A Plague on this Weather

I'm part way through painting a Strike Force of Plague for Deadzone, unfortunately I am waiting for dry enough weather to spray the Antishine on them.  Grr...
When I get them done I will base them and get pictures up.

Meanwhile I have been building (yet more) cardstock terrain for the D&D campaign.  No pictures yet until a) its finished, and b) the players have seen it first.  Don't want to spoil the surprise.

I also gave a friend an introductory game of Kings of War.  He had joined in the epic Battle of the Stag, but this was his first go with a force of his own and an explanation of the rules.
As usual I found the system easy to teach and pick up, and he loved it.

Set up; Orcs to the left, cannon to the right.

From the other end.  The terrain is mostly GW, it always helps if a game looks good as well.

The battle nears its conclusion.  Near the wall lurk the orc skulks, which I failed to get rid of all battle.

In the end it was a hard fought draw.  A good result for a first game.

3D Fat Dragon Papercraft Terrain for Dungeons and Dragons; The Lost Library

The Secret Revealed

The secret project mentioned last post is a build for my D&D group.

The Lost Library is a 'Petra' like complex in the desert.  I have used Fat Dragon terrain for the build, it is currently my favourite for 3D terrain.

Looking in through the entrance

One of the side galleries

The far section of the main chamber, complete with pool and statue

High gallery in the far section

The heroes of Winterhaven enter the library, unaware that something lurks within (Reconstruction)

The build provides multiple levels for interesting play, along with lots of doors to investigate.  In play the party were chased in by feathered fiends, only to find more fiends within.  They have to explore whilst avoiding the fiends, or find some way to clear them all out....

More 2.5D Caverns for Dungeons and Dragons; The Caverns of the Snake People 2

More Caverns of the Snake People

I got a fair few more of the Heroic Maps cave sections completed for the D&D group to match the ones I made in February.  Here is what they look like in action.

The temple of the Serpent Folk

Note, it was sunny for a change, the actual tiles look quite a bit darker in real life.

Construction is the same as the passages I showed earlier.  The raised section in the main cave is a layer of cardboard thicker.  In game this represents 10 foot of height (2 squares).  I could have done similar with the steps leading up, but the individual steps were too narrow to support a mini, so there seemed little point.

I am very pleased with the results of the tile making, the players enjoyed them too.  I will certainly continue to use them for this adventure; in the future, who knows.  i have yet to build any of the Fat Dragon cave pieces.

If you want to see more of this let me  know in the comments section.  I might also do close ups of the party of adventurers.

Oh, and if your interested, the party defeated the Serpent Folk here, ending a long encounter.  They have since explored further (looking for the wizard's captured father), and are just about to encounter more creatures in another section with different tiles.

Happy GM's Day

GM's Day?

For reasons that escape me 4th March is International GM's Day.

Lots of manufacturers have sales on sites like RPG Now  an excellent chance to stock up on games related stuff at a discount.  As an example Heroic Maps and Fat Dragon both have a hefty chunk off their titles.
So if your a GM, have fun, players too, and take a bit of time to remember that the co-operative story telling we all enjoy is pretty remarkable.

As a bonus Chaosium have released a free Call of Cthulhu solo scenario.  Enjoy

2.5D Caverns for Dungeons and Dragons; The Caverns of the Snake People

A bit of a break from Barsoom as both real life (in the shape of work at the office and family holidays) and roleplaying requirements means a new (short) project.

Making Floorplans
I use many different ways to show encounter locations for our D&D group, from erasable board and dry wipe pens, to full 3D cardstock dungeons.   

For the group's latest foray into tunnels beneath a desert inhabited by mankind's predecessors I went with a product relatively new to me,  Heroic Maps 2.5D tiles.  I got some of these in their pre-Christmas sale, and they look very nice.  They use the DM Scotty (and others) method of crafting to produce flat tiles with a shallow rim to represent the walls.

Here's how I made mine.

The raw materials

I had some corrugated card left from boxes from office furniture.  Not double layer as per DM Scotty's suggestions however, so I decided to laminate two layers with the corrugations at right angles to give extra strength and, hopefully, prevent warping.  

 A third cardboard piece was cut to provide the walls, with the corrugations in the same direction as the bottom piece.

The walls were cut out from the floor and stuck to the third card piece, while the two other pieces were glued together.  I used  tacky craft glue for the card as it is low moisture and dries very fast, far superior to ordinary 'school' white glue (both are PVA though).

Then its simply a case of gluing one wall in place (craft glue again), then the floor and finally the other wall.

The finished product

Including a mini for scale

Overall I am pleased with the result.  I normally use Skeleton Key products for cavern type dungeon floor plans but the Heroic Maps are much more colourful and atmospheric.  If I had double layered cardboard I could eliminate cutting out two layers for the base, but I like the fact that the corrugations are perpendicular as it should add strength and help combat warping if there is any damp.  

My only real complaint is the overly complicated walls.  They are very 'rugged', and cutting them out was a pain.  Heroic Maps first tried this system for sewers, and I suspect the straighter nature of the walls makes them much easier to build.

If you want to see more of these tiles, I've built some larger caverns.