Yes, it’s corny…we know but D&D spider swarm headlines don’t exactly roll off the tongue. Ben relishes a good spider swarm and this week seemed like a great opportunity to look at some of the many eight-legged miniature choices.

Coincidentally, the Pile gang just built a fancy spider lair as part of its Comicon Dungeon Delve. Our spider queen is quite the fertile bitch so we needed to fill the cave’s nooks and crannies with wide variety of venomous villains.

Lots to choose from including:

• Giant Spider (from Reaper’s Legendary Encounters)
• Huge Spider (from WotC War of the Dragon Queen)
• Widow Spider (from the Mage Knight series)
• Deathjump Spider (from WotC Dungeons of Dread)
• Spider of Lolth (from WotC Underdark)
• Large Monstrous Spider (from WotC Dragoneye)
• Phaseweb Spider (from WotC Demonweb)
• Blade Spider (from WotC Desert of Desolation)
• Swarm of Spiders (from WotC Underdark)
• Demonweb Swarm (from WotC Desert of Desolation)

The handy webbing can be nabbed at any Walgreens or craft store. Ben suggests you lightly brush it with some dark gray Games Workshop paint to give it a musty feel though. The strands are also great for wrapping victims

For added lair effects, be sure to make and space out some columns and fill the floors with lots of broken pieces and rocks. Ya see it’s the little things that help raise that hair on your arms when the DM yells, “Spiders!”

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When BensRPGPile.com was approached to do an event at this year’s Phoenix Comicon, it was our chance to create a D&D module from its absolute start to its convention finish. Here now is a brief summary of our amazing, five-month experience.

The sixty-minute dungeon delve was played by 16 different groups of four (64 players in all) over two-day period. Four of the groups were unable to avoid the rushing lava and died (TPK) before completing their quest.

Congratulations to Team Inevitable Doom. They scored an amazing 861 points. They played a masterful game. Our runner-up was Team F’ing G’s with a score of 821. Click here for the complete standings.

We’ve written a hefty summary of Lava and a Cup of Java here. The detailed recap includes all the components that made up the event, all the nifty download links and the commentary on all the TLC that went into each component of the game.

Also, be sure to watch the wrap-up video on our YouTube channel which contains a 3-D terrain game board walkthrough and a Comicon musical photo montage.

We met so many amazing people with big hearts who share our passion for gaming. It was an honor and a privilege to game with each and every one of you. Thanks again for letting BensRPGPile.com roll through your lives at this year’s Phoenix Comicon.

See It | Get It

Great game shirts are a part of everyone’s own RPG Pile…so much so that Ben wanted to get jiggy and add another fantasy apparel option to the mix with an official website T-shirt.

The reasoning here is two-fold. First, we needed a team shirt for the Pile crew to wear at this year’s upcoming Phoenix Comicon Lava and a Cup of Java event in May. Second, we’re just a proud bunch of gamers who wanted to stand tall for our office’s traditional Dragon Shirt Fridays. 

Inspiration for the paint splatter effect came from an old Blizzard World of War Craft design. We picked two colors: blue to represent our local Gamers’ Inn shop and black cause every RPG’er loves to wear black.

A great work buddy (hereby known as “Lorenzo”) hooked us up with a killer local print shop. Mix that in with two insanely talented designers (Gabe-age and Reed) and you got yourself a winning clothing formula.

The blue shirt is up for sale in our Café Press store and the black option will soon follow. We’re excited about creating future t-shirts and tchotchkes but the group had to start with what’s closest to the heart.

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