I've been a big fan of the World Works Games products. Whenever I can, I'll try and pick up one of their product if my budget allows for it, but more and more often I find myself on their site and amongst the community of builders there just looking for inspiration to create my own constructions. Which tailoring my constructs for my campaigns and players is something my players enjoy, and I enjoy doing.
World Works Games site is a great resource to get ideas and they have many wonderful products. It was World Works Games that I found the idea to create a Velcro Game Board playing surface so you can attach your dungeon tiles then move pieces of terrain to and from the battle mat quickly and efficiently.
You never had to have the entire dungeon constructed like you would with dwarven forge tiles just hidden by paper coving the tiles. All you would do is have 1/4 of your board constructed out or stitched together on the fly because everything was so light weight as it was all papercraft (for the most part) and bringing in a new terrain piece always surprises the players, in a good way.
World Works Games has just announced the release (Aug 5th, 2010) of their latest product called Terraclips. This time around its a tangible product unlike their digital .pdf's downloads...
Where previously the World Works Games products were essentially "plans" that you would print out onto cardstock then sit down and cut them out, glue them together before you could play, their new offerings are more like the WOTC dungeon tile sets. The new "pop out and go" sets are printed on hard 1.5mm chip board and are used to create 3d effects as well as regular play surfaces. The 3d effect however are more comprehensive than WOTC tiles where just a few tiles were used to create 3d effects like a staircase for example. The World Works Games are whole buildings!
While most of the WOTC tile sets are rather "small" and are priced from $9.99 to $14.99 on average which I think is an "ok" price for some cardboard, I'd rather see a price point max of $9.99 for a large set and an average price point of $4.99 or at least the inclusion of more tiles within modules, it seem the World Works Games are much larger.
The first drawback I see with the new system is that, because they are like WOTC dungeon tiles you'll have to purchase multiple sets to create "layers upon layers" of various scenes instead of just printing out another "shack" and building it yourself. Which if you've got to purchase multiple set price is a factor then, and from the advertisement that is the next drawback.
The price for a set, while much larger and complex than the WOTC dungeon tiles, is $49.99. Thats a significant chunk of change for those of us on a budget. While the ability to punch the tiles out and just play is a great incentive, as mention previous to have a large multi-layered game board multiple sets will likely be required which is getting away from their roots I think, but this brings me to the last drawback.
The sets rely for most of the complex structures a "clip" system, more extensive than the dwarven bow tie system. I'm not sure if you've got have the similar attitude that I have but the dwarven forge bow tie connector system sucks, yeah they get the job done but its just a pain to use them. Myself and others have "filled in and painted over the bow tie to make them more uniform looking too. Also the use of a "clip system" adds a layer of complexity, and thus time, to construct building and such. Do you need a "T" clip? or an "I" clip? I lost all my "L" clips now what do I do!? It just seems rather tedious and again I think gets away from the roots of World Works Game initial sets.
Honestly I would like them to do more with the Velcro game board idea and terrainX and hopefully they are putting efforts into creating more traditional .pdf "plan" files for those of us who like to do the building on our own, and allowing for multiple constructions, and are not going toward full out "terraclips" terrain. Its certainly a nice addition to the product line.
Again while I would love to have a set of these, the price is the biggest of my issues, but those of you with the means will certainly be able to afford the product and allow for more awesome games at your gaming table.
Have you purchased any of World Works Games more traditional products? Are you going to be purchasing the new system? Are you more of a do it yourself kind of person? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!
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