need that many? Shouldn't that be a feature on a separate tile that can be added anywhere? Worse so far is this set as one of the rather interesting tiles with multiple layers has these dumb bodies on them.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]This set has the same problem as all dungeon tiles sets: not enough. You will only be able to make the smallest of dungeons with just one copy of this set. Thankfully this set combines with the previous underground set and the sets are cheap enough that even stingy GMs could probably afford two (Under $12). This one wasn't nearly as bad as the last set though, and you may be able to get buy with only one set if you just want to add some natural cave sections to larger worked dungeons.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]I'm more impressed with this set then the last one. I feel I will get a good bit of use out of these tiles (actually already have an encounter made with the old Underdark set, greatly enhanced by adding a few of these tiles ready to go for Saturday). WotC continues to be smarter with the two sided nature of these tiles. I don't see any reason I wouldn't keep picking these up. The only problem is that I find you need at least two of each to keep things interesting, but that's not much of a problem at about $12 each.