Accessories: Terrain, Cardstock, & Tutorials

Since I am not currently running a game, I have been thinking about the next campaign that I will run.  While I am still at the beginning phase of planning (as in I am still deciding the genre: fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, horror, or pulp), I do know that I want to include some fantastic scenery and terrain.

Thus, I have reconnoitered the internet in pursuit of the finest terrain, scenery, structures, and tutorials that the web has to offer.  I thought I would share my list of resources (just like my previous lists) with the community.  Some of the best scenery is sourced from companies that cater to the wargaming crowd, while I find most of the cardstock is marketed to the roleplayers.  If any readers know of some cool places I missed, pipe up in the comments!

Cast Scenery & Terrain

I am not for sure there is a standard definition for these terms, but I distinguish terrain as the actual landforms carved or molded from/into the base material.  These would include the major and minor terrain features, from a military perspective.  Major features include: Hill, Ridge, Valley, Saddle, and Depression.  While minor features include:  Draw, Spur and Cliff.  Terrain also includes bodies of water.  Roads are also usually incorporated into the terrain.  I view scenery as any structures, debris, vegetation, or man-mad/free-standing objects.  This section covers retailers that sell cast or carved items.

Kobblestone Miniatures – I previously credited the above awesome diorama to another company, well I want to set the record straight.  The oriental village above was created by Kobblestone Miniatures from Canada. Their website is packed with stuff of the same caliber work; I urge everyone to check out their gallery!

Dwarven Forge – There is always a crowd around the Dwarven Forge booth at GenCon, at the awe is well deserved.  Dwarven Forge makes some of the best dungeon sets on the market.  They are all hand painted and very detailed.  I’d give some body parts for some of these sets (I don’t need them anymore anyways…).

Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture – I drool over their cast-your-own molds at GenCon every year, and every year I kick myself in the ass for not purchasing a bunch of molds.  Probably the most cost efficient cast/carved scenery, since you can make as much as you want (and if you use plaster of paris, it is cheap).  Well, the molds do wear out after prolonged use… but still.

Armorcast – These guys mass produce a lot of battlefield scenery, many terrain retailers re-sell their products.  Armorcast makes high quality scenery and terrain for various genres (fantasy, historical, and sci-fi).

Games Workshop - These guys make fantastic scenery to decorate the field for their Warhammer wargames.

Ziterdes – This German company has a line called Dunkelstadt (which I believe translates to Dark City) that just looks freakin’ superb.

Manorhouse – An Italian workshop that built the intense dual-layered scene pictured below.  I don’t know how practical it is, but it reeks of cool and detail work.

Baueda Wargames – Bauda have some nice accessories for various genres, including some nice WWII stuff as well as an Ancients (Hoppidus) line.

The Miniature Building Authority – I am pretty sure this is another strong GenCon attendee.  They have several very nice lines including a fantasy and sci-fi line and one of my favorites, the EuroVillage.

Antenociti’s Workshop – Antenociti has a few really nice small stuff for scenery like barrels, treasure chests, gun placements, doors and windows.

Miniature World Maker – They have a nice selection of 25mm structures like towers and huts that could find a home in your world.

Fantascene – I really like their Dracula’s Crypt and their Gothic line, though it seems like I’ve seen it somewhere else…

TerraScenic – TS is a vendor for Pegasus Scenery, which has some nice looking cathedrals (but I am unsure as to the scale).  But the best stuff TS offers is really their range of modeling tools.

Scenic Express – These guy probably target the model railroad market, but they have some excellent supplies for scratch-building your own custom terrain.

Wargames-Scenery – It looks like these guys currently have a clearance sale.  Unfortunately, it is because are closing their doors.  I especially like their blacksmith foundry that could be part of any middle-ages/fantasy town.

TerrainScapes – These guys have a mixture of their own custom molds as well as using and modifying high-quality Hirst Arts stuff.

Zuzzy Miniatures – Zuzzy has a three original lines: The Despoiled Reaches, The Ruined Land, and Verdant Fields.  Each line is manufactured to build a specific atmosphere.  The Despoiled Reaches are truly frillin’ wicked!

War-Game-Terrain – WGT offers up custom built terrain and scenery.  I find their site difficult to navigate, but if he definitely has some skill.

Art of War – AoW has some nice look desert (Arabic) themed structures as well as several other products, but their claim to fame is the fantastic Helm’s Deep reproduction from the Lord of the Rings.

Ultimate Table Top Terrain – Markets the Griffon Miniatures Wargaming Terrain System based on pre-made hex tiles.

Cardstock Environments

Cardstock environments are usually created by purchasing, downloading, or creating images that can be printed out onto cardstock (heavy weight) paper and then folded and/or glued together to form buildings, dungeons, and other features.  Cardstock is a quick and cheap method of providing solid environments that can spectacular pieces in their own right, and you don’t have to be too worried about ruining them, cause its fairly cheap to print another!  This section covers retailers and sites that sell or provide free downloads.

RPGNow – I’ve linked to the 3D Terrain/Buildings tag on RPGNow’s site.  I’ll also link to RPGNow product page of any of the other companies’ products if there is one available.

World Works Games – Probably THE premiere cardstock terrain company.  These guys’ work pretty much sets the bar for me.  They have a lot of lines to choose from that cover the popular genres.  Definitely check out their site!

Empty Room Studios - Another producer of very high quality cardstock terrain.  ERS also has a storefront at RPGNow.

Fat Dragon Games – The obese wyrm has an excellent selection of cardstock dungeons and terrain, not to mention a 3D spacecraft that looks like a cross between the Firefly class Serenity and the Defiant (Defiant class) from Star Trek.  Fat Dragon Games also has a storefront on RPGNow for the EZ-Dungeon & the EZ Terrain lines.

Microtactix – MTX has an impressive array of cardstock buildings for sci-fi, historical, and fantasy games.  They are famous for their “Dirt Cheap” and “Budget Battlefield” lines.  Microtactix has a storefront at RPGNow.

Stones Edges – Stones has a couple of very nice looking dungeons.  From what I have heard, the people behind Stones Edges actually joined World Works Games, which I think speaks a lot for the quality.  Stones Edges also has a storefront at RPGNow.

Joel L. Teply – Makes some decent cardstock dungeons and accessories like barrels.  JLTP also has a storefront on RPGNow.

Penguin Labs, LLC – Penguin offers the chunky looking Portable Dungeon cardstock.  Here is their storefront at RPGNow.

Hotz Stuff – Eric Hotz has created a bunch of cardstock scenery for Wild West and Roman settings.  I think I might buy the gallows accessory and place it in every town as a reminder to my players of what happens to the unruly!  Hotz has a storefront at RPGNow too.

Finger & Toe Models – F&TM have a lot to offer the sci-fi genre with a post-apocalyptic Slag Town and various futuristic military vehicles.  Finger & Toe has a storefront at RPGNow.

Dave’s Games – Dave has a ton of free cardstock structures made for Warhammer Fantasy, but I am sure they could be easily repurposed.

Unknown Forum Post – I don’t know who these belong too, or if they are breaking someone’s copyright, but they are free and available here.

Wizards of the Coast -  Hey, Wizards does do some things right.  A while back they released these fold-up paper models for free!

Archi Kit – Some very nice FREE medieval/Renaissance style buildings.

Free Paper Models – A ton of free paper models of real, historical, and fantasy buildings.

Cast/Carved Terrain Tutorials

The last time I did some research on building my own terrain (which was about 6 years ago when Privateer Press launched Warmachine), there seemed to be a lot more tutorials out there.  Maybe I’m have looked hard or long enough, but here are some of the better tutorials I found.

What really seems to be missing is technique.  Though I have provided links to books at the end of the section that should hopefully shed light on the subject.  I highly recommend the Osprey books.

Table Top Terrain – This guy has some excellent tutorials on making your own molds so you can mass produce your own (or others’, for personal use) creations.

Mini Wargaming – Has several posts on making your own scenery, uncluding stuff for Warhammer 40k.

Basement Battle Scenery – Has a nice pictorial on creating rocky terrain.

Ultimate Table Top Terrain – U3T has some tutorials on how to make your own hex tile terrain.

War-Game Terrain – This site has video tutorials on how to create your own terrain.

Fire & Smoke – Here is an excellent pictorial concerning fire and smoke.

Maff0 Models – Maffo has a tutorial on creating a bunker as well as a unique looking rock formation.

Ryan Skow – Ryan has a few tutorials to offer, including one on how to make a thatched roof.

Colonial Era Wargames – Has some cool scenery how-tos, such as what materials make good-looking water.

NetTerrain - While I didn’t come across any tutorials here, they do have a gallery of cool scenery to get you inspired.

TerraGenesis – This forum is dedicated to creating fantastic scenery and terrain on a budget for a long time (since 1997),.

How to Make Wargames Terrain – Published by Games Workshop, this book 128 of instruction on scenery and terrain.

Making Terrain & Buildings for Historical Wargames - This book covers groundwork, landscape features and buildings that are realistic and detailed.

Terrain Modelling – Published by Osprey, this book is an excellent guide to fabricating realistic terrain.

Advanced Terrain Modelling – The second part of Osprey’s terrain series offers some unique techniques to bring scenery to life.

Wargame Terrain Videos – Here is a link to a Google Video search on wargame terrain.

Cardstock Tutorials

A lot of planning actually goes into the process of making your own cardstock environments, especially when you get more complex than squares and rectangles.  You need to be able to visualize in three dimensions how something will come together, and spatial thinking is a difficult task for most people.

I didn’t want to get too much into making simple tiles, because there are tons of awesome photoshop tutorials out there that focus on textures (which is the primary ingredient in tiles, the other being grids).  Unfortunately, there is squat out there in web (that I found) in regards to cardstock terrain and scenery.

World Works Games – These guys have some fantastic videos regarding the assembly and finish of their cardstock models.  They also offer a free download.

Profantasy: Dioramas Pro – I haven’t tried it, but this software is supposed to make the creation of cardstock buildings easy.  You design it and it figures out the rest.

Miniatures & Terrain Article Series

If you need some miniatures to use on your kick-ass terrain or looking to improve your miniature hobby skills (like painting or basing), check out my other articles:

• Heroic Sized Minis Database (25mm-28mm)
• Non-Heroic Scale Minis Database
• Level-up Your Miniature Hobby Skills (painting & modeling resources)

Again, if you know of anything good that I have missed, please let me know in the comments.

Listening to: Gary Jules - Donnie Darko - Mad World

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Map Tutorial from the Cartographers’ Guild

Jonathan at The Core Mechanic is running this month’s RPG Blog Carnival: Monsters & Map Madness. I decided to make a world map as my contribution to the carnival. I wanted to achieve a semi-realistic map using program(s) I already own. Looking at my suite of software tools, I chose the venerable Photoshop in CS4 dress. I thought about creating the map using painterly techniques, but I doubted my skill would meet my realism goal. So I turned the web to find some tutorials. I wound up at the Cartographers’ Guild, which is probably the best resource on the web for fantasy cartography.  The Cartographers’ Guild is a member of the Fantaseum Alliance, which includes the world building forum, The Campaign Builders’ Guild, and the Plot Storming website.  This is the description their website gives:

The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs-all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge. Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand. The Cartographers’ Guild is a friendly, open community, welcoming to everyone who pursues cartographic excellence. We love to share our maps, to help one another improve our maps, and to pool our mapping resources. Please enjoy your visit, and feel free to join our ranks!

I found a tutorial created by a fellow that goes by Ascension on the guild’s forums (you must be logged in to download). The tutorial is available as a lengthy (27 page) Word document. It can sometimes be difficult to follow along with some of the layer creation/linking, but I spent about an hour tinkering with the tutorial with Photoshop and created the map below:

Somehow I screwed the hill layer up and the reef layer doesn’t look fantastic, but given a few more practice runs I think this method of creating beautiful continental maps will become one of my favorite tools in the ol’ gaming toolbox.  If you’re interested in learning techniques to make some gorgeous maps, I recommend you visit the Tutorials/How-to section of the Cartographers’ Guild forum.

Listening to: Pantera - Far Beyond Driven - Slaughtered

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The Power of Myth in RPGs

What do Gilgamesh, Jesus Christ, Achilles, Luke Skywalker, Neo, and Harry Potter all have in common?  They are all faces of the same Hero.  They are all a part of the same Monomyth and have participated in the same Hero Cycle or Pattern.

If you are unfamiliar with the studies of the late Joseph Campbell, I HIGHLY recommend you pick up a copy of his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.  I prefer a physical copy for easy reading and reference, but I saw this copy on Scribd.  Joseph Campbell was a mythographer, he collected, dissected, and analyzed many of the world’s myths.  In his studies, Campbell came to the conclusion that the Heroes of the ages all were basically the same story.

So if all these great stories have been based on the same formula, the Monomyth, would it be possible to craft a campaign around it?  I think so.  If properly executed, I believe a Monomyth based storyline taking the heroes from obscurity to nigh divinity could be very fullfilling for everyone involved.

The Monomyth consists of three major acts which are divided into smaller segments of five to six chapters.  Not all of the chapters need to be used.  The following outline is based upon the chapters found in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

Act I: Departure

1. The Call to Adventure

The party begins the campaign by receiving a call to adventure.  This could be a some growing evil threatening the kingdom, or world.  It could be war, dragons, or some other strange beasts.  Regardless, there is usually some sort of Herald that puts the party in motion.  The Herald could even be the BBEG.

2. Refusal of the Call

Sometimes the party may refuse to answer the call to adventure.  When this happens, the party will begin to suffer from the lack of response, until they finally accept the call.  The suffering could take the form of disease, loved ones suffering, or being hunted.

3. Supernatural Aid

After the heroes accept the call to adventure, they soon receive aid.  This could take the form of a mentor, sage, authority figure, or a divine emmissary.  The aid given could be information, additional party members (henchmen), or equipment.

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

At this stage, the heroes must venture into unfamiliar territory.  They usually must defeat a guardian to cross into the new area.  This guardian could be protecting the entrance to another dimension, planet, kingdom, or even just a cave.

5. The Belly of the Whale

After crossing the threshold, the rest of the world thinks the worst as the party passes beyond their perception.  They now face the unkown.

Chapter II: Initiation

1. The Road of Trials

Now begins a series of quests the party must complete in order to defeat their enemy.  Their supernatural aid will assist covertly, but leaving clues for the party to discover the truth behind their aid.

2. The Meeting with the Goddess

This chapter is a little difficult apply to a party, however, I would have the party make an alliance with a hidden power, it could be related to their supernatural aid.

3. Woman as the Temptress

This is where the party must make a choice, they could take the easy path to power or they could take the more difficult, but righteous path.  Either way has drawbacks.

4. Atonement with the Father

The party must deal with a consequence from their past.  This will most likely be related to their refusal of the call, or any of the choices they made up to this point.

5. Apotheosis

The party must face their final challenge within this unfamiliar territory.  Upon victory, they receive a large peice of the puzzle that could twist their perception of what is happening.

6. The Ultimate Boon

After the Apotheosis, the party now has the key to ending the evil in their own world.  The party should be significantly more powerful than when they crossed the threshold.  This could be special powers, feats, templates, items, or artificats.

Act III: Return

1. Refusal of the Return

The party may become drunk on their newfound power, not wanting to return and finish the campaign.  This is when knowing what motivates the party comes in handy.

2. The Magic Flight

The enemy learns of the party’s power before their return, and sends an overwhelming force at the party.  As an alternative, the enemy could trick the party into a trap or otherwise force the party to flee.

3. Rescue from Without

The party is rescued by ordinary forces from their world.  This could be some commoners with special access to items or areas or even a regular army of friendly entities.

4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

The party must return to their world.  This may require a battle against another threshold guardian.

5. Master of the Two Worlds

The party now has all the necessary knowledge and tools to defeat their enemy.  There should be a climactic final confrontation with the BBEG.

6. Freedom to Live

If the party succeeds against the BBEG, then they can restore peace and freedom.  They achieve divinity and become legends.

Pitfalls

Of course, with such an epic sweeping story arc, there is a definite linear progression.  But unless you play by the seat of your pants, there is some amount of linear progression.  Obviously purchased adventures have definitive milestones that all mostly line on a line.

The trick as a GM is to maintain the illusion of the open ended campaign.  Plan for failure and have several options to obtain the same goal.  A campaign based upon the Monomyth could last a year or more, so many non critical adventures can be intersparsed between the actual milestones.

Never try to force players to take their characters down paths they do not feel like treading; however, a good GM should be able to guide the players down a story like with a gentle hand and some obfuscation.

Become the Homer of the game table and craft a story with your players worthy of the ancients!

Listening to:  Black Label Society – Stronger Than Death – Counterfeit God

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Ten Minute Star Wars Crawl

Well I was off to in-law family function, and I figured I would be board, so I decided to visualize my entry for Pen & Paper Portal’s Knights of the Old Republic contest.  The contest ended Friday night, but I was inspired to make an opening crawl for a campaign starter.

I knew the location would be off grid, so I spent about ten minutes opening webpages and downloading resources that would come in handy in the creation of the crawl.  If you are asking, “What in the hell is a crawl?”, it is the intro that begins the Star Wars movies starting with the cyan “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” followed by the Star Wars title, the episode title (which I left out because of the 100 word limit) and ending with the scrolling preface text that vanishes into the middle of the screen.

If you have Windows XP with at least SP2, then you probably have this often overlooked application called Movie Maker.  I figured it was the MS Paint of the video editing world, and it almost is.  Movie Make has a decent amount of features and you can use it to edit some simple but clean movies.  I actually have the Adobe Master Collection on my desktop pc, so it is not even close in performance to After Effects or Premiere (or Final Cut Pro for the Mac peeps).  Yet, you can still get a lot done with it.

Here is all you need to make your own:

• “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
  Color- R:75 G: 213 B: 238
  Font: Franklin Gothic Book (included in Windows)
  Animation: Fade in, Fade out
• “STAR WARS”
  Color- R:229 G: 177 B: 58
  Font: SWCrawlTitle
  Animation: Zoom Out (not perfect, but works)
• Main Body
  Color- R:229 G: 177 B: 58
  Font: SWCrawlBody
  Animation: Scroll, Perspective
• Audio
  Star Wars Title Theme midi
  Convert to mp3 here

One of the main keys is timing.  I used this YouTube of the open crawl to “eyeball” the timing for both visual effects and audio.  I used the “Make titles or credits” link under “2. Edit Movie” column in Movie Make three times.  I also used the “Import audio or music” under “1. Capture Video” once (after I had converted the midi).

I have three separate title overlays, remember to drag them into the title overlay section of the timeline after they are created.  Double click on them to edit the font, color, and animations.  Then I added the sound and moved it (not stretched it) until it started where I wanted it to, and then I messed with timing of the title and the body text until things started and stopped where they should.

It is obviously less than perfect, but I think it looks pretty damn good for not even spending ten minutes on the actual creation, and not ever even opening Movie Maker before, ever!  So if any enterprising GMs running a Star Wars game would like to create crawls for their campaigns, I’ve given you the tools, run with it.

Listening to: MC Chris – Life’s a Bitch, and I’m Her Pimp – Fette’s Vette

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Finding Inspiration in Sound

Have you ever listened to a musical score and pictured a scene that matched the tempo, beat, and tone of the music?  I’ve used this technique hundreds of times to create the “beat” of a campaign, adventure, or an encounter/scene.  It can be scaled as long or short as you need on a timeline and can be used for things other than games: short stories, novels, comic books, anything that has storytelling involved.  And it can be accomplished at times when other methods are not accessible (like while you’re driving).

Movie scores and instrumentals are the best kinds of music to utilize for this activity.  I find that lyrics can often be distracting and may influence your imagination too much.  However, if you wanted a scene that closely matched a specific song, then by all means use it.  Songs sung in a language you do not speak do well for this activity, too.  Also, if you pick a score, and all you can imagine is the scene from the movie it made its appearance in, then you should find something else.

When I use this technique, I’ll first pick a song that invokes more than one response from me; something that has a definite drama: lows, highs, and a climax.  Then I will listen to it a few time and begin to form a story that coincides with the dynamics of the song.  I often plot the emotional highs and lows on a sheet of graph paper, noting the important events of the score and how it relates to the protagonist(s), which would be your players.  A high, smooth point is generally good and a low or erratic section is generally bad.

I’ll make notes on that graph about what is happening in my story until I have filled in all the blanks.  Now that the story is pretty much finished, I’ll play the song and narrate my story to the music, OUT LOUD.  This way I can find gaps in the story or moments that need to be reworked because it doesn’t flow well.  I’d like to thank a professor of mine for the idea of narrating to the music.  Thanks Matt!  The final test of mettle would be to present the live narration to a group of peers for their reactions and critique.  This group may or may not include players (if this is for a game), depending on how you deal with how your players deal with out of character information.

Some composers whose work has been generally pretty damn good include John Williams (Star Wars, E.T., Harry Potters), Alan Menken (various Disney: Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, Enchanted), Danny Elfman (all but two Tim Burton films), and Howard Shore (LotR, Se7en, The Cell).  A fellow RPG Bloggers Network member, Stargazer has a nice list of very good works.

If this article inspired you to use music in your storytelling, let me know how it worked for you.

Listening to: Pantera – The Great Southern Trendkill – Drag the Waters

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