I was a bit “meh” about paper terrain for a long while. I bought some Dave Greffem(?) fantasy buildings a few years ago and thought they would make for decent table-decoration, but they always felt a bit flimsy.
I love the Crooked Staff sort-of-3d dungeons though. I can’t wait to give them a go with some foamcore and make some modular sci-fi terrain. Towards the end of the video, there’s a really nice room layout and it got me thinking…..
One thing that always puts me off tabletop war-gaming is the idea of having a massive table (whether a sprawling dungeon or a massive battlefield) but all the action only ever takes place in a small area at a time. I much prefer skirmish type games for this very reason. But even then, the actual terrain/playing surface never really feels like it’s part of the game; it’s just incidental – something something blocking line of sight, or something something get your character to this point to claim the objective.
Seeing the Crooked Staff video (linked above) got me wondering about making a room-by-room dungeon crawler.
As @sundancer says, I too see dungeon crawlers as more “board-game-y” than “war-gamey”. But I think that’s why I prefer them. Board-game-with-rpg-elements is probably my preferred genre of tabletop game!
So now I’m thinking about making some papercraft sci-fi terrain, and coming up with some kind of room-by-room game (even if it’s a solo crawler). I made no secret of the face I’d love to bring my favourite video game to the tabletop (Laser Squad) but even that would require quite a large map/playing area. But what about something smaller? Something more room-by-room? With ai-controlled enemies? Something like my second-favourite-video-game, Head over Heels?
Those Crooked Staff sci-fi terrain pieces would be awesome for something like this!
Yes, it’d be more like a cool board-game-with-miniatures. But I think that’s my preferred format anyway 🙂
A few months ago, I thought Demon Ship (https://blacksitestudio.com/products/demonship-terrain-preorder?variant=43704629690609) was exactly the kind of game I’m talking about. But even the game designer himself admitted it wasn’t very good. And, after a successful Kickstarter, didn’t really put much effort into making it any better.
But I really like the idea of having some modular terrain and maybe a deck-based map so you really are exploring the dungeon as you play (rather than have it all laid out at the start). I’m not sure how it’d work, but I think it’d be a great project – maybe even a collab over December?
In the meantime, I think I’m going to make some rooms and corridors and walls ready, just in case…..
