Terrain and Minis – Page 2

Dipping Your Toes Into Dwarven Forge

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 project—”Will they deliver on their promises?”—is a firm Yes. (There’s a good overview of their history in the campaign video.) What else should you be considering?

Ikea TJENA + Dwarven Forge pieces = easy and cheap elevation

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 à la Nate, since I do not have a video setup or time to quickly fake one, we’ll 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. It’s just the right size to work with Dwarven Forge terrain!

A miniature fighter advances across a raised courtyard, as 4 levels up an archer watches. Underneath it all: black boxes. — The five pieces from the TJENA set provide a rising landscape well-suited to Dwarven Forge terrain.

Piece 1: The Tray

An archer stands behind a wall providing partial cover, guarding a short set of stairs. The wall is a normal dungeon wall pressed against the side of the upside down tray from the Tjena set. The figure stands on a flat terrain tray with a stone pattern. The stairs are a 2x2 floor tile with the stair jacks resting on them by the side of the tray. — The tray is about 2.5 floors high, so it works well in combo with stairs (search for ‘stair jack’ to find sets with these little step pieces) or where a raised area with a railing is desired.

An adventurer stands overlooking a sunken area where the floors have collapsed to reveal water below flowing into caves The pit is the tray rightside up, with a smallwater terrain tray resting inside and cavern and cave pieces creating a jumbled flooded scene. — Flipped, the tray is good for lowered areas, but doesn’t 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

A guard keeps watch on the roof of a building overlooking a canal. The building ground floor is the low square Tjena piece with a small terrain tray resting on top and passage walls with a 1" wide stone floor forming the canalside path beside a small water tray. There is 4x4 little building creating a second story beside the open part of the roof where the archer stands. Stair jacks on edge form battlements. — Nice for a one story building where the roof is what you’re interested in. (I’m 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

An archer watches over a winding staircase below her. The high structure she is on is the inverted medium square Tjena with a layer of floor tiles on top. The small terrain tray on its side comes up just below the top of that floor tile. — These work great with small terrain trays on their sides to provide wall texture.

Piece 4: High Square

An archer watches over an even taller winding staircase below her. Again, a Tjena piece with a layer of floor tile provides the vantage point of the archer. It is the height of two elevation blocks, a 1x2 stair, and a stairjack. The black side of the box is fully visible but looks fine surrounded by the stone terrain and terrain tray below. — 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 ’em comin’.)

Piece 5: The Big Tjena

The archer guards a shorter staircase this time, but I bet she’ll still skewer anyone who tries to get to her up the jumbled stone stairs. The big Tjena in its horizontal position with two layers of floor tile on top is the same height as a small terrain tray on its side. — A super handy piece. You’d 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, I’ve used whiskey stones for one of their few legitimate purposes: terrain. Useful to keep in your DM ‘mixed bits’ kit; I use ’em all the time to support things, indicate pillars, etc. If you don’t 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.

Dwarven Forge floor pieces are used next to the box to indicate its size for game purposes. It does not fit exactly to the grid. — On its edge the big Tjena piece is very tall. With a floor piece on top it’s 35′ in game terms.

Dwarven Forge floor pieces are used next to the box to indicate its size for game purposes. It does not match the grid. — Unfortunately the narrowest side doesn’t 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.

Dwarven Forge floor pieces are used next to the box to indicate its size for game purposes. It does not match the grid but through the use of a passage wall butted against it so that the floor of the wall is on the grid, it's fine. — 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 GRÅSIDAN set from Ikea would work even better, all being 2″ tall, but I haven’t gotten one to play with yet.
— — —
As of late August 2019 I have gotten to try the GRÅSIDAN pieces and they’re great!

A Dwarvenforge wall+floor corner piece sits beside a GRÅSIDAN paper tray turned upside down. They are the same height.

“But, Dinah,” I hear you cry, “where will I store all these pieces?”

😉 That’s the life changing magic of tidying up… Flip them over and Konmari your drawers!

A drawer holding rows of neatly rolled socks, which are held in place in a hidden paper tray.

Now doesn’t a stealth roll like that spark joy?

(The original version of this post was published on Medium in July 2019 as part of “D DMs D&D”)

Using maps, minis, and terrain

I’m 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 they’re being transported.

A photo taken low down near the table looking over the shoulder of a miniature of a dragonborn paladin wielding a sword as he prepares to enter an eerily lit stone tomb. In the background can be seen another player getting in low with their camera to take a picture. — (photo by Lance Arthur)

Now that I’ve made the investment, I’m often using elaborate miniature setups like that pictured above, and in a less character-centric perspective here:

A view down a table with a multi-room tomb laid out with 3D terrain tiles resting on an erasable gridded mat. Beyond the entry hall and first room, through an archway, miniature figures can be seen in a room with an open sepulcher gathered around a closed one. In the background is a stone shrine with a dagger on it which has moved aside to reveal a chamber beyond lit by green and gold lights. — (photo by Terrance Graven)

However, I don’t always use the 3D terrain. In the photo below you can see how I’m 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 I’m using a great set of paper map tiles from Paizo. But I also want the players to feel the closed-in solidity, so I’ve built the entrance and exit with Dwarvenforge terrain.

An erasable 1" grid mat is on table, sitting atop it in the center are color map cards with a view of above of a cave area. At the top and bottom edge, connecting to the cave map, are pieces of 3D terrain which extend the map. Miniature figures of stalagmites and characters are placed on the map. — (photo by Dinah Sanders)

Notice above how I’ve 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. That’s 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.

I recommend your first investment in 3D pieces (whether you buy them or craft them yourself) be these cave pedestals (or something like them): https://shop.dwarvenforge.com/collections/caverns-painted/products/large-pedestal-pack-expertly-hand-painted

You can use them in combo with your 2D maps or even without a map to help clarify a complex combat or visibility situation. “I don’t understand. Why can’t I peek around the corner, across the hall, and into that other doorway?”

The pedestal blocks shown below are also super helpful to illustrate vertical situations.

A dry-erase mat with a 1" grid has a small room drawn on it and a group of miniatures standing in the space. One edge has two blocks which look like rough cave stone stacked to be about two and a half times the height of the miniatures. One mini is balanced on the shoulders of two others and it is clear that they would not be able to reach the lip of the raised column unless the ones supporting her hoisted her higher, lifting her up from under her feet. — (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, “The room has a 20′ ceiling, but on one wall the top 5′ are open.” Their challenge was how to get somebody up those 15′ to get into a treasure room once hidden behind a long-gone tapestry.

Rhogar metal mini is from HeroForge, I think https://www.heroforge.com/
3D terrain is all from Dwarven Forge https://dwarvenforge.com/ (as is the ratman mini). Be sure you’re 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 I’ve 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 don’t 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 I’m 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 (tho’ 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. It’s a huge boon for a DM as you can keep everything you’ll 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 “NPC/hero/villager types”, 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 don’t get chipped as you roll the cabinet https://amzn.to/2Ezuvtw (I didn’t 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 ]