a labyrinth and vertical plans

My mind is always full of ideas; some are popping up and leaving because they were not good to start with, and others keep bubbling in my brain until they are done and then I start doing something with them. Occasionally I have ideas that I like so much that I start doing something with them before they are done bubbling, but that hardly ever ends well. And some ideas need to stew for a very, very long time before I got to the point where they become usable.

I am going to be busy with my meadow tiles and painting loads of other thing, but I am also working on 2 ideas that have at long last left the bubbly phase. Both took a long time to develop in my mind because both are complicated; a revolving labyrinth and the possibility to make vertical dungeons with our hexagonal tiles.

In the spring of 2019 I first used my revolving labyrinth for demo’s I did for Jack of Dice at Elfia, a fantasy festival. I am not claiming this is My Original Idea (TM) because I am pretty sure I have seen labyrinths that move around confusing whomever is in them. But it is an idea I came up with for the demo’s and I made the rings out of foam and printed paper with a nice dungeony look that I found online. I also used a lot of hotglue and stickytape.

The demo was a great success, people were really enthusiastic about that labyrinth and I was flipping proud of that demo. I kept the dungeon, even though the sticky tape did not really stick anymore at the end of that weekend. The hotglue did not fail me, just so you know. But yeah, I loved that dungeon and I was determined to make a better one, without floppy sticky tape bits. Because I had no idea how I would possibly make a better and more durable one I never started trying to make that better one. We did get our 3d printer around that same time, but creating things in 3d myself was way over my head.

A few weeks ago I picked up on working on my hex-tiles, and that maniacal maze slowly emerged from the swamp of ideas in my head. And then the creation-bubbles started and there was no way I could not start making this anymore. So here I am, I have made the ‘technical part’ of my revolving labyrinth in 3d files: a center ring and 3 rings that go around it. They all have wheels and roll around each other like a charm. I have not printed the entire construction yet, because it is massive. The outer diameter of the dungeon is almost 60cm.

I also made floor/wall parts that can go on the rings, to give it the dungeon-y look. They attach to the base-construction with magnets. My intention is to make different styles of floor+walls in time, but for now I will be very happy if I manage to finish my first set.

So that is the one slightly megalomaniac project I am working on. The other, a vertical dungeon, just got started this week, but it has been in my mind ever since I started playing D&D and found that you can play with maps. I have looked at so many vertical dungeons online; free downloads of print&glue stuff, 3d printable stuff, kickstarters and whatsmore. I love the idea of making a mine of a cave-dungeon with actual claustrophobic corridors and stalagmites an stalactites and putting corridor on top of corridor and dungeon-crawl over several levels. The problem with all of the vertical dungeon stuff I found is that they are only open/accessible from 1 side. The back and/or sides are closed up. That means you have to sit with all the players at one side of the table, of keep walking around, or have 2 players move the mini’s around. None of the really gave access for all players to all levels.

Last week, whilst working on my meadow tiles I had an extra special bubble in my brain: what if we would make pillars for our hexagon baseplates, so we could stack them?
Now I am a bit handy with 3d modelling but those baseplates and the basic shapes of the tiles were made by my significant other and he has the maths that go with it in his mind. So I told him my idea…. and TADAAAA he made exactly what I asked for.

This is still the first trial version that came fresh from the print-bed a few hours ago, but already it is doing its job perfectly and it is making me extremely happy. I can use the pillars to stack baseplates, put hex-tiles in them and you can get in there with your hands to move a mini or monster around. I have no idea how high stackable they will be but I am going to find out the hard way probably.

The pillars need a few minor adjustments, and then I can start working with them. At this moment I am thinking about making cave-tiles for these as my first project for this, but I still need to have my brain bubble a bit more on that.