Picking Up A New Skill
Aug. 29th, 2010 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theronI'm not a big one for using minis and scenery in my own games. For years, a Battle Mat and a box of Cardboard Heroes was more than enough for my needs. For my last Champions campaign, I did go the extra mile, making customized counters, but otherwise, I still took a low-tech approach.
But one of the D&D 4e games I'm in makes heavy use of not only minis but Master Maze dungeon terrain. Our game environment is as close to WISIWYG as the DM can make it and it's pretty damned impressive.
With the prospect of running a DC Adventures game though, I realized I could indulge the visual element a good deal more fully. After all, I've got several hundred appropriate HeroClix I accumulated over years of playing the game, and any game I run set in the DC Universe is certainly going to incorporate as many existing characters as possible. So, if I'm already committed to using minis for the game, why not take the next step and go whole-hog on scenery as well?
Which brought me to Fat Dragon Games' "Capital City" set. For those not in the know, Fat Dragon produces papercraft scenery scaled for gaming. Most of their stuff is aimed at Dungeon Adventures, but "Capital City" provides modern/urban structures suitable for superheroic adventures. Each of their products consists of a set of PDFs that can be printed out an assembled. Better still, most of the structures can be customized by turning various layers in the PDF on or off. For instance, the rooftops can display 1" squares (D&D scale), 1.5" squares (HeroClix scale) or 1" hexes (Champions/HERO System scale). Windows can be turned on or off, doors can be altered, etc, even bird dropping stains can be added for optional realism.
The set also comes with objects such as a dumpster, streetlights, roof access doors, a water tower, and even undamaged and damaged versions of a taxi.
Of course, the big question for me was how much effort it would be to put together and how would it look? I'm not a particularly "crafty" person. I've never painted minis or built models, but scissors, X-acto knives, and glue seemed within my skill set. So, I sat down with some card stock and my color printer, and went to work, and here's the first result:
The instructions are straightforward and clear. Fat Dragon provides a beginner's guide to paper modeling along with the specific directions for the set, which was extremely valuable. The hardest part by far was the cutting, requiring an X-acto knife and one of those cool "healing" cutting mats. The folding and gluing went pretty easy. It's a first effort, and there's a lot I could do to make it look better up close, but it's still pretty impressive.
The only downside for this particular structure is storage. Because I didn't want to get too advanced on a first project, I didn't use their optional instructions for building a collapsible building. The next one will be.
But one of the D&D 4e games I'm in makes heavy use of not only minis but Master Maze dungeon terrain. Our game environment is as close to WISIWYG as the DM can make it and it's pretty damned impressive.
With the prospect of running a DC Adventures game though, I realized I could indulge the visual element a good deal more fully. After all, I've got several hundred appropriate HeroClix I accumulated over years of playing the game, and any game I run set in the DC Universe is certainly going to incorporate as many existing characters as possible. So, if I'm already committed to using minis for the game, why not take the next step and go whole-hog on scenery as well?
Which brought me to Fat Dragon Games' "Capital City" set. For those not in the know, Fat Dragon produces papercraft scenery scaled for gaming. Most of their stuff is aimed at Dungeon Adventures, but "Capital City" provides modern/urban structures suitable for superheroic adventures. Each of their products consists of a set of PDFs that can be printed out an assembled. Better still, most of the structures can be customized by turning various layers in the PDF on or off. For instance, the rooftops can display 1" squares (D&D scale), 1.5" squares (HeroClix scale) or 1" hexes (Champions/HERO System scale). Windows can be turned on or off, doors can be altered, etc, even bird dropping stains can be added for optional realism.
The set also comes with objects such as a dumpster, streetlights, roof access doors, a water tower, and even undamaged and damaged versions of a taxi.
Of course, the big question for me was how much effort it would be to put together and how would it look? I'm not a particularly "crafty" person. I've never painted minis or built models, but scissors, X-acto knives, and glue seemed within my skill set. So, I sat down with some card stock and my color printer, and went to work, and here's the first result:
The instructions are straightforward and clear. Fat Dragon provides a beginner's guide to paper modeling along with the specific directions for the set, which was extremely valuable. The hardest part by far was the cutting, requiring an X-acto knife and one of those cool "healing" cutting mats. The folding and gluing went pretty easy. It's a first effort, and there's a lot I could do to make it look better up close, but it's still pretty impressive.
The only downside for this particular structure is storage. Because I didn't want to get too advanced on a first project, I didn't use their optional instructions for building a collapsible building. The next one will be.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-29 11:35 pm (UTC)Peace,
Christian
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-30 05:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-30 05:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-30 07:13 pm (UTC)Hey cool. We had a set, but about half the objects vanished. We're not sure what happened to them.
I'm thinking about running something at OwlCon that would utilize lots of scenery, so anything you have to spare would be awesome.