D&D General Short of running the game, my favorite part of D&D is crafting!

[el-remmen]

Let me being this post by saying I am not an artist. I cannot draw and even with a ruler a straight line can elude me. Nevertheless, I love drawing and crafting things for use in my D&D games. For example, in my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign that I ran between 2001 and 2006, the final dungeon was a maze of shifting rooms with dimension door doorways between them, so I drew all the rooms ahead of time, allowing for PCs to be in multiple distant rooms (or lose track of each other) without me having to draw out the room every time.

When I started up my 5E game, I was not even thinking about that aspect of the game, but soon I was back in the thick of it and it is so much fun to do and whip out my creations to awe the players (who really appreciate the effort).

So the latest example(s) is that I constructed ships for one-inch grids for use in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure path. Below are short video displaying my "Sea Ghost" (from Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh) and the Empress of the Waves (re-named from "Salvage Operation"). They are designed to allow for characters to be on different levels of the ship at the same time. I used big presentation graph paper, drew out the ship deck and then pasted them to thin cardboard, using thicker cardboard for the lowest level to give it some heft. Also, in Salvage Mission the ship is pretty wrecked and lists to the port side, so I plan to prop up the starboard side on something to give it an obvious angle when the PCs arrive.

In addition to new paints and brushes for minis (something else I am NOT good at, but love), I have gotten new paper and paint brush markers and dot glue and a bunch of other crafting resources.

Before spamming with images, let me ask my question: How much is crafting/creating a part of your DMing process for D&D?

I still need to draw the wheel on the Empress of the Waves (forgot it somehow).

Here are a couple of process images from making the larger ship:

I have also pre-created large encounter areas for some adventures. Below are maps I made for different part of Danger at Dunwater (one in process):

 

[Marc_C]

Well done. I also enjoy crafting for my fantasy games. I used to do it a lot more. I've slowed down in the last two years.

My last project. A series of rough terrain hex tiles for wilderness combat. They are made with several layers of cork board.

 

[el-remmen]

Just giving this a Monday morning bump, b/c I am holding out hope that people have stuff to share and this post got lost in the weekend shuffle.

 

[Zaukrie]

I used to do a lot. Then we moved, and I started again but the pandemic has mostly stopped it. I was going to do a YouTube series on using garbage, but there are so many others that are great crafters, so o think it is only a couple videos so far.... I'll find some old pictures, because a board and cave walls are the best....

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

When I was younger, I used to love drawing maps of worlds, and of cities, and ESPECIALLY of castles.

I think I must have drawn in the four figures or more of castles. So very manty castles.

 

[Oofta]

For me, it's minis. Unfortunately my phone camera is FUBAR and I recently cleaned out my phone to free up memory which also, apparently wiped out my google photos. Oops.

In any case, a couple of giants survived the great purge because I was using them for icons for my online game. Maybe someday I'll dig out a real camera.

 

[el-remmen]

I've gotten into painting minis myself - after 35+ years of playing D&D - I had given it a shot when I was younger, but btwn my youthful lack of patience, my lack of a steady hand, and the fact that several people in my regular gaming group were VERY VERY good at it, led me to not make too much of an effort. These days my eyesight is much worse and my shaky hands are no better, but I also am less self-conscious about it and it is a fun pastime during quarantine. I have mostly been sticking to big figures like trolls and ogres, creatures without a lot of detail and mostly one color (like some lizardfolk and bullywugs), and inanimate objects like boats.

 

[el-remmen]

When I was younger, I used to love drawing maps of worlds, and of cities, and ESPECIALLY of castles.

I did that a lot too. I am only getting back into this kind of stuff - though this time around I am caring less about global setting maps and stuff and am doing a kind of adding stuff as I go along homebrew.

 

[Oofta]

For a while I got really good at Campaign Cartographer and mapped out all my cities, some of the important buildings, every nation. Now? Eh. I've got a world map, good enough.

 

[pogre]

Crafting is a big part of the hobby for me.

I have several threads covering it for me. Here's my latest:
2020 pogres models