3D dungeons are a wonderful thing to use while playing HeroQuest. I built mine using Mage Knight 3D Dungeons kits. Could I have used a 3D printer? Sure, but let me show you a photo of the finished board. A link to the PDF of this article is located at the end.
I kicked around the idea of using a 3D printer in the beginning. Why did I not go that way? Well, it’s simple, really. I do not own a 3D printer. Buying one, buying feeder stock, and spending time learning to use it seemed to be an undesirable task. One I did not have the time for, the patience for, and I dislike the layered look that 3D printers produce. Add to that the cleaning of the printer, prepping the model parts, and painting… I was just not into that amount of work. I know, spending more money for a high-quality resin printer solves a few of these issues, but not enough in my opinion.
Bit of History
Back in 2003, WizKids produced their Mage Knight 3D Dungeons expansion for their Mage Knight Dungeons miniatures skirmish game. The naming convention can lead to some confusion, as they were named the same except for the “3D” nomenclature. There were 3 releases specifically for Mage Knight 3D Dungeons.
First was the starter set consisting of 4 “wooden” doors, 4 “iron” doors, 24 walls, and 36 floor tiles, a full 1/3 of the flooring tiles recommended to play a game. According to the pamphlet inside the box, a game should use a square of 10 x 10 floor tiles, so 100 squares. There were 2 versions of this item: the Promo Pack and the Retail Pack. The promo packs were sent to stores to use as promotional materials to spur interest in this version of the Dungeon expansion. The promo pack also had 6 pillars included and rules for them, while the retail starter set did not.
The second release, Mage Knight 3D Dungeons Floor Pack, marketed as an accessory, was a box of 36 floor tiles. No doors, no walls, just flooring tiles and the same rules from the retail starter set. The idea was for each player to bring their own starting set and flooring tiles expansion to build the maps for play. There were 2 versions of this release as well: the retail box and the promo box. Both had the same contents.
The next was an interesting choice. It was a plastic blister-on-card peg hanger, Mage Knight 3D Dungeons Trap Pack. There were 8 trap miniatures, rules, and a red lens “decoder”. The article Drucifer’s Advanced Traps For HeroQuest was inspired by these traps. The blister pack also contained 12 floor tiles with built-in trap dials. These dials had game information obfuscated using red reveal steganography. This required using the red lens to expose the information on the trap dials. As with the other two releases, there were 2 versions: the blister-on-card peg hanger and a promotional box. Both had the same contents.
Scale Issue
The Mage Knight 3D Dungeons tiles were larger than the 1.5-inch squares used in WidKids’ other Mage Knight Dungeons releases, poster-sized paper maps, and cardstock map sections from the Mage Knight Dungeon Builder Kits. That size difference made the two Mage Knight Dungeons systems less compatible than they were originally intended.
The dungeon doors from the Mage Knight Dungeon Builder Kits were notably smaller as well, measuring in at 1.5 inches wide. They did not look right when compared to the Mage Knight 3D Dungeons Doors and the 2-inch floor squares.
I am not certain why there was a change in the square size. I am certain it was part of the reason the 3D Dungeons line was canceled. There were other releases for the Mage Knight Dungeons game after the Mage Knight 3D Dungeons, but those releases retained the maps with 1.5 inch squares.
As with all Mage Knight products released during the early 2000s, the Mage Knight 3D Dungeons parts came prepainted. This is one of the reasons it attracted me. I had no desire or time to paint a gaming board.
What it Actually Took to Build
HeroQuest is basically a large grid with a few pronounced lines for “Walls”. The grid is 19 squares x 26 squares; this totals out to 494 floor tiles for the entire board. Counting the wall sections results in 261 individual internal walls. I am treating a single tile as a single square on the HeroQuest board. Yes, this will significantly increase the physical size of the playing field, but will not alter the basic board layout.
The Starter set of Mage Knight 3D Dungeons has 36 floor tiles and 24 Walls. It is the only product with walls. To acquire the 261 walls necessary, it would take 11 starter boxes, with only 3 wall tiles in excess. The doors could be used as false doors/walls, and that would reduce the number of boxes to about 9. I did not choose to go this way.
With 11 starter sets, there will be 396 floor tiles. These will need to be supplemented by an additional 98 tiles. This is where the Mage Knight 3D Dungeons Floor Pack comes into play. With 36 floor tiles in each box, it will take 3 boxes, with only 10 excess floor tiles. I also chose to avoid this path.
I highly recommend not bothering with the Mage Knight 3D Dungeons Floor Pack. It is only floor tiles, and though they have their uses, I prefer to have the spare doors and walls. I found that the walls and the floor tiles can be brittle. Breakage is a real concern during assembly and use. I went with 14 starter boxes. This allows me some extra parts if something breaks.
Floor Tiles, Walls, and Doors
The floor tiles are interlocking on all sides. Once assembled, they are very sturdy with little flexibility. The following images show how the tiles interlock using the black and grey tabs and a finished floor/board.
The 2 little holes at each corner have 2 functions. First is to hold up walls and doors. The second is to act as a bracing passage for wall and door pegs, providing perpendicular support for the floor tiles. Each junction has a minimum of 2 supports and a maximum of 3 if a wall or door is involved. This interlocking method leads to a very stable playing environment.
The walls have a single sculpt; this is really only noticeable upon close inspection. The wall’s base flares slightly wider than its top and gives the wall some additional support once it is installed on the board. The only issue with the walls is the little plastic pegs that slip into the board holes. These can be temperamental; they do not flex, so rocking back and forth will break them. With one peg down, the wall is still useable; with both, though, it becomes less stable and will fall at the least provocation.
The doors come in painted “iron” and painted “wood”. They have 2 points of articulation and can swing open or snap closed. When they are not installed on the board, they are easy to open, as they are slightly sprung. The frame compresses when installed. Also, they only swing slightly more than 90 degrees; if you push them past that point, they will break. I recommend that if you intend to use the open door, open it before you place it on the board.
Board Assembly
With all of the parts in hand, the assembly takes a little over 30 minutes to an hour. This depends on how many parts you break or how proficient you are. I found that assembling long sections of floor rather than square sections of floor worked better and allowed me to progress quickly.
The HeroQuest board is separated into quadrants. Building the outside walls of these quadrants next will help ensure that you have the right layout of the rooms and the halls.
When these items were released back in 2003, I was not in a position to acquire them. This was unfortunate, as they were more rationally priced then than they are now on the secondary market. Most, if not all, of these items are still available on sites like eBay or on miniature trading sites like Bartertown.com.
A PDF file of this article can be found here.
– Dru
Dru's Den of Ill Repute 