Kickstarter : Pop-up Miniature Terrain Kits!

I'd like to promote the following Kickstarter : Pop-up Miniature Terrain Kits!

This is great idea from Stonehaven Miniatures, and one I've had in the past, especially once I picked up
a robocraft/silhouette. Unfortunately, I've yet to had the time to explore the idea and flesh things out, the best i've done is create some buildings and other papacraft structures for my gaming needs.  Now I don't have to! There are only 4 days left so go and pledge, I'd recommend going with the .pdf myself if you enjoy creating the kits yourself, but feel free to support them anyway you can!

I normally don't promote kickstarters unless I'm backing them myself, and to do so they have to meet a few criteria: 

• The idea has to be somewhat unique and well executed.  Oh you've got a cool idea and it'd be great for gaming, but your art skills suck.  Instead of creating the kickstarter with your crappy art skills find an artist and get them to "finish" your project and get it ready for presentation. 
• The kickstarter has to have a semblance of actually fulfilling their promise in a timely manner. (I'm still waiting on a few kickstarters that its been over a year for something that should have been simple to proceed with once they had their funding, e.g. have everything lined up ahead of time vs he lets start looking for manufacturing and distrubuting AFTER we're funded!)
• It has to be a good value for the money.  Creating something awesome but have it be way out of proportion to what is delivered just because its kickstarter is idiotic.  Kickstarter is to get an idea out and get a feel for the market, not to do a one time sale of goods.  Also raising the price of something after the kickstarter to an exorbant amount than was was advertised in the kickstarter is also absurd.  Creating something for $10 in a kickstarter and then charging $50 for the same product is crazy. Even more so if there are other similar projects out there that already priced lower!

This certainly meets all of that cretiera, for the .pdf version, and I enjoy making the terrain myself anyways, so having the plans and the artwork is really a great idea and one cheep enough that most gaming groups can afford, not to mention that storing them is going to be a breeze!

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

FREE - Laboratory or Alchemist Equipment Models for Your RPG!

(click to embiggen)

In the previous post I created a set of easy to construct papercraft tables for you to use with your favorite RPG.  Here is the accompanying accessory which is a set of Jars with ingredients, a alembic (or still), and some laboratory equipment (modern).  You can use these for most all RPG's as decoration in a tavern, alchemist lab, or evil mad scientist lair. 


You can print them out at 300 dpi on 110 lbs cardstock and construct a base, if needed, out of a squished drop of hot glue (or regular glue but then you have to wait forever for it to dry fully) between two pieces of parchment paper.  


What I did was use set my printer to print on a transparency to give a "glass like" effect, which turned out especially well on glass jars but "ok" on the other two.  Experiment and let me know in the comments how you use these in your campaigns or even put up the urls to some action shots!


(click to embiggen and save the image or right click and "save as" the image)

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

FREE - Paper Model Tables For Your RPG!

(click to embiggen)

Recently my gaming group was nearing an alchemist lab I had placed in a wizards tower so I needed some tables and alchemist gear to give the idea of a sinister laboratory.  I wanted a basic design and came up with more or less a couple of "boxes", so they are easy to build, and you can knock out a bunch in a sitting or two. Downloads for both a clean set and a grunged up set after the jump...

FREE Sky Tile Texture 8in x 10in

Sky Tile 1in. Grid 8in x 10in
300 dpi

Previously I posted a ocean/deep water tile texture for use as battlemat tiles/hexes and had a request for other terrain types.  My home campaign currently just entered into a demi-plane of air which is why I've been making up "elevation markers" and the soon to be posted "Elevation/Depth" Game Board.  So here are the files for the sky tile texture in a 1in grid, 1.5in grid, as well as a heroscape hex outline and heroscape hex vertices in a 8in x 10in full sheet of paper.  Click on the images and save the full size images and print at 300 dpi from a graphic app instead of from the browser. (rest of the formats after the jump)

Make Your Own Resin Water Tiles! - Part 5 and Part 5a

In the previous video, Part 4, I showed you an actual pour of resin into a mold some of the molds I used in creating tiles, along with some results and some mistakes when using that Clear-Lite resin.  Like to point out again that the epoxy I've used, and have had no problems with is the Easy Cast casting resin you can find at Michaels, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Hardware stores, and other craft stores.  

hassle free water tiles

The remaining two videos I show you how to coat the top of your resin tiles with 5 min Epoxy and create that wave pattern or a ripple pattern.  The tile I use  in the video is a tile that was a "mistake", a portent to the hilarity of the other mistake I make in this video when I mix up a little too much resin.  Either way the process is the same with a "good" tile and I'd recommend you only mix up .5 fluid oz or 1 tiles worth of resin at a time.  The second video shows a follow up to my mistake, and how I try to correct the mistake, which I do somewhat.  Eventually I had to do another half coat to blend in the line on the tile (not in the video) but the results are depicted in the 1st post of the series.  This goes to show you however even mistakes can be corrected if  you take the time and learn from them.

Ultimately, however because I was using the Clear-Lite resin, and I can only assume a chemical reaction between the clear-lite resin and the 5 min expoy the tiles are ruined, as the two chemicals caused a crystallizing effect in between the two layers of 5 min epoxy and resin.  I've not seen any of the crystallizing with the easy cast resin which is what I use exclusively for my water tiles.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask them in the comments below!


You can also find the entire series HERE at the d4d6d8d10d12d20 youtube channel!

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

  

World Works Games Terraclips Unveiled!

I've been a big fan of the World Works Games products.  Whenever I can, I'll try and pick up one of their product if my budget allows for it, but more and more often I find myself on their site and amongst the community of builders there just looking for inspiration to create my own constructions.  Which tailoring my constructs for my campaigns and players is something my players enjoy, and I enjoy doing.

World Works Games site is a great resource to get ideas and they have many wonderful products. It was World Works Games that I found the idea to create a Velcro Game Board playing surface so you can attach your dungeon tiles then move pieces of terrain to and from the battle mat quickly and efficiently.  

You never had to have the entire dungeon constructed like you would with dwarven forge tiles just hidden by paper coving the tiles.  All you would do is have 1/4 of your board constructed out or stitched together on the fly because everything was so light weight as it was all papercraft (for the most part) and bringing in a new terrain piece always surprises the players, in a good way.

World Works Games has just announced the release (Aug 5th, 2010) of their latest product called Terraclips.  This time around its a tangible product unlike their digital .pdf's downloads...