Simple Trees, Shrubs, and water. A better way to map 2.

In my previous posts i explained how to make simple stackable terrain tiles. Now i show you how to make it even better and stand out more with simple trees and shrubbery.

First you are going to need some plastic plants to work with. The cheapest i have found were some aquarium plants you get at a pet shop.
You will end up cutting these up a lot, and you will use pretty much every part, including the reddish roots at the bottom of the big ones.

First i plan to mount them to some of my greenery tiles. You will need to 'drill' some holes into them for mounting the plants. I just used my x-acto knife.Next by trimming off the thick bottoms of the trees, i glued the bases and inserted the trees.
I did it on a 1x2 tile because a single may be too small and could tip over easily. Also i would recommend mounting trees and bushes near the outer edges of the tiles so you can still fit mini's on them.
That's pretty much it.

Next i move onto making simple water terrain. I just measured how big a 2x2 and 1x2 tileset was, and printed off some water texture on some cardstock. I then cut them out into pieces like this:
The greener ones are smaller and for my indoor dungeon set, for murky cave/sewer waters. These pieces fit easily into spaces between tiles, so it looks like actual receding water.

Now for a showcase of all these principles:

Behrun Farsetter's Journal. Day 6

Behrun Farsetter's Journal. Day 6

I will admit, even though this Bellyorp may not be the best of kin, he knows how to travel. The itinerary he had planned out was worthy of mention. He knew when the best periods of the day were for a voyage. Apparently during certain times of the day, Krin were least likely to attack. And the caravan entourage was worth praise. It included a couple of dwarfs from other holds that were under Bellyorps employ, and a couple Forgesworn. Of all humans, the only people i will have any real respect for are the Forgesworn. Their story is one of devotion and oath. Back when humans were mere tribes scattered about all lands, this particular tribe took an oath to the dwarves of the earliest benefictus holds. Taking an oath to the forge. They have been mentioned among many a dwarven hold's annals of history and battle records. They now live in a hold they call their own and are counted among our own kin. Their love for the craft of armor and weapons meets our strict tenants, and their resilience and strength even matches our own. The Forgesworn are no meek and weak humans either. Their lives are of being the strongest and biggest. A noble way indeed. It is rare to find a Forgesworn that does not stand tall above others in a crowd of humans.

But with all precautions there was reward. The entire journey to emberstone was largely uneventful. Aside from a few twigs breaking in the woods, nothing threatened us. We finally arrived at the walls of Emberstone. Or ruined walls i should say. There was a crew rebuilding what they could of the sieged structure. Another wound from the Qur'haddan. A great wall built by dwarves remained for centuries, only to be broken down from poor human upkeep and Qur'haddan siege power.

Not too soon after we entered, i thanked the caravan for a safe journey and parted ways with my cousin. I seeked the cities grand library. From asking around i was lead to a tall stone structure, outlined with pillars and murals of the cities' supposed "great valour and bravery" of their kings. Inside i found a very old woman who didnt seem to pay much mind to my presence and pointed to the room that held the dwarf historian. It was no grand hall, just a dark and stuffy record room, poorly managed by an old dwarf, no doubt bad habits from being among humans too long. He introduced himself as Garu Greyforge.

I discussed with him the nature of my quest, and he was actually quite helpful. As it turns out, during the Purging of afflictus, many scrolls and documents were burned to remove its taint, even important scrolls. He had on himself his own family mountain scroll and showed it to me. The edges and a large portion of it had been burnt. He too had been trying to repiece the portions missing of his families record. Unfortunately not much was left of the Greyforge. My heart sank for his troubles. There have been rumors of some noble dwarf families slowly dieing out. My gut wrenched at the thought of their ancestors being forgotten; to have no followers to keep them alive. Disappearing into oblivion.

As he inspected my scroll laid out over his table, he did recognize a name. One he had seen before somewhere. Excited he pulled a latter up to his tall library shelves, searching for a volume he knows existed. I wish i had paid more attention to his movements for i may have seen the large tomes being thrown from the top shelf. One such had hit me in the forehead leaving a bruise.

Garu found the book to have a lead. There was an old abandoned dwarf hold not too far from Emberstone near the hill ranges which is rumored to have many records within still intact. He had been meaning to go himself for his own families sake, but never could gather the forces. The hold is said to be overrun with savage Krin or other vicious denizens who now call it home. I resolved to search the hold with him for clues to both our heritage. Old Garu enthusiastically accepted the offer and we made plans for our quest. He introduced me to his wife, a cleric of the local benefictus church. Her name was Agnya Brighthill (evidently during their marriage, her father had not wanted her to take the new name. Greyforge was not well enough known). Garu suggested i find another member for our party, as we may need all the help we can get. I knew just the one.

After finishing plans with Garu, i return to my cousins base of operations. I found him negotiating with a local vendor. I asked him if i could get the aid of one of the Forgesworn under his employ. He directed me to a Hanzbur. A tall bearded human with a patch over one eye and an axe, that was about as tall as i, slung over his back. He seemed emotionless and of few words. However he did agree to come along after i mentioned a possible compensation of his time, and some action against the Krin or beasts of the area. He appeared more interested in the latter.

We leave in the morning.

Behrun Farsetter
Crusader Acolyte

Behrun Farsetter's Journal. Day 2

Behrun Farsetter's Journal. Day 2

I woke up late. Late into the day as a matter of fact. Never has much laziness been shown among dwarfkind since the dark afflictus kin. Not a good way to begin my journey. But i must not dwell on it, for an ancestor does enough remembering of my sins when i am judged before them.

As a first step i returned to our family historian to convene with him where i may begin my search. After pondering the missing section of the genealogy mountain, we found it might not be a bad idea to get with someone in the family that trades goods between the holds and with the humans if there might be any artifacts recovered or traded that could be a lead to something. He recommended me to my cousin, Bellyorp. Now i have not seen much of Bellyorp during our decennial reunions, but i know the rumors of him. Some say he has grown soft or wild from too much contact with humans and shady folk. Having got himself into much trouble at times.

I was to find this cousin at the trade district of Brinyons Hammer Hold, for today was nearing market season in the holds and he was sure to be there selling his services to stock the vendors with goods and oddities from far and wide. Sure enough, i find him there, but in a tavern, drinking with some ragged looking bunch of human folk. All rumors i heard of him appeared true. He looks as though he has seen his fair share of rough times, but not from battle or war. One side of his waist length double braided beard had been sheared off by a blade it looks. Perhaps from crossing a powerful individual, most likely a human. A specie that has no respect for the sanctity of the dwarf and his beard. They appeared to be having a jolly time amongst the bar, and as i approached i received a hearty greeting and an offering of ale. While i would prefer not to be seen drinking with this black sheep, it was an even greater dishonor to refuse a drink from a dwarf, especially of family. I relayed to him the details of my quest, making sure to keep the conversation relevant to my purpose of being with him. He mentioned his next errand would be to Emberstone, a human city mid continent. A place between the mountain range and the shores. It was once the largest and most powerful human city, but fell under siege from the Qur'haddan invasions. Now it remains half in ruins and a large percentage of its inhabitants became refugees and nomads, many settling in smaller cities. I do not wish anyone fall under the dark blades of the vile alien Qur'haddan, but good riddance. Emberstone was never much of a credit to the continent, or a friend to the dwarves since the Liberation war.

Evidently there is a grand library intact, and a certain dwarf upkeeps a section detailing dwarf history in that region. Its better than no leads, but i can only hope our Farsetters arent tainted too much by being mixed with that piece of the world. Bellyorp insisted i come with, just for safer passage. I will agree the roads do lead through the forests, and caravan casualties have happened from raiding Krin. So i am to be stuck in a mixed caravan with a half bearded cousin through Krin territory. Ancestors guide me.

We leave in the morning.

Behrun Farsetter
Crusader Acolyte

Behrun Farsetter's Journal. Day 1

Behrun Farsetter's Journal. Day 1

And so begins my journey. My quest. I have been chosen by my family, the Farsetters. For generations we have been a proud dwarven family name to involve ourselves in the construction and landscaping of several of the dwarf holds. Since our liberation from the barbaric Krin, we have been key in helping our people rebuild. Since the first purging of the Afflictus taint from within our mountain walls, we have helped to undo the damage done during the Great Purge war. Since our misguided and betrayed leaders caused the Crusader wars with the human nations, we have rebuilt and healed the damage to our structures and pride. Since even the invasion of the alien Qur'haddan, we have recuperated our forces and won back our freedom and homes. Our heritage is one of creation and rebuilding. So it will be my quest.

One very disturbing thing has been around our ancestral home in Brinyon's Hammer Hold. Our great wall with the genealogy mountain, showing the progression of our family offspring all the way back to ancient beginnings, has a missing piece. An entire section left blank and unrecorded. As though a section of our history had never happened. We know that a generation or two of proud dwarves took the name of Farsetters in that time, but we have no record of it. It has been a scar, our only scar upon our name. Not a scar of commission, but a scar of omission. The family elders have convened and said it is high time one work to fill this gap and retrieve the missing piece. Through a lottery of many able bodied warriors, i have been chosen. Me, a mere inductee into the Crusaders. Holy warriors of the benefictus ways. Well i am not without experience. I took part into the defense and liberation of Brinyons Hammer Hold from the Qur'haddan when i was but a neophyte, fresh from the steps of my family hearth. But for all Crusaders to be in the highest and most honored order, they must undertake a quest. A grand quest. So i go forth with confidence that the ancestors have willed my name be drawn from the lottery pot. I go forth with them at my back, and their strength at my limbs.

In my preparation ceremony i received many a fine implement. Great uncle Kern awarded me with a fine suit of chainmail. A chain of dwarven vigor. One that embodies our very resolve and stubbornness to fall to our enemies. Forgekeeper Rhun bestowed me a pair of ornate hammers. Craghammers named Errot and Mollek (earth power and earth defense). Even my nephew, Yinn, has given me his best crossbow from his personally crafted collection. I treasure it so. And finally the family historian gave me the greatest honor a dwarf could carry. A family mountain scroll. The Farsetter thane of old, Bregyon, carried this scroll on a chain bandoleer in a pipe case on his chest during the first purging war. Since has more and more generations of Farsetters names been added to it. To carry this into battle and on journeys is to have the very souls of my ancestors watching over it and its wielder, to make sure their names never get blotted from history by sword or fire.

The celebration of my acceptance to the task was grand. Many a keg were broken and music and dance was rampant before our genealogy mountain wall. As a matter of fact, maybe too much had been broken open, for i could barely walk straight to my bedchamber. But i needed the sleep, for the next day i would begin my quest.

I leave in the morning.

Behrun Farsetter
Crusader Acolyte

Stackable Square maps

First things first. You go out and raid every single local thrift store you can get your hands on, and purchase all the copies of the game UpWords you can find. I was able to find 8 copies (thrift stores usually sell these things at around $2 a box). You are gonna need these letter tiles. Lots of them.Next i would recommend washing the letter tiles. These thrift stores are 2nd hand, so you dont know where they've been. Once you have them washed, you want to glue some of them together. The reason for this is you want the tiles to be a quick and easy setup. Something you can do on the fly on the gaming table. If you are having to stack up each and every individual tile one at a time, it takes a while. So with some of them you glue them together. I would say about 30% made into 2x2 tiles, 30% made into 1x2 tiles, and the rest singles. Glue them together and make sure they have a set spacing so they fit easily on the game boards they come with.Once you have your tile groups made, paint them. Spray paints do great for doing the base colors. I will explain how to do the details in a bit. Now that we have our tile sections made, start thinking of what kind of terrain you want. Of all the tiles had made, i was thinking of a combination of rocky ground, cave floor dirt, dungeon floor coblestone, outdoor road coblestone and grassy. The quickest way to do this is get some printable sticker paper, and find on the internet some textures (google images was invaluable for this) and print the textures onto the paper. Cut them up into squares that fit the tile tops and stick them on.Now for your game board. As you may notice, one of the game boards isnt nearly big enough for what you need (around 10" x 10") so i had the idea to combine them. I took 4 of the boards and cut off some of the sides and glued them together on the bottom.Then spray painted the top. I did this too for a dungeon set.
And VOILA! Quick and easy stackable gaming terrain. We played with these and they were quick to setup and visually appealing at the same time. We also played with the dungeon set and i came up with a cool way to pull that off. I noticed that there was some space inbetween the tiles. So i printed off some cardstock with textures of cave and dungeon walls. I found i could stick these inbetween the tiles and they would stay standing. This made it feel as though your characters were actually enclosed inside, as apposed to just moving around on a map.
There you have it. The best way i found to make things all the more awesome for your games. It took a lot of time to make and set up, but the ending result is very pleasing. And all this from several copies of the old milton bradley game of UpWords.

A better way to Map

As a DM for our games, i am always looking for better and more visually appealing implements for our games. And i think i stubled onto the ultimate.

When we battle in dnd, i used to use a 1 inch grid map laminated and used dry erase markers on it. It worked well, but it wasnt as visually appealing. I searched the internet near and far, and found several appealing and awesome solutions, but most were usually too expensive or time consuming. Like worldworksgames products here.

Then i found something else. There is a tabletop strategy game made by Hasbro called Heroscape. It utilizes stackable hex tiles, creating some awesome landscapes. This would be a simple easy solution to making visually appealing and dynamic terrains and settings, but again its waaaaay too expensive, and it uses hex tiles. Dnd is all 1" squares.

So i got an idea. Does anyone remebers the family board game called UpWords? It was pretty much a game of scrabble with stackable letter tiles. See where im going with this?

I found a way to make that game, into this:








I had finally found a quick and easy solution. In my next blog post i will detail how i made it all.

Alternity Reality

For most when they think of pen and paper RPGs, the first they think of is the giant gorilla in the corner called Dungeons and Dragons. And rightly so. It is the pioneer for the industry, and a very good fantasy game to play when with friends. My brothers and I have done several campaigns and all of them memorable.

But for me, my RPG experience didn't start with D&D. It started with an old sci-fi game called Alternity.

The game was made by the company TSR (which was the company to invent the D&D we know today), but was discontinued shortly after creation. Which is a shame because it was an awesome game. It was true blood scifi space opera on paper. We really got into it because they actually released a setting for it based on the video game Starcraft. My brothers and I enthusiastically began creating our characters. We all had an idea of what memorable unit from the game we wanted to be. My friend Austin made a Protoss High Templar, with psionic power radiating from his cold eyes. My brother Jacob played a professional stealthy Terran Ghost, with his high powered canister rifle. James, my 2nd brother, was a devout Protoss Zealot, a soldier that would go into fits of blind rage, slaughtering any Zerg that stood in his way. And finally Jarom, my 3rd brother, played a Protoss Dark Templar, the invisible rogue, which evidentaly didnt have the luck-o-the dice on his side, as he couldnt stealth past anything.

All in all the game was full of win. But unfortunately shortly after we started playing it, we also stopped. We couldnt always get together as much as we wanted and plans fell through. My books began gathering dust on the shelf.

Nowadays, James Jarom and I get together weekly to play a game of D&D. We have been having fun with it, but are sort of getting bored with the generic fantasy setting. When we finish this campaign we might dabble back into the old scifi settings and pick up alternity again. I got so excited about it and looked back again at all the old books i had. Now with as much roleplaying experience i have under my belt, i notice a whole hell of a lot more about the old game than i ever did. Some rules that didnt make sense to me at all back then give the game a lot more sense and depth now.

So since i like to keep myself busy, i made a custom character sheet in Microsoft Publisher. The original character sheet is adequate, but doesnt have all the possibilities for a character, and
takes up too many pages. So i made a booklet.

PAGE 1

PAGE 2

PAGE 3
PAGE 4
PAGE 5

PAGE 6

Each page is printed on a 8.5 x 11 sheet. Page 1 and 2 are printed front and back, and page 3 and 4 are printed front and back. Page 5 is cut out and glued onto where its instructed on page 4, making a nice card pocket. When the the 2 pages are put together then folded over, it makes a 4 page booklet. The 6th page is just some reference cards you can make when you cut them out. I would used them to put down rules that apply to your character the most or keep track of gear. It helps with things on the go. Kind of like how D&D 4th edition uses the power and gear cards. Everything you need is on your character sheet, but having cards for that stuff makes it much easier.

Everything in this character booklet makes more sense when you are more familiar with the game Alternity.