Post by penguin on Apr 5, 2013 19:43:54 GMT -5
Hi, new user here - to this forum. I've been playing D&D for over 30 years, and making stuff for the table top throughout. Recently discovered DM Scotty's videos, and was inspired to test some of his techniques. You can hopefully see my efforts, along with minis etc, that I produced for our family's Easter Dungeon here: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.579970758694140.1073741827.100000436628976&type=1&l=c183af869c
You'll note that I did not put "walls" on the tiles. I simply felt that they would get in the way. I wanted the dungeon to be a really tight, single file "daggers in the dark" kind of thing with many of the passages no more than a yard wide, represented by an inch on the table top. My findings/opinions:
1) I like Scotty's technique for buiding complex rooms from corrugated cardboard. I did however worry about cost. Maybe its much cheaper in USA, but here in England a can of undercoat spray paint is about 6 or 7 UKP, and a can of stone effect spray paint is 8 or 9 UKP. The two cans covered most of the tiles needed for a long 3 level dungeon, and did a great job, but I still thought it was very expensive. My issue here is that I feel the cost of the spray paint rather negates the virtue of using the free recycled corrugated card.
2) I used thin corrugated card, acrylic paint (cheap stuff in 1 litre bottles sold for children) and acrylic gloss medium for the third level rooms, which were all underwater until the adventurers got to the controls which drained it down (and released the rest of the undead.) These tiles warped a bit, a problem which I didn't think mattered, but which actually really annoyed me during the actual game play. Maybe using thick corrugated card would have helped, maybe it was because I used the more liquid paints rather than spray paint.
3) These two experiences together make me wonder to myself whether or not black, black core, foam board might not actually be more cost effective in the long run: www.amazon.co.uk/Foam-Board-Black-Core-Packed/dp/B005BD6QN6/ref=sr_1_5?s=officeproduct&ie=UTF8&qid=1365205759&sr=1-5&keywords=foam+board See that there on Amazon is 10 A3 sheets for not very much more than the spray paint cost me.
4) With all my stuff ready to go on the garden bonfire next weekend (seriously, it has to go, I have 30 years of made things under the bed and filling many drawers) I did just find (yes, under the bed amidst 7HD fluff and dust mephpits) some old floor plans I made on the back of wallpaper. And I kept them. They take up much less room. OK they're 2D rather than 2.5D, but I think some kind of combination is what I'll use for my next dungeon. The secret to them is that they were done on the back of some left over rolls of very high quality, thick, wallpaper. And I appear to have used poster paint (cheap watercolour paint) and watercolour pencils. The effect is soft and pastel like. Will maybe try to take some pics to place here.
So thanks DM Scotty. I'm only adopting some of your ideas, but am adapting others and using your inspirational videos as a thought prodder to further refine my own.
Any comments, from anyone, appreciated. My next adventure will be snowy forest combat and mediaeval manor house diplomacy based. Thinking, thinking...
You'll note that I did not put "walls" on the tiles. I simply felt that they would get in the way. I wanted the dungeon to be a really tight, single file "daggers in the dark" kind of thing with many of the passages no more than a yard wide, represented by an inch on the table top. My findings/opinions:
1) I like Scotty's technique for buiding complex rooms from corrugated cardboard. I did however worry about cost. Maybe its much cheaper in USA, but here in England a can of undercoat spray paint is about 6 or 7 UKP, and a can of stone effect spray paint is 8 or 9 UKP. The two cans covered most of the tiles needed for a long 3 level dungeon, and did a great job, but I still thought it was very expensive. My issue here is that I feel the cost of the spray paint rather negates the virtue of using the free recycled corrugated card.
2) I used thin corrugated card, acrylic paint (cheap stuff in 1 litre bottles sold for children) and acrylic gloss medium for the third level rooms, which were all underwater until the adventurers got to the controls which drained it down (and released the rest of the undead.) These tiles warped a bit, a problem which I didn't think mattered, but which actually really annoyed me during the actual game play. Maybe using thick corrugated card would have helped, maybe it was because I used the more liquid paints rather than spray paint.
3) These two experiences together make me wonder to myself whether or not black, black core, foam board might not actually be more cost effective in the long run: www.amazon.co.uk/Foam-Board-Black-Core-Packed/dp/B005BD6QN6/ref=sr_1_5?s=officeproduct&ie=UTF8&qid=1365205759&sr=1-5&keywords=foam+board See that there on Amazon is 10 A3 sheets for not very much more than the spray paint cost me.
4) With all my stuff ready to go on the garden bonfire next weekend (seriously, it has to go, I have 30 years of made things under the bed and filling many drawers) I did just find (yes, under the bed amidst 7HD fluff and dust mephpits) some old floor plans I made on the back of wallpaper. And I kept them. They take up much less room. OK they're 2D rather than 2.5D, but I think some kind of combination is what I'll use for my next dungeon. The secret to them is that they were done on the back of some left over rolls of very high quality, thick, wallpaper. And I appear to have used poster paint (cheap watercolour paint) and watercolour pencils. The effect is soft and pastel like. Will maybe try to take some pics to place here.
So thanks DM Scotty. I'm only adopting some of your ideas, but am adapting others and using your inspirational videos as a thought prodder to further refine my own.
Any comments, from anyone, appreciated. My next adventure will be snowy forest combat and mediaeval manor house diplomacy based. Thinking, thinking...