I trust everyone is familiar with both the 2.5D Terrain System proffered by DM Scotty, as well as the Jenga wooden block game (wooden blocks are stacked, then players try to pull one out of the stack, without toppling the tower -- they lose, if they do!). Well, a few YT crafters have put forth the idea of painting the Jenga wooden blocks to look like Dungeon Wall Sections which can easily, and quickly, be arranged to create a 2.5D dungeon layout on any flat surface. I thought that it was Wyloch's Armory, but I can't find his video on the topic… You simply paint the wooden tiles, then arrange them as needed.
I found that Dollar Tree stores, within the USA, carry Jenga knock-off games, called Tumbling Towers, with both light and dark colored wooden pieces, for a fraction of the cost of an official Jenga game set. The downside, however, is that few of their stores actually carry them on their shelves! I could only order a block of 18 Tumbling Towers games off of the Dollar Tree web catalog: 72 pieces per game x 18 games = 1,296 wooden pieces! The cost, delivered, was just over $40. USD
Here is the best part: some of the games include roughly one-half of their wooden blocks as dark brown wood -- perfect, out of the box, to set up and use to map out wooden buildings in 2.5D -- no crafting/painting required! These dark wood tile pieces will work for any wooden buildings needed: taverns, farm houses, city dwellings, etc! Add in some 3D terrain pieces, such as tables and/or chairs, book shelves, whatever, and you have a fantastic layout for your combat scenarios where the Players can tactically interact with the terrain using their miniatures!
I plan to divide my 18 sets between myself, and my son who recently began running his own AD&D campaign games. We will share the cost to make it easier for both of us to get the uber-modular terrain pieces we both need/want for our respective games. I fully expect that 1,296 pieces will exceed either one of our needs for gaming -- 648 pieces should suffice (hoping that one half of the wooden pieces will be dark wood suitable for making wooden building layouts, for each one of us).
They are due to arrive tomorrow. I will update this thread as progress is made with them. I hope to put together, and photograph, some wooden building design examples immediately -- no painting required, no modifications required -- to demonstrate their usefulness! Cheers!
