This shot is from the end of our game last Thursday night. The Urdesh bard, Shashi, has just finished off an errant water elemental on the island in the center. Their companions, the Kamion sorcerer/motivational speaker Paklehm and the Shafor warlock Asteh with her mastiff mount Ludo, are visible further to the right back of the island. The party had successfully rid the area of the other two elementals by polymorphing them into clams and having Paklehm and Asteh’s bird familiars fly them far away to be dropped from a great height into the sea.
In the foreground you can see three electric candles, used to remind spellcasters and me as GM that there are concentration spells going on: the two Polymorph spells and Shashi’s illusion of the fire, keeping the water elementals away from the tree shrine in the center. (Those candles were a great idea I got from Lance, one of the players in my former Monday night campaign, in which we tested the Kabalor world with rapid leveling up. His super-chilled-out Duan monk, Shay, reached 20th level and became an emissary of the eminence The Dreamlands.)
So, how did I create this build? And what’s involved here?
In the previous session, a tsunami had struck the coast and the party rescued people in a village at the point where a good size river comes to the inland sea. That great wave pushed up the river and then up the stream leading to a very small community of the diminutive Lissami folk in a swampy area. This is a sacred place, home to a shrine to the eminence The River, andâas with many areas where the veil between this world and the planes of the eminences is thinnerâprone to outbreaks of wild magic. The wave (itself having arisen from great magic) disrupted one of those strong spots of wild magic and combined it with nascent water elementals to create much larger water elementals that are a threat to people and structures. The couple dozen Lissami of this secluded spot fled in every boat they have, leaving behind their possessions in order to carry with them their beloved capybara mounts, and arrived at the damaged village at the river mouth seeking help. Everyone looked immediately at our heroes and, well, ya gotta answer the call, right?
For this build, therefore, I needed: the stream the party comes up, the boat loaned by the Lissami, the shrine to protect, some village structures, a base swampy region, and the suggestion of more flooding than normal, with difficult terrain pretty clearly identifiable onscreen by my players.
The Ikea Linnmon table where I create my builds is narrowâ23.75″ wideâbut about 4′ long. In general, I work with low terrain in the foreground and higher in the background and that fits well with this scenario of the players coming upstream. It also works well for broadcast to my players over Zoom. A screenshot from the end of our game gave me this picture which I only cropped and blacked out the corners of for this post. I use my iPhone as camera, this Haitent stand to hold it, and this older Jackery Bolt battery pack to keep it going through the game. (Those Amazon links help support this site through the commission I earn. For everything else I link to, I try to support the maker or my friendly local game store. â¤ď¸)
I searched through my Paizo maps to find something suitable as the foundation layer for this scene and came up with the out-of-print version of the Village Square, the flipside of which had a mix of green and a gravelly gray suitable to represent water. (Paizo has since switched to roofed and unroofed views of the village on that map, for which I can’t fault them.) The 3D printed model I wanted to use for the shrine, SunForgeGaming’s Place of Power: Sundered Heartwood Tree Shrine, fit nicely in the middle.
With the core plan confirmed as viable, I pulled out my Paizo Marsh Trails Map Pack and filled in the foreground, borrowing a little bit of water from under a bridge from another of their map pack card sets to indicate the stream itself at its transition into the wave-damaged swamp.
As in any terrain setup I’ll be sharing in a long-shot like this, the next step was to establish the horizon. Fortunately, I was able to grow my collection of Dwarven Forge escarpment pieces with a big investment in last December’s restock. The Escarpment Pack, Escarpment Corners Builder, and the Cave Mouth Pack all got involved in building a nice rocky hillside in the back.
To bring the terrain down to the map surface, I used the Dwarven Forge Forest Transition Banks Builder set (also bought in that excellent restock). These represent fairly undamaged land, while my stone banks in cavern paint pieces (1, 2, look like closest listing in the store now) came into use as water-washed or elemental ravaged areas. You can see a triangular piece sitting between Shashi and the pond and at the corner by the larger (for Lissami) building with the brown roof where a water elemental had threatened it before being turned into a clam.
Other Dwarven Forge pieces in play here are a couple large forest floors (Heavy Forest Pack), some forest scatter terrain, my long-sought and much beloved trees (finally back in stock in a shining moment last December after a long wait), and the rowboat. With a waterfall added (from the old Wicked Cavern Pack) in the distance, the visual line of the normal stream is established along the left side of the scene.
Non-Dwarven Forge items filling out the scene include a few styrofoam wargamer hills (mostly for vague horizon greenery plus definition of the creek edge in the foreground) and a resin pond I bought at a gamestore’s flea market day, haystacks from the WizKids Medieval Farm to represent the domes of Lissami reed houses, the roof from the WizKids Jungle Shrine resting on tree stumps from a forest floor section to be their community hall, and some actual dry branch pieces from the yard for flood flotsam. The mushroom ring from the Jungle Shrine set was also in use on the island for marshy ambiance until a water elemental moved through it and destroyed that spot.
On the near center corner of the island is an almost unnoticeable bush which is there to cover up one of the trails in that terrain piece. That Pathfinder Kingmaker Bush, if I recall correctly, I got out of the bits & bobs minis box at Gamescape (my FLGS). Holy cow do I use that thing constantly. All that ranting about “bring me a shrubbery!” makes so much more sense now. Looking forward to additional hedge action coming in Wildlands this year.
During the session the only new thing that came onto the table besides the character, familiar, and elemental minis was fire. First a Major Illusion filling the whole shrine, making it look extremely unappealing to water elementals, played by the Dwarven Forge Wall of Fire Pack. Then a smaller illusion represented by a piece from the WizKids Wall of Fire and Ice set. My completed Monday night campaign featured a Shafor wizard, Nyba of Pvaku, who was a serious fire hazard and my spell effects collection still bears the burn marks.
I hope this visit to a scene in play has been fun for you too!
While the anvils at Dwarven Forge are busy making lovely terrain for Caverns Deep, Hellscape and the Wildlands, those with adventures set in urban environments have been craving a few more options. The clamoring voices have definitely been heardâsurvey questions about potential future campaigns suggest fun in the settled regions is coming nextâbut it’ll be a couple years before that stuff hits gaming tables. Today I’ll show you how to scratch that itch while you wait by making your own shop fronts. You can also use the same materials to make the longer building floors and walls necessary to create jettied upper stories of your buildings.
Are these DIY long floors and side walls and shopfronts as good as professionally sculpted pieces cast in Dwarvenite? Of course not! But are they pretty great for the initial work of an inexperienced painter doing an EVA foam project for the first time? Yes indeed. Give it a try and I think you’ll make something that can find a place on your table too! (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)
Here’s what I’ve made. Let’s have a profusely-illustrated stroll through the history which led me to that design and then I’ll walk you through how you can make your own Dwarven Forge options like these using $20 worth of supplies, a metal ruler, a nice sharp hobby knife, toothpicks, a wire brush (or you can use a toothpick), the craft or mini paints you probably already have, andâif you decide to go for any bigger than 10″ piecesâeither contact cement (like Barge or DAP Weldwood) or Cyanoacrylate (CA) glue (e.g. Loctite Super Glue).
Shop fronts! Let’s go!
The most prevalent historical examples to draw on are from the late Medieval period in Europe. I’m still hoping to find pre-modern examples from other parts of the world. The Chinese images I looked at suggested a complete open side to the shopârequiring no modified pieces for our terrainâbut that may just be an artistic visual device. This one Japanese scene from Japan in 1855 does support the complete open side idea, but again, may not fully reflect the real appearance. Given the context of this and its companion post-earthquake image, though, I think it’s fairly likely it’s realistic.
Anonymous contemporary woodcut of Edo before the great 11 November 1855 magnitude 7.3 Ansei-Edo earthquake (source)
Note how the kimono shop uses an awning with side panels to display inventory in the street. Goods also are placed in front in the street at the shop in the upper right. It appears that the shop openings may have fittings for panels to be inserted to close the front when not open. Note also the shape of the shop, with a two-story section in the rear. That portion may be workshop, residence, or a combination of the two.
We can somewhat suggest this shop style without matching it exactly using existing Dwarven Forge pieces and a bit of creativity.
Dungeon of Doom Double Doors archway with a couple magnetic Passage Walls on their sides so their metal bases can take the fabric hangings from the Magnetic Accessory Add-On Pack. Small paper insert made to fit in the cottage window (just a larger rectangle with the corners cut out to make tabs to hold it in place, easy peasy). Other shop items from various sources Dwarven Forge and otherwise (including porcelain Epiphany festival charms from France and some neat little stuff from The Game Crafter). (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)
The European examples have some common elements to the Japaneseâuse of the street space and integrated workshops and/or residencesâbut also some distinct differences, most notably a shop counter separating the seller from the buyer. The European examples generally incorporate a wide arched window and a simple countertop. Often items are hung around the top of the opening andâtaking advantage of the lightâthe area directly inside is usually a workspace as well as a spot to sell to customers. The wide arched window shape itself seems to signify a shop rather than a residence (see for example this mention onpage 313 of The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain).
A shop counter in the side of a building (This may from the 15th century French encyclopedia Livre des ProprietĂŠs des Choses but I have not yet been able to confirm whether from that or a similar book of the 14th or 15th centuries. Credit your illustrations, bloggers!)
Shutters were widely used to close up the shop front when not in use. These might be removable, or be in a vertical configuration as we’re used to seeing in the present day (shown in the illustration below), or horizontal, where a shutter would fold down to create the counter when supported on trestle legs or fold up to provide an awning over the counter. (This is described extensively with many photographs of surviving English buildings in this page on the Architectural Traces of Shops by Stephen Alsford.)
Note the shutters shown in this early 16th century German example from the house books of the Mendelschen and Landauer Twelve Brothers House Foundations, held by the Nuremberg City Library. (Though this smith has wooden legs for his counter, another example, from 1520, in the same collection shows a smith whose counter is supported by narrow metal legs that wouldn’t be out of place in a market today.)
The counter might extend outside as seen above. Or it might only be on the inside, as seen in the tailor’s shop below. We also see in the picture below a barbershop with cabinets which protrude.
Cy commance le livre du gouvernement des princes fait de frere Gilles Romain, de lâordre des freres hermites de saint Augustin Source: gallica.bnf.fr This is from 1501-1525.
One tailor stands and uses the table/counter as a cutting surface, while the other sits on it and sews. (For a more recent example of the latter, see the historical fashion tailor Zack Pinsent)
The protruding cabinet model appears a lot in Italian market scenes of the 15th century. It is unclear if these are spaces which would be sealed up with shutters or other closures (such as would be used for a tent) when not in use or if the goods would just be taken away. By comparing many images of the same types of scenes we have a better chance of identifying details that have been omitted for artistic clarity in other pictures.
Porta Ravegnana Market Bologna from a 1411 miniature at the Museo Civico Medievale Bologna. Note the sidewalk-like surfaces in front of some shops.
Here I’m creating that early 15th century Italian open market feeling with terrain and minis. This uses lots of Dwarven Forgeâincluding the flat wooden platforms from the Modular Balconies Add-On Packâplus other various minis I’ve gathered over time. The shop fronts in the foreground are my in-progress DIY pieces and in the back are Dwarven Forge City Builder Arch Walls. (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)
Italian examples also show counters with an entryway at the side, as in this 14th century view of a pharmacy from Tacuinum Sanitatis. (Note also the stairs leading to an additional floor of the building which has been rendered very small to place emphasis on the shop.) Here’s a link to a German example from 1533 with a half-door set into the gap by the counter.
The Lanternmaker from Eygentliche Beschreibung Aller Stände auff Erden showing a protruding counter with square legs and a shelf in the arched opening with both hanging and standing goods on display. (Hashtag: #basketenvy)
The Apothecary from Eygentliche Beschreibung Aller Stände auff Erden. Here we get more of a view into the shop interior as well as another example of a protruding counter with wood legs and a shelf in the top part of the arched opening. (Looks like this shaggy individual being supported by a friend as well as their dog need some help.)
With The Shoemaker from Eygentliche Beschreibung Aller Stände auff Erden we switch to a view from inside, looking out. This shop has no protruding counter and instead has a table along part of the arched opening similar to the tailors’ shop illustrated above from half a century earlier. A rod in the opening is used to display goods. Additional workspace is provided at a table further inside the room.
The counter is less clear in this interior view of The Saddler from Eygentliche Beschreibung Aller Stände auff Erden, but it does provide what seems to be a more realistic view of the natural chaos of a working shop.
Many of the historic illustrations of craftspeople also show them working in rooms at tables under large windows (possibly upstairs, based on the lack of customers or street level activity outside the windows, and on architectural traditions in later centuries as seen in buildings like the 18th century stocking knitters’ cottages in St. Mary’s Lane, Tewkesbury).
A key example I’m drawing from are surviving English buildings, especially one which I was able to visit personally, the medieval shop from Horsham at the Weald and Downland Living Museum near Chichester in the south of England. The building is presumed to date from the late 15th century. This is a fairly wide building with room for two shop fronts.
Note the jettied overhangs which allow maximum use of the property footprint while allowing the upper floors to be larger by extending into the street. These also create a protected space at the front of the building next to the shop counters. (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)
“The shop on the left on the ground floor does not connect to the room on the right and might have been rented separately, perhaps with the building owner residing above and only using the small shop front on the right (which connects to the upstairs with a staircase).Each of the two units had a shop at the front and a small hall or âsmoke bayâ open to the roof at the back [My understanding is that this is inclusive in the white ground floor part of the building in my photo]. When the building was dismantled the timbers were heavily sooted, indicating that open fires had been burning over a long period. The fires would have been used for warmth, and possibly also for producing goods for sale â for example, smoked meat, pies or bread. … The building had been dramatically altered during its life and many of the original timbers had been removed. The surviving timbers provided sufficient evidence for the reconstruction, but many of them were not in good enough condition to re-use and have had to be replaced with new oak. On the front elevation none of the ground-floor timbers survived, so we have no evidence for the original shop front. The reconstruction is a copy of a surviving shop front of similar date at Lingfield, near Horsham.” â Weald and Downland Living Museum
In narrower buildings than this Horsham two-shop example, a hallway off the street might have a door opening into the shop as well as to living areas and to the outside behind the building. As the Tewkesbury example is described, “The front door opened onto a corridor which ran past the shop, but gave immediate access, from the side, to the shop; it also gave access further in to the living quarters, and at the far end to the service rooms and garden. The hall lay behind the shop; part of the hall was open through the upper storey to create a void for smoke from the hearth to drift upwards rather than disperse into living areas. Behind the hall were the service rooms (kitchen and buttery [which is where you keep the butts of liquor, often a small room or closet which can be locked]). A steep, almost ladder-like, staircase on one side of the hall led to the upper storey where were two bedrooms: one above the hall and shop, the other above the service rooms. A latrine would likely have been located in the garden at rear of the house.”
To return to our Horsham example, here’s a lovely photo showing museum staff or volunteers demonstrating the shop in use:
The Museum has a wonderfully rigorous historic clothing research project. Photo copyright Weald and Downland Living MuseumNote the shutter folded up inside against the ceiling. (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)A closer look at the interior as staged by the museum, giving a good sense of the amount of interior space. That’s the supplies for a demonstration of flax being prepared for making into linen in the front. This was probably an activity more likely to be done in a home than a shop. (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)Looking out from inside the small shop front. (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)
With confidence about the appearance, now it’s time to make our shop. First, we make a pattern for a piece which will fit in the front of a Dwarven Forge 4″ building front. Start by creating a piece of cardstock the size of the piece for which you are substituting.
Make several. You’ll probably get inspired to create variations. đ (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders, as are the other DIY constructing detail shots on this page.)
For our shop front we’re going to use the proportions of the door piece, but make the door opening be the shop arch and the wall be the narrow door. We want to capture to our template the size of the timbers so that the piece feels consistent with the others.
Put the template and the piece foot to foot and mark the timber edges.
Make note also of the top timbers.
Put the door edge, where the timber line is easiest to see, against the edge of your template and mark it. Then flip it over and doo the same on the other end.
Now you can draw in your shop arch and narrow doorway. Draw the whole archway to the ground, even if your finished version will have a wall below the arched opening. It’s easier to cut this way and no problem to adjust back afterwards.
While you’re looking closely at the pieces you’ll be matching, draw in some wood grain to remind you later.
Now it’s time to meet your new best friend: EVA foam. EVA, or Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate.
10mm EVA foam is just a little less thick than a Dwarven Forge floor and a just a little more thick than a Dwarven Forge cottage wall. Works great as an adaptation of either, along with its many other uses.
This magnificent substance is heavily used by cosplayers so there’s lots of good info out there for working with it. It cuts with a craft knife, can be gently sanded to created curved surfaces, and takes paint well (especially after you give it a little heat with a hot air gun or hair dryer). For our purposes you want small panels, of high density, in 10mm thickness so that it matches Dwarven Forge walls. You can buy a stack of eight such 9.6″x 9.6″ panels from Amazon for under $20 (and that link helps support this site through the commission I earn).
Our next step in building our shop front is to cut out a piece of 10mm thick high density EVA foam the same size as the wall piece we’ll be replacing.
I made a sloppy, slightly diagonal cut on the top end here, but it’s not a big deal because those will be trimmed to a point to slot into the corner posts anyhow.
Use your paper pattern, out of which you’ve cut the openings, as a template and mark with pencil where you’ll cut the EVA foam.
Pencil shows up fairly well, you can also gently scratch the lines with a toothpick.
Before you cut the openings, while the piece is still at its sturdiest, trim the ends to fit in Dwarven Forge corner posts. Set a wall on top and trace the point onto the EVA foam on both sides, top and bottom.
You can see how sturdy this stuff is, while still being flexible. This ain’t that squishy kind of foam.
To keep from going too far off the cut line, just go halfway down for each cut, flip the piece over, and then finish from the top. When cutting, go slowly and carefully to keep your lines more straight and to avoid cutting yourself. EVA foam is dense, but still springy. Be careful. đ
Ready for the second half of the cut. It’s OK that these are a little rough and wavy; that helps convey the hand-built nature of this architecture.Save cut out pieces and trimmed bits. They come in handy. Along with any bigger “rocks” you make from trimmings, you can sweep EVA foam crumbs into your ‘random basing grit’ container to add lightweight rough surface texture to your mini bases.Looking back at the wood grain you drew on your template, use a wire brush or the point of a toothpick to add texture to the timbers on your cut piece. Since you won’t need to prime the EVA foam, this will be enough to create the wood effect when painting.Here’s a test fit at this stage, using a Dwarven Forge Fruit Stall from the Wicked City Accessory Add-On Pack to create a protruding counter in the shop arch space.
Take your cut out door piece and get a clean stoop timber to go across the bottom of the door frame. (I had a rough bottom edge, so I took my clean piece from above my trimming getting rid of that ragged spot.) Take about the bottom third of the arch cutout piece to form your minimal counter.
Try to keep your craft knife blade perpendicular to the surface of the foam panel, use a metal straight edge as a guide, and cut in smooth, steady strokes. (EVA foam is dense and hard on blades; don’t work with a dull blade. Keep fresh blades on hand.)
Here are our new pieces in place.I’ve made the stoop even with the timbering and set the counter piece back just a little since I expect to paint all but the top of it to match the plastering of the building.
Before we go on to gluing and painting, here’s a quick example of making a simple outside counter as seen in many of the sources above. I’ve cut a counter out of my archway cutout piece and pierced it with two toothpicks. Once I got the height settled to a pleasing position, I cut the toothpicks off with a plastic frame cutter.
You want to use a cutter with a flat side to leave a fairly smooth counter.
If you want your shop front to have a solid door, take your doorway cutout and split it vertically to be half as thick, as shown below.
This is one where it’s good if your blade is longer than the width of the door so that you get a fairly smooth front.
Even though I trimmed extra off the bottom of the door cutout, this too-small, rough-fitting door still looks the part. Now it just needs a bit more wood grain texture from the wire brush (or a toothpick).
EVA foam also is available in large, inexpensive batches as floor matting. This comes in many colors, for example, 24″ square brown pieces (approx. $1/sq foot in a six pack). These floor mats are not quite as dense as the black non-floor-mat type and have a pattern on one side, but are still serviceable. (That link helps support this site through the commission I earn.)
To build a multi-level shop-front building with overhanging fronts, I’ve cut each floor 1/2″ longer than the one below, representing an overall 5′ overhang at scale. They’re 4″ wide to match standard Dwarven Forge Cottage walls, so I’ve only needed to cut special side walls for the top and middle levels.
NOTE: There will be slight shrinkage from the heat as seen here on this 1″ grid under a black piece (from the non-floor-mat set I bought) that formerly fit to those lines. Cut your pieces ever so slightly oversize. This image also gives you a good look at the surface after heat sealingâready to paint with no priming!
Before heat sealing, I’ve textured all the surfaces since cuts in EVA foam will separate slightly when heated. This helps retain the detail.
On the left a Dwarven Forge wooden floor. On the right a piece cut from a brown floor mat. I’m using a steel ruler as a guide to cut very shallow lines for the boards at the same scale. Then I’ll use the wire brush to add wood texture. (In future I would also do tiny jabs with the point of a toothpick to create sunken nailheads so that detail would be easier to add later.)Before heat sealing on the left and after on the right. Nothing else done to the right one to make the detail pop; it’s all the heat effect!
Before painting, you’ll want to heat seal the surface. This is super easy with a heat gun, but doable with a hair dryer on high (or so the cosplay folks say; I’m the kinda gal who owns a heat gun but not a hair dryer and haven’t tested the latter myself). Let the heat gun come to temperature, then pass it over your cut foam pieces, watching the surface become less porous and less matte. It is a very quick changeâdon’t go nuts and melt your foamâand will leave you with a nice smooth surface for painting, no priming necessary. Note: you’re heating plastic; do this in a well-ventilated area. A silicone place mat is handy to prevent heat damage to the surface you’re working on (and if you get a smooth one in dirt brown or dungeon gray it can do double duty in your builds hiding random items you’re using for elevation like board game boxes).
I made the holes for the Dwarven Forge corner posts using a hand-powered hobby drill after heat sealing the pieces so that the fit stays tight. If you don’t have a hobby drill (like you’d use for putting pins into the bottom of a mini), just use a drill bit about half the diameter of the corner post pins. You don’t need to remove much foam in the hole to create room.
When marking where to make your holes for corner posts, use a Dwarven Forge piece as a guide. Press down hard to make a little circle, then use a hand-powered hobby drill to create a small hole into which you can work a corner post.
For a roof of the new longer length, I got a brown yoga block made of EVA foam and cut it down to size. These blocks happen to have a black stripe, which makes a nice decorative effect. Each block is enough for two roofs for a 5″ x 4″ building, with big extra bits left over. (That link helps support this site through the commission I earn.) For cutting something like this, I used an Olfa Utility Knife (as recommended by Jeremy of Black Magic Craft.)
Roof and long upstairs side wall pieces cut from yoga block and gym mats, respectively, with texture added. (I used Mel The Terrain Tutor’s technique for a good thatch pattern and used a toothpick to score the foam. That turned out pretty subtle later and in future I’ll try instead very shallow blade cuts before heat sealing.)
Since the EVA foam doesn’t require priming, I can move straight on to painting. For this I roughly followed the excellent color advice and order of operations from Dwarven Forge, with two big changes: ⢠These aren’t lovely DF sculpts; you won’t get as much instant effect from drybrushing and may have to do a little more painting to get your finished effect. ⢠Cheap craft paint works fine on EVA foam; an inexpensive assortment like these Apple Barrel paints will get you through a lot of projects. (That link helps support this site through the commission I earn.)
It’s not perfect, but I am very pleased with the results of this first experiment with EVA foam. I’m looking forward to the day I can replace these with real pieces of Dwarvenite, but until then I’ve got a lot more building options available to me.
EVA foam pieces in this picture, floors and side walls of middle and top stories of building in foreground and its roof, shop front wall insert of rear building at right, extended floor of stone building in center rear, and bonus stealth use of the bumpy side of floor mat foam to fill in background brickwork at top right. (I made the other side of that narrow leftover piece wood-textured so it could serve as a plank sidewalk, dock, or wood deck.) (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)In this image you can see that it’s not hard to use craft paints to blend in with your Dwarven Forge pieces. You can also see that some trimming and fine-tuning will be needed to the new custom wall lengths so that they aren’t pushing the corner posts outward. As it is it’s suggesting the hand-hewn nature of this architecture perhaps a touch too well. That quick-and-dirty yoga block thatch roof turned out pretty good, I think! Since I bet people will ask, the wagon turning the corner away from us is a Keebler collectible I picked up on eBay, beautifully painted and weathered for me by my artist friend Terrance Graven to fit better in a low-fantasy setting. (Photograph by me, Dinah Sanders)
Whatever shop style we choose, it’s worth remembering that it almost certainly exists in the wider context of temporary market stalls, herded groups of animals, wandering mongers with trays, and all manner of people trading from wagons, baskets, and goods they carry on their backs. Have fun filling in lots of less formal commerce activity!
For much more detail on markets as public spaces, primarily from an architectural and current civic space design viewpoint but with many historical notes and illustrations, see The Marketplace: Bringing Back the Public Space Inside the Market by Andreea Tron (2016)
image detail from Dwarven Forge Wildlands Kickstarter (copyright Dwarven Forge)
Dwarven Forge makes great, super-sturdy terrain. It’s the best combination of aesthetics and durability out there. It will last, so it’s a good investment as a gamemaster who wants to liven up their play table (whether in person or when playing remotely), but it isn’t cheap.
If you are a person with good self-control who is willing to wait a long time for the goods to arrive, backing their Kickstarters is a great way to get pieces at a better price. Backers pay less than they would later in the store.
Their current Kickstarter, Wildlands, closes on September 2, 2020. I will use it to illustrate some general things that you may want to consider when deciding where to invest your gaming money. Dwarven Forge is fortunately so experienced at this that the big question to ask before backing any Kickstarter projectâ”Will they deliver on their promises?”âis a firm Yes. (There’s a good overview of their history in the campaign video.) What else should you be considering?
Quick and dirty tips time. Tons going on at our house (minor bathroom remodel, yay!) so, though this would be better as a video walkthrough Ă la Nate, since I do not have a video setup or time to quickly fake one, weâll be one half step better than the Theater of the Mind: a Medium post with some snaps from my phone. Dwarven Forge and other 3D terrain lovers, get yourselves the little paper organizer set from Ikea known as TJENA. Itâs just the right size to work with Dwarven Forge terrain!
The five pieces from the TJENA set provide a rising landscape well-suited to Dwarven Forge terrain.
Piece 1: The Tray
The tray is about 2.5 floors high, so it works well in combo with stairs (search for âstair jackâ to find sets with these little step pieces) or where a raised area with a railing is desired.Flipped, the tray is good for lowered areas, but doesnât exactly match the grid. To hide any awkward fits, use terrain trays or bank pieces or ledges to create an overhang.
Piece 2: Low Square
Nice for a one story building where the roof is what youâre interested in. (Iâm using an old 2″ elevation block to hold up the hidden back end of the stone terrain tray for this shot.)
Piece 3: Medium Square
These work great with small terrain trays on their sides to provide wall texture.
Piece 4: High Square
Anyone who tries to get all the way up here sure better like arrows. (Also, yay for the variety of stairs Dwarven Forge has offered over time. Keep âem cominâ.)
Piece 5: The Big Tjena
A super handy piece. Youâd want to reinforce it inside if you were sticking heavy stuff on top, but it takes this big floor on top just fine. Again, works great with a small terrain tray for wall texture. For stair variety, Iâve used whiskey stones for one of their few legitimate purposes: terrain. Useful to keep in your DM âmixed bitsâ kit; I use âem all the time to support things, indicate pillars, etc. If you donât already own some that taste like the inside of your freezer (and bring that sad flavor to your drinks), I bet you know someone who does.On its edge the big Tjena piece is very tall. With a floor piece on top itâs 35′ in game terms.Unfortunately the narrowest side doesnât match our grid as well, so this should be used on the edge of a build or in a forgiving location in the overall grid.When the big Tjena is on its side, the short edge is a bit easier to work into a grid.
Okay, dungeonmasters, hie thee hence to ye olde Ikea and start blowing your players minds with more multi-level builds!
p.s. I bet the GRĂ SIDAN set from Ikea would work even better, all being 2″ tall, but I havenât gotten one to play with yet. â â â As of late August 2019 I have gotten to try the GRĂ SIDAN pieces and theyâre great!
âBut, Dinah,â I hear you cry, âwhere will I store all these pieces?â
đ Thatâs the life changing magic of tidying up⌠Flip them over and Konmari your drawers!
Now doesnât a stealth roll like that spark joy?
~
(The original version of this post was published on Medium in July 2019 as part of âD DMs D&Dâ)
Iâm not pure theater-of-the-mind; I still do like to use miniatures and grid maps to help understand lines of sight, spell effects, etc. I find these help me create more complex situations in which the players can get immersed.
I worried at first using 3D terrain would reduce their engagement, but photos by my players like this let me know theyâre being transported.
(photo by Lance Arthur)
Now that Iâve made the investment, Iâm often using elaborate miniature setups like that pictured above, and in a less character-centric perspective here:
(photo by Terrance Graven)
However, I donât always use the 3D terrain. In the photo below you can see how Iâm combining 2D and 3D pieces to amplify the feeling of a cave environment.
I want the organic intricacy of the cave space to come through, so Iâm using a great set of paper map tiles from Paizo. But I also want the players to feel the closed-in solidity, so Iâve built the entrance and exit with Dwarvenforge terrain.
(photo by Dinah Sanders)
Notice above how Iâve placed a couple 3D stalagmites on top of those drawn on the 2D map. This really helps to give the immediate sense of the ratman peeking out at them from partial cover.
Though this was intended as a non-combat encounter, I was ready for it to become a fight. Thatâs part of why I built out the exit from the room to show where reinforcing ratfolk would enter and take cover in corners.
I hope that picture also illustrates how investing in even a few 3D terrain pieces can make a big difference.
You can use them in combo with your 2D maps or even without a map to help clarify a complex combat or visibility situation. âI donât understand. Why canât I peek around the corner, across the hall, and into that other doorway?â
The pedestal blocks shown below are also super helpful to illustrate vertical situations.
(photo by Fred von Lohmann)
Here is the party in a small room (which I drew on a dungeon tile grid just before the players got to my house and set aside until we got to this puzzle).
I told them, âThe room has a 20′ ceiling, but on one wall the top 5′ are open.â Their challenge was how to get somebody up those 15′ to get into a treasure room once hidden behind a long-gone tapestry.
3D terrain is all from Dwarven Forge https://dwarvenforge.com/ (as is the ratman mini). Be sure youâre buying painted; they do a fantastic job.
The paper map tiles are from Paizo (who also make really great big maps with tons of detail, which Iâve used a lot in the past and will be using again): https://paizo.com/
The dry erase dungeon tiles are made by Role 4 Initiative and I think I bought them at our lovely local game store, Gamescape. You should buy local whenever possible to help keep gaming alive; local shops are where many people first play. When I visit a shop and donât find anything else I want, I try to buy a set of dice or something small and useful like that to help keep the business going.
The other minis are from various sources. I am always visiting game shops in cities I travel to and checking for painted plastic minis. Alas, so many are sold in random packs now that for monsters I often buy used to be sure Iâm getting exactly what I need. Cool Stuff, Inc. is a good source: https://www.coolstuffinc.com
The big vinyl mat under all this I probably also bought at a game shop. It has 1″ grid on one side and hex map on the other (thoâ I never use that side). I wish someone would make a vinyl mat that was greenish-tan on one side and stone gray on the other, to be a better place setting for wilderness and city/dungeon adventuring.
The nice wooden dice tower, dice tray, and storage box you can see in the background is from Wyrmwood, who make absolutely beautiful stuff. https://wyrmwoodgaming.com/
In the background of the last shot you can see the top of my little wheeled cabinet of drawers. This fits in our back room most of the time, but on D&D night I roll it out next to my chair. Itâs a huge boon for a DM as you can keep everything youâll need handy in it and it provides a space for you to put your drink out of the danger zone of your dice rolling and gesticulating. The top drawer has stuff I use almost every game like our initiative order tracker, condition markers, some of the players minis, my pencil and eraser, small paper cards for passing notes to players, etc. The drawers below that I keep empty and set up before each game with the NPC/monster minis and terrain I expect to need. The bottom drawers have my miniatures sorted into broad categories like âNPC/hero/villager typesâ, undead, goblinoids, beasts, etc. [You can buy the same cabinet here: https://amzn.to/2LpbFFK but as of August 2020 I no longer recommend it. If you put anything at all heavy in it, including a drawer full of papers and softcover rulebooks, the sides bow outward eventually and then the drawers start falling out of their tracks. Cheap turned out to be too cheap. It’d be fine for underwear or lightweight crafts or something though. I recommend also getting some lining for the drawers so minis donât get chipped as you roll the cabinet https://amzn.to/2Ezuvtw (I didnât stick it down, just cut it into pieces to drape across the inside of each drawer) The caster wheels that come with the cabinet are cheap plastic and will break within six months if my experience rolling over carpet is typical. Assemble it with sturdy ones instead. I got my ball caster wheels at the local hardware store (shop local when you can!) and they look a little like these: https://amzn.to/2Br5KM4 ]
(The original version of this post was published on Medium in December 2018 as part of “D DMs D&D”)
Our Magic 
