World War Tesla is a new alternate-history miniatures war game from Fat Dragon Games. Designed by James Ward and Thomas Tullis, the game presumes a world in which Nikola Tesla’s concepts for death rays and force fields have made a real impact on a world at war.

Giant walking tanks, soldiers with rocket-packs, and flying machines armed with death rays rule the battlefield!

The game is also 3D print-and-play. That is, buy the rules and models just once ($20), print figures as much as you want. Along with the rule book are included STL files for 15mm scale troops, vehicles, markers, template, and terrain.

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A number of sources are now offering 3D printing models (STL files) via DriveThruRPG or Wargame Vault.

Fat Dragon Games, a company that started with print-and-play paper models, has the Dragonlock line, which includes both monster figures ($5 for five figures) and dungeon terrain ($10-20 per set). The dungeon terrain sets include stone walls, pillars, stairways, natural caverns, and also hazards, traps, and accouterments such as a treasure chest and an altar. Dungeon levels are stackable and sections can be held together with printable clips. Fat Dragon Games, by the way, is also running a Kickstarter for Dragonlock models of above-ground buildings.

Dicey Ventures focuses on Chibi-inspired architectural terrain features in 28 mm scale. Prices range from $8 for the model of a small bubble-like Water Dwelling to $32 for a Fortification Bundle that includes tower, walls, and gate. My favorite is the Arcane Library ($15).

French minis manufacturer Via Ludibunda sells three different building sets: Basic Houses ($28), Specialty Houses ($28), and Drow Architecture ($30). The Basic Houses set includes models for a variety of components (floors, roofs, pillars) that can be mixed and matched to form custom buildings.

Dozens of different monster figure models are available from mz4250 and all for free. Among the more impressive are a Manticore and a Hippogriff. There are also collections for Lycanthropes and Dragons.

Carnivorous Plants ($4) and Leeches ($6) are available from BSG Miniatures.

Rocket Pig Games offers a mix of monster figures, terrain features, and props. Example monsters include a Troglodyte and a Rust Eater ($1.50 for either). In the category of terrain, the company sells models for Marble Columns ($2) and Traps ($3.50). Among the prop models are Cage (50¢), Sundial ($1.50), and Cauldron ($1.50). But the best have to be the ones that combine prop with monster—the Mimics!

Axolite Gaming’s specialty is a system of interlocking tiles, walls, and doors. The company sells science fiction style and fantasy/dungeon style sets ($10 per basic set, $18 per expansion set). Also mini expansions for an inn and bar ($6 each).

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By now you’ve probably heard the news that Mattel is entering the 3D printing market with the Thingmaker. The $300 printer is aimed at making it easy to choose items to print and getting them printed. Well now you can pre-order the Thingmaker from Amazon, making it so you can have it to play with as soon as possible.

What’s almost as cool as 3D printing? 3D scanning physical items to be replicated with a 3D printer. Hasbro has a patent out for a device that makes 3D scanning simple using a rotating base and a smartphone. While probably not as precise as the recently Kickstarted Eora 3D, it’ll probably be much more affordable.

Wrapping up, here’s a list of some great looking products you can snag off Wargame Vault and print yourself:

Printable Scenery:

Citadel Tower
Winterdale Blacksmith
Winter dale Bridge Cottage
Winterdale Gnarly Tree Pack
Dungeon Caverns

Fat Dragon Games:

DRAGONLOCK: Dungeon Expansion Set 1
DRAGONLOCK: Dungeon Expansion Set 2
DRAGONLOCK MINIATURES: Lizardfolk Set

Via Ludibunda:

3D Gallows

Prices vary on these, but it’s worth it in general since you can print as much as you’d like one you have the files.

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Fat Dragon Games recently launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to support the launch of its newest printable terrain system. The Wilderness Adventures project includes a number of different fantasy-based aspects for users to customize, print, and fold into 3-D models for their 28mm miniatures.

There are a variety of terrain options, like Desert Adventures, Swamps, The Highlands, and more. If you pledge the “Adventurer” option for $60, which includes five different styles of terrain, you will be included in the company’s stretch goal bonuses, which so far include a giant sphinx, collapsible ruins, a goblin camp, a volcano, and a bunch of other specific adventure items.

The terrains will be viewable through Adobe Acrobat and include customizable layers. You can add ivy, change window styles, include adornments, and more.

Some 3-D items, like the woodland trees, easily disassemble into flat-folded items for better storage.

Campaign options range in price from $1 for a Troll Lord Games 3D cart model up to $90 for the whole kit-and-caboodle, including a custom inscription for the ruins and a special exclusive version of the dragon statue. The campaign ends on Feb. 23 with estimated delivery dates scheduled for between April and Dec. 2015.

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Using Pelgrane Press’ Gumshoe system for a time-travel roleplaying game, TimeWatch is supposed to be rules-light, provide fast cinematic action, and facilitate improvisational GMing. Lead designer Kevin Kulp also promises that the game will “embrace using paradox and time-travel to your advantage when solving mysteries and battling foes; leave yourself a note from the future, or have your future self clock in to lend a hand when you need it the most.” At the ambitious stretch goal of $1 billion, he also promises to fund an actual time machine.

With Village in a Box, The Game Crafter is “experimenting” at Kickstarter. The company says it’s about building an economy of scale. For an $89 pledge, backers can get eight different games, each one of which has sold or will sell for around $20 on The Game Crafter’s website. However, I’m not convinced. There are nine pledge levels that bundle different combinations of the eight games, and add-on options further increase the number of permutations. When divided among the eight games, the project’s goal of only $1,500 doesn’t strike me as enough to guarantee scale for any one. Thus, I see it as more of a marketing device. Nevertheless, if you’re interested in any of the games and willing to pay up front, The Game Crafter is offering a pretty good discount and as a POD company should be able to deliver in a reasonable time frame.

Mora Games, who also plans to use The Game Crafter for Flip, may have a bigger problem. The game looks quite similar, as well as similarly named, to Flip Out from Gamewright.

Shoshana Kessock is raising funds to support the Living Games Conference at New York University. The conference is about LARPs and Shoshana, who’s running the conference as her graduate student thesis, would like to record its events for future scholarly reference.

Also in the LARP category is Sabertron. The project from Level Up aims to produce foam swords with built-in electronics that can record hits and differentiate them parried strikes.

Fat Dragon Games’ Ravenfell project is for the production of print-and-assemble 28 mm miniature terrain files. Fat Dragon promises a whole village’s worth of buildings that can be folded flat and reassembled, customized with add-on elements, and mixed-and-matched level by level. The thing is, I can’t find any indication of how many model plans the company considers a village’s worth. And while the project has hit a number of stretch goals, only the higher priced donors qualify for the extra rewards attached to them.

Query is a party game based on the auto-complete function of internet search engines. Each round players try to guess which phrase are a true search engine result and which are alternatives submitted by fellow players.

In Livestock Uprising, Dog Might Games looks to be producing a resource-driven war game, gimmicked up with farm animals as factions. For $250, backers can get “From Seed to Harvest”, a 70 page book of “articles, workshops, design tips, drawings, and artwork” about the game, and a hand-made, hardwood game box.

On Indiegogo, Noel and Tye are asking for funds to help them make a Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine costume. [Waiting for the C&D…]

On Ulule, Narrativiste Edition is seeking funds for a French translation of Evil Hat’s Spirit of the Century RPG.

Tasty Minstrel Games’ latest pay-what-you-want project is a western-themed, tile-laying game. This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the 2-4 of Us is worth $3 for the name alone.

Tasty Minstrel Games’ Scoville project stands out for doing a fantastic job of teaching the basics of the game in a 3 minute video. Actual play looks pretty good too. The game is about farming hot peppers, which are represented by wood cubes of various colors. The board represents a shared field for planting peppers, which when harvested peppers can be sold in the market (for various benefits) or used in the making of chili recipes (for victory points). Cross-breeding specialty peppers draws on the color wheel as a mechanism in the game.

Another project that does a good job of introducing game play in its short video is Nika from Eagle Games. Though applied to an ancient Greece theme, Nika is an abstract title where the goal is to move one’s pieces to the other side of the board. The twist—let’s say in comparison to a traditional game like Chess—is that while the pieces are all the same, their relative strength depends on how groups are configured and aligned together—in game terms, the size and shape of a phalanx.

I don’t think that Queen Games is really depending on Kickstarter success to print Tortuga, a game about pirates stealing treasure from each other that’ll come with a bunch of custom dice. But then again, I don’t think that it’s backers really care.

Modiphius Entertainment proposes to bring back the Mutant Chronicles roleplaying game in a 3rd edition with new rules. And it looks like the company is already well underway with an extensive playtesting program and has detailed plans for a full line of supplements. By the way, I have no idea what “dieselpunk sci-fi” means.

Silver Fox is producing a line of Call of Cthulhu 32 mm miniatures.

UPDATED 1/4/2014

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