Various Solutions For Tabletop Dungeon Terrain

[Reynard]

I am generally a minimalist Gm when it comes to tabletop accoutrements: my TacTiles and dry erase markers with some tokens for monsters and stuff is usually enough for me.

However, I kind of have an itch to do something more elaborate for a con coming up in February. So what are the various terrain solutions for dungeon crawling? From print and play maps to expensive terrain to projected maps -- give me all of them, along with a guess at both cost and time involvement.

Thanks!

 

[payn]

I've been 3D printing like a bandit for an upcoming con. Though, im hosting a 40 person tournament so its a lot. There is quite a bit of files online for this kind of thing. I just recently backed C.O.R.E. which is a series of spaceships and stations which I think would be great stages for a con game one shot.

Is 3D printing right for you? It has some up front costs. Right now Bambu has a great sale on the A1 printer with an AMS (machine that allows you to print up to 4 colors or more) for $380. Once you have a printer, a spoil of filament is about 15-20 dollars and prints a good amount but hard to say exactly without knowing what you are printing. Alternatively, there are resin printers for about the same cost, but the matieral is toxic and needs a good workspace. The detail of resin is unparalleled though. My rule of thumb is if you are printing lots of miniature figures, than go resin, if you are printing lots of terrain, go filament.
Resin set up

Filament set up

Examples of prints I have made.

This example shows you what an "AMS" can do. All the color is filament I did not have to paint this at all.

 

[aco175]

Is it TotalConfusion? I'll likely be there.

I ran something last year and just used printable 1inch graph paper found online. I used magic marker to draw the rooms and then I could pull out one at a time to place them on the table like a jigsaw puzzle. It worked fine, but might have been a bit cheap looking similar to just using a wet-erase 'Chessex' mat. It was more like a 5-room dungeon and most of the rooms were only 1 page, but some were 2 pages placed together.

When we play at home, I tend to use the Terrain Tiles that came out 20 years ago or the 4e maps that came with many adventures such as Keep on the Shadowfell.

 

[Reynard]

Is it TotalConfusion? I'll likely be there.

Yup!

I ran something last year and just used printable 1inch graph paper found online. I used magic marker to draw the rooms and then I could pull out one at a time to place them on the table like a jigsaw puzzle. It worked fine, but might have been a bit cheap looking similar to just using a wet-erase 'Chessex' mat. It was more like a 5-room dungeon and most of the rooms were only 1 page, but some were 2 pages placed together.

When we play at home, I tend to use the Terrain Tiles that came out 20 years ago or the 4e maps that came with many adventures such as Keep on the Shadowfell.

Yeah, I am trying to decide exactly how elaborate I want to get.

 

[Reynard]

I've been 3D printing like a bandit for an upcoming con. Though, im hosting a 40 person tournament so its a lot. There is quite a bit of files online for this kind of thing. I just recently backed C.O.R.E. which is a series of spaceships and stations which I think would be great stages for a con game one shot.

Is 3D printing right for you? It has some up front costs. Right now Bambu has a great sale on the A1 printer with an AMS (machine that allows you to print up to 4 colors or more) for $380. Once you have a printer, a spoil of filament is about 15-20 dollars and prints a good amount but hard to say exactly without knowing what you are printing. Alternatively, there are resin printers for about the same cost, but the matieral is toxic and needs a good workspace. The detail of resin is unparalleled though. My rule of thumb is if you are printing lots of miniature figures, than go resin, if you are printing lots of terrain, go filament.
Resin set up
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Filament set up
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Examples of prints I have made.
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This example shows you what an "AMS" can do. All the color is filament I did not have to paint this at all.
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The biggest problem with printed terrain is I have no talent for painting.

 

[payn]

The biggest problem with printed terrain is I have no talent for painting.

The AMS does wonders for ya there!

 

[Bagpuss]

If you are on a budget can I recommend....

Crooked Staff's Print and Play dungeons (does Sci Fi stuff as well). Pay what you like have video tutorials. It's all pay way you want.

I made the stuff illustrated below from his Dwarven Pillars tutorial. From his blog. It's all just print outs stuck to cardboard (the stuff you can get from ceral boxes or corregated boxes), no painting talent required.

 

[Koloth]

3D printed stuff can look great but the process of printing can be time consuming. Plus the time for painting. For terrain, I primarily use a filament printer. Prime with Rustoleum 2X spray paint. Use the black or grey primer for the prime coat. Many of the colors claim to be paint+primer but avoid those for prime coats. Can use other colors for top or intermediate coats. For large pieces, I also use the sample bottles of Valspar house paint. You get about 7 ounces of paint for ~$6. Not much more money then the standard dropper bottles of standard model paint. Plus they will mix up about any color you want. Bonus if there are some $2 'miss-tint' bottles on the bargain shelf.

For an elaborate setup for February, you should have started several months ago. There is a learning curve. Plus a LOT of options on terrain types. Picking one can take several test prints of each candidate group. Not all groups play well with each other. Not unusual for one terrain piece to take several hours to print. I have had a few take 12+ hours. Can require some pre planning on which pieces to print depending on your schedule.

I am a backer and user of this person's products.(no other known affiliation): https://www.kickstarter.com/project...uzzle-tiles-fantasy-interiors?ref=creator_tab

A quicker solution is a TV/computer monitor laid flat. A cheap 720P TV is good enough. No real need for 4K. Might find a suitable used TV in a thrift store. Make sure it isn't one of the 'smart' TVs that require an Internet connection to function. Recommend covering the screen with a thin sheet of plexi type plastic. I welded up a stand that uses a standard VESA TV mount for a 42" TV Have a smaller version with a Dell 24" monitor on it.

Lots of free or low cost JPG maps out there. There is at least one map topic on this forum that features JPG maps. Big advantage to the TV, is you can load a lot of maps onto a laptop. Switching between maps is as simple as loading the next file. Practice so you know ahead of time how to scale the map files for your setup. Downside is it does need power. Not normally a problem if playing in a house but not all con tables are adjacent to a power outlet.

 

[Kannik]

I've been 3D printing like a bandit for an upcoming con. Though, im hosting a 40 person tournament so its a lot. There is quite a bit of files online for this kind of thing. I just recently backed C.O.R.E. which is a series of spaceships and stations which I think would be great stages for a con game one shot.

Is 3D printing right for you? It has some up front costs. Right now Bambu has a great sale on the A1 printer with an AMS (machine that allows you to print up to 4 colors or more) for $380. Once you have a printer, a spoil of filament is about 15-20 dollars and prints a good amount but hard to say exactly without knowing what you are printing. Alternatively, there are resin printers for about the same cost, but the matieral is toxic and needs a good workspace. The detail of resin is unparalleled though. My rule of thumb is if you are printing lots of miniature figures, than go resin, if you are printing lots of terrain, go filament.

Ah, Hextech, nice! Got a chance to see it in action at a con back in Jan.

(I've printed some terrain bits over the past couple of years but haven't had a chance to use it in a game yet, alas.)

A quicker solution is a TV/computer monitor laid flat. A cheap 720P TV is good enough. No real need for 4K. Might find a suitable used TV in a thrift store. Make sure it isn't one of the 'smart' TVs that require an Internet connection to function. Recommend covering the screen with a thin sheet of plexi type plastic. I welded up a stand that uses a standard VESA TV mount for a 42" TV Have a smaller version with a Dell 24" monitor on it.

I second this! We gave this a try a close to 10 years ago and it worked well except for the size (we only had a 32" or so at the time). Had we had a nice 42" or 46" (and with costs coming down so much since then that could be viable now, especially used), or a projector, we would've stuck with it. Looks great, can add animations and environmental effects to it, and can still enhance it with a few physical models when the opportunity arises.

 

[Meech17]

I've goofed around with some little makeshift things.

Take some gift-wrapping paper with 1in grids on the back, and wrap stuff with the grid facing out. You'd be surprised what you can make by wrapping weird bowls, or toys, or boxes, and then coloring with some markers.

Another thing I did with great success, was playing with elevation. I made a pit to throw my players down by drawing the lower layer of my dungeon on my dry-erase grid board, and then using dungeon tiles, set on top of some of my Magic: The Gathering deck boxes to be the upper level. (Ultimate Guard Boulders make great deck boxes, and also great risers.) When the time came that the players climbed down the pit I just removed the upper layer and bam, there's level two.