Walls Progress Report

I tested out the walls at my game last night, but I forgot to take pictures.

Here is the setup, though...

(If you notice in the first picture, I didn't make enough. I counted it out a few times, so I'm not sure how I did that. It could have easily been an organizational thing, though.)

There are still stability issues, mostly due to the tabs and slots not being cut perfectly. If they fit snug together, it works out fine, but there were too many pieces were the tab was slightly too small, or the slot was slightly too big, so there was no "grip" between the pieces.

I can fix that when I coat the tiles, I think, as I intend to spray them down with a sealant, to keep them clean and intact longer. The sealant should add some "bulk" to the tabs and slots, and make the fit better.

Door are also a concern, as I failed to really factor those in to the idea of a complete dungeon. If I'm just surrounding one room with walls, it's not a problem, but as soon as I start adding a hallway beyond the room, that's where the problem starts. That came up three times in this last game. The a hallway joins three rooms, with a 2-square wide door for each room. When I slotted all the walls together, it didn't leave any slots for the doors to fit into. I "solved" the problem with two rooms, just by disconnecting one of the corners from the walls, and attaching it to the door, holding it in place...

That's not a very satisfactory solution, though. I want to come up with something where the doors will fit without that kind of compromise.

One of the players suggested using the little plastic bases you get with certain boardgames games, for holding up cardboard standees or cutouts. That's a pretty good idea. I'll make a tile for that, though, rather than getting the plastic bases. I can easily create a 2x2 floor tile with a slot cut into it, and then have the doors with a tab on the bottom of the tile, and the tab pushes into the slot on the floor tile, and the whole thing stands up (or should *fingers crossed*). Then you just remove the door when the PCs open it, and leave the floor tile in place. I like that. So, thanks for the inspiration, Charles! =)

All that said, stability is still an issue I want to deal with, hopefully without the addition of more pieces to solve the problem. I think I have a good thing going here with this tab&slot system, and I don't want to divert away from that just yet.

Oh, and as an afterthought, these walls will eventually be double-sided. I just didn't get around to doing that just yet. I haven't decided if I will make them stone on one side and wood on the other, or stone on both.