Friday, April 3, 2009

Dungeon Tiles + a 5-year-old boy's imagination = abounding coolness

So a couple weeks back, I got out the Chessex BattleMat and some Dungeon Tiles for my kids to use while dorking around with some D&D minis. We've been playing a very simple form of minis battles lately and this just added to the fun.

Last time I only posted about their dungeon designs on the Chessex mat and the fun we had playing through Bobby's dreadful rooms and Anna's chaotic caves. So this time I wanted to display my son's handiwork using some Dungeon Tiles to create a fun little room in which he and I could continue our dorking-around. And thus...

Here's a (somewhat suckily-focused) shot of Bobby's creation:


And here's a closer shot looking into the room. Crazy fire traps there, eh? Must be something good in some hidden door behind the big one. Hmmn.....:


Dig those two orcs standing over the swirling portal of doom (or whatever). Here we see the orc leader Tarqo as he beckons to his 2nd in command and is all like "well Grund, WTF is that big orange thing?!?!?"


"Dunno." replies Grund. "Shine some frakkin' light on it, mage!"


"Ah-ha! 11? I think that's a 'miss'. Dunno tho'...INT is my dump stat." reveals Grund.

"Ya' mean *one* of yer dump stats, ya clumsy, pig-faced, motherless, wuss!" clarifies the mage before he quickly casts Dimesion Door and safely departs.


Ok, all seriousness aside (hehe), I love what my son did with these tiles. He stacked and unstacked them, placed and replaced them, adjusted and ...err...well...adjusted them some more, until he got the exact design he wanted. He had that "don't bother me, I'm workin' on something huge here!" look in his eyes....with his tongue curled up and out to one side in that total concentration facial gesture....you know the one...

No, not that one, silly.

Try again.

Now come on! Jeeez! That is one freakin nutty pic though.

Last try...

Yep, there ya go!


Anyway he made a nice little room for us to use for our (short) battle session that night. With the Chessex mat session and the design phase of this room behind us, we didn't have a whole lot of time left to fight with our minis. Ah well, he'll just have to wait until next time to embarrass me...err....engage my troops.

Until then, we'll be waiting for him...

13 comments:

Chad Thorson said...

It's awesome to see that you get your son to play D&D! I want to play a game with my son some day, he's 4 1/2 right now so it might be too early.

Edsan said...

That kid is too damn lucky for his own good! ;)

yoyorobbo said...

@Atom Kid:
Yeah bro, I'm totally dying to actually play a dungeon crawl with him. I think I'll start him out with Moldvay Basic (just like his Pops did) and one of the B-series mods, or just some random encounters to get him prepped. That'll be a little while though. I fear that too much on him too early might overdose him a little. Baby steps...

Also, I would say that 4-1/2 is fine to get your son started too. Just creep in easy and you'll still have fun with the D&D theme, even if it's not *really* D&D. These little simplified D&D minis battles are a great way for me and mine to get our D&D groove on without overbearing rules coming into play.

I started my son out when he was 4-1/2. He just turned 5 in Feb. Give it a whirl!

There are other cool games to start with too, if you wanna start a little lighter. The Fuzzy Heroes thing looks great. I have a gamebook for that, but we have yet to try it. You just use their own stuffed animals and such to play with....cool.

yoyorobbo said...

@Edsan:

That kid is too damn lucky for his own good! ;)

I know what you mean, bud. I often think so too, and I try my best to make sure that he has the cool tools to work with, but...

In all fairness, I am truly the lucky one in this gig. I know I am blessed beyond belief with my family, and I make sure that I keep that in perspective, too.

It really is a freakin' blast playing like this with these guys. They make me smile the whole time.

Chad Thorson said...

Thanks yoyorobo! I'll give it a try soon. Mabye just do a little battle or something. I know Brave Halfling Publishing has a simplified version of D&D called Kids & Castles or something like that.

yoyorobbo said...

@ Atom Kid:

Yeah, that's right, I forgot about the Kids and Castles product. I have that stuff bookmarked somewhere for when my kids are old enough. Getting close...at least for my boy.

The other product I have, which I mentioned earlier, is the Fuzzy Heroes stuff. It looks like a blast! I just need to actually get it going....hehe.

Another one that I wanna do soon with my kids is the Clay-o-Rama game. I have it in an Dragon Magazine (forget which one ATM), but I intend to run play that real soon...maybe tonight!

If I do, I'll post some stuff on it...it looks hilarious for the little ones to messa round with....Dad too!

thekelvingreen said...

Where are the miniatures from? They look a bit like the old Citadel Heroquest orcs, but the poses and weapons are all wrong.

yoyorobbo said...

@ kelvingreen:

Where are the miniatures from?

Ya'know, I don't really know. I snagged them used in bags of 10. I like them for potential minions and such. That way they are still figs (not markers/counters/tokens), but they still look like... well... minions.

I have a bunch of Orcs, Goblins, and Dwarves. They are all from the same game, but I don't know which one that is.

I's guess Heroquest too, but I don't think that's right. I guess I need to google it a bit.

yoyorobbo said...

@kelvingreen:
Well I found the orc/dwarf mini source. They are from a Grenadier game called Fantasy Warriors. I saw the ad in an old issue of Dragon magazine just now...ha! I'll post the link or scan when I get to a real PC - on my cell phone here.

thekelvingreen said...

Thanks for finding it. The game still exists as a free download on the Grenadier site, but not as a boxed set any more.

Given how similar the models look to Heroquest's, I wonder if the games themselves are similar?

yoyorobbo said...

@kelvingreen: cool deal on the download from Grenadier. I'll have to check it out. Thanx!

I also have sets of green goblins (not *that* green goblin) along with a few other characters/monsters that are all in that same style/design/base/etc, so they must be from similar games or expansions.

I'll take some shots and post them all here soon.

Thanx again for the Grenadier download tip.

thekelvingreen said...

The goblins in Heroquest are made of green plastic, so you may actually have those:
http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic432568_md.jpg

yoyorobbo said...

@kelvingreen:

Yep, they are those exact figs you linked to. Cool! Thanx for the info.