Dwarven Forge Wildlands (kickstarter)

[Grumpy Gnome]

For those that did not know Dwarven Forge has just begun their latest Kickstarter, Wildlands.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dwarvenforge/wildlands-by-dwarven-forge-handcrafted-modular-game-terrain

It seems they are making more of an effort to appeal to tabletop wargamers.

https://cx.dwarvenforge.com/wargaming/

Forest, mountains and swamps. Cool looking in a quirky, characterful way but not inexpensive.

I was wondering what folks thought of Dwarven Forge products? I have no experience with them although a mate is giving me a great price on his older cavern pieces. And you know how it goes, once you start collecting something....

[Elbows]

Dwarven Forge makes nice stuff, but they've abandoned the "average" gamer for the whales - something a lot of companies have done.  The word is out; D&D and general geekiness is mainstream.

There are a handful of kits from Dwarven Forge where I think you get a decent amount of stuff for your money - then heaps of wildly overpriced mediocre sets.

Their Kickstarters have been increasingly aimed at people willing to spend $500-$5000 etc. in a single go.  I no longer bother considering buying into them.  I think a wilderness one would be the worst idea, simply because there are heaps of cheap ways to do trees and rocks.  I think, as 3D dungeons go, they still do the best basic product.

In short; if you have tons of money...it can be great, but their prices are just getting worse.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Whales? I am not familiar with that term in relation to this context.

What sets do you think are cost effective, Elbows?

I agree in part about less expensive options for woodlands... unless the quirky, characterful ... one might say Jim Henson or Brian Froud style... aspect of the terrain appeals. My terrain work is much less quirky.

While my wife likes the trees I am more interested in getting some verticality on the board, so the mountains appeal. But really it is the caverns I love. I had hoped the KS would have discounted caverns but that does not seem the DF model.

[Elbows]

'Whales' is a term for high-spending consumers.  Basically if enough affluent individuals will spend $5,000 on a Kickstarter, you worry less about the folks who will spend $150, etc.

Dwarven Forge's first Dwarvenite (plastic) Kickstarter was a simple useful dungeon, and you got quite a lot for your money which was around $150 I believe.  As the Kickstarters continued the initial buy-in went up, and the amount of stuff went down for basic collections.  More and more "Super Dungeon" style kits were being pushed, paying $150-200 per "room", etc.

Obviously only you can determine what you think is worthwhile.  I generally look for bang-for-buck from the kits.  How much playable space am I getting for miniatures?  I've been unimpressed with most of the smaller gadget pieces that have come in some of the sets I've purchased.  Their basic walls, floors, etc. are fine...but the gimmicky stuff tends to be pretty poor quality.

I don't mean to disparage Dwarven Forge, simply their out of control cost for KS stuff.  I have no doubt this one will get into the millions of dollars like the previous ones.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Ah... I tend to be on a tight budget and buy things second hand. If something really appeals to my wife and me then we may be a little less thrifty. Like with Hagglethorn Hollow and Tabletop World. But bang for buck matters to me.

[Grumpy Gnome]

We went with the swamp wargamer pledge but will look to add to that in the pledge manager as we gather a bit more funds.

I was surprised they broke 4 Million but I think the stretch goals were disappointing. Reaper Bones and Dungeons and Lasers 2 seemed much better to me. Even Hagglethorn Hollow and I was not massively in love with their stretch goals.

Anyone else get in on the Dwarven Forge Wildlands Kickstarter?

[ced1106]

I don't buy DF, either, but I think they've carved a super-niche for themselves with their boutique terrain. I think this was a wise move, since, with KS and WizKids, there is MUCH more competition for the budget gamer dollar than when DF KS1 was around. I'm in the Archon terrain KS, and they're tossing a shedload of SG bits for their game tiles, and even have sf game tiles. WizKids is selling prepainted game tiles. I wouldn't want to compete with them in this market.

I wouldn't call DF customers whales. Whales originated as app game players who spend an inordinate amount of money for virtual items. I think the idea was to design a game suchthat, while most customers may not spend a lot of money, you still had customers who did. AFAIK, DF doesn't have that model. Completionists may be as close as the hobby gets to whales. Frostgrave, amusingly enough, might qualify as having whales. The game is sold that you can use your own miniatures, but some customers may be completionists who buy up all the miniatures and terrain that's Frostgrave-related. But, of course, Frostgrave wasn't *designed* that way. I think. (:

[Grumpy Gnome]

The stretch goals on Dungeons & Lasers 2 were amazingly good. The DM pledge is worth the stretch goals alone for me and my wife, the tiles are a bonus.

The main draws of Dwarven Forge for me and my wife are the quirky aesthetics of the sculpts and color palette. It looks like it will go well with Hagglethorn Hollow... if that project ever actually delivers. The fact these are pre-painted is a big bonus as it frees up time for more minis to be painted.