3D Terrain to Use in Island at the Axis of the World

[hoyagerv]

I'm about to start running the campaign (after a 5-year hiatus from DM-ing) and am interested in making use of WorldWorksGames terrain to construct 3D versions of the battle maps. Has anyone tried this yet or is interested in doing the same? I'd love to hear some recommendations for which sets (and pieces) would be best to use.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I'd start off with the Himmelveil TLX sets - Streets and Docks in particular. You will be likely to use them throughout the campaign, so you are buying for the future as well as this particular adventure.

The TLX Hinterland Cliffs and Hinterland Forest sets are also a good place to begin, again, it will likely be useful in the future. Cliffs in particular seem to abound in the first adventure.

You might be able to use the Maiden if The High Seas as a starting point for building the Coaltongue - the shape is right, but the Maiden is definitely a ship of the age of sail, of wooden ships and iron men, while the Coaltongue is ironclad and steam powered.... But it is a start.

Also handy would be The Legend of Skull Cove - cliffs, idols, palisade fortifications, more docks, native huts, some smaller boats, and a few shark fins for moving around on the water.... No longer available from World Works, but can be purchased from Paizo. It may be available again for a short time, when World Works puts up a section for 'retiring' sets.

If you want to keep with the exploration of

Spoiler

Axis Island

then Swampwoods Village would likewise be useful. (Or as a replacement for Skull Cove, if you already have Docks.)

Ditto for Deadly Encounter, a safe bet, since it is free. I think that

Spoiler

Axis Island

might be the only place in the setting where the portal might be appropriate.

The

Spoiler

lighthouse

and the

Spoiler

hedge maze tower

might best be covered by either Himmelveil Streets or the older Castleworks Ultimate. Neither is quite perfect for the role.

The Auld Grump

 

[hoyagerv]

Thanks Grump! Those are some great suggestions. Lucky for me, I was an early adopter of WWG products, so I already own Skull Cove. I'm much less familiar with the more recent sets, so I'll pick those up and start getting to work.

Are you planning to use WWG terrain for the campaign as well?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Yeah, if and when.

Right now I am running one and two half campaigns: one Kingmaker every other week, one Spycraft/Fallout every week, and one 'teens 'n' tweens' Pathfinder campaign every other week. Plus I am playing in a short Pathfinder campaign, an oddly sneaky paladin.... (He's got a high Charisma, and knows how to use it....)

Given how long it is going to take for Zeitgeist to get out... I am willing to let it set for a bit.

I would really like to come up with something for the Coaltongue though. She's an odd bird, I already decided on one change, adding a turret to her forward quarter. (I liked the design of the Monitor more than I did that of the Virginia. Broadsides are nice, but guns bearing.... )

The Auld Grump

 

[catsclaw227]

I'd start off with the Himmelveil TLX sets - Streets and Docks in particular. You will be likely to use them throughout the campaign, so you are buying for the future as well as this particular adventure.

The TLX Hinterland Cliffs and Hinterland Forest sets are also a good place to begin, again, it will likely be useful in the future. Cliffs in particular seem to abound in the first adventure.

I saw the streets set on their website, where's jhe docks?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I saw the streets set on their website, where's the docks?

The docks are part of the Canals set -

I like using the canals and locks with the Lost Halls of the Dwarf Kings - the idea of underground canals and locks as the backbone of the dwarf economies....

*EDIT* In the top picture you can also see the Maiden of the High Seas - best piece of PDF terrain, ever.

The Auld Grump

 

[Zaukrie]

The maiden is the best piece of terrain ever....and it is doable. I actually attached a balloon where the sails would have gone for an air ship we used in one encounter. When the striker wanted to shoot from one side of the ship to the other, the reaction of the other characters was instantaneous because of the balloon. It really is an incredible piece of art that they designed. Also, since it was an airship, I added another level below the normal bottom. It is more module than given credit for.

As for the rest of the recommendations, you really can't go wrong. I also love fat dragon's sets, but they don't have docks I don't think. And, with the terraclips, well, those are pricey.....but beautiful.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

The maiden is the best piece of terrain ever....and it is doable. I actually attached a balloon where the sails would have gone for an air ship we used in one encounter. When the striker wanted to shoot from one side of the ship to the other, the reaction of the other characters was instantaneous because of the balloon. It really is an incredible piece of art that they designed. Also, since it was an airship, I added another level below the normal bottom. It is more module than given credit for.

As for the rest of the recommendations, you really can't go wrong. I also love fat dragon's sets, but they don't have docks I don't think. And, with the terraclips, well, those are pricey.....but beautiful.

The one downside of the Maiden, which is also a big upside, is that the thing is huge - about two feet long and almost that tall. It dominates a table, and with the number of cannon that it can carry....

One comment that I got from the kids when I used Canals with the Dwarf Halls sets was that it made the place seem large - that they were only seeing part of a vast underground empire.

This was in the same scenario where they listened to a dragon's theories of economics... 'Wealth, true wealth, is organic. It feeds, grows, and multiplies. It creates lines of communication, it promotes travel and enterprise. These coins that I bed on were the least part of my wealth, and what I commanded was the least part of the wealth of this city. These coins are static, cold, and dead....'

They went in expecting to battle a dragon, and instead they got a lecture on economics and were recruited to help rebirth a city.... The dragon promising one tenth of one percent of the city's income for one hundred years.... A vast fortune, if they can pull it off.

The dragon was not the city's destroyer, but rather its last defender, who's breath had once fired the forges, and who considered itself the foster son of this fallen kingdom.

The Auld Grump

 

[RangerWickett]

This was in the same scenario where they listened to a dragon's theories of economics... 'Wealth, true wealth, is organic. It feeds, grows, and multiplies. It creates lines of communication, it promotes travel and enterprise. These coins that I bed on were the least part of my wealth, and what I commanded was the least part of the wealth of this city. These coins are static, cold, and dead....'

Brilliant. I might have to, um, borrow that idea.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Brilliant. I might have to, um, borrow that idea.

Heh, 'borrow' to your heart's content.

The Auld Grump