constructing a 3D Tower (Shackled City campaign ending)

[B4cchus]

First off: Spoiler Warning! This post contains some spoilers on the Shackled City campaign! This is a cross-post from therpggenius.com












Now that all shackled City players are out, let me continue:
Hi all.

After more than 1,5 years my Shackled City campaign is drawing to an end.
I am planning to make a 3d model of Skullrot to make the final battle a lasting experience for both me and my players!

For those not familiar with Shackled City: Skullrot is basicly a tower with the general shape of a plus (+) and about 9 levels. It's footprint is about 20 by 20 squares at the base. The whole map is rather square (no round endges, round walls, etc).

Apart from slight modifications to the floorplans and ecnounters it will result in the confrontation with the Lichfiend and Adimarchus as described in the hardcover.

What I am looking for is some advice on constructing Skullrot.
I plan to make each floor out of thin wooden sheets. I will paint each sheet grey and stick a color print of the floorplan on it.

The main problem I have is that I am not sure wheter a high-res printout of the floorplan will give the best effect. Also, As I want to make some slight modifications, I can't use just the maps from the map booklet.

I think could either craft the floorplan myself (e.g. paint it) or use a mapping program to create a new map and print that.
Another thing I am concerned about is not revealing the entire map at once (a fog of war effect), but to reveal the map of e.g. a room only after a door is opened.

Any advice or suggestions? If it all works out I'll post some pictures to show how it worked out!

Cheers,
B4cchus.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I would use foam core for the walls. The fog of war effect will be tough, but you can design it in pieces so that you only reveal a bit at a time.

 

[B4cchus]

I would use foam core for the walls. The fog of war effect will be tough, but you can design it in pieces so that you only reveal a bit at a time.

I did consider foamboard but found it rather expensive (It wouls cost almostr $100 for the floors alone). I also have quite a large amount of MDF sitting in my basement, waitin to be used...

As for walls: I am worried that the whole thing would be difficult to manage with 9 stories all walled in, therefore I think the walls should remain 2D..

 

[Stoat]

I have done something similar and based on my experience, it may not be possible for you to do everything you want to do: IE: a freestanding 9-story tower with a Fog of War effect.

Do you have Campaign Cartographer? Do you have access to a color printer and massive amounts of ink?

When I tried this, I mapped out the entire dungeon using CC2. Each room occupied its own layer of the map, so that each room could be displayed by itself. I printed out each room separately on regular paper using an inkjet printer at a scale of 1 inch to five feet. I carefully cut out each room using an X-acto knife. I then used rubber cement to glue each room to a piece of foamboard, and then I cut out each piece of foamboard, again with an X-Acto.

The result was like a huge foamboard puzzle. Each room was a separate piece. When the PC's entered a room, I could put down that piece only, creating a fog of war effect. I did not build walls and I did not try to create an actual model.

This method will work well for you if you don't want to create an actual model building. You'll be able to display one floor at a time pretty easily.

 

[RodneyThompson]

First of all, this sounds like an awesome idea. I wish I had the skill to pull something like that off!

Second, one thing I would advise is that you make it so that you can easily have two floors exposed on the table at once. When I ran the Shackled City campaign, during the fight through the tower my players were often split up on two floors (admittedly, they weren't always doing the best job, tactically). Still, you may want to be able to manipulate minis/tokens/whatever you're using on two floors at once.

Third, once you get it done, I demand pictures! Can't wait to see what you end up producing.

 

[ronin]

I did something similar for the Crimson Fleet base in STAP. One way to do this would be to build each floor separately and make them so they can stack on top of one another. When the players head to a new floor you add it to the base as you go. I am not real familiar with Skullrot though so maybe my advice is off. I do own the magazine however- if you could tell me what issue it is in I could take a look at it and maybe give some better suggestions.

Good luck with the project. The look on my players faces was enough to make the project I did well worth while. I posted a few pictures so you could see how the Crimson Fleet base turned out.

 

[Festivus]

I did something like what you are talking about for Blackwall keep in Age of Worms. Thread about it here. Pictures are still there for about another week or two before my site goes dark.

paizo.com - Dungeon / Messageboards / Age of Worms Adventure Path / Archives / Blackwall Keep in 3D

 

[ronin]

I did something like what you are talking about for Blackwall keep in Age of Worms. Thread about it here. Pictures are still there for about another week or two before my site goes dark.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking but looking at the pictures made me think of something- you want to make it 9 levels which may be a problem if they aren't connected together well. I'd hate to see the thing fall over during the session!

If you could get some bolts long enough (I'm sure you could I just don't know what they'd cost) you could run 4 bolts thru each floor in the same spots. The floors could then be held in place with a nut on each bolt at the same height. The bottom floor would be the base to keep it upright. You could even put a bolt on the bottom and top of each floor to make it really solid if you wanted.

I suppose you wouldn't be able to tell until you built it but it seems like it would be fairly sturdy. I'm sure you'll get some more ideas though as others post.

 

[Festivus]

They make bolts that are really, really long and could cover 9 floors no problem. Stick a could nuts and fender washers between "floors" to keep it from moving and you are in business.

 

[B4cchus]

Thanks for all the replies so far!

Ronin: your model looks awesome! I can only hope to build something that comes near that.
Festivus: Unfortunately the links doen't seem to work (Or I am doing something wrong).

As far as construction goes: I think I will make the whole thing stackable, with pillars on each floor. Each pillar will have a deep hole. A long screw/bolt/nail of at least 2 inches long at the underside of the floor of the next level will slot into the pillar hole.
This way I thing the whole thing will remain stable enough. Also by not placing the pillars on the same spot at every level stability will be fine (I hope!).
I think a long bolt that runs through the entire thing could provide a good amount of stability but will require a lot more work. If the plan I mentioned above doesn't work I think I will be going for this solution.

The main issues that I am still wrestling with are the floorplan and the fog of war. I don't have CC so I can't design it in there and print. I do have use of a color printer at work (=free) so I can use some program and print it at full scale. Any suggetions on free programs?
As for the fog of war, I'm leaning towards 1: stacking the floors as they proceed (this elminates a part of the problem) and 2: covering up parts of the floor (with paper, post-its or something similar) and reveal parts as they proceed on each floor.

Cheers!