A Few Notes About the Dwarven Forge KS

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October 23, 2013 by deadorcs

Hey Kids!

Yeah, it’s been an age since I’ve done any blogging, as I spend a lot more time on Twitter than I really should, and never seem to get around to making the notes I should.

However, since I’ve recently received my reward level for the Dwarven Forge Kickstarter, I thought I’d share some thoughts that take a few more words than what Twitter will easily accomodate.

First, I was very impressed with the timing & delivery of the DF Rewards. There were really no delays & their shipping was accurate. In fact, it was so accurate, I actually had to run home (from the office) so that I could place the package inside my home so it wouldn’t be sitting outside all day. See, a lot of times, shipped packages get delivered late in the afternoon, but in this case, it was right on time.

Second, the packaging was extremely compact. In an age where cost of shipping is so high, and the materials from shipping often so wasteful, it was nice to see that Dwarven Forge packed everything extremely compactly. My rewards included 2 sets (and their accompanying stretch-goal rewards) and two additional add-on packs (a stair set, and a floor set). All of this was in a 17 lb. box that was less than 2 feet long. Here’s a picture of that:

   

In addition to the actual terrain pieces, there was a canvas carry bag included. Spiffy!

The variety of materials I received for the buy-in cost, was worth it (for me). Despite the small boxes, it’s a lot of stuff! Check these images!

I ordered my tiles in the unpainted “dark grey”. By some mistake of my own, I accidentally ordered my add-on floor tile pack, painted. While it may have cost a bit more, I now think it was worth it. The floor tiles are really pretty. The big ones even have two types of rug/tile patterns on them!

So…

While I’m extremely pleased with my Dwarven Forge Kickstarter sets, there were a couple of small issues that caused me to “raise an eyebrow” as it were. These aren’t table-flipping show stoppers, but they’re issues that will make me place additional considerations before buying the product again.

The first is that I was under the impression that there was some kind of backing on the bottom of the pieces. This is probably me not reading the fine print well enough, so it might be in Dwarven Forge’s documentation. Still, I wouldn’t use this product on a fine wood grain surface without putting down a table cloth first (I used a portable melamine table to unpack mine on). The pieces are light enough that it shouldn’t be an issue, but the hard plastic could gouge a wood surface. That said, there IS a small recessed area on the bottom of each and every piece. You could probably apply a sticky-backed felt to it without changing the height of the piece much. I’d have to experiment more to be sure.

The second is that the large floor pieces all had a very slight warp to them. It wasn’t enough to effect a layout, but it did make the tile “wibble-wobble” just a little when placed on a flat surface. I think I’ll stack some heavy things on them to flatten them out, but I might have to resort to the heat gun to soften them enough to flatten them out. Again, not a huge deal, but it’s something to think about when making future orders.

Finally, there are some products that Dwarven Forge might want to consider going forward with as they launch this new type of terrain. Mainly – corridors. While building compact dungeons is sort of Dwarven Forge’s M.O., sometimes you want to have corridor pieces to connect distant parts of the dungeon together. A “Corridor and Intersections” set would be a great addition to this product line.

Those are my thoughts. I’ll leave you with a picture of a dungeon setup that I did spontaneously, using every single piece of the Dwarven Forge Kickstarter reward package. Enjoy!

Until next time – Game excellently with one another.