On Kickstarter, London-based Play Conveyor offers STL files for The Crystal Dragon, an articulate dice tower that roars out fireball d20s.
The crowdfunding platform has plenty of STL offers, reminding me that a 3d printer in the corner feels inevitable (but not yet), but this dragon seems to be a cut above the rest. The campaign launched to run over Christmas into January, and you can monitor progress on the pitch page.
Play Conveyor pitches the dragon exclusively as a miniature representation of a melee encounter. I can see many gamer groups going for that. The STL files include instructions for a crystal heart, which is the loot the heroes would get from defeating the dragon,
I suspect I’d be annoyed at the head and neck-only aspect since there are lots of dragons to track with a mini.
However, as a unique dice tower that fireballs out a d20 for key roles, then, I could be persuaded! It keeps dice rolls down if that’s your thought of the thing, and tension up.
Importantly, you cannot get a physical dragon here. Player Conveyor won’t print or paint this for you. You can, however, secure the commercial rights to print and then sell your own dragons.
It has been designed, refined and test printed again and again over many, many months by the team at Play Conveyor (consisting of both a highly experienced toy and game designer and highly experienced 3D designer and printer) to be robust, easy to use and compatible with a large variety of printers and filament brands.
Early bird offers are still on offer, and at £35 (then at £39), backers are rewarded with the files for the dragon, the heart, the flame dice catcher, and a bonus dice pack.
After the early birds are complete, backers must find £50 to qualify for fewer rewards as the flame dice catcher and dice are dropped. At £59, the flame and dice are added back in.
There is even an early bird (£79) on the commercial package, usually worth £149, for backers who want to move into dragon printing.
The campaign runs until the end of January, and the STL files have an estimated delivery on February, which makes sense!
