Our 20 eager players had a range of games from which to choose. The games day had given me a good reason to get on and actually paint the Hirst Arts dungeon that I've been building for at least 2 years now. A plain white plaster dungeon just doesn't have the same presence as a nice painted dungeon, especially if you add some extra bits of scenery and give it all a suitable grimy appearance!
My dungeons are assembled using a cork tile base with floor tiles and wall blocks plaster cast from Hirst Arts moulds. I've used some of Bruce Hirst's designs and added a few of my own too. They've been base coated in a watered down mix of PVA and black poster paint (1 litre of paint for £1 seemed good value but I've discovered that you need the PVA to give it a rub-proof surface). Using Wilkinson's £1 tester pots I applied a blotchy java bean brown pattern and then added some dabs of urban jungle green along the edges of the corridors where I imagine it'd get pretty damp and mouldy. Some smaller patches of envy green added to the effect. After this I gave a very heavy semi-drybrush of stone grey, then a very light drybrush of silver grey. Additional drybrushing with nutmeg spice and coffee brown along the middle of the corridors finished things off (dirty adventurers tracking mud from outside - no wonder the dungeon denizens get angry and attack them!).
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| A view of the complete dungeon. |
The dungeon was revealed in sections as the adventurers explored. I used very basic Heroquest rules to keep it extremely fast and easy to play. Adventurers included a wizard, female warrior (counted as an Elf), a gladiator (counted as another Elf) and a knight (counted as a barbarian).
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| The dungeon entrance... |
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| A Beastman guards the fountain (water still to be added!) |
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| Warrior maiden and wizard prepare to fight a goblin. |
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| Goblin bed chamber. |
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| I wonder if any treasure is hidden here? |
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| Just an empty bookshelf...? |
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| A strong draught blows from behind - could it be... |
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| ... a secret passage! |
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| A brave knight emerges from the secret passage into the daylight. |
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| Stairs to a higher level of the dungeon... |
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| ... can be removed... |
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| ... to allow other uses of the room! |
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| A partially barred gateway within the dungeon. |
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| What's behind this grate? Something damp by the look of it. |
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| The forces of Chaos peer from within their lair |
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| General view of some of the dungeon bits. |
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| I like how the window turned out. |
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| Note the algae / water stains running down the wall. |
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| Corridor with arrow loops. |
We also had a quick game of the old GW classic Dungeonquest which I got for only £5 in a GW mega-sale some 18 years ago. This is played on a large board where you pick room/corridor tiles at random as you explore a castle. You get 4 plastic figures with the game. My friend Graham has painted the figures in almost all his games and I've done virtually none of mine. I quickly painted up these figures the night before in attempt to alleviate some of my shame!
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| Dungeonquest Barbarian and Knight. |
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| Dungeonquest Adventurer and Ranger. |
Next time... some furniture for the dungeon!
Fabulous!
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