The BEST Modular Dungeon Tiles DIY Cardboard Terrain

I have been following the exploits of the DMG for some years now. In fact it was his You Tube videos that helped me when I first started creating furniture for my Warhammer Quest set.

So recently he has had a break but is now back creating a new method of creating the play area for D&D and I find it a dead interesting idea.

Having gone back into lockdown here in GB, playing D&D online is the only option. DMG's ideas giving a more theatrical backdrop method immediately appealed to me. While I won't be making exact copies of his work I will be taking his great ideas and applying them to my situation.

The great thing is that I can use the "backdrop" idea for online and live play. Looking forward to trying it out. Will be posting some backdrops shortly and how I am supporting them.

Frostgrave Second Edition, Solo Wargaming and Scum and Villainy

 

Last month I went a bit purchase crazy, getting my grubby mitts on the three books feature here and, not shown, a plastic gang of Soldiers Knights and Wizards for Frostgrave.

Looking forward at having a go at running a game of Scum and Villainy sometime in the future, and hopefully this week, "covid" allowing will be playing its inspiration by playing Blades in the Dark, run by the same system, Forged in the Dark.

Mr Featherstone's book has been a revelation to me and a source of great inspiration, I have made cards and written notes for myself to play more organised solo battles. Also, not shown here, I have been re-reading my old copy of the original Mighty Empires book and been suitably inspired by that too. Watch this space for further develpments, as have been organising my 10mm Roman and Briton armies.

Been looking forward to getting my hands on this, although have had little time to read too much as yet.

Frostgrave: Perilous Dark

 

I sent of for the above supplement for Frostgrave the other day and it arrived from Osprey within a week.

 It really appealed to me as its focus is on solo and co-operative play, very useful at the moment.

It has a duel approach to the whole solo ideal, yes it gives scenarios for the player to run through with all the game mechanics you need, but it also contains advice and methods for creating your own solo games. 

Not only that but it gives you the game ideas for use it a variety of settings and problems. From time limitation to traps and obstacles to Dungeon crawls.

It all works alongside the original Frostgrave rules and the scenarios give examples of how the solo games might be created, whilst being fun to play.

All in all sounds like stacks of fun to me and that's why I bought it, so another winner from Joseph A McCullough and Osprey Games

I will be posting some reports in the coming months, really looking forward to playing.

Lindisfarne Castle:Holy Island

Lindisfarne Castle built about 1550 ish, on Holy Island Northumberland near Berwick. We visited it this weekend while we had a short break away.

Approaching from the village, west of the castle. I spent my time looking at this from the terrain builders and D&D points of view.

Nice bit of cobblestone walkway and some lovely rocky outcrops.

Very high rock approach and then the vertical walls. If I were going to use this as inspiration for a D&D location I would make it even higher but then add a winding approach road, with access to caverns beneath the castle.

The final long open approach to the entrance.

These are actually Lime kilns, local industry, but they could be the lair of a creature of some sort, protecting the Castle from attacks via the sea.

The North side of the castle, ridiculously, I had problems with the sun as I took these pictures.

Looks like the basis for a wizards tower to me :-)

Upturned boat hulls for small cottages, would develop this idea further and create a larger community living outside the castle.

The castle looks drab and plain, unimaginative (yes because its real, not a fantasy) so the occupants might be cruel and vindictive, only interested in power, wealth and the subjugation of the locals.....perhaps.

The locals live in fear and rarely get to venture inside the castle, only a few trusted individuals or those that have relatives held captive in the dungeons below 

(Brand new stone window mullions and decoration, very nice, must have been difficult to fit.)

Had fun walking aroun the castle and look forward to including it in one of my games of D&D as a location: inspiration comes from all around it seems.

The Unlucky Goblin Tavern

Having bought the Tavern Brawl Builder to help put together a fun intro to RPG games I set about designing a tavern to play in. This is the Unlucky Goblin Tavern, where all the fun occurs.

The above PDF is very reasonably priced and allows the DM to bring together various components to create a fight in a pub. It gives a variety of possible backgrounds, characters and themed drinking establishments.

The only part I doubt I will be using is the actual rules for brawling, but apart from that I was very happy with my purchase.  

Below the round floor and main rooms in the Unlucky Goblin. Need to finish painting the fire and remake a few components.

The upper level, storage and 2 bedrooms both communal.

There is no help designing the look of the tavern from the "Tavern Brawl Builder" but in all other respects I was very pleased with this short supplement. It had loads of quirky details that were fun to read and will help to create a strong theme in each tavern. Hooks for further adventures were forming in my tiny mind, which is always useful and while its not something I will be using all the time, for a one off occasional tavern that could become a feature in a city, town or village I will return to it. 

Terrain:Tents and Shanty Buildings

For a long time now, for various games, I have wanted to create some tents and sort of shanty buildings. Mainly to use in Saga, D&D, Kings of War etc, the uses are many.

So I started putting together just that, the impetous being that I had a D&D game coming up where the PC's would be infiltrating a goblin encampment. 

I have no money, so all these were made from items I already had knocking about the house or specifically in my box of modeling components. In other words stuff I have horded over many years.

These tents are constructed from, cereal box card, cat food box card, tooth picks, sand, wood glue   and wound dressing material.

The shanty buildings, I imagine the goblins using these as they are more haphazard than the tents, have a few extra materials thrown in: namely matchsticks, skewers and coffee stirrers. 

Back to the tents and the wound dressing material has been added. I didn't try to get a really even look here as I wanted them to look worn and a bit rough. I tore a bit off, well cut actually, and pasted it on with PVA and a brush. Just like you would apply papier mache, it created some nice lumps and folds, just what I wanted.

If you look closely you can see pegs to hold the tent in place, these I made from toothpicks and glued in place with superglue sprinkled with Bi-carb to solidify. Word of warning, if you do this work in a well ventilated area, its how Luke burnt his face that time.

Painting next, looking forward getting these finished and played with.