Monday 10 May 2021

Getting sidetracked Again...

As usual, I've got several things that I'm currently working on for the print & paste terrain (giant spider miniatures, a water-wheel and treadmill crane, to name just a few), plus a whole bunch of stuff I'm excited to announce when the channel hits 10K subs. But, like the title says ...I've got sidetracked by another little project.

Well, I say little, it's tiny really (at least in scale) - but let me explain the idea first (note that something similar to this was suggested by a viewer - but I can't remember who that was now)...

Anyway, even though I like to draw maps (something you'll be well aware of if you've followed me for any length of time), I've never really liked drawing town/village maps (and as far as city maps go - that's a big NOPE).

(note that, while there are several generators and various software packages that can help in that regard, and I do use stuff like that from time to time, it's not something I ever really get very excited about using)

On the other hand, I do tend to drool over pictures of folks' town/city/village terrain set-ups (a whole table of Dwarven Forge's city stuff for example) ...I mean, it just looks so darn cool.

However, for my own games that kind of terrain is probably not going to get much use (as 'town stuff' is much more likely to be 'theater of the mind' - as all the cool kids are calling it nowadays) - plus I wouldn't have the space to use more than half a dozen buildings at a time in any case.

But what if I were to combine the usefulness of a map (I mean, it's always good to have a map to show the players right?) and the 'coolness' of some 3D terrain ...and maybe make something like this:

 

(note that these are very early WIP/prototype images, so there's no proper 'textures' glued to anything yet)

As you can see, they're pretty small - and you could probably fit a whole village into an area the size of a single sheet of paper.

They're also pretty easy to put together too (if you've assembled any of my chests and crates, it's a very similar process). Here's a quick look at the underside (which might make things a bit clearer):

Furthermore, due to the way I'm designing them, they'd be the same size/shape/colours/etc. as the 28mm scale buildings that I've already made (just a LOT smaller). So I could make the whole village in this tiny scale, and maybe just the main building at the larger (miniatures) scale ...if I'm planning a specific encounter there.

 - a picture showing the two different scales-

I could even go a step further and develop some kind of hex-builder-system (where each hex tile would be big enough to contain a handful of small buildings, or a single chapel, or a villa, etc.) - so that I could use them over and over again to create a bunch of different layouts.

Does that sound like madness? ...or is it actually a good idea?

Is it something you'd use yourself? ...or does it fall into the 'it looks cool, but I'll pass' category? 

For my own part, I do have to admit that I'm far more excited about attempting something like this, than I am about sitting down and drawing a bunch of village maps :)


EDIT: here's the hex idea:

18 comments:

  1. This is going to be amazing. Can't wait to see a few hexes together. How do you think you'll handle "streets" meeting at the edges?

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    1. I haven't really thought it all through yet ...but I'd probably have several hex-tiles with different configurations.

      But I'm not tied to the hex idea ...that's just one of the crazy thoughts running through my head at the moment :)

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  2. That is a great idea! I can imagine setting up a tiny village during a dnd game so players can actually see where are buildings, shops and even move through with tokens. I love it!

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    1. Thanks. And yeah, having a full-size (i.e. miniatures scale) setup isn't that practical for a lot of us - but something like this could work almost as well :)

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  3. I would certainly use them. Cool idea. I was contemplating using monopoly houses at one stage, but it didn't look right.

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    1. That's kinda where this idea came from - as I too considered monopoly pieces :)

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  4. This is cool, I play modern games so the scale for D&D is not the most useful, this larger scale option would rock.

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    1. All of the buildings will still be very much 'medieval' in style though (but that still works in some places :) ).

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  5. That is actually a cool idea! I share your lack-of-excitement for those generators. Always been looking for a good in between of custom cities/towns and generators. This seems like a great way to keep it simple while adding a much more exciting and modular approach

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    1. They are a great tool (the generators I mean) ...but nothing beats making something yourself :)

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  6. Here's an idea.... An all grass texture and an all light dirt texture. Something similar to that of paths. Print out the grass. Draw lines for what you'd want as paths ect. Cut slightly outside the lines to widen you paths then glue the remaining grass textures on to a printed dirt texture. Then you have an easy layout on which to place your buildings. Easy enough to redo if your game ever changes locations and at the size of a piece of paper, easy enough to store should that particular location ever be revisited. You can even flesh out the location with detail by designing a tree bark texture. Glue that around coffee stirrers with a small piece of clump foliage to make trees. You could go even further by gluing your layout onto sheet sized magnets which are pretty cheap in packs. That or get sticker magnets in sheets. A small piece of cardstock as a bottom to the buildings with a 1 or 2mm magnet inside the building and BAM! Your buildings will stay put without flying around should anyone at the table accidentally sneeze lol. Same can be done with the trees if you clip a tiny square of tin from a soup can lid and mask it with the grass texture. Hope these are helpful ideas :)

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    1. I answered over on the YT community page :)

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  7. Wonderful! I would love to see this developed. There is a whole community of 10mm gamers out there (of which I am one) playing Warmaster, Minihammer and even skirmish games at that scale and I’m sure they would all be interested in some tiny villages and towns. I actually made a start on the hex base idea myself beck in December using pre-cut cork tile hexes!

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    1. I'm afraid that these are a bit small for 10mm mini's (you'd probably need to print them out at 200% or more).

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  8. Yep. Really like the idea of small scale 3d village/town map. Then a regular 28 mm build of the inside of one of the buildings where an encounter can begin.

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  9. I am actually starting a new D&D (3.5, I'm OLD!)campaign this weekend that is based around a single village that I never expect the players to leave. This would be a fun and achievable way to make the village. Even if I was doing modular villages, I think I would do squares instead of hexes.

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    1. Yeah. Massive town/village layouts look awesome - but how many of us actually have the time, space, money, etc. for all of that.

      Like you say - this might make something like that doable for folks like myself.

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  10. This is awesome. An entire village in a shoebox, with no set-up. My players always seem to get into chase scenes, and this would work a lot better than the 28mm scale buildings/rooftops.

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