Dungon Stamps are a series of rubber stamp sets designed for use on a Battlemat or Flip-Mat. For GMs who have spent way too time drawing up detailed encounters or for players who have trouble interpreting their GMs marker scrawls into an actual scene, the ability to use stamps to produce consistent, recognizable items quickly may seem like a godsend. The product nearly lives up to its promise, but like any game aid it must be used in moderation.
Description:
Dungeon Stamps come in sets of 3-5 stamps for between $15.99 and $19.99 a set on Green Dragon Studio’s online store. Singles are also available. The stamps are made from wood block handles with the rubber section attached to the bottom. Each of the stamp sets comes with an ink pad and an ink bottle in the appropriate color. You could probably get ink and pads cheaper for yourself at an office supply store, but it is nice to have them included so that the product is usable right out of the package. This review deals with the two sets I purchased—the Limited Edition First Run Stamp Set, and the Foliage Starter Set. Despite the fancy name, the First Run Set is clearly inferior, and the company obviously learned a lot from making them. The Foliage Set has the rubber stamp attached to the wood with a padding layer, which is more forgiving in how directly you have to press the stamp onto the mat and results in a cleaner image. The Foliage Set also uses better designed wood blocks, which are thicker and grooved on the sides for better gripping. The stamp image is clearly visible on the wooden top of each stamp, making selection simple. Again, the Foliage Set improves on the First Run Set by printing this image directly on the wood rather than on a sticker.
The art on both sets is unremarkable but quite serviceable, providing clear line drawings of common items from the top down. The First Run Set came with ten stamps: single door, double door, window, table, chair, staircase, arrow slit, torch, crates & barrel, and a tree. The Foliage Set includes an evergreen tree, a small tree, and a large bush. The difference between the small tree and large bush is basically immaterial, but having a variety of images is still worthwhile. Some of these stamps are obviously more useful than others. Tables and doors are always handy, but how often do you actually draw a torch in a sconce or an arrow slit on your map?
In fairness to Green Dragon Studio, my criticisms of the First Run Set should not discourage anyone from buying Dungeon Stamps. According to the company website, this set is now sold out, and the second run takes care of all my criticisms. They have all been constructed using the superior materials, and the less-useful stamps have been eliminated completely. The five most useful stamps (single door, double door, window, table, and chair) have been re-collected into the Indoor Starter Set.
Playtest:
In actual play, the stamps allowed a detailed and clear map that took slightly more time than drawing with markers. There were far fewer questions from the players like, “What does that squiggle stand for again?” or “Which gap in the wall is a window and which gap is a door?” with a stamped map. It also seemed that the players’ visualization of the scene was made more vivid by seeing concrete details in front of them.
The stamps take a bit of practice to use effectively. The best way to go about it is to mark the corners and walls of your building with dots, then use the stamps to place windows, doors, arrow slits, or anything else that goes directly on the wall. Once these are stamped on, use a marker to connect up the walls, and then finish stamping and drawing interior features. The stamps should be set out ahead of time in order to be clearly visible to quick examination and selection. You don’t want to have to waste time looking for the window stamp in the middle of mapping.
At first, the stamps appear to be a time saver, but this is deceiving—they are not. Let’s face it, GMs usually don’t draw in windows and just leave gaps for doors. The stamps allow you to put in extra detail that most people don’t bother to draw in the first place, and that extra action takes extra time. This is not necessarily a problem if the detail does help play. You will have to strike the balance between time spent and benefit gained, though. There was a tendency, both for myself and the other GM who tested these stamps, to think that we were making a drawing and not a representation of tactical combat. This meant that we often included far more detail than we would have used with just markers. Unfortunately, this means maps take a long time to draw. We found that this was an adjustment problem rather than a product problem and dealt with it in multiple ways. First and most obviously, we stopped using the stamps for anything that was not immediately significant. Second, since including the extra detail helped add to the mood, I tried drawing and stamping the scene before the game session, and then only revealing the decorated mat once they reached the relevant scene.
Cleanup is easy—just follow the same procedure you do for markers. There is the additional step of cleaning off the rubber stamps themselves, but this does not impose a considerable inconvenience. The ink must be cleaned off soon after use or it will stain, just like wet-erase markers.
Are Dungeon Stamps a good addition to your game? It probably depends on the temperament of your group. If your players don’t care if your trees, windows, doors, and tables are decent pictorial representations, it’s probably not worth the time to stamp your map. If you can’t draw to save your life, and your players can never interpret what is what on your mat, they may be essential. I found that if you don’t mind spending a little extra time, Dungeon Stamps help your map go beyond mere walls and obstacles and can add quite a bit of atmosphere and clarity for very little effort.
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