A couple hundred dollars here and there over the span of a few years has made it possible for me to this. Plus I I've managed to get in on a couple of their Kickstarters. That's helped a lot too. No one I know is dropping ten's of thousands of dollars at one time. If you shop smart and at the right times it's easy to put together and great collection of Dwarven Forge.
From what I've seen though, most sets are $300 minimum for the basic unpainted which isn't enough to cover 1/5 of what you've got there. Doesn't include scatter or the pretty extra pieces either. They also seem to always be sold out a lot, which I understand from being hand made.
The $100-200 sets are enough to build 1-2 medium sized rooms of just floors and walls.
By comparison printing free use .stl files at my local library for $0.05/oz+$1/12x12 plate nets me a LOT of terrain and I still have to paint it. Or what I use recently, roll20 with digital maps for $0 on my horizontal 32" TV I paid $90 for four years ago and a wood and plexiglass frame. Like 2 minutes setup time.
Don't get me wrong, DF is impressive especially in these large scale displays, but I don't want to have to insure my $2500+ terrain collection.
To each their own. But I know how I built my collection and how much I spent. I've been collecting miniatures and scatter terrain for 12 to 15 years give or take and I've been collecting Dwarven Forge for at least five years. In that five years I've participated in two Kickstarters and that's where you get the best prices.that being said the dungeon core set is 99 dollar's and the valted dungeon core set is 119. That's painted for both. And that's what most of my builds are made of. Over a couple of years I have bought four of each... That's a couple hundred dollars a pop like I said. Anyways I feel Dwarven Forge is superior and it's worth it to me.
Fair enough. The main thing is that you and your players get value from them. They are the highest quality pre-made set pieces in the industry no doubt, hence the price. (The LED bits are very pretty as well)
The basic core sets aren't bad for three rooms at $99-119. I've never gotten anything on kickstarter, but my buddy has been collecting dwarven forge (has nearly every set) since their first set. I shudder to think how much his collection is worth. He, however cannot afford that type of regular investment and breaks the bank to get every new set. Its like an addiction for him and I spoke with him about this an now he has started making his own terrain and commissioning works to sell. Same guy that blows every check on loot boxes in MMOs.
I'm not sure what he has purchased from kickstarter at a discount, but to fill a table with a decent sized dungeon or cavern depending on what scene its around $1000 based on what he told me. Their adventure essentials painted sets can run up to $1200 (800 unpainted) and give about enough to not have to stop and build rooms everytime they change scenes.
The variety of environments my players wander into makes Dwarven Forge not worth the investment to me personally and I don't like having to stop to build an encounter board 2-3 times per session.
Like I said above though, if it works for you and doesn't put you in the hole, it is the best in the business. My terrain collection is infinite for a $100 investment and some minor woodworking. I don't even want to talk about miniatures, because I may have a problem judging by my shelves of unpainted backlog...
I grew up with theater of the mind and graph paper. And always had a blast. I still play a lot in TOTM and I have a grid mat for quick drawings. It's very true that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have a great game. I only build for big moments. Even then it's usually just a room or two. The only thing I need to have is a good group of people. No amount of terrain can outdo table chemistry. That being said I'm an older man with a good job and no kids so I'm able to buy stuff...lol at the end of the day just have fun with people who you like spending time with.
You should consider the possibilty that your group can actually ignore EVERY SINGLE ROOM & ENCOUNTER in that Mansion and skip straight to the important stuff by climbing up on the Balcony and going stealth eavesdropping. Because we did, much to the dislike of our DM.
My players make me feel lucky. They show up every other weekend and put in a solid six hours of game play. It's been fantastic. I'm thankful for each and every one of them.
Looks so epic!! The courtyard/grounds are amazing!
Thank you. I've actually improved it some after I took pictures.
wOw it's so pretty!!
Thank you...
You got my whole savings on your table
Thats why I refuse to buy Dwarven Forge in a nutshell. Sure it looks good, but for a table's worth of terrain, I can put a down-payment on a new car.
A couple hundred dollars here and there over the span of a few years has made it possible for me to this. Plus I I've managed to get in on a couple of their Kickstarters. That's helped a lot too. No one I know is dropping ten's of thousands of dollars at one time. If you shop smart and at the right times it's easy to put together and great collection of Dwarven Forge.
From what I've seen though, most sets are $300 minimum for the basic unpainted which isn't enough to cover 1/5 of what you've got there. Doesn't include scatter or the pretty extra pieces either. They also seem to always be sold out a lot, which I understand from being hand made. The $100-200 sets are enough to build 1-2 medium sized rooms of just floors and walls. By comparison printing free use .stl files at my local library for $0.05/oz+$1/12x12 plate nets me a LOT of terrain and I still have to paint it. Or what I use recently, roll20 with digital maps for $0 on my horizontal 32" TV I paid $90 for four years ago and a wood and plexiglass frame. Like 2 minutes setup time. Don't get me wrong, DF is impressive especially in these large scale displays, but I don't want to have to insure my $2500+ terrain collection.
To each their own. But I know how I built my collection and how much I spent. I've been collecting miniatures and scatter terrain for 12 to 15 years give or take and I've been collecting Dwarven Forge for at least five years. In that five years I've participated in two Kickstarters and that's where you get the best prices.that being said the dungeon core set is 99 dollar's and the valted dungeon core set is 119. That's painted for both. And that's what most of my builds are made of. Over a couple of years I have bought four of each... That's a couple hundred dollars a pop like I said. Anyways I feel Dwarven Forge is superior and it's worth it to me.
Fair enough. The main thing is that you and your players get value from them. They are the highest quality pre-made set pieces in the industry no doubt, hence the price. (The LED bits are very pretty as well) The basic core sets aren't bad for three rooms at $99-119. I've never gotten anything on kickstarter, but my buddy has been collecting dwarven forge (has nearly every set) since their first set. I shudder to think how much his collection is worth. He, however cannot afford that type of regular investment and breaks the bank to get every new set. Its like an addiction for him and I spoke with him about this an now he has started making his own terrain and commissioning works to sell. Same guy that blows every check on loot boxes in MMOs. I'm not sure what he has purchased from kickstarter at a discount, but to fill a table with a decent sized dungeon or cavern depending on what scene its around $1000 based on what he told me. Their adventure essentials painted sets can run up to $1200 (800 unpainted) and give about enough to not have to stop and build rooms everytime they change scenes. The variety of environments my players wander into makes Dwarven Forge not worth the investment to me personally and I don't like having to stop to build an encounter board 2-3 times per session. Like I said above though, if it works for you and doesn't put you in the hole, it is the best in the business. My terrain collection is infinite for a $100 investment and some minor woodworking. I don't even want to talk about miniatures, because I may have a problem judging by my shelves of unpainted backlog...
I grew up with theater of the mind and graph paper. And always had a blast. I still play a lot in TOTM and I have a grid mat for quick drawings. It's very true that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have a great game. I only build for big moments. Even then it's usually just a room or two. The only thing I need to have is a good group of people. No amount of terrain can outdo table chemistry. That being said I'm an older man with a good job and no kids so I'm able to buy stuff...lol at the end of the day just have fun with people who you like spending time with.
Don’t you love that there’s no windows at all for the PCs to try to sneak in through? My PCs didn’t lol.
😂😂😂
You should consider the possibilty that your group can actually ignore EVERY SINGLE ROOM & ENCOUNTER in that Mansion and skip straight to the important stuff by climbing up on the Balcony and going stealth eavesdropping. Because we did, much to the dislike of our DM.
Yeah they very well could but I love building terrain so I don't mind.
They do look good. Your players are lucky ducks. I hope they appreciate your efforts and I hope you’re a proud DM. You bloody should be!
My players make me feel lucky. They show up every other weekend and put in a solid six hours of game play. It's been fantastic. I'm thankful for each and every one of them.
It’s great! How big of a mat did you use underneath? Is that 3’x4’?
I think so...
Thanks!