A forum for discussing the piecepack board game system.

Clark D. Rodeffer | 10 Jan 2007 19:42

Re: Giant piecepacks

--- In piecepack@..., "Ron Hale-Evans" <rwhe <at> ...> wrote:
> Hey, the Icehouse folks build giant Icehouse sets to play with, right?
> 
> http://icehousegames.org/wiki/?title=Giant_pieces
> 
> Why not giant piecepacks?
[...]
> I'm planning to attend Penguicon <http://penguicon.org/> in April.
> Clark, do you think one of these sets would interest other attendees?

Ron, this would be outstanding! I don't know how you'd get all the
bits here, but the con has a storage locker for safe keeping.
Construction materials are another good question. My first hunch would
be to use poster board and stencils / spray paint for the tiles and coins.

The folks at Mesomorph have been to Penguicon at least a couple of
times in the past to run a sales table and demos, but I don't know if
they have plans for this year or not. The dealer room (if there is one
this year) isn't my area of operations. Are any other southeast
Michigan / northwest Ohio / southwest Ontario piecepack enthusiasts
coming to Penguicon?

Clark

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/piecepack/

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Ron Hale-Evans | 10 Jan 2007 20:03

Re: Re: Giant piecepacks

On 1/10/07, Clark D. Rodeffer <clark@...> wrote:
> --- In piecepack@..., "Ron Hale-Evans" <rwhe <at> ...> wrote:
> > Hey, the Icehouse folks build giant Icehouse sets to play with, right?
> >
> > http://icehousegames.org/wiki/?title=Giant_pieces
> >
> > Why not giant piecepacks?
> [...]
> > I'm planning to attend Penguicon <http://penguicon.org/> in April.
> > Clark, do you think one of these sets would interest other attendees?
>
> Ron, this would be outstanding!

Great! :)

> I don't know how you'd get all the
> bits here, but the con has a storage locker for safe keeping.

If I have time to make them, I'd probably ship them separately. I
wouldn't want to have to take them on the plane.

> Construction materials are another good question. My first hunch would
> be to use poster board and stencils / spray paint for the tiles and coins.

I don't think that would be durable enough. As Jorge pointed out, one
might want to stand on them. I like his idea of the stuff they make
mats out of for gyms, but I don't know if you can get it cut to custom
sizes. Plywood is another possibility.

They are currently wrestling with this problem on the Icehouse list

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David Fair | 10 Jan 2007 21:08

Re: Re: Giant piecepacks

On 1/10/07, Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@...> wrote:

> > Construction materials are another good question. My first hunch would
> > be to use poster board and stencils / spray paint for the tiles and coins.
>
> I don't think that would be durable enough. As Jorge pointed out, one
> might want to stand on them. I like his idea of the stuff they make
> mats out of for gyms, but I don't know if you can get it cut to custom
> sizes. Plywood is another possibility.

Vinyl Floor tiles are often sold in 8"x8" sizes with adhesive backs...
4 of those in a square glued to plywood or some type of foam may work
well for the tiles, and have the bonus of giving you (very small)
lines dividing the tile into quarters.

Coins... I would bet that a circular wood piece designed for making a
clock with would work well. These can be found at Michaels or other
craft stores and are often just a few dollars each.

Dice... I have seen large foam dice at my FLGS, but not as big as 4x4"
(more like 2x2"). Don't know who makes them...

Pawns... Perhaps paper covered Styrofoam columns would work? Same
craft store as the coins...

-- 
Thanks,
Dave
--

-- 
David Fair     dafair@...

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Ron Hale-Evans | 10 Jan 2007 22:43

Re: Re: Giant piecepacks

I'm still not committed to making a giant piecepack for Penguicon, but
I'm really happy people are showing such interest.

So far, I like plywood best (for the tiles, at least). A 4'x8' piece
of plywood that you might buy at Home Depot can be cut up into
_exactly_ 3 x 6 = 18 piecepack tiles, or 3 suits. Someone remarked
that the store where you buy it will often cut it up for you for free
or a nominal charge.

Other advantages:

 * Tiles look like wood because they _are_ wood
 * Stackable
 * Nice feel, unlike floppy cloth

Disadvantages:

 * Somewhat fragile (edges may chip unless protected)
 * Heavy! (consider shipping)

A Piecepack Letterbox board would be 9' square. Alien City would be
9'x6'. A game that used a 5x5 board with a hole in the middle would be
7.5' square. If you had to move a pawn on a board 9' square, the
farthest you would have to reach would be 4 1/2 feet, so maybe you
wouldn't need to walk on the tiles after all.

Ron

--

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/

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