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Post by pablopathfinder on Jul 27, 2013 13:14:12 GMT -5
So in the Spring I was approached by my gaming group compadres (all of whom are veteran gamers of many years) to run a game for them. I'm a realative noob when it comes to tabletop RPGs, and never GM'd before, so this was more than a little intimidating. Rather than trying to write my own campaign I decided to go with a published one, thinking it'd be easier to run and save me some time.
About that time I ran across Scotty's Youtube channel and knew there was going to be no way I'd run this campaign as anything but 2.5d gridless. So much for saving time. ;-)
Along the way, I'm learning that just because I'm trying to re-create published maps doesn't mean I need to be too literal in my interpretation. Anyway, what follows is the result. I'd say I'll try to avoid spoilers, but that's just impossible. If you're in a group that's running Runelords, step away now.
It all starts with butterflies....
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Post by pablopathfinder on Jul 27, 2013 13:27:02 GMT -5
The Swallowtail Festival Lots of things going on here. I chose to make the roofs out of simple posterboard. The 2.5d pieces begin with the stage, and the hay wagon.
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Post by pablopathfinder on Jul 27, 2013 13:30:09 GMT -5
I'm using the Paizo paper minis for Runelords - both the Sandpoint and Burnt Offerings set. The circus tents came from a pattern I found online that scaled fairly well with the rest of the scene. The stage is classic Scotty technique, as is the vegetation piece near it.
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Post by pablopathfinder on Jul 27, 2013 13:38:34 GMT -5
Details on the food tent and tables. Here again, the stand is a combination of cardboard and card stock. The tables are cardboard, and the food, dishes, etc. are done using Sculpey oven-bake clay. Scale is pretty off, of course (Cheese wheels the size of tables, bread that could feed a village, etc.), but still...for a first time, I'm pleased with the results.
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Post by pablopathfinder on Jul 27, 2013 13:45:40 GMT -5
The wagon is full of fuel for the bonfire that closes the festival. This is closely following Scotty's technique for hay mounds. On top of the modeling paste, I added some Spanish moss clippings and a few grapevine "logs" to suggest more than just hay. Here's the detail: There's an interesting Fx piece with the wagon, but it's a bit of a spoiler. I'll put it in the next post. Stop here or be spoiled.
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Post by Efilion on Jul 27, 2013 13:50:32 GMT -5
looks pretty nice keep the good work!! ^_^
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Neil
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 160
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Post by Neil on Jul 27, 2013 13:56:25 GMT -5
Well done - I especially love all the little details included with the food tent. Great work !
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Post by pablopathfinder on Jul 27, 2013 14:28:34 GMT -5
Thanks, y'all! And as promised...details on the wagon. Unfortunately the wagon doesn't get through the first couple encounters in one piece. Before: After: This is all handled by making the hay mound on a cardboard insert, and when the goblins set the wagon on fire, you switch the inserts.
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Post by jimmyfrank on Jul 30, 2013 9:30:05 GMT -5
Wow. Really nicely done. I've recently been leading a group through Rise of the Runelords. I haven't used much as far as 2D prop building for the town, but you've given me some great ideas. I have completed pretty much all of the dungeon tiles, including the Glassworks for the first campaign. I have pics posted on here of some of the stuff. I almost think I have more fun building the tiles than playing...lol.
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Post by dm1scotty on Jul 30, 2013 9:42:24 GMT -5
All your hard work really sets the scene. It really feels like a town festival and the "gridless" aspect really makes it feel like a world of play opportunities. I love to see people take the basic ideas and add their own style and flavor...BRAVO!
Poster board tends to bend when painted and you can always try bending it back if need be. You could also hot glue it to some cardboard after you paint it.
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Jul 30, 2013 9:55:44 GMT -5
Seriously awesome work. I gm a weekly game, but because of her schedule my wife cannot get in on it, so she convinced me to run one for her and my son (who also plays in the weekly group) so she could get back into the game and play. So I decided to run them through the same Adventure Path you have chosen. Sadly, because of prepping for the other game, and no set schedule for her games, I have had almost zero prep time for her game. I would have loved to have had a set up like this to start them with. Great Work! I better get back to tile building and mini painting... So much to do and so little time. Still I wouldn't have it any other way Keep it up and I look forward to seeing more pics ~MwT
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Post by pablopathfinder on Jul 30, 2013 10:23:51 GMT -5
Thanks guys!
Scotty, thanks for the tips! I'm learning a lot as I go about controlling moisture and where I'm putting it, and poster board definitely doesn't like wet things. :-)
Jimmyfrank, I'm working on the Glassworks right now myself. It looks like you're going for a much more literal interpretation as far as number and placement of items than I did. Kudos, there, because it's a very detailed setting. (I'm a little worried that my players are going to run through it so quickly that the time to craft vs. actual play time ratio will be on the negative side.) And as a side note, holy cow are there a lot of doors in that setting!
I started marking out the Glassworks several months ago when I first started, and at the time I felt like the tiles/settings felt too small. As a result I crafted the first several encounters on a 1.5 inch scale. I'm switching everything to 1 inch starting with the Catacombs tiles, because my players felt like the 1.5 inch scale was too big to make some of their desired combat maneuvers in some cases. (Again, some noob GM mistakes here. 1.5" scale tiles with 1" scale measuring sticks, etc.)
I'm also having to beef up my encounters considerably, because I'm playing with a bunch of power gamers and their characters are just mowing down the low-CR encounters as they're written in the book. More goblins! More Skeletons! Glassworks is going to have twice as many goblins as the published encounter, plus a couple of Warchanters thrown in...and I'm still worried it's not going to be enough of a challenge. ;-)
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Post by monkeywithtacos on Jul 30, 2013 10:49:19 GMT -5
I find that when I am creating my tiles I initially measure them out to 1.5 inches, so that by the time I finish putting on the wall edges ( I usually do mine at about a quarter inch) that the tile spacing is about equal to one inch. (I started doing that after making the noob mistake of cutting them to an inch the first time and them being too small) Granted, the measuring is still a bit off, but I find my players and I aren't too worried about it. We usually just eyeball the distances and only measure if it looks to be way over... I suppose I could just use the wider measurement where the walls are likely to be and keep the rest at 1 inch but that's a lot of extra measuring when creating the tiles. Who knows maybe I'll try it on the next set I build and see how much time difference there is and if my players even notice or not...
~MwT
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