Tiles for chess board finally arrived.

I invested in a Kickstarter some years back. These are tiles designed for RPG games. They come with assorted trees, rocks, monuments, etc. but my primary interest was to use them for the chess pieces that I’ve painted over the last few years. I needed a 2″ square to accommodate the size of the pieces. I also liked the idea of the double sided tiles which could become different color boards depending on what side faces up.

It was supposed to deliver May 2021, but after production delays with a couple Chinese companies that couldn’t deliver the quality needed, a Chinese company was found (after a period of years) who could produce the pieces.

There was clearly some sort of issue with the Kickstarter creator, for though they wrote to say that they’d finally received all the pieces from China on November 15, 2024 (the pieces have trickled in over the last year or so), as of a month ago many backers had yet to receive what they ordered. I received half of my order at the end of August, and after significant pestering I finally received the balance of my order about a month ago and was ready to start painting. They were grey plastic and they stick together with magnets embedded within each tile.

I primed them with a deeper tone of the end color. Then I based a general tone in, and afterwards used the flat side of a thick sponge that I cut down to be able to handle it better. The side of the sponge worked great for just highlighting the tops of the textured plastic. The stonework was a bit more tedious. I used a small brush and a couple of tones and hit individual stones in the masonry to increase the variation. A dark wash after that settled into the grooves and punched the detail in the sculpt. Then one or two more passes with the sponge with a highlight to bring back areas that the dark wash obliterated.

I’m still sort of squinting. I’d intended the blue sides to be a more neutral grey… and I might go ahead and do that, but I do sort of like the blue and yellow combination. The red and green might be problematic for someone with red/green color blindness, but they are different textures and they work well with the red/green goblin wars.

As a child, I was always drawn to the story aspects of chess. The pieces our family owned always seemed to be lacking in personality. Who is fighting who? The abstract nature of the war always seemed curious. I also always wanted the pawns to have distinct personalities. As a ten year old, I was never comfortable with pawns being nameless, faceless canon fodder. It just seemed messed up.

Orcs versus Fae, Dwarves vs Dragons, Humans vs Dragons, or Orcs, or Goblins… each game becomes a unique story beyond the actual chess strategy.

Of course this is just something I do for fun. Instead of watching TV in the evening I’ll pull up an audio book and work at my art table. It just seems more satisfying when I finally hit the pillow.

I’ve never played RPG games, but they have always struck me as something that might be fun. Interactive storytelling.

Or combining that with chess might be a fun direction to explore.