Games!: More CCC Dungeon Crawl Testing

Ran two quests this afternoon...and lost two hero parties.

Both quests were run on the same table, an eight-chamber layout, the goal was simple: get to the other side alive.

 Our first quest, our veteran party (with a whoppin' three quests under their belt!) enters on the bottom right of the picture...

 In the very first room we encounter a Wyvern and ratmen immediately...they're dispatched with no major issues.

 The next Chamber and disaster strikes.  We're ambushed by Ghouls while a Giant storms up...he's beyond any of our powers.

 We decide our best hope is to run and get a distance on the Giant to leave him behind (he's slow after all).

 We hoped the next chamber would be empty or simple and we could get make a serious run from the Giant...it wasn't.

 The next Chamber punished magic users and we ran into a line of Lizardmen and an Ogre...

 Tod, our illustrious man-at-arms tried to keep the Giant at bay...and was killed immediately.

 Our first hero party was slain completely...so we whipped up a new hero party and tried tackling the dungeon from the other end...

 My first roll should have told us precisely how this would go...

 About six rooms in we ran into...a wall of death.  Ambushed by spiders and a friggin' Dragon and a gloom serpent...there was no way out.

Doggy puppers and friends!

Some more minis - this time done when I'd properly thinned my dip (just enough-  have a new can on the way).

Updated pictures and new stuff...

 A Wild Lady Dwarf appears, sans beard!

 A Wraith...Ghost...Spectre...Quest...thing...

 A Reaper figure for the "Lost Squire" Ally

 The test cards for my initial test-and-break phase of game design have shown up...

215 cards and I've already spotted some errors...hurrah!

Sorceress and Rat-Centaur!

I finished up a lovely "nicely dressed" Sorceress.  I'll try to get better/proper pics soon.  In addition to this nice lady I did a silly six-legged packrat miniature from Reaper.  This was a crappy Bones figure and a pretty poor sculpt to start with - but I was bored so I painted it up.  I also cut up and repainted some old Hero Mage terrain pieces into some floating icons/fanes/stones/portals.

Lady Killers.

Since it happens that half of my playtesters are female, I decided to have all six Heroes for the dungeon crawl in both male/female minis.

So far I have the lady Barbarian, Elf, and Warrior finished.

Mantic...Almost. Dungeon scenery.

So, as I may have espoused before on this blog (or maybe not, I'm a forgetful dolt), I don't particularly like Mantic products.  I have long joked that their tag line should be: "Mantic...Almost".

Everything they make just seems like a B-team effort.  Now they are still a cheap product to purchase, and have long betted on that simple strategy.  Poorer quality materials, generally poor sculpts...but cheap.

I bought into the Dungeon Saga Kickstarter back maybe 4-5 years now.  Upon opening it I was so underwhelmed with the general quality of almost every game component that I sold it the next day on eBay (and not for a major profit!).

I had seen Mantic talk about this Terrain Crate KS a couple years back and thought maybe, just maybe they'd found a niche where they could do something worthwhile.

I picked up a box of Mantic's "Torture Chamber" dungeon dressing.  At $28 it was pretty reasonable and I thought if they'd finally turned a corner I could fill my whole dungeon with glorious furniture and set pieces.

Verdict: Still Mantic.

I received a big box which was shockingly light.  This was because, upon opening you find it's literally 85% air with a black plastic tray holding a scant handful of miniature pieces.  Everything advertised on the box was there, but in typical Mantic fashion, the unboxing produced a wave of mediocrity.

This is how much wasted space you get in the frankly huge cardboard box:

The pieces were okay casts, and okay designs...but small (proper 25mm more than 28/32mm), and in a slightly spongy plastic, meaning the legs on the racks were warped and the cage collapsed on itself if you squeezed it at all.  I tossed a handful of the smallest/most useless pieces, and quickly painted up the rest of the bits.

The end results look fine, if small.  I'll make use of them, but I will not be returning to Mantic for more mediocrity.  Also, worth noting that some of the plastics in this kit had a similar result to Reaper Bones in that they remained rather tacky after priming with Krylon (which normally doesn't do anything to my minis).

"Players, please report for dungeoneering."

Another playtest today of the dungeon game...and yes you're going to see a lot of this pop up on the blog - sorry!  There's no shortcut around what may turn into six months of playtesting.

 In the Quest Room things become...heated as the Orcs nearly beat Tod to death (our wonderful and stalwart Man-at-Arms ally)...and the Cockatrix freezes our Wizard.

 In the first Chamber we're greeted by some Skeletons which we dispatch relatively easily.

 We stumble into some hapless Goblins and dispatch them rather quickly.

 We barge into the Quest Room.  Luckily one of our encounters is Brigands and we're able to pay them off - again!

 Setting up the table

 Having acquired our goal (a King's magical sword) we make our way for the exit but run into a Sorcerer.  A magical duel takes place...and then a Dwarf splits the Sorcerer's head open with his axe.

Our party for this adventure consists of John's Dwarf, Ashley's Elf, a Wizard named Liv, my Thief, and our allied Man-at-Arms...the legend himself, Tod.