"Experience with Fatdragon" Topic

Does anyone have qualified opinions on Fatdragon products? They look good. I suppose they are inexpensive enough to try once.

Thanks for the help.

I have quite a number of their products.

Used their 2D dungeon tiles a lot when playing D&D with the kids. Worked up a couple of solo sci-fi games using their 2D Star Tiles with 3D props.

Have my eye on their Dragonshire tiles now. In fact, went to RPGNow and loaded up the cart … then took a break to watch a movie. Still debating getting their latest, plus a few of their earlier sets in that range too.

Are they as wonderfully detailed as Worldworks? No. WWG gets the A+ for richness and details of texture. And I'm a big fan fo WWG.

But … Fat Dragon does a nice job on their textures, I'd give them a B+ (compared to WWG). And because they are not quite so detailed or bold, they save a few bucks on ink when printing them out.

For fantasy, I prefer the FD stuff. WWG has Villageworks, and it's nice, but not as nice as the newer FD stuff. And I prefer the Dragonshire streets to the newest ones from WWG (Himmelveil line).

The new construction method of WWG is more complicated to build. You must notch ground tiles, assemble tabs to go in them, and mount cardstock on both sides of foamcore (so the tabs inserted into those holes will hold things in place).

FD solution? Mount cardstock on one side of foamcore, and insert toothpicks into the foam on adjoining sections. Way simpler (although I've never done that).

Plus, I'm not sure I care for the new WWG fold-up fold-down bits of cardstock, so you can attach other elements like buildings.

They will never lay as flat as you want. And will only bend up and down so many times before they are done. At first I liked the idea, then took a much closer look at their photos, and saw the fold down bits all over the place. Perhaps they really work wonders. But instead of buying the sets immediately, I put them on my wait and think about it list.

Also, if money is tight (and these days when isn't it) for $12 USD you get either the streets or sewers from WWG. No buildings. For the same price, you get streets and a bunch of buildings and some extra props from FD.

Anyway, I would recommend FD terrain.

Steve

Wow! Thanks. That is exactly the feedback i was looking for.

Scouts out!

"Also, if money is tight (and these days when isn't it) for $12 USD USD you get either the streets or sewers from WWG. No buildings."

Actually, fwiw the Worldworks products both include large amounts of walls and support columns etc, but in such a way that you can create buildings as large or as small as you like, and as multi-levelled as you like – you're not fixed to a set building size the way you are with the Dragonshire set. Although I will say that the Dragonshire set does have a lot of 'extras' in it.

I would suggest checking out the WWG page, you can download the instructions for 'TerrainLinX' (their general construction guidelines for both the streets and the sewers sets) for free. I already have both (been with WWG since the beginning) but the Dragonshire set does look nice I will admit. Check out both company's websites and see which one seems more attractive to you :)

"The new construction method of WWG is more complicated to build. You must notch ground tiles, assemble tabs to go in them, and mount cardstock on both sides of foamcore (so the tabs inserted into those holes will hold things in place)."

Actually the printed tile is a single piece that folds over the foamcore (so not really mounting two separate pieces, just one that overlaps onto the bottom of the board) and the idea behind the tab system is to make the board you build much more robust and less prone to being knocked about. Extra steps to build, sure, but VERY sturdy once done. YMMV…..I like the toothpick idea but from what I've heard (and not my own empirical evidence, I freely admit) it can be harder to align correctly and has a tendency to chew up the foam if well used.

For a casual game, the Dragonshire stuff looks nice; for hardcore gaming I would go Worldworks….but as I said, YMMV :) :)

I have both FD and WWG products. Echoing SeattleGamer's comments, FD product textures are very nice while WWG are near perfect. For the fantasy village, I like the FD buildings better than the WWG buildings and feel you won't go wrong with a purchase of Dragonshire. I feel the Dragonshire buildings will also work for rural European villages in more modern eras.

The new WWG Himmelveil products offer tremendous flexibility and ease of storage, but you will pay a price up front in construction time to achieve that modularity. WWG has made their latest products machine cuttable on a craft robo or silhouette machine, so that can help with construction time. A robo purchase is definitely in my future.

Thanks for the more detailed look at WWG streets and sewers Bob. I didn't know the top tile wrapped over the edge (makes sense). That's not how they designed DungeonLinX (you had cardstock sheets to glue to the bottom of the foamcore, and "bowtie" buts to connect the tiles together).

I too am a huge fan of WWG. I have over 30 of their sets. My modern-day gaming takes place on the Streets of Mayhem. There are no finer tiles for modern-day skirmishes. None!
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And Platform Command & Red Sector make for one HECK of a nice modern-day industrial or futuristic skirmish area:
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But while I'm a huge WWG fan, they have not yet cornered the market on my fantasy cardstock spending : D

You said that Streets and Sewers both come with walls. I've checked out the many photos carefully, and they all look like retaining walls used to build multiple tiers, and walls for stairs or ramps. They do not look like buildings.

I'll bet there are no "normal" looking doors or windows a person could use to make buildings included in either set. And even if there were, I'm not sure those walls would look good as a substitute for plank, stucco, stone or brick building textures. And buildings need roofs and dormers and chimneys and … you know, building-related extras.

Don't get me wrong, I think those street and sewer tiles look amazing. But for fantasy, I'm still going to side with Fat Dragon and their Dragonshire line.

To get fantasy buildings from WWG right now, you are looking at Villageworks (a fine set, but not as nice as the newest FD Dragonshire set), OR … getting one of the few Himmelveil specific buildings, like:

Harbormaster:
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or Thoumounts:
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Both of those are incredibly detailed, with complete interiors, as opposed to building shells with exterior textures only like Villageworks:
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I picked up WWGs Interiors: Pubs & Inns:
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And their Interiors: Castles & Keeps:
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Figuring to convert my Villageworks buildings into having interior textures as well. But it became a bunch more work (more than doubled the time it took to make buildings, and ran up more expenses with ink). I liked the final result, but the time …

In the end, I came to prefer the FD Dragonshire method. Their buildings are designed to have you lift off the roof, and expose the floor. And really, for gaming, all I really need is the floor. Wall textures and such? Nice, but not essential.

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(scroll down to see the separate building pieces & floors)

And if a person wanted to doctor up the FD buildings with walls and other refinements, FD has their own interior set – City Interiors:
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So if you want to try and match textures with FD buildings, this is probably the way to go.

At some point, I believe WWG will either revamp totally their Villageworks set, and/or release Himmelveil city building set(s) much like they did with Mayhem. At which point, they may have cornered the market for fantasy cities.

But until then, Fat Dragon has the better (and more complete) bang for the fantasy city buck. IMHO.

Steve

"I'll bet there are no "normal" looking doors or windows a person could use to make buildings included in either set. And even if there were, I'm not sure those walls would look good as a substitute for plank, stucco, stone or brick building textures. And buildings need roofs and dormers and chimneys and … you know, building-related extras."

You're right….and the above are going to be one of the first expansion sets released, I believe. However the beauty of the WWG system is that these walls are all going to be Terrainlinx compatible, and can be added to or swapped out with any other part of the terrain setup.

It's funny, I also bought Pubs&Inns and Castles&Keeps with a view to putting interiors into my Villageworks buildings….which while they are empty, it's also important to remember that they are now one of the oldest sets in the WWG stable and are definitely showing their age! The Dragonshire interiors set is one of the ones I have looked at several times as variety is definitely the spice of life and I'm reasonably certain the props could be mixed and matched between products. Have you compared them or used them together at all Steve? How did they look?

Bob

The issue with taking VillageWorks building shells and making interiors is two fold.

First, the building were not designed to have the roofs taken off to reveal anything, so there are triangular support pieces in all the corners which make the buildings quite sturdy. Do you remove them, and create a different tab to glue to the adjoining walls? Or leave them be, and possibly cover the white tabs with some sort of planking texture? A texture which can be borrowed from elsewhere in the set, and then cut to size.

Second, getting mirror images of the walls is a little tricky. You want doors and windows to line up. So you end up taking a bit from one of the interior sets, and working on it in something like Photoshop to get it the right size. Then you print it out and mount it on the inside.

Which, is cumbersome. Far better to take the approach of their later sets which have the exterior and interior on the same sheet. You print, fold over, and glue, and have a double-thick wall with both interior and exterior details. Need to remember not to glue all the way to the ends, so you can tuck the tabs into the adjoining walls.

But THAT approach means taking some textures from an interior kit AND taking one of the walls from Villageworks, and again, in something like Photoshop, working the two bits together, so when you print, you have a much easier job of it.

Method one is easier to cobble together, harder to apply correctly. Method two is harder to cobble together, much easier to assemble properly.

But either one takes way more time than just building the building as-is.

As for comparing the FD Interior set with WWG Village and Interior sets, I have not, because I don't own that FD set. Like you though, I keep eyeing it.

But then I remember how much of an effort it was to try and do my own, and have parked that idea in the "Maybe one day when I end up with a real need for interiors beyond just floorplans".

Also, the thing is, stucco, stone and brick do well as interior textures, so taking the outside, and making a mirror image of it for interior work is fine. But when you have ivy or other stuff growing on the outside, it needs to be removed for interiors. More work.

At least the FD buildings are designed to have the roof removed, exposing a floor. And multi-story buildings use this same construction technique. So without any effort, you can still game in the interiors on floors.

And, while I'm droning on, I should point out that the floor for an FD single story building is actually the ceiling. Go back to one of the photos above and you will see that the plank flooring is where the attic would be. This is actually ingenious, because (a) you don't SEE any blank walls, only a textured floor, and (b) you can much more easily move figures around because you don't have to reach into small buildings over walls to reach figures.

So the more I think about it, the less I am inclined to make interior walls and place floors on their proper floor level.

Oddly, the FD Dragonshire Building Exp 1 set is actually crafted with interior walls of the print and fold over variety. Check out the building in this photo:
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But none of the other Dragonshire buildings have that.

Steve