Miniatures terrain

[The Shaman]

ENWorld's had a number of threads on minis use in roleplaying games, but what about miniatures terrain? If you use minis, do you also use three-dee terrain pieces as well? If so, paper or plastic? If not, battle mat?

I've picked up a really, really dangerous (read: expensive) addiction to Dwarven Forge in the last couple of years. I'm about half-way to building a scale model of the interior of a Beowulf free trader using the sci-fi sets, I pre-ordered three sets of the Realm of the Ancients, and I'm gritting my teeth that I won't be able to put together a tavern scene when I run my Flashing Blades event at ORCCON in a couple of weeks.

 

[HelloChristian]

I am also a fan of Dwarven Forge. Sometimes I'll even spend hours building a custom piece of terrain for a session. I really like a 3D element to play. While some folks find terrain distracting, I think it helps we with immersion. It's neat to see the game world on the table before me. The trick, though, is making sure that sessions don't end up as a Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario.

 

[frankthedm]

The trick, though, is making sure that sessions don't end up as a Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario.

You say it as if that is a bad thing.

At high level, I'd much rather face an army of humanoids;

Scores of goblins
Dozens of hobgoblins
a coven of bugbear shamans with haphazard magic
and half a dozen trolls

rather than a humanoid Rainbow Six who are piggybacking on my XP total.

A goblin ninja that is sneakier than the party rogue
An orc barbarian with an attack bonus that makes the party's combatants jealous
A bugbear caster who's magical aptiitude is only a few steps behind the party archmage.
And a supertroll with half a dozen barbarian levels.

 

[mac1504]

I had a large collection of dwarven forge that our group used through most of our 3e years. Unfortunately we began moving our play location around a bit, and it became harder to manage the logistics of moving the entire collection. Despite that, the group loved using it.

Now that we've been playing 4e, we mostly use custom made dungeon tiles that are mounted on foam board. It saves a huge amount of time, and doesn't constrain our maps to the published products.

Recently I created a 3D set piece while running Thunderspire Labyrinth. I created my version of the Deep Stair, in said Labyrinth, for a combat encounter. All of my players (those that made the game that day) loved the encounter, although only one player took falling damage (and they did push off one enemy combatant).

The piece was made from several layers of insulation foam, wall spackle (joint compound) and paint.

I think I may bring it back for one more appearance before they leave Thunderspire.

 

[The Ghost]

We use a a lot of Dwarven Forge for castle/cave/dungeon exploration. For wilderness exploration, we have quite a few pieces of terrain - hand-made mountains and hills, forests, lake, rivers, swamps. Much like you see used in Warhammer games.

There is something about seeing a mini standing by an actual cliff face or cave entrance that no battle grid or dungeon tile emulate.

 

[Zaukrie]

Well, we do a lot of terrain in my house. It's actually fairly easy to make interesting tunnel type terrain, as well as more structured wall terrain. I started with card stock from worldworks (who will be producing Pathfinder specific terrain soon) and fatdragongames. Both of these companies have great product. I find the fatdragongames to suit my vision better for castles and constructed walls. I find worldworks better for caverns.

(actually, I started 2D with the excellent skeletonkeygames tiles)

I have since moved mostly onto making terrain out of foam (though I often use the art from card stock on some of the foam).

To make cavern type walls, I just stab a screw driver through 2 inch thick extruded foam in varying curvy shapes. You just bust off the loose bits, paint grey and drybrush, and you have great terrain.

The rooms are more work, as I'm not precise enough to make perfectly square cuts, but still pretty easy to do.

Currently, my 11 year old son and I are building a massive Helm's deep. (very slow going, hard to keep our focus). The keep will be about 3x3 (on one board) and the wall will be about 3 feet long. I'm still deciding if the bridge coming out the front will be attached to a board, or lose. The more modular the pieces, the more variety you can get.

The one time I ran a session w/o nice terrain, my players all commented on the lack thereof. I think it adds to the combat aspects of the game.

 

[malraux]

You think Dwarven Forge is bad? I've gotten into Hirst Arts.

 

[megamania]

I use any number of "3-D" effects.

Toys are a favorite. I love visiting the dollar store or Kay-Bee for inexpensive toys or play sets. I also have stuff I made from the foam of blister packs and army box sets. These built into walls that I can set up on call. Also I have old legos that I assembled into bridge pillars and walls that were glued and sprayed with paint to look like aged stone.

Mix these with Battle Maps and Dungeon Tiles (and other grids like Chainmail) and I do okay.

 

[HelloChristian]

You say it as if that is a bad thing.

I think it can be. While the scenario you described is pretty cool, I've found that not everyone prefers that style of play. I've tried to run large skirmish battles with my current group and found them to be neutral.

I get the sense that the people who post here regularly don't mind minis. Over at rpg.net, you'll find lots of people who refuse to use minis of any kind, even with D&D. I'm still curious about how that would work, but to each his own.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I'm Mike and I'm also a Dwarven Forge addict. My wife got me started last year with a couple of the tavern sets and now I have a whole bunch of the caverns and room / passage sets. I've used them for Keep on the Shadowfell, Thunderspire Labyrinth and I'm just about to finish Pyramid of Shadows. I bought the cavern sets specifically for the Trollhaunt adventure.

I posted a whole pile of pictures at:

D&D - a set on Flickr