Three levels of Adequacy

Adequacy.

Something that works...well...adequately. 

And when it comes to gaming terrain, and the fact that I am primarily a solo RPG'er, adequacy goes a long way. 

I don't have a "huge" space for gaming. I hope to, one day, turn the lower level of the Ursus Templari into a traditional gaming area. But until a suitable group of gamers can be found, (I am skeptical of that ever happening, as my "ideal" requirements for a solid group would likely be so out of touch with reality that I doubt any players possess such specific creative requirements) the "Tower" or the upstairs portion, serves as the primary small gaming area. 

One of my favorite pastimes above and beyond even the actual "gaming" portion of table top RPG's is the setting up, creating, crafting, and building of miniature terrain and 28mm worlds.  But in a small space, that can prove challenging. 

Add to this that I have additional, more expensive hobbies, and the allotted space gets even smaller. But again, it's perfectly "adequate"for solo RPG's and for even small 1 to 2 player games. But the key here is "levels."

This shows the 4-level campaign world for the next build, each "level;" going deeper and deeper. This could be replicated onto a larger tabletop, but with no real solid group of players, it works "adequately" for solo RPG's in a pre-set 3D Terrain world.                                                                                                                            Our storyline for this world starts with the adventurers having hired a wagon and horses from the nearby town, where they are traveling towards the ancient tomb lands and the ruins  of a once fabled kingdom, now long-forgotten and believed to be little other than a scattered set of forest ruins.  

Across the old King's Bridge lies the forest of Andulüth, where once sat the Elvish fortress of Tar Avinon. The bridge, crossing over a meandering bog, fills the distant woodland with a thick mist, the ruined walls barely visible beyond the damaged cobblestone and crumbling borders. 

The forest tabletop was made from an actual table piece, where I have utilized the underside of a flat black tabletop (again, the emphasis on saving space) as a forest-colored surface. This was done by creating a textured spray layer onto the underside and then hand painting with a  forest colored mixture giving the surface a generic green, brown, and forest mottled texture. 

While this works, it's nice to sometimes just use standard grass matt, sized and cut to the shape of the inside of the table, as pictured here. Accessories are hand made and also include elements made by 

War Torn Worlds (one of my all-time favorite war game terrain companies: http://wartornworldsstore.myshopify.com

They're customer service is amazing, shipping is solid, fast, and friendly, and their prices aren't bad. and the terrain is just bombproof and very, very nice looking. Just can not say enough good things about these guys. 

Ok, so back to the story...err...adventure:
So over the small pond and looking west into the forest are signs of the once great kingdoms downfall. The distant spires of natural rock, and the two Elven trees, now burnt and black with foul magic from the wizardry of the Goblin cults.

So I LOVE trees. LOVE THEM!! Every adventure in my world starts, ends, or passes through a forest. Not sure why. And of all trees, pines and high mountain evergreens are my favorite. But getting these to look just right by hand-making is tough. Mine often end up looking more like eucalyptus trees, or at best, lodge pole pines. Not bad, but not very "lush."
At my local hobby store, I can purchase a cheap pack of snowy Christmas style trees for $1.99. I soak these in warm water for several hours, sometimes overnight, and the snow dissolves away, leaving a very "blue-green" pipe cleaner in return.
So to combat this, I spray them with a nice matte forest green spray paint, but don't add any additional flocking. I then put these on sculpted foam core bases, and add stone accents and coloring, and have been pretty happy with the result. To add weight, throwing a glued pebble or dollar-store rock onto the base help stabilize the weight too.

The pond is actually a small terrarium lizard pool, filled with hot glue, painted, and then sealed with a thick layer of Minwax Polyeurethane to give it a greenish gloss. Notice the actual stones added at the base and edges too. These come from a simple dollar store bag of flower arrangement rocks. I added bits of foliage to the edges, and used cropped pieces of plastic IKEA grass for reeds. Cutting the reeds at different lengths gave them a more natural look and feel too, and allowing them to slip and slide a bit when glueing them into the sealant also helped, creating ripples within the drying sealant over the dried hot glue. 

INTO THE DUNGEON....

For the second level, underneath the forest floor and through a cavern rock piece above, the characters enter the large cavern dungeon down a winding set of stone pillars on the left. 

The majority of the enjoyment with creating these pr-designed layouts is imagining the stories to be had at every twist and turn.

A combination of hand-crafted and Dwarven Forge brand cavern terrain is used together, along with accents from war Torn worlds. 

Of course everyone knows Dwarven Forge, and as much as I love War Torn Worlds, Dwarven Forge is just epic. Albeit, pricey.....

DEATHCAP MUSHROOMS......

Wizards of the Coast makes a fantastic pre-painted miniature for the Death Cap Mushroom

And I have even made hand-made versions of these to match previously. But I wanted some that were larger. FAR larger. At my local Hobby Lobby I found a set of 4 mushrooms, actually designed to be a mushroom table and chairs set, in the garden and floral section.  these were perfect for large, overgrown mushrooms, and with a  bit of paint and a nice brown stain, they look the part for an overgrown mushroom forest.

 

From the far side of the cavern can be seen the magic door to the lower levels, and the winding stairway leading from the central dungeon chamber to its wide balcony. Both of these were made from foam core, sprayed in a stone texture spray paint, and then added with bits of green and especially, purple, to match the Gale Force 9 Dungeons & Dragons caverns of the Underdark adventure set. This allows hand crafted pieces top match seamlessly with the pre-generated pieces. 

  

                                                 

The third-level layer is another small modular table reached by a bridges and is not yet complete, but allows the dungeon to grow even larger, or to be broken down into small areas of specific adventuring sections. This will likely be surfaced with a  textured matt beneath, giving the illusion of a stone floor to the upper caverns, and emphasizing a structured city or ruined temple at the very lowest depths. Perhaps even a Draw city. 

Modular dungeons, for group, and especially, solo play can be fun, and also challenging,. If for no other reason alone, it allows us, as Dungeon Masters, to use our own creative juices to generate potential storylines, plot twists, and side adventures for our players and add to the rich and growing story that every game group brings to their own particular realm. 

BUT FOR OUR ADVENTURING PARTY, THERE IS YET STILL MORE TO COME...

Bubble, Bubble, Boil & Trouble!

So I am a huge fan of The DM's Craft YouTube videos and the DM Scotty Crafts n Games
Facebook group, and can't say enough good things about the folks you'll run into over there.
What an amazing group of talented, inspiring, and sincerely uplifting people. Go check them out here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dmscottyscraftsngames/

And subscribe to The DM's Craft, Scotty's fantastic tutorials, found here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/theDMsCraft








So one thing I've heard DM scotty say that I really like, is to have terrain focused on "playability." Here at Creative Dungeoneering, I love creating other worlds even more than playability, but for some pieces, they both work wonders.
And such is the sad, creepy, and quite bubblingly-terrific tale of our recent acid pool creation!

Now...to be fair, this was created a while ago, but it was perfected  this past week with one of my very favorite forms of Craft Alchemy (I should copyright that name!!!)...

                              

NO! Those aren't dice you see in his hand (actually they are....), but the perfect blend of bubbling, acidic, character-eating (in the game only) froth can be achieved with the double-whammy power of the following components:

 

Hot Glue and Gorilla Glue! The perfect chemical mix to create frothing, bubble effects that both accept paint and resist collapse.              

Now I've done a tutorial on these two before (see the post on Gelatinous cubes and the nostalgia of the Water Weird http://creativedungeoneering.blogspot.com/2015/03/gelatinous-cubes-and-nostalgia-of-water.html 

BUT, I have never really used them in a painted scheme before, so this was a new attempt at creating texture and versatility. 

After creating the tile from standard black foam core (this was done by carving into the paper backing of the foam core but leaving the paper intact on the top), I sprayed the surface with a standard textured spray paint (stone gray) and proceeded to fill the pre-carved pool cavity with plain, clear hot glue. 

The pool itself was carved into the foam, but not all the way through, leaving a thin but sturdy layer of foam beneath to support the weight of the hot glue. I also ran hot glue along a few of the pre-carved cracks to give the impression that the acid in this dungeon tile was bubbling through. I also added over the final dry stone texture, small read of purple. 

Why purple? 

Because I am a huge fan of modular, and mostly, "store-able" terrain. I don't have a ton of storage space devoted to my gaming area, and since I own two sets of the fantastic, Gale force 9, Dungeons & Dragons Caverns of the Underdark 3D Adventure Set terrain, I wanted this piece to go with it. 

The Stalagmites for the Underdark set come in a pre-painted purplish hue, with the tips and the adjoining pools and crystals done in a magnificent amethyst tone. By adding a small bit of "cave alge" to the edges of my tile, I could easily transition from one area of the cavern to the next, and maintain a sense of visual flow and realistic geological coloring. 

Once the glue was set into the pool, I immediately set to adding gorilla glue. This CAN NOT be overstated enough. I use High-Temperature glue most of the time, but have found that all temperature glue works well too. But before that glue dries, and while it is still warm, add drops of Gorilla glue over the top in a nice clear and thick layer. More Gorilla glue for more bubbles, less, for less. You will not see this foam up right away. In fact, it takes far longer than one would think. But over many minutes, and usually a day, the foaming action can grow to almost out-of-control proportions. If it does, however, it cuts away easily with a simple exact knife when dry too.

The final effect, after painting, is a very textured, and foaming consistency. One very crucial key here though is sealant. 

To keep the bubbles formed, and keep the paint glossy and nasty (in this case) looking, I use a small bit of basic sealant. 

NOT spray sealant, which seems to have a horrible effect for some reason, deteriorating and dissolving the consistency of the texture and paint, but actual brush on sealant by Minwax. I prefer the small can of fast-drying Polyurethane, in the clear gloss, as I use this primarily for wet surfaces and moist looking areas. This also tends to leave, when added in heavy amounts, a bit of a greenish film to it, adding only more to the look of charred, melted toxins bubbling and frothing about. 

Stay tuned to Creative Dungeoneering for some amazing new highlights we have coming up! 

We will soon be opening our official Creative Dungeoneering Etsy shop, our YouTube channel with all kinds of random fantasy, craft, and geek related posts, and of course, 

the Creative Dungeoneering Facebook page! 

As always, you can email us direct at creativedungeoneering@gmail.com.

Fold out Dice Tower Dungeon Tomb of Doom part 2

Wondering about shading at 4 am is terrible.
Wondering about accenting fake rocks at 4 am is just as bad. And wanting to finish a project more than sleep is even worse. But sometimes worth it!
Presenting

The Fold-out Dice Tower Dungeon Tomb of Doom!!! Final! Part 2!

So after a fitful few hours sleep I returned to the project to finish this up today. Or last night, er...early today.

I started with finishing the stonework for the outside top portion of the tomb, which was set over a small patch of pre-molded static grass. I opted to make these a bit lighter than I originally intended. Sometimes my 'world' seems pretty dark, and I wanted this to almost have a starker, whiter, high-mountain granite look in contrast to the green grass, so a bit of gray acrylic over the foam, followed by a black wash, and a dry-brush of lighter moonlight gray gave them a nice alpine look. 

I then moved onto highlighting the stonework on the outside lower portion of the tomb, along with designing the doorway, or appearance of a doorway when the lid is closed. I went with a simple stone looking black line, followed by a couple of "semi-glowing" blue runes, but I have mixed feelings about these in their final stage.                     

Moving to the inside, additional shading and stonework was done to the interior cavern walls, entrance for the dice drop, and on the crumbling cavern stairs. For the interior summoning circle I used the same blue lines, but the simple black scar of a circle looks a little less impressive than I was hoping for. 

 

This photo is pre-sealing, so the color will likely pop just a bit with a bit of gloss varnish over the runic letters, highlighting the "glowing ethereal power" summoning something from the dark cavern beyond. 

For the dice tower effect, I tested out the placement of the circle first, because I really wanted to create the effect that the dice were "appearing" in the summoning circle. 

I also looked into creating two different options for the rear "tunnel:" A portal complete with swirling magic, or a simple dark, black, cavern stretching off into the imagination.  In an attempt to always use space as wisely as possible, I opted to leave this as a black cavernous hole. It leaves infinite possibilities and can serve either as an addition to cavern terrain or some form of dark portal. Adding additional features to such a small space seemed to clutter it up a bit.            

Testing out the dice drop proved fantastic. WAY more than I expected! 

Apparently writing "MAY ALL YOUR DICE ROLLS BE ADVANTAGEOUS" in runes did the trick on the first officially completed "test roll:" Natural 20. 

Lastly, adding terrain and scenery additions to the top portion when the box is closed works as a great additional wilderness terrain or even as a simple start entrance to anything as mundane as a single tomb, or as deadly as...I dunno...this tomb.....

Fold out Dice Tower Dungeon Tomb of Doom part 1

So my wife and I have a problem: We are what we refer to as 'industrious.' This definition, at least to us meaning, we work...all the time. If were not actually "at" work then we are at home....working.

It's sorta pathetic really.

So as a result, winter is the perfect time for us to work on the inside of the house since its usually so bloody cold and nasty outside, and it's the perfect time when my creative juices really get flowing too.  I've written about that before on Creative Dungeoneering. There is just something in the air in winter.

The reason this is relevant, is that my wife is re-doing her office at the moment. Like REALLY re-doing it! As in throwing out tons of stuff.
And like me, she has more creativity than time, so that means, junk for me to turn into more cool junk that I'll eventually have to decide what to do with, just like she's having to do with her junk...right now. But like most things I create and write about on this blog, they'll eventually lose their luster too.

And that brings us to the college fold-out book project. See in addition to being amazingly creative, my wife was a dang good student. And she'd create these amazing books instead of just writing a traditional papers while in college. But the nostalgia has passed, and she threw it to me to do something with.

Enter...the Fold-out Dice Tower Dungeon Tomb of Doom!

So this small thread covered box folded out and laid flat. My first thought was two rooms, entered from the center hallway. Just about perfect for 28mm. 

Then I realized, if I placed a set of stone steps made from pink foam in the center, cut out a small tomb door behind it, and folded one side up vertically with carved stone texture on the outside.....

...the stairs become a form of "ramp" and the tomb entrance, now sitting vertical above, becomes the dice hole for a small, little compact dice tower. 

The dice roll perfectly down the top-centered tomb entrance and over the stairs into the main portion of the box. 

I adhered the pink carved foam with standard white (Elmers) glue and then began to build up some stonework on the inside upper wall behind the stairs too. 

The ahh crap moment...

So in every project there is a moment when things take a slightly different turn. I actually wanted this to function as both a portal and a pool when the box was laid flat. The problem was that as I added foam and glue to texture the cave walls t the back, it added weight. 

That weight prevented the box from sitting upright (as seen here) and functioning as a dice tower. So I needed to either prop up the back (which would prevent it from laying flat anyways) or adhere the stone steps to the back wall and give up on the pool. 

Ultimately, the portal/cave entrance won out and the dice tower remained. Gluing the steps to the back wall also meant less surface area to cover, less interference when the box closed, and a nice strong support for the lid/back of the box. 

I added more foam stonework to the back, making sure to not overlap the top of the stone steps where I had used a hot stereo cutter to sculpt and shape both the stonework and the runes (not yet visible) in the steps. This gave a nice arched feel to the stonework on the back wall. Could be used as a portal, or maybe even just a  visual representation of "more caverns" further back. 

The door was a bit trickier. For the simple square opening, I created a foam frame that looked to be made from the same 'stone pattern' as the rest of the otter pieces done to hide the brown edges of the box. This allowed a bit more depth to the entrance and the creation of stalactites hanging from the entrance. 

While this doesn't matter at this point since the box can't be laid flat, it will look great once the box is closed. 

The last step for the initial phase was to attach the outdoor top. 

I wanted the "top" of the box to serve as a piece of scenery too, so I attached a cut piece of basic model grass (train set style roll) and carved some small rocks which will go on top.

Since I am opting to not have the box lay flat, a bit of height on the top wont matter. And with the stone stairway attached to the back, the box sits up vertically fine now, allowing the dice tower to function properly. One thing of note here, completely unrelated to the design at all, is the lack of really high-stacked terrain on top. The reason for this is one of more practicality and pack-ability than scenery. 

When this is loaded into my gaming bag, I didn't want a lot of stuff sticking out that would potentially just break off anyways, so I skipped ideas of 'standing stones' or ruins on top. Were this to never be intended for travel, however, that could very easily be added, making this an even more diverse piece for terrain use as well as functioning as a working dice tower and mini/dice storage. 

Next came the hardest part thus far: painting the stonework. And this is the problem with all the small carved details I added too. Getting the base gray stone color into all the small nooks and crannies before I do a black shadow wash and a dry brush of lighter stone gray was tough! It required a few very tough, and very small, brushes. I was not completely confident in just spraying the whole thing primer gray or even black, as I did not want to overly deteriorate the foam. As a result, each crack and crevice in the stonework was painted in it's depth by hand. 

                    

Decisions decisions, decisions.....

This is also where the fun part starts. Finishing the portal/tunnel/cave? 

I had originally intended this to be a portal, the dice sort of "coming out of the portal" as they roll out from the top and down the steps. But the more I looked at the way the arch and the stone behind it sat, the more it felt like it gave the flat part of the box "depth." And there is something just terribly "old-school cool" about a classic Tomb/Cavern that says D&D to me. Something about the empty potential of gaping black holes I guess...err...maybe not.....

NEXT: black wash, dry brushing stonework, and the SUMMONING CIRCLE!!