I've completed the first stage of my WWG dungeon project, code-named Chunky Quest. The name refers to Warhammer Quest, which my build emulates in several way, most notably in using 1.25" sized tiles.

A bit of background on how project got started. I'm a fanatic, and I've already built a plaster dungeon using Hirst Molds (you can see some examples at my ). I'm still actively involved with my Hirst stuff, but I turned to WWG for solution to a particular problem.

You see, my Hirst dungeon isn't always a good choice when gaming. Due to limited space, I have to store my dungeon pieces in boxes, and setting them can be an involved process. You can spend a lot of time unpacking the storage boxes, finding the pieces you want, adding room accessories, etc.

In my weekly gaming group, there are nights when we spend much of the evening role-playing, travelling, or other activites which don't involve dungeon crawling. However, we might have a fight or two which requires some indoor terrain; exploring an old tower on the hill or poking our heads inside a masoleum. In these instances, I want to setup quickly and get to it, rather than spend all night setting up for a quick battle. My Hirst stuff wasn't working, and the Warhammer Quest tiles I had been using are plain and lack the the modular I was looking for. So I decided to make a dungeon to suit my needs.

So here were the parameters I had going in.

Quick and Easy Setup
A modular system that can be ready in minutes.

No Small Bits
No tiny pieces to get lost, misplaced or broken.

Player Appeal
It should be fun, but still accessible for the players.

Quest Compatibility
I wanted something I could play Warhammer Quest on.


The ResultHere's what I came up with.




The system consists of two Pro Masterboards, and a series of dungeon tiles. The boards are made from Peg Board, which is flexible to prevent warping, and also allows the boards to be hung on a wall.





Most are tiles are plain floor pieces but some have accessories such as bookshelves, chests, doors, etc, glued directly onto the tiles. This prevents the pieces from getting lost or smashed.





It also allows them to be stored on the wall-mounted board, where they can be quickly and easily reached for setup. This is probably my favorite aspect of the system; it's visible and accessible, which should encourage the GM to go ahead and set up a combat rather than just 'wing it'.





The dungeon tiles are made from 1.25" squares. I have a 1" dungeon already and it's a bit cramped for 28-30mm figures, while the 1.5" dungeon is just too big. So I decided to stick with the 1.25" tile size found on the Warhammer Quest tiles. For many of the pieces I was just able to just print them at 83% normal size.





Setting up it easy; just grab the empty game board from the wall, put it on the table and start placing pieces from the tile board. I set this up in about 3 minutes.





Since my goal was easy and accessible, I decided to nix the walls. I still get some 3D elements with the stairs and accessories.





Some of the pieces required modification. The bookshelves required serious modification. I also cut a slot in the top of the doorways so I could use the tab method for the doors.







If you've made it this far, you won't mind a couple 'money shots'. I think the dungeon is still quite attractive, despite its stripped-down nature.


The Future
Where do I go from here? Here's a list of the additions and improvements I want to work on.

- All future tiles will be at least 2x2 in size. So this will mean...

- Modifying the door. I want to make it centered between two squares, and include a foam core door which can be sloted into the side of the door frame when open.

- Adding more accessories. Tables and a raised dias are high on the list. I also want to rework the gate so that I can attach the doors from the floor via velcro.

- More attractive gaming board. I might look into painting the current one black, or build a new one and turn the current game board into a tile board for...

- Inn and Tavern Tiles. Since these places are often the scene of spontaneous action, I want to convert the Interiorworks Pub and Inns set into a Chunky Quest build.

Nice looking setup, Wig! I've got a friend who did a very similar setup for MK Dungeons. Your Hirst Arts stuff looks fantastic as well! I'd love to get into that, but my wife just BARELY tolerates "all the little paper castles" around the house. I think if I started manufacturing little bricks in the garage, my bed would get moved out there as well!

Thanks for the comments, folks.

Abbadon - Alelph's mini-chunk is what inspired me to try my mod in the first place. He does some great work.

Floydski - I have several 4x4 and 2x6 tiles already for big rooms and long hallways (several of them are in that setup). However, I think the 2x2 tiles will make up the majority of my collection. I think that is the best size to provide a good mix of stability and flexibilty, so I'll mount most of my props on them and build rooms that way.

Kane - interesting idea. You could even make your bases from blue styrofoam and glue dowels in the bottom of the pieces. You could stack two pieces of peg board on top of one another if you wanted deeper holes. And you wouldn't even need to use a 1" square grid on top, as long as you lines up the dowels on a 1" grid underneath.

Hi Piper, good to see I'm not the only Hirst fan with an interest in the paper stuff.

I managed to get a couple things done on my Chunky Dungeon worklist. I painted the game board black, and I made some of the doors centered on 2x1 tiles.



While making these pieces, I decided that I didn't like the tab method for opening doors; the open doors were a bit unsightly. So I worked on an alternative method, and came up with a door that slides into the wall.



If you look close you can see the track in the center of door. It's basically invisible under normal lighting conditions from an overhead perspective; I had to turn the flash on to show it here.



Here you can see the door tucked away inside the wall. I still have a little bit of tinkering to do with the building method, but I'm pretty happy with the results.