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Running Curse of the Crimson Throne, I have been making map layouts for every map listed in the books/pdfs. I don't recommend it due to the already long list of To Do's as a GM. If you have miniatures you use for representing the players and monsters alike, well the maps do pay off if you tackle this great undertaking.
Thought I'd share my build of Scarwall
Scarwall
Did not get technical with modeling clay or anything else of the sort. Sorry GM budget :(
Used graph paper and drawled/colored the map as shown in the AP's and then taped it on to the cardboard. Used 1 inch length square dowels and pushed them into thicker dowels cut like wheels to be used as a shelf so to speak to hold each level in place.
Maybe this will be something for players and gms to cringe at and quickly run away from. Maybe others will appreciate the idea and develop there own processes for inexpensive landscape gaming.
Yes, it's ridiculous, as told from my players who snicker at me for using my kids crayons. :P
Actually, I really like what you have done there. I certainly want to do something much like it.
As my players are now entering Part 4, I was giving some thought to Scarwall and how to properly work on mapping it out. Something like this would be way better than the current "big blank map and some Jenga blocks" system.
I'm all for inexpensive ways to do big things like that. Well done.
Thank you.
Yeah I usually just layout each map tile as they approach the upcoming encounter, but with Scarwall there are multiple points of possible entry. My players might go up some stairs rather than clear one level first. I have one guy who likes to split off from the group at times to do some sneaky rogue tricks. The multi-tiered map layout seemed like the only way to go to avoid the multitude of confusion with navigation.
That is sexy.
I like it.
Very nice!! How many hours? I did something like this for the pirate lair in the Savage Tide AP, well worth it. Again, well done.
That's awesome!
Very nice!! How many hours? I did something like this for the pirate lair in the Savage Tide AP, well worth it. Again, well done.
Counting all the sessions, it took a total of ten hours to construct.
It involved drawing all of the 1 inch squares on the graph paper. Sketching and coloring the layout within the grid.
Taping each finished graphed area to the free scrap cardboard.
Cutting the dowel rods to size and placement on the levels.
The only real cost was eight bucks total for the dowel rods at Home Depot. It should only be a one time expense since they can be reused on other maps.
That's amazing! Drawing this out on graph paper for my players was enough for me.
So, Castle Korvosa next? ;-)
I'm glad to hear that your players did not demand more of you with the delivery of Scarwall.
I haven't looked at Castle Korvosa yet in great detail. From what I briefly saw, it looks far easier since the map is more tightly packed in when compared to Scarwall. Its a big square block. :) Should take half the time to do since I know how to construct the levels easily and cheaply now.
I just finished some simple builds of the CotCT Barbican Gate and Academy of Secrets Module of Belzeragna and the Lecture Hall. But yes, looks like Castle Korvosa will be next. I'm happy to share more pictures of other forthcoming maps such as Castle Korvosa if you guys are interested.
That's awesome. Truth be told, I've been wanting to do a high-quality terrain version of a few CotCT set pieces (Castle Korvosa, Scarwall Castle, and the Vivified Labyrinth are chief on the list). For now I'm just settling on buying tons of those gamemastery flip mats, though -_-
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Oh, that's very cool! I love the look of the 3d chess board from Star Trek!
I wimped out and used MapTool (a free virtual tabletop). I created one map for each layer of Scarwall. Since MapTool includes fog-of-war, the players could only see the parts of the castle that they had already explored as they went from map to map. Very cool.
I used the images out of the PDF (extracted using Acrobat 8 since Acrobat 9 can't grab just the image and insists on grabbing the map text as well!) and dropped the TIFFs into MapTool. That just meant some scaling and positioning was needed before adding the "walls" which block light and vision -- that last part allows the fog to be removed automatically by the VTT.