Thought I'd share our version of Blackwall Keep. In addition to adding 2 Blackscale Lizards, 4 Monitor Lizards, 6 more lizardfolk and a "mobile battering ram", I also did up a basic 3D mock up of Blackwall Keep. It was simple, but man did it make for a great gaming session!

Supplies:
1) 1" to scale print outs of the upper levels of the keep
2) Thin Cardboard (I used an old shoe box)
3) White Glue
4) Wooden Kabob Skewers
5) Scissors

Glue the print outs to the card board. After the glue dries cut out the 3 different Blackwall Keep levels. Make a small starting hole for the skewers on all the cardboard levels. Run the skewers through the top level then continue down. The "tightness" of the cardboard around the skewer holes should be enough to keep it in place. I kept about 3" between each level so fingers could get at the minis. I think that does it.

Man it was a huge hit! I posted some pictures here that one of my players took:

http://photos.yahoo.com/sobustooms

FYI - I also created a small ladder which the lizardfolk used to scale to the second level. That was a hit too. LOL

Enjoy!

Nice one! I may just have to try something like this.... :)

Cheers for posting

b

That is exceptionally awesome! Looks like a good time, I hope it inspires some of the future "Battles at Blackwall"... most who have posted here seemed to have come away a bit sour about the encounter. Well done!

Thought I'd share our version of Blackwall Keep. In addition to adding 2 Blackscale Lizards, 4 Monitor Lizards, 6 more lizardfolk and a "mobile battering ram", I also did up a basic 3D mock up of Blackwall Keep. It was simple, but man did it make for a great gaming session!

Supplies:
1) 1" to scale print outs of the upper levels of the keep
2) Thin Cardboard (I used an old shoe box)
3) White Glue
4) Wooden Kabob Skewers
5) Scissors

Glue the print outs to the card board. After the glue dries cut out the 3 different Blackwall Keep levels. Make a small starting hole for the skewers on all the cardboard levels. Run the skewers through the top level then continue down. The "tightness" of the cardboard around the skewer holes should be enough to keep it in place. I kept about 3" between each level so fingers could get at the minis. I think that does it.

Man it was a huge hit! I posted some pictures here that one of my players took:

http://photos.yahoo.com/sobustooms

FYI - I also created a small ladder which the lizardfolk used to scale to the second level. That was a hit too. LOL

Enjoy!

I printed out the floors on cardstock as well. I started to build the tower out of Jenga blocks (those things are tremendous for buildings), but at the last second discovered that we had three pieces of gray styrofoam that were just the right size in our 'terrain box'. I simply stacked them up, and added a door to the side. The PCs couldn't see what was going on inside the building, which was realistic.

Similar to your situation, they were up against 18 mooks, five blackscales, 6 poison dusks, and two dragonkin. Made for a heck of a battle, which I've written up elsewhere (including the Obituaries).

Very well done! I will be attempting to do this in a couple months when my party finally reaches Blackwall. Thanks for posting the pics and instructions!

How much fun is that! Well played.

I'll need to keep this in mind for other adventures.

That's very cool - I thought about doing this, but it fell into the too hard basket and I just lay the upper levels in a line (top to bottom) on a spare piece of table. Well done!

I must say, my players were very disappointed when they saw the size of the keep on the 5' grid - the picture in the module makes it looks like a really big keep, with all the windows etc, then when they saw the map, they couldn't believe it was so small! When the PC's went in the door, it instantly became full to overflowing! We made up a joke that it was like the Tardis but in reverse...

I took your idea a step further. I tried the cardboard first but found it too flimsy. So I made a few improvements.

You will need:

1" pegboard (this stuff is great for making D&D maps)
12 4.25" x .25" carriage bolts
12 .5" fender washers (I used these for stability)
24 .25" hex nuts
Pressboard (or cereal boxes)
A jigsaw or dremel or something similar to make cuts in the pegboard

Assemble:
1. Scale and print your tower pieces onto paper, cut the tower pieces out.
2. Get some spray glue (light tack), and glue it onto the pressboard.
3. Trace the shape of the cardboard floors onto some 1 inch pegboard
4. Glue the cardboard/paper assembly onto the pegboard
5. Drill four 1/4" holes in each level at each corner (or whereever you want... I did the top floor a bit more on the inside).
6. Assemble bolt by placing a hex nut, followed by the fender washer, followed by one corner of the floor, then a hex nut on top. (it should look similar to the following)

|| <-- bolt
[] <-- nut
== <-- pegboard/paper/pressboard sandwich
-- <-- fender washer
[] <-- nut
|| <-- bolt
||
||
||
[] <-- head of carriage bolt

Repeat until all three upper floors have bolts in all four corners, stack and play. I'll try to take some pictures of it when we play next session.

Here are some pictures to give you a better idea of how it looks:

Assembled Tower
Look, you can disassemble the tower without disturbing your minis
Close up of the leg assembly in case my directions above were not clear.

Enjoy!

Very awesome! Roughly how long did it take to create?

Honestly, 30 minutes not counting the time it took to drive to the hardware store and pickup the nuts, bolts and pegboard.

I have had a lot of practice scaling maps up so that never takes me very long. Your mileage may vary. It did take me a few maps before I mastered the map scaling/printing/cutting techniques, but it's not difficult to make something workable.

It becomes really easy if you have the basic tools on hand:

dremel/scrollsaw
drill
color printer
paper cutter

Great ideas, guys! I'm about to run BWK, and I'm definitely building the keep now. Thanks for sharing your builds.

Okay, is there a 1st floor map of the tower? The issue only has Basement, 2nd floor, 3rd and Top floors.

Help, please!

Okay, is there a 1st floor map of the tower? The issue only has Basement, 2nd floor, 3rd and Top floors.

Help, please!

Uranium Dragon wrote:

Okay, is there a 1st floor map of the tower? The issue only has Basement, 2nd floor, 3rd and Top floors.

Help, please!

The 1st floor of the tower is part of the poster map that shipped with the issue.

Okay, is there a 1st floor map of the tower? The issue only has Basement, 2nd floor, 3rd and Top floors.

Help, please!

Just in case you can't find the poster - the 1st floor is almost identical to the 2nd floor, minus the balcony (i.e., it's a 5x5 square room, with a stairway up to level 2, and another down to the basement. There are two small closet areas - but it's basically one big empty room.

The slightly disappointing, did-we-really-need-a-poster-of-this? first floor map is posted at therpgenius.com.