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Accessories: Terrain, Cardstock, & Tutorials

Posted by MadBrew on March 9, 2009 · 7 Comments 

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!

Wargamers' HQ

Kobblestone Miniatures

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.

Manorhouse

Manorhouse

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!

World Works Games: Cathedrae Noctis

World Works Games: Cathedrae Noctis

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:

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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The Power of Myth in RPGs

Posted by MadBrew on October 2, 2008 · 2 Comments 

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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General RPG Online Resources

Posted by MadBrew on September 29, 2008 · Leave a Comment 

Here is a list of general RPG resources including networks & forums, game design, worldbuilding, and cartography.  This list is by no means exhaustive, but I have tried to pick the best, limit genre and location specific resources and use updated material.  If you know of a useful online resource that should be included here, please make a comment.

Networks

RPG Bloggers – A wonderful network of bloggers I belong to
RPGsite – A very popular site for discussing RPGs without fear
RPGnet – Another very large forum and review site
RPG Consortium – A pretty popular forum for RPG discussion and play by post
EnWorld – A self proclaimed D&D forum, but still general enough
The Forge – Another heavily trafficked site for RPG discussions
Ladies of Hack – Forums focusing on women in gaming
Iris Gaming Network – A network dedicated to women in the industry
RPG Host Network (RPGLife, RPG Archive, RPG Sheets, RPG Objects) – A vast empire
Free RPG Community – A community dedicated to free RPG rules and content
Strolen’s Citadel – A resource for plots, items, creatures, NPCs, and settings
Roleplaying Tips – GM tips and role playing advice
Treasure Tables – From the creator of Gnome Stew – with 768 GM tips
Pen & Paper – A database of published RPGs, authors, artists, and publishers
RPG Resource – Another pretty good database of RPGs and publishers
RPG MP3 – This place has a ton of PodCasts of actual play sessions

Game Design

The Forge – Has some pretty good articles on RPG Design/Theory
Styles of Roleplaying – John Kim’s extensive site on RPG Theory
RPG Design Resources – A Squidoo page with many links

Worldbuilding

Campaign Builders Guild – A marvelous community of people creating original worlds
SpecFicWorld – A list of resources for writers and worldbuilding
Wikipedia’s List of Settings – A whole slew of settings to be tweaked and mashed
Rich Staats’ World Building Articles – A massive amount of commentary on worldbuilding
Worldbuilding Resources – A Squidoo page with tons of links

Cartography

Cartographer’s Guild -A community for map makers and techniques
Dundjinni – A very polished map creation application
Campaign Cartographer – The mainstay of RPG map apps, has plug ins for cities and more
Fractal Mapper – I’ve used this software for years, makes you maps look like D&D 2nd Ed
Irony Games – I think something has broke on their site, but use to generate random maps
Dungeons Unlimited – Maps & Minigrids
Fantasy Atlas - A decent collection of free maps
Fantasy Map Maker – Maps provided free for personal use
PlayWrite’s CrawlNotes - Drag, resize, pattern and colour rooms, and attach descriptions, monsters and items

Adventure Seeds

The Big List of RPG Plots – Self explanatory
Strolen’s Citadel Plots – Some pretty cool plot ideas
Wizard’s of the Coast Hook Generator – WotC’s adventures in a can
Forbidden Kingdom’s Seed Generator – You can get some pretty zaney stuff here

Atmosphere

Stargazer’s World – A fellow RPG Blogger with an excellent taste for RP music
Nox Arcana – Excellent music for a horror campaign
Midnight Syndicate – Another horror soundtrack producer, also made the official D&D OST

Organizational Tools

Freemind – A mind mapping software for brain storming and notes
NoteCase – A hierarchical (outline) note manager
MS OneNote – Microsoft’s tabbed digital notebook
CampaignWiki - A wiki for managing your campaign
Obsidian Portal – Allows you to create campaign websites

Let me know if you have a resource that should be listed on here!

Listening to: Coal Chamber – Coal Chamber – Loco

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D&D 4e Online Resources

Posted by MadBrew on September 23, 2008 · 27 Comments 

This is the first in a series of articles where I scour the web in search of useful resources for popular systems.  I figured I would start with one if the newest systems, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition.  I chose D&D 4e because it was the newest, and therefore probably the easiest to get a handle on.  In spite of its youth, there are a lot of people and companies producing great tools and resources for the 4e gamer out there.

Publishers

Custom Classes & Races

Character Generators

Character Sheets

Power Cards

Combat Managers

Monsters

Treasure

Miscellaneous

D&D Insider

  • Vaporware?
  • Dragon & Dungeon magazines – stopped the press and moved them online
  • D&D Compendium – search for rules (but you better know what you are searching for!)
  • Encounter Builder – generate encounter lists
  • Ability Generator – build stats for character generation
  • Character Visualizer – NOT AVAILABLE (make 3d models of your pc)
  • Character Builder – now available
  • Dungeon Builder – NOT AVAILABLE (build 3D dungeons maps)
  • Game Table – NOT AVAILABLE (import your dungeons to this virtual game table)

This list is obviously not even close to being complete, but it is the extent of resources I am aware of.  I haven’t listed any generic resources, as I plan on writing an article specifically aimed at general RPG tools. If you have something that you would like added or know of something I missed, drop a comment.

Listening to: Soulfly – Dark Ages – Babylon

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Dungeons & Dora

Posted by MadBrew on September 9, 2008 · 7 Comments 

Everything you need to know about creating an adventure you can learn from Dora the Explorer.  I know, you think I must be jesting.  But I am not.  Well maybe I do jest, a little.  But have you ever watched an episode of Dora?

My wife recently picked up about a dozen Dora videos on the cheap from a neighborhood rummage sale, and they have pretty much been played non-stop since then.  My daughter, an earthbound angel, loves Dora the Explorer.  I dig this because Dora is far easier to run in a continuous loop than Barney or Elmo.

Besides the fact that Dora is better on the nerves and slows the progression of child show induced insanity, Dora the Explorer is also a great example of simple adventure building.  They always start with some story (the background) to get you interested about a subject.  They then place that subject in need of help (the hook).  Dora must then overcome three obstacles (the encounters).  Finally Dora saves the day and everyone rejoices (the reward).

My daughter is only two right now, but if her interest in Dora doesn’t crumble in the next couple of years, I plan on using Dora as the formula to pique her interest in storytelling games.  It will begin with our own collaborative adventure stories and hopefully if she still seems interested, it can progress to board games and finally table top role playing games.

It is a good thing my wife is a non-gaming girly girl. That way she can ensure our daughter receives tutelage in finer social etiquette.  Sometimes I fear I may be over zealous in my plot to corrupt my daughter into a gamer.  I don’t want to push her into the introverted dork territory!

Listening to: The Troll – Dora – I’m A Troll!

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