Who doesn’t love a good dark and damp cave setting? Trouble lurks around every unchecked corner. The smell of death fills the air. Unfortunately, a dry erase marker doesn’t exactly portray that same fear and mystery. Never fear, DMs…Dwarven Forge shall show you the way.

Ben covets every square of his Dwarven Forge Cavernous Set Series. These terrain passage pieces are unmatched in the industry. You will absolutely be astounded by their meticulous painting and subtle details. And the supplemental pieces are just as good. In one instance, Ben had our Dwarf, Crag McBeard, mine for whetstones.

Yes, yes – they’re pricey. Ben gets it. Look, if you want to drive in style, a man’s gotta open the wallet a little. This particular pile is all about budget management and slowly amassing your sets through holidays and birthdays.

Thankfully, Dwarven Forge sets also blend in nicely with Hirst Arts molds. And that connection opens the door to all sorts of creative configurations. D&D miniatures, particularly the four legged kind, work great for surprise encounters.

So pick a set (or two) for the upcoming holidays and get some of these babies in your hand. You won’t be disappointed.

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Forget the endless pile of dragon hoard treasure…what every RPG’er truly wants is simply more time to game. In order to maximize those precious hours, Ben uses pre-cut game boards to stage each of his dungeon room encounters. The results will simply amaze you.

All the credit goes to game group member Bobby Hurley (who plays Magnum and Red Dawn in our weekly podcast). He’s the innovator on this crafty idea. Here’s how it works:

The boards can be purchased at Home Depot and are 1/8” in thickness. Hurley cuts them to different square shapes to accommodate Hirst Arts floor tiles (typically 3 by 3 increments). As an added touch, he also spray paints them a dark green to ensure they blend into the game table background. He’s even cut 1 3/4″ tall PVC pipe and camouflaged those when we need to demonstrate dungeon levels.

Prior to game time, Ben stages each room on individual boards and keeps them under wraps. He then lays down the pieces with ease in real time as the adventures move forth. By pre-building the rooms, Ben avoids those pesky 15-minute-plus setup delays.

Pretty soon you will get really creative and experiment with traps, more traps, trap doors, and pits. It’s all pure genius and easy to do. Give it a try and see just how much extra time it saves you in your next game.

Discovering treasure never gets old. The party has worked hard for it so the DM holds a duty to ensure the final payoff possesses the right pizzazz. And that’s where GameMastery Item Cards from Paizo Publishing come in extremely handy.

This addicting card line (12 sets and counting) comes with a bevy of choices including weapons, armor, scrolls, potions, and rings. Liven up your next general store run by laying them out on the table to clearly show the shop’s current inventory.

The front of the card shows a slick illustration while back reveals a brief description and area for notes. Ben especially likes to use this handy PDF template and print out his own D&D 4E descriptions.

These item cards are a RPG slam dunk, y’all. Try the Essentials deck for starters.

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Ben finally got a first-hand go of the Wizards of the Coast Dungeon tile accessory line. Gabe-age’s dawned the DM hat and took the gang through our very first Dungeon Delve encounter. He utilized The Halls of the Giant Kings Dungeon Tiles to set the scene.

Each pack contains six double-sided sheets of illustrated, die-cut terrain tiles printed on heavy cardstock. Gabe-age taped them down to his laminated game board to help prevent slide-age. Once done, the scotch tape came off with surprising ease.

The tile art is top notch, the durability way above par, and the variety abundant (10 different sets and counting). And while Ben’s terrain preference is to always go 3-D, these D&D Dungeon Tiles are your best choice when the budget is tight and the storage space is low

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There’s just something cool about throwing down a handful of coins on the game table when the party unlocks a treasure chest, picks up a pint at the inn, or loots a fallen a foe. Brought to you by King of the Castle Games Company, these nifty coins come in four greedy denominations: gold, silver, copper and platinum. The weight ratio is decent and there’s plenty of variety including 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 1,000 individual coin values.

I first encountered these Australians at GenCon 2006 when they debuted their starter set. Since then, they’ve added more handy coin varieties (which makes it much easier to divvy up your new-found money).

I’m not sure how useful the platinum pieces really are and the difference between copper and gold should be more pronounced. Still, that’s being rather nitpicky. I’m a big fan and recommend you pick up a pack or two (or three, or four…).

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Sadly, RPG fans have little to choose from in terms of quality audio entertainment. So when one finds a tiny gem among a garbage-sized pile of copper coins, youthful exuberance reigns supreme.

The crown jewel of which I speak is the D&D Podcast with Penny Arcade and PVP. Originally recorded in May of 2008, this podcast is the perfect introduction into the relatively new 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Penny Arcade even sprinkles in some kick-ass comics for added flavor.

The adventuring party is dubbed “Acquisitions Incorporated” and played by a group of guys anybody would kill to drop some dice with on any given game day. My personal favorite character is Jim Darkmagic (of the New Hampshire Darkmagics) but Binwin Bronzebottom is a close second.

My only knock is that the podcasts themselves are often just too darn short (sometimes as little as 30 minutes) and branded merchandise (shirts, mugs, etc) are still nowhere to be found.

Happily, the cast and crew are back with their second series and this time it includes former Star Treker, Wil Wheaton.

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Considered one of my all-time find of finds, Hirst Arts lets you cast your own dungeon pieces by using an assortment silicone rubber molds. Simply make a mixture, pop ‘em out, glue ‘em down, slap on a few layers of paint, and whammo…you got a modular mass of D&D goodness with endless possibilities.

They’re incredibly handy for laying down your own dungeon in real time. The pieces add a whole new visual element to the game and let you go 3-D on your party’s ass. I’ll review a bunch of the individual molds in the weeks to come but thought this first entry would best be served as an overall introduction.

It can be a somewhat time-consuming process, and they’ll chip rather easily but one can’t argue with the results. However, if an amazingly unhandy, non-artist, bumbling-of-a-man like me can do it, anyone can. And of course, one can never put a price on the satisfaction of building your own dungeon from a silly bag of plaster.

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