Publisher: Wizards of the CoastYour party moves stealthily up the dark hallway. Torn cobwebs dangle from the ceiling; to the south, a huge, iron door creaks eerily in the mysterious wind. A massive iron gate crashes down, blocking the corridor ahead!
Wait a minute. The pencil broke.
Mapping dungeons is quick, easy, and exciting with the 3-D Dragon Tiles. Use the Dragon Tiles to bring your Dungeons and amp; Dragons and Advanced Dungeons and amp; Dragons adventures to life.
This package includes 51 3-D figures, featuring characters, creatures, walls, and doors. Two sheets of 84 two-sided feature tiles, showing traps, treasures, furniture, and special surprises, are also included. A Dungeon Mapping Grid is provided to help you lay out dungeons quickly.
The 3-D Dragon Tiles also comes with a special D and amp;D/AD and amp;D adventure, The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina.
Can't find an eraser? Don't worry. Leave the dungeons to us.
Product History
AC3: and quot;3-D Dragon Tiles featuring The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina and quot; (1984), by Garry Spiegle, is the third and quot;AC and quot; Accessory for Basic D and amp;D. It was published in June 1984.
Origins: (AC)cessorizing. TSR continued to switch up the contents of their and quot;AC and quot; Accessory line with AC3: and quot;3-D Dragon Tiles featuring The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina and quot; (1984). The previous releases had been: AC1: and quot;The Shady Dragon Inn and quot; (1983), a book of NPCs; and AC2: and quot;Combat Shield and Mini-Adventure and quot; (1984), a traditional GM's screen and adventure. Though and quot;AC8 and quot; contained another mini-adventure here, the core was something more innovative: 3-D terrain.
About the Components. At the time, TSR was experimenting quite a bit with innovative game components for tabletop play. and quot;The Shady Dragon Inn and quot; had included a black-and-white battle map of the inn that could be used for tactical combat. Then, B6: and quot;The Veiled Society and quot; (1984) had included a and quot;paper sculpture and quot;: black and white 3-D models for some of the buildings of Specularum that could be cut out and pasted together.
and quot;The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina and quot; combined these ideas, but raised them up to the next level. It includes a full-color and quot;Dungeon Mapping Grid and quot;, which is pretty much D and amp;D's second battle map. and quot;Feature Tiles and quot; can be placed on the grid to depict furniture and other obstacles. In addition, there are also full-color stand-up walls, doors, characters, and monsters. Each encounter lists which 3-D figures and which feature tiles to use in the room.
It's notable how far these components were before their time. The so-called and quot;Dragon Tiles and quot; foreshadow the much later D and amp;D Dungeon Tiles (2006-2012), while the idea of laying out individual encounters with these sorts of tiles would be the core of the encounters of D and amp;D 4e (2008-2012).
Adventure Tropes. This rather short house crawl is a simple macguffin quest of the damsel in distress sort.
Exploring Mystara. There is no indication that this adventure is set in Mystara, and in fact AC8: and quot;3-D Dragon Tiles featuring The Revenge of Rusak and quot; (1985) would confirm it isn't. Remarkably none of the major fan magazines seems to have retrofit the adventure into the Basic D and amp;D world.
Future History. and quot;The Revenge of Rusak and quot; is a direct sequel to this adventure.
About the Creators. Garry Spiegle worked at TSR, writing supplements for several different RPGs from 1983-1984. and quot;The Kidnapping of Princess Arelina was one of his last publications from TSR before he jumped over to the short-lived Pacesetter and co-authored the Star Ace (1984) RPG.
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of and nbsp;Designers and amp; Dragons and nbsp;- a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.