YouTube (print & paste) Catch-up

It's been a while since I last talked about the 'print & paste' videos and pdfs that I've been releasing... and so I thought it was time to remedy that!

So, I started the year off with a couple of encounter/puzzle ideas (complete with the terrain to go with them):

 

Now, in my opinion, the first video is a much better encounter than the second one - but as luck would have it, the second one has had more than four times the views so far (go figure).

I actually used both of them in an adventure I run a while back (once in person, and once online), and I'm happy/relieved to say that they worked reasonably well both times :)

* * *

After those I've been working on some more sci-fi stuff (as I plan on trying out the 'five parsecs from home' game) - which has mostly been focusing on buildings, greebles, and the like:

 

And, I have to admit that I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out!

Some of the (optional) bits can be a bit fiddly - but I think it's a great way to get some passable sci-fi terrain to the table relatively quickly (plus, I've tried to keep it fairly generic looking - so that it will fit in with a number of different games and settings).

Though I'm not quite done with this current sci-fi phase that I'm going through, and I have at least one more video in the works...

 ...which, as you can see, will be for some quick and easy barricades.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to this year so far (terrain wise)... and I think 5 videos in (slightly less than) four months isn't too bad (though I've also been getting a lot of mini's painted too - but that's a post for another time ;) ).

 

New releases/projects

Well, I’ve finally got them done… the dungeon cards & tokens (that I first tested out in THIS old blog post) are now available for download :)

As you can see in the video, there’s also a sample solo dungeon included with the cards – but the encounters detailed in the pdf could just as easily be used in regular (i.e. a GM plus several players) game as well.

I’ll also add that, if anyone does give the solo adventure a run through (using the cards and the 2D dungeon tiles), I’d love to hear how it goes!

In addition to the new video, I’ve also started up an e-mail newsletter – one where I can do monthly recaps of stuff I’ve released, things I’m working on, purchases made, and other gaming nonsense. I also hope to share pictures of projects that people in the community have built using some of my textures too – as those are always cool to see.

So, if that sounds like it might be of interest, you can sign up for it HERE.

And that’s it for now… for my next project I’ll probably getting back to making more terrain… but more on that if the prototypes work out as planned :)

Dwarven Pillars and Little Rivers

As you might know if you’ve been following some of my recent posts, I’m about to start a Moria-style game – one where I’ll be playing as the orcs (using the Five Leagues from the Borderlands solo rules).

 

And, while I could just use my regular dungeon tiles for this (and I probably will to be honest), I also want to make a few pieces that have a bit of a dwarven theme… and I thought a good place to get things started would be with these pillars:

 

 

So, as always, there’s a (pay-what-you-want) pdf file that goes along with them (you can find it HERE)... and I hope you agree that, considering they’re just made from bits of card with a paper texture glued on top, they don’t look too bad at all :)

 

Furthermore, I forgot to post about the river tiles that I made earlier this month…

 

 

...so there’s the video (and HERE’s the pdf) for that as well. 

 

So, yeah… it’s been quite a productive month. Now I just need to set some time aside to play!

- a few pesky dwarves for my orcs to deal with -

Starting the new year with another level of the 'build along' dungeon...

For the past few years, I've had a bit of a tradition of creating a small dungeon level from scratch (i.e. making the terrain, painting the mini's, and writing the adventure) throughout the month of January, and releasing one video a week over on YouTube to show how I put it all together.

And, as you've probably guessed, this year has been no different - so, to cut a long story short, here's a list of all the videos that I've made over the course of this month:

- note that you can get the pdf for this level HERE -

And, while these videos usually only deal with the terrain side of things (though I do quickly run through the encounter ideas - but they're fleshed out a bit more in THIS document), this time I've also had a go at making some miniatures for one of the encounters...

- four DIY elementals pictured next to a reaper bones miniature -

...which doesn't really fit with my usual 'print & paste' approach - but I thought I'd include them nonetheless (so here's hoping you like them :) ).

Anyway, now that level 3 is complete, I think that's going to be it for the Dungeon Build Along series (at least for a while). I'll not go into too much detail - but (generally speaking) multi-part videos don't do very well on YouTube... and it's a ton of work to get one video out a week (I really don't know how other folks manage it :S ) - which, when you think about it, doesn't seem like time well spent (i.e. knowing full well that each 'part' is going to be less popular than the last).

Now, that kind of thing doesn't usually bother me too much (chasing the algorithm isn't really my thing) - but this time things started to feel a bit like a chore towards the end (the needless pressure I put on myself to get 5 videos out this month was starting to build up). So, when you combine all of those factors, I think it's time to call the Dungeon Build Along done!

Don't get me wrong though, I'm really happy with it now that it's finished - and I'm looking forward to running level 2 and 3 with my new(ish) IRL group. In fact, I've managed to get the whole thing packed into this one box...

...so it's ready to go if we need a filler game of dungeon crawling one evening :) (we currently play at a friends house - so having something on the shelf that I can just pick up and take with me with little or no warning should be quite handy).

And speaking of 'the whole thing' - here's a picture off all three levels...

...and when you think that all of this fits inside that one small box (which doesn't weigh that much at all), that really does show how the 2.5D style of (cardboard) tiles is great for folks that play away from home (or that don't have much room to store all of this stuff).

But yeah, I hope you've enjoyed the series, and now that it's done I'm looking forward to getting back to the usual kind of content... as there's still a ton of stuff I want to get around to making... and the to-do list keeps on getting longer rather than shorter :D

So, here's hoping that 2024 is going to be a good year on the gaming front... and in my next post I'll be talking about it being a year of 'getting stuff painted' (as I have a massive pile of shame that I need to do something about - so this year I'm also hoping to put a dent in that).

Anyway, if you've got this far, thanks for reading to the end - and, like I say in the last video - if you use any of the ideas from the 'build along' in your own games... it would be great to hear how it goes!

Random Dungeons (solo/co-op dungeon crawling)

 

I’ve already mentioned this in a few different places – but I thought I’d take a moment to explain an idea I’m messing around with for the (really) simple method of generating random dungeons (mainly for solo/co-op play).

Now, at the moment, I’m trying to have it be a system neutral kind of thing – though I might end up making my own basic dungeon crawler in the future… but that’s a post for another time :)

Anyway, as I say, in this article I’m going to have a go at explaining how the ‘dungeon generation’ works – just in case that is of interest to anyone (plus, it'll be something I can refer to when I release the video where I make some of the different components).

So, to begin with, you’ll need to think of a reason for your character (or group of characters) to enter the dungeon (or roll on a random table - if something like that is available to you - as I say, this system is purely for generating the dungeon). In this example Sir Karlandos has been tasked with exploring a series of ancient catacombs to retrieve an ancient artefact (note that I’m using 5E as the rule set for combat and the like in this example, and that my level 1 Paladin is being accompanied by two loyal men-at-arms – which are using the CR 1/8 ‘guard’ statblock).

 (Note that I still need to add some grass tufts to these guys)

Next, you’ll need to fill out a few charts. Basically you’ll need to decide what kind of creatures will be appearing as ‘wandering monsters,’ what kind will be found in ‘lairs’ and what types will be found in the main quest room (if you’ve played Advanced HeroQuest, a lot of this will sound very similar ;) ). Plus there’s a few other things that’ll need filling out – if you’re interested in seeing what I put together for this particular quest, you can find it HERE.

Anyway, before our brave party enter the dungeon, I’ll first need to shuffle the ‘passage’ deck – but before I do the same with the ‘room’ deck, I’ll need to remove the ‘Quest Room’ card. Then I’ll shuffle the remaining cards, and deal out three cards from the top. I’ll then shuffle the quest room into these three – and then place them at the bottom of the main deck. This means that the ‘Quest Room’ will be one of the last four rooms to be encountered (i.e. we don’t know exactly when it will appear – but it will be towards the end of the adventure).

And with that out of the way, I can place the stairway tile and the crossroads…

...and because the party can see past the junction to the north (we’ll assume north is the top of all the photographs in this example) I’ll draw a card from the passage deck and lay out the dungeon as pictured on the card... roll a d6… and place any doors (you can randomise the door placement, or just place them where it seems the most logical).

 

Turn 1: Karlandos advances to the crossroads – but doesn’t want to get too far ahead, so he waits for the men-at-arms to catch up.

I then draw a card to see what lies down the east passage and roll a d6 - resulting in a dead end with no doors. However we also need to draw a token – getting a ‘wandering monster token’...

...but in this adventure I have decided beforehand that I’ll need to have three of the same tokens in play to trigger that effect (so we’re safe for now).

Then I’ll draw another card and roll a d6 to generate the west passage... and I get a short passage with a left turn... and in that passage is a single doorway.

 

That ends the turn… and at the end of each turn the standard procedure is to draw a token...

...and this time I get a ‘blank/nothing’ result.

Turn 2: Karlandos and his men advance down the west passage and congregate outside the doorway before opening it. So, this time I draw from the room deck, and roll a d6 – which reveals a ‘special room’ with two more exits.

(Mistake number one – this card also states that I must immediately draw a token – but I didn’t spot that… oops).

Now in this example quest, I’ve kept the ‘special rooms’ rather simple (as you could probably devise a chart for all sorts of things) – and in this instance I’ve rolled a 2...

 ...which means I then roll on the ‘features’ table… another 2...

...which indicates that there are some shelves or cupboards in this room – which a character may search!

However, that’s the end of the turn – so I draw another counter (this time getting a trap token ...but as I said earlier, I’m safe at the moment, as I need to draw three of the same kind to trigger that particular event).

Turn 3: Karlandos enters the room – instructing is men to keep watch near the door. Searching the shelves he rolls as instructed on the chart, and discovers 70gp worth of gems. Not bad for the first room!

 

However, that’s all he does this turn – so we draw another counter. 

 

Turn 4: Our group of brave adventurers ‘double move' to get to the door that they saw earlier in the north passage. That’s the end of the turn… so another counter is drawn… 

...another trap counter (one more of either of the 'M' or the 'T' and I might be in trouble).

Turn 5: The paladin opens the door to reveal a ‘Monster Lair’

 

So I roll on the lair table to find out what’s inside (a skeleton and a giant rat in this instance), and I roll a d6 for each of them – to see how many squares away from the door they are.

(mistake number two – monster lairs always contain at least one ‘feature’ – but I forgot to roll for one here… double oops).

I roll initiative and one of the guards heads off towards the rat, while Karlandos and the other guard take on the skeleton (and in this round of combat every character/monster hits, and deals damage).

At the end of the turn I draw a token... and it’s a trap!

That means there are now 3 trap tokens in play – so I roll on the trap table and get a result of ‘poison gas’ ...so one of our characters has triggered a trap that fills the room with noxious fumes. All of the living creatures make a saving throw – and only one guard passes – leaving everyone else (except the skeleton) with the ‘poisoned’ condition.

However, because an event was just triggered, all of the counters go back into the bag/cup (i.e. we start again from scratch each time an event is triggered - or when a ‘restock / R’ token is drawn).

Turn 6: First the giant rat is dealt with, and then the skeleton falls – though both characters fail their saving throw again, and are still poisoned.

At the end of the round we draw a counter. This time a ‘wandering monster’ again (but luckily the counters have been reset – so it’s the only one in play at the moment – phew!)

Turn 7: Deciding that it would be unwise to venture farther while two members of the group are still coughing and spluttering from the gas, they wait it out for a round (both passing their saves this turn), and Sir Karlandos heals himself for 3 points of damage.

And, at the end of the turn, another counter is drawn...

...and now there are two 'wandering monster' counters in play.

Turn 8: The door is opened – and while you would normally roll randomly to determine whether a room leads into a passage or another room, in this instance it makes sense for it to lead into another room (due to the way the passage below it has already been generated). 

This room is another lair – this time with no extra exits, two giant rats, and a coffin (as I remembered to roll on the ‘features’ table this time ;) ).

The rats win initiative, and attack the party (injuring the second guard) – but one of the rats is slain in return. 

At the end of the round we draw a token – and unfortunately it’s another ‘wandering monster’ token… and after rolling on the ‘wandering monster’ chart, we discover that a zombie has been drawn towards all the noise – and it is placed as far away from the party as possible – but within their line of sight.

 

“Sir!” exclaims one of the guards. “Sir… we have a corpse at our rear… and he’s awfully spry for a dead fellow!” 

So things are not looking too good for the party at this point – but seeing as how we just triggered another event, all the tokens are returned to the cup/bag… so at least there’s nothing to worry about for a few more round yet!

* * * 

And that’s the gist of things. Obviously, you can make the tables as complicated as you like (I’ve just used fairly basic ones here, as I wanted to keep it contained to a single page), and you can decide for yourself how many counters need to be in play to trigger a particular event (for example, in another dungeon you might need 6 tokens to trigger a trap, but only two tokens to activate a wandering monster) - but hopefully this example shows the basics of how the dungeon itself is generated.

There’s still a lot of work to do yet (and I hope to test it out in a co-op game of HeroQuest with my brother at some point) – but I think the idea itself is fairly sound, and the new tiles & doors that I’ve made are perfect for this kind of thing.

So yeah, I don’t think any of these ideas are particularly new or revolutionary – they’re just something I wanted to have a go at making myself (so that I can base it around all of the scatter terrain that I've been making these past few years) ...and so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing :)

And, if it's something that you'd like to hear more about, then please do let me know :) 

 

* * *

 

EDIT: A few things have changed since this playtest - but the basic idea is still pretty much the same.

Large/Double Doors, Super Thanks, and Curved Passages

 As you can see in the picture below, I've recently been working on an idea for a larger doorway (one that works in a similar way to the archways - in the sense that the whole piece acts as a kind of 'clip-on' that covers two adjoining walls).

(from concept to completion)

And because the whole 'steps and frame' assembly is the most time consuming part of this project - I decided to make the doors as separate/removable pieces - so that they can not only be used to represent open and closed versions of these doors, but it also enables us to insert different door designs into the frame ...for a bit of added variety.

Anyway, as usual, I have a video showing how I made them over on youtube (if you're interested in checking it out):

* * *

In other news, the 'super thanks' feature has just become available for the channel...

...and, while talking about money/donations/subscriptions/etc. can be a bit of a touchy subject (I normally try to not harp on about my Patreon etc. during most of my videos), it is an unfortunate necessity - and so I've decided to enable it (just in case folks would like to support me that way ...as every little helps).

* * *

And, if you've got this far, then here's a quick preview of something that I'm working on at the moment...

...which is basically, just a way of making curved passages that are better suited for 'two abreast' situations - as the normal grid doesn't work all that well for these kind of tiles ...as can be seen in the comparison images below:

(though you can, of course, assemble them either way - depending on your tastes).

* * *

Anyway, that's it for this update. I hope you are all safe and well, and thanks for your continued interest in all of this nonsense of mine :)

Dungeon Build Along Project (finished)

At the beginning of the month I announced that, during the course of January, I would be filming a dungeon 'build along' mini-series - with the aim of showing folks how to make a simple dungeon layout using some of the print & paste techniques.

So, if you want to watch the entire series over on YouTube, you can find the complete playlist (containing all six bite-sized episodes) HERE.

And if you're interested to see what can be made with just 4 printouts and a bit of cardboard... well, here's the resulting mini-dungeon:

And it's my hope that this little series will be a good introduction for folks who are new to the idea of using terrain in their games, while at the same time allowing me to re-do a few things that were covered in some of my earlier videos (which haven't aged all that well if I'm totally honest :) ).

Alternatively, if you've been following the regular episodes for a while, but still haven't got around to making anything yet - then this might be an ideal project to get the ball rolling.

Anyway, whether you decide to have a go at making this dungeon or not, here's hoping that the mini-series provided you with a few new ideas and/or reminders, and that it will be a good example to steer people towards when they ask 'what should I make first?' (as a little dungeon is always a good place to begin - right? :) ).

Treasure!

I'm getting to a point where all of the little bits and pieces that I've been playing around with these past couple of months are finally making their way into their own video.

So, without further ado, here's the treasure piles:

As usual, you can find the pdf file HERE, and it would be great to hear what you think of these!

Dungeon Archways

Well, it's time for another of my terrain videos ...and this time I've been making some archways for the dungeon:

- THE INITIAL PROTOTYPE -

- THE FINAL PIECE -

Anyway, there's a (pay-what-you-want) pdf file that contains all of the new textures HERE, and posted below is the video where I show how I put everything together.

So, here's hoping you like it!

- SOME OF THE NEW PIECES IN ACTION-

Tentacles!

As usual, I've been posting my progress with these over on the various social media pages (so there's no real surprises here) - but here's my latest release ...TENTACLES!

The video above shows you how to put them together, and for my own game I'm thinking of using them as some kind of trap/hazard rather than an actual monster (like the 'black tentacles' or 'entangle' spells for example).

Anyway, as I say in the video, this is probably as close as I'm going to get to a Halloween episode (not that I normally do themed episodes) - but it's purely by coincidence :)

Note that the pay-what-you-want pdf file can be found HERE.

Rotating Wooden Bridge

 It's been over a month since my last video (for 'reasons' :( ) ...but I've finally got another one finished...

...anyway, the idea behind this one is that maybe it was once part of a prison complex - so the prisoners cells would be on one side of the pit, and the guards (and the bridge controls) would be on the other. Thus, should a prisoner escape their cell, they'd still have to find a way to navigate the pit (hopefully that made sense :) ).

Now though, in the hands of the goblins, it could be used as a kind of monster spawner ...with several goblins being transported from one side of the pit to the other each round to harass the players (who find themselves approaching the pit from the old prison area).

So maybe the players stand and fight each new batch of goblins as they appear ...or maybe they use ranged attacks to try and pick off a few of the goblins working the winch ...in either case I think it will make for a fun encounter.

But enough of all that ...if you want to have a go at making one yourself, then the (pay-what-you-want) pdf file can be found HERE.

Hope you like it!

PS. here's a sneak peek at what's coming up in the next video...

Using my (VTT) tiles in Roll20

 If you have ever loaded a map with it's own grid into a virtual table top, you may have come across the issue of trying to align the pre-drawn grid of the map, with the default grid of the VTT itself (this can be particularly annoying if the map has a border of irregular size).

However, with my own maps and tiles it's a pretty straight forward process (or at least it is in Roll20) - so I thought I would discuss the method I use to get the tile to align with the grid (the whole process takes about 10 to 15 seconds).

So, to begin with, I make sure that I have the map layer active...

 ...and then, assuming the map has already been uploaded to my library, I'll drag it onto the battlemat area.

Now, as you can see, it will rarely transfer at the right size - so right click on the image and choose Advanced > Set Dimensions...

...and because most of my maps are multiples of 12 (i.e. the small tiles are 12 x 12 squares, and the larger tiles are 24 squares), simply change the 'pixels' pull down menu to 'units' and input the number of squares that the map contains (so in this instance I've used my latest tile - which is 24 x 24 squares).

And, as you can see below, that will resize the map and align it perfectly to the inbuilt grid of Roll20.

As I say, the whole process takes a little over 10 seconds - so you should be able to build a nice looking map in just a couple of minutes.

Now, I don't know if it's quite as easy as that in other VTTs (as I say, Roll20 was the first one I became familiar with - and since it works well enough for me, I've stuck with it) - but if there is a similar trick, then feel free to post it in the comments.

Anyway, I hope that was of help. It's the method I use for my own maps, and it seems to work rather well :)

 

(NOTE: you can find all of my own map tiles HERE ...there's currently over 400 of 'em)

VTT Tiles

It's been a while since I last spoke about the VTT tiles that I create each month - but the project is still going strong ...with around 400 tiles available now!

This month I've been working on a request for more cave-to-dungeon transition tiles, and this is what I've come up with:

So, as you can see, there are 4 tiles ...and all of them are slightly different in their design.

Furthermore here is a small encounter map that I've put together that features a few of these new tiles...

...and while I have no idea (yet) what the locals are 'feeding' - you can be sure it's not anything pleasant ;)

Anyway, you can find all of individual tiles in THIS album (they are free for personal use) ...and if you want to help support this (or any of my other projects) please feel free to check out the PATREON PAGE.