IMO, the map folio for this AP is a must-have for the portions where you are exploring large areas such as Smuggler's Shiv, or the hidden cities. There's also a mini of Chivane that was released not too long ago that might be nice to pick up.
Since I expanded the sea voyage a lot in mine, I likewise found having a good map of a ship handy so the characters could have their own space. It sounds like we have the same maps actually.
I use the map folio and the excellent Paper Minis.
Both have been very helpful so far though for combat encounters I also use enlarged print-outs of the GameMastery maps provided in City of the Seven Spears.
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For Savith Yi, I am using these:
Dave Graffams crosspiece ruins set 1
Dave Graffams crosspiece ruins set 2
Ruined Plaza
I lived in Africa for twenty years. The fieldstone texture is very close to the ancient walls you see in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
I made huts from the Legend of Skull Cove Worldworks Games terrain.
I used these, stuck to foamcore, as a modular ground cover, with cobbles and roads on one side, and grass and dirt roads on the other:
Medieval Ground Tiles
And these see good use too:
Wilderness tiles
I gave my group a compass, marker, and the island map from the Campaign Setting Map Pack.
They used this to explore and chart their progress around the island. It worked awesome and was very immersive being a large full color map.
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Yar!
Both I and the majority of my players are avid mini collectors and painters. So we have TONS of them.
We also have a large wet-erase battle mat for most encounters.
We also use the Crit and Fumble decks.
We also use Plot Twist cards.
We also use Hero Points, and I made a bunch of cards for those as well (a sweet graphic on one side, and a point form list of what you can do with a Hero Point on the other) ... I'll get some pics of them up soon.
I also have the Map Folio for the AP.
For the big/main encounters, I'm actually building custom 3d terrain out of foam (warhammer style, painted, and then textured with with ballast, flock, (fake) realistic water, model trees, etc), and have cut some specific lengths of string and pip-cleaner with 1" markings on them for easy and fluid determinations of distance, as well as squares of cut black felt to be used as "fog of war".
The Ritual Site on the side of Red Mountain (complete with a removable layer of water to reveal the area under post-ritual)
The Temple of Zura
I'll get pics of those up soon as well.
I also print off separate full page pictures of all the major NPCs and villains to show them when they appear.
I will be getting a descent sized white board to use as well (for listing ongoing buffs, init order, and other things in an "easy for everyone to see" kind of way).
We also play on a 5' x 9' billiards table, and I have small foldable tables for each player as well, so there is LOTS of room.
I also have a small sound system with surround sound setup for thematically appropriate background music, ambiance, and sound effects.
Does my mini-bar complete with a fridge filled with pop and a chocolate bar (bar as in an establishment holding a varied selection) count as an aid as well? (yes, I keep a large stock of junk food reserved for game nights)
~P
lots about his awesome game aidsmust see hero point cards, terrain, and pics of your lair!
Super bad quality photo taken with my iPhone to bug a buddy who hasnt been able to play D&D/Pathfinder in years
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh233/cryage/map.jpg
The black felt is the fog of war and the stick thing was what we use to show a lanterns light.
Pirate also has strings and pipe cleaners with 1" increments to mark a 5' movement. Super awesome how much effort he puts into the sessions and trust me, us players greatly appreciate it ! :D
I'll take a few more photos next week if Pirate will allow it of the zones we've already explored (don't want to spoil unexplored zones yet!)
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Yar!
Alrighty, I took some pics. They're not the best quality, but their better than the "epic" pic Seraph took. lol. Gotta love the iPhone.
Anyways, here they are. Because of the uncanny resemblance to published paizo maps, and some of Wayne Reynolds art, I'm not sure if I'm actually allowed to post these. If it's a problem, they shall be removed... but for now, for your viewing pleasure...
EDIT: Due to url/link strangeness, instead of trying to make functional hyperlinks in this post, I'm simply going to direct you to my site, and you can browse it at your leisure.
and if for some reason that link doesn't work: http://vryxnr.tripod.com/id12.html
(my apologies for any pop-ups you may experience)
My Lair: Yes, that is a cast-iron wood burning stove/fireplace at the top left. Yes, that is a mini-bar at the top right. Yes, that is a very VERY old sound system at the back. Yes, that is a 5' x 9' Billiards table turned gaming table.
Hero Point Cards: I made 35 Hero Point Cards. Most of them feature Paizo Artwork from various sources. First, the base card without any art:
I seem to be missing one card (one of my players probably has it with his stuff, so no big deal). Here is the rest of them laid out. Yes, they all have a different piece of Paizo art on them (honestly, it's all so awesome I couldn't decide on just one to use).
I also made bonus cards to use along side the Harrow Deck and/or for any PC playing the Harrower PrC. Because the bonuses given by the Harrower are so varied and random, it's a paper/card-stock card with strategic blanks to be filled in and erased as appropriate.
Terrain: Rather than a bunch of small pieces to be arranged to create a landscape, I've been making complete replicas of the "big event" areas throughout the Adventure Path.
The very first one I made was a disaster, so I turned it into a fill piece to go between the Ritual Site and the entrance to the Temple of Zura.
The second one I did was the Caves of the Mother, and I didn't stock up on supplies, so it's not as multi-layered/deep/3-dimensional as the AP suggests it should be. For example, The Throat should have ramps on the sides going down to the stagnant pool in the center, but in mine, it's just a flat entrance with the pool in the middle.
Also, in order to save money and space, I've been cheating on vertical height. The horizontal plane is accurate at a 1/60th scale (meaning, 1" is equal to 5', which matches exactly to the printed maps, battlegrids, and the size of (most) minis). However, if I kept vertical height to scale as well, I'd have to make some of the terrain over 2 feet tall, and the materials required to do that are a bit more than I'm willing to spend at the moment.
Yes, those are some Hero Quest pieces used for the alter and statue. I think the doors might be from the Dragon Mountain Boxed Set.
So, uhm, yeah. There you go!
^_^
~P
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Wow. I am speechless. I would move to whereever you might live just to be able to game with such a dedicated GM. Wow. Just wow.
And YES those are my bestiaries on that side table ;)
(I'm seraph403, I more commonly go as Cryage on forums so i made an alias lol)
like I said, us players completely appreciate it and makes gaming a friggin blast! I play 40k as well and that terrain is nothing compared to what Pirate puts us through lol
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Yar!
Thanks!
They're lots of fun to make.
I'm still trying to figure out how to make...
...as building that to scale as one piece (with removable layers) would make it over 10' in diameter! Obviously it will have to be sectioned into smaller pieces... but how to determine which parts are to be made as one piece and which areas will be separate pieces? No clue yet.
...that's just one example of the challenges before me... but I have a long time before my group gets there. ^_^
Right now I'm working on Tazion. If I didn't have to work and pay bills, I'd have it finished in 3 days, no problem... but because I do work and so forth, it'll probably be a few weeks before it's done (but guaranteed to be done before my group gets there).
... But as I get things done (the pace of which is partially determined by the pace that my group goes through the AP) I'll put new pics up.
^_^
We also have a game mascot: a life sized pathfinder goblin I made. I'm in the process of giving him new eyes that will both be red and glow in the dark. Once that's done I'll post a pic of him too.
~P
WOW!
The moment I saw what you've done, I say I want to do this for my game. 3 seconds later reason come back to me realizing that I have not near the talent you have!
I'm realy impressed
Wow, I´m speechless. That terrain is so cool! I thought I spend a lot time mapping Saventh Yhi, but this tops it ;D
Very well done!
Yar!
Thanks all. ^_^
As for the time issue, it really isn't an issue because I find making it kinda fun and relaxing! And when something is fun, you want to invest time into it. As for the 'use it only once", well, the Ritual Site has been used for a few sessions now (party kinda made camp there), and fully completing the Temple took just over 3 session (which included exploring, getting whooped, retreating & regrouping, and then coming back later).
And (as far as I know) we all had fun, so it's worth it. ^_^
MORE PLAY AIDS: Music. For some, managing music can take away from the game, but for me, I like it (and think I can handle it without detracting from my ability to GM... I'm not always perfect, but whatever), and think it can greatly enhance the game. I'm in the process of recreating various playlists for this AP, but I normally have my music grouped as follows...
Battle (regular)
Boss (epic)
Castle/Royalty
Creepy
Diabolic
Dungeon
Exotic/Foreign
Goofy
Grand Entrance
Happy
Heroic
Holy
Level Up
Mystery
Peaceful
Sad/Dire
SFX
Time Limit/Chase
Town
Travel
Having multiple players open (itunes, wmp, youtube, etc) on a computer that wont lag because of it, or using a mixer to combine multiple sources (cd player, computer, ipod, tape deck, etc) make for a great way to layer ambiance, SFX, and thematic scene music at the same time, as is appropriate to the situation.
Speaking of doing to much: I was seriously contemplating composing and recording original music for the entire AP as well. One day I may do just that anyways (I'm a musician, composer & sound designer, mostly doing work for the theatre), but (for now) I simply don't have the kind of free time necessary to do that.
What other play aids are being used out there?
*curious*
~P
I picked up and love the paper miniatures. Something about having the exact representation instead of "proxy plastics" from the old 4e line is very cool. Plus you can keep the name attached to the main figure so that when glued, you can glance down and have all their names.
They are also super cheap if you have the time. I would assemble mine while watching movies, the repetition was kind of soothing. :)
With the map pack, I picked up a piece of acetate from my local art store and taped the shiv map "face up" underneath. Then I cut up blank paper to roughly follow site lines from various points of the island, and covered the entire acetate side. As players explored I would peel off that bit and slowly the island would take shape.
I should upload my pictures at some point.. it was a cool effect that didn't take much time (or skill). :)
Yar!
***SPOILER ALERT***
This update is long overdue, so my apologies. I'm also experimenting with a different server (so no more pop-ups. yay), so we'll see if this works.
I've decided to mix it up with some "world maps" for Racing to Ruin.
It's in 5 separate pieces for ease of transport. We have a tiny little flag that we've been moving around to show where we are in our travels.
and just because it counts as a play aid and I didn't include it the last time: Condition Cards ... I have 2 decks spread out in that display, so there are plenty of cards to go around.
Now lets go to Tazion, and some of the properly scaled scenes there. Let's start with the Temple of the Snake:
I was using the "fog of war" felt squares as usual, but figured you'd rather see the whole thing instead of it being slowly revealed.
I had some left over materials, so for the fun of it, I made a mock up of the Well of Unending Screams as well:
How many pics of each scene are you going to take?! (another one)
And of course, the Azlanti Ziggurat in Tazion.
Ziggurat 8 (high angle w/mini's)
Yes, that is a life sized pathfinder goblin in the background. His eyes DO glow in the dark! (and if you're wondering, the white on his legs is from me adding supports into his legs and giving his legs new skin so as to make him better at standing on his own - They are no longer white, but now a seamless goblin-y green).
That's it for this update. I do have a "world map" of Saventh-yhi finished, I'm just waiting for some of the fake water to fully dry and become clear before taking pictures of it. I also don't think I'm going to build any "seven spears" specific scenes, mostly due to how sandbox-y this part of the AP is, and I have no idea (or sufficient prep) where the party is going to go. This area is, however, a perfect place for those Crosspiece Ruins tiles mentioned above, being able to quickly and semi-randomly create every area with those for the win! However, I do plan on making most of the Vaults of Madness in this style (that is, carved out of foam, painted, and textured, to be a large piece to place down with 'dog of war' and so forth). *gets to work on them*
I also learnt something important with these last few. Cheating vertical heights is a GOOD THING! Accurate vertical height looks nice, but it makes sight lines and tactical movement of mini's a bit more difficult. It's one thing if this were purely as a diorama and for show, but because they are being used for game play, some adjustments need to be made.
~P
wtf?! Extremly awesome!
How long did the different maps take you?
I've spent probably 15 hours preparing for my first session, and I've got nothing. I sorta feel like my life is a failure, ha ha ha. I should really do that music thing to set the mood, though. I've heard a lot of people talk about it, but have never actually seen it (or heard it, whatevs). I like how you've got different playlists for the different moods.
Also really appreciate seeing those old Hero Quest stuff getting some use. I played Hero Quest before I played DnD, so the two will always be inexorably linked. Dragon Strike as well. Would be cool to see someone use the old Dragon Strike minis.
Seriously, though, how much prep time do you spend for each session, and how long do your sessions last, as I feel that ratio is important.
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Yar!
Oh jeez, it's tough to say. I'll often have a few projects on the go at once, so it all kinda meshes into one continues labor of love. However, I can try and break it down and approximate...
Including setting and drying times, one scene usually takes 3-5 days.
Day 1 consists of planning what needs to be done, sketching roughs of the terrain onto foam boards, cutting out the pieces from the foam (I use a hot knife, so the cuts are clean, but you can only go so fast, and you need good ventilation as the fumes can be dangerous) (except for when I want a rougher cut, then I'll use a regular - but very sharp - knife instead), and using foam friendly adhesive, start gluing the freshly cut pieces together (some glues will eat through foam, and/or not stick properly)
The sketching out the plans part takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how complex it is and if I want to just approximate it, or replicate perfectly to scale (I have drafting experience).
Cutting likewise takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how complex the piece may be.
Most foam glues take 24 hours to properly dry. They may set quickly, but wont become strong until the next day (and so, we wait).
Day 2 consists of sealing everything with an acrylic gloss. This is for several reasons: 1) acts as an adhesive to bond and seal the whole thing even more, making it all extra strong. 2) protects the foam from the paint (as many paints will literally eat through/melt foam). 3) acts as a primer for the paint and helps the colors pop. The acrylic gloss takes about ... oh I don't know, 1-2 hours to cover a whole scene piece with, and (depending on how thick it is) about the same amount of time to dry.
Once I feel it's dried, I do a basic paint with spray paint. It's fast, covers large areas quickly and evenly, and as the bottles say "dries in 15 minutes, ready to handle in 1 hour".
Sometimes day 2 is nothing but dealing with the acrylic gloss and letting it dry, and painting happens on day 3.
Day 3, after any additional painting, consists of fine details. Applying flock for grass, ballast for sand and stone, turf and other such things for bushes, trees, and other various textures. This also takes a various amount of time, depending on the complexity and so forth. First you put a clear drying adhesive over the areas to be textures (mod podge, scenic cement, etc), then apply the texture, then spray with scenic cement (again) to seal the texture in. Can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours (or more for harrowing details, like with Saventh-yhi's buildings...pics coming soon). That all takes about 24 hours to dry.
Day 4+ consists of final touches, often including addition textures and realistic fake water. I use Woodland Scenic's Realistic Water and Water Effects, which takes 24 hours to dry per application.
EDIT: except for the temple and the well scenes. For the water there I used E-Z Water, which dries in minutes. It is heat activated though (and takes some times to melt from it's pellet form into a pourable liquid - which begins drying right away, so move quick!), so it has the potential to melt the foam scene a bit, and it has a yellowish tinge to it as well, so beware!
So really, MOST of the time spend is just sitting around waiting for stuff to dry. So for actual "work", each scene takes 5-8 hours, plus a lot of patience/waiting.
___________
My group plays once a week, and our sessions last 3-5 hours each. We also have NOT been rushing through things. We take our time and enjoy the event. as for progress, we started SS in the second week of January. We only JUST got to Saventh-thy (started book 3) last week. So each scene will often see several sessions of use.
The Ritual Site scene from Smuggler's Shiv was used for I think 4 or 5 sessions. So that's 5-8 hours of scene prep for 12-25 hours of use.
___________
Dragon Strike as well. Would be cool to see someone use the old Dragon Strike minis.
These were some of my first paint jobs, 20 years ago? I've kept most of them as my original, really bad painting, as like I've said before, my group says that "the bad paint job is part of their charm."
Unfortunately, I was an idiot as a kid, and traded away the Dragon and the Warrior... however:
Dragon Strike Evil Wizard - Teraptus
^_^
~P
Man, old school DragonStrike minis. The only thing I've ever tried to paint, in my parents' garage when I was like 12. Your paint job is much better than mine, and my parents got rid of all my old board games when I moved out to college. Garage sale or something. Maybe some kid out there is enjoying my bad paint job because it also brings a sorta unique charm.
Wish I were artistically inclined. Me and crafts just don't get along. I'm trying to piece together the Paizo paper minis for this adventure path. Each mini takes me about twenty minutes, and the work is really sloppy. I'm still terrified of craft knives from an incident in art class some 15 years ago.
Love your work. I would also like to vote on seeing more as it develops. Maybe you could even take pictures of the process, all step-by-step like so we can see these things develop and fuel our imaginations.
Yar!
oh jeez, I feel like I've kinda hijacked this thread. I hope you don't mind. *sheepish grin*
...but, my personal play aids continue!
you can also see in that shot some of the Crosspiece Ruins (mentioned above) just off to the side. I currently have the table set up so that half of it is the "play space" for miniatures combat (at the moment, building each area from scratch with the Crosspiece Ruins pieces), while this part of the table (1/4th of it) has the "zoomed out" 3d world map of the area they are exploring, and the very end (last 1/4 just off the shot to the right) is where I GM from.
Saventh-Yhi (a more directly top-down view)
Saventh-Yhi (from the other side plus Faction Markers)
As you can see here, I have also created a bunch of little banners/flags for each of the Factions, so as to be able to mark their progress in exploring the city. My group forged an alliance with both the Pathfinders and the Free Captains, hence their banner is a mixture of the two Faction's symbols/heraldry. That tiny little solid black flag is the PC's personal marker/where they are currently at. The Red Mantis have only just made themselves known, hence only one banner is up for them. (and the rest?... mua-hahaha! *villainous laughter*)
One of my players has also started bringing his heavy cardstock tiles and terrain to the game, and we've been using those to great effect as well. (Sorry, I don't have pics of his stuff right now). He has a bunch of plains and outdoor tiles (6" x 6" x 1/4 inch thick) that can be thrown down to make an outdoor area, or even used to create a tiered platform/ziggurat. He also has a few solid buildings, and other outdoor miscellany, such as large boulders and trees.
I'm currently making foam dungeons (ala my Caves of the Mother/Temple of Zura above) for each of the Vaults of Madness, though it'll be a while before I get pics of those up (as I'll be waiting for my group to get the that part of the Adventure Path before posting those pics). Hopefully by the time Ilmuria rolls around, I'll also be knee deep in the world of Plaster Casting, and will (hopefully) have a bunch of painted plaster pieces to supplement the Crosspieces foam creations.
Enjoy!
~P
Yar!
Amazing! I have a question though. Where did you get those walls off to the side? Is that something you made from scratch?
Those are the Dave Graffams Crosspiece Ruins mentioned earlier by Taliesin Hoyle.
They are layered PDFs. You pick the layer (skin) you want, and print it yourself. Fold, glue, cut, then slide the pieces together. Admittedly, I need to use a better glue than what I used for those (you want a good crafts glue that is strong but will not warp paper). Those were printed on 67 lbs card stock. Many people who use those (ruins) recommend sandwiching another piece of card stock in there as well for extra strength. The next batch of those I print out will probably receive similar treatment.
~P
Yar!
Alrighty, I took some pics. They're not the best quality, but their better than the "epic" pic Seraph took. lol. Gotta love the iPhone.
Anyways, here they are. Because of the uncanny resemblance to published paizo maps, and some of Wayne Reynolds art, I'm not sure if I'm actually allowed to post these. If it's a problem, they shall be removed... but for now, for your viewing pleasure...
and if for some reason that link doesn't work: http://vryxnr.tripod.com/id12.html
(my apologies for any pop-ups you may experience)
Amazing....just amazing. Some of the best terrain I've ever seen!
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Yar!
Thanks UndeadViking. :D
Also, I did some re-organizing of the new site I'm using, so my apologies for all the above links no longer working.
You can go HERE to see them all.
url: http://www.infinitelibraries.com/~pirate/Serpents%20Skull%20Terrain/
~P
That SY Map is absolutely stunnig! Really really well done!
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Howdy. Pirate as well as folks I have followed on youtube for a while have inspired me to share some of my Serpent's Skull prep. Here is my most recent. Check out the channel for an older build of the wreck of the Jenever and more to come. video 1
Yar!
Nice stuff there yarb! I was contemplating carving the runes on the pillars as well, but simply ran out of time before I needed to have it done and use it. I also use a store bought hot knife instead of custom build wire hot knifes, so while great for carving large areas, it's a bit more difficult for the smaller details like that, so I left them out of mine and descried those verbally instead.
I do greatly approve of the individual pieces that you're doing. Makes it easier to store and perhaps even bring back for use with other adventures!
...and thanks for the shout-out. ~squeee!~ ^_^
I have been slacking on new pieces a bit, as my group has been in the City of Seven Spears for the last while, and almost everything can be covered by the 4 point paper ruins pieces mentioned above. The spears and ziggurats there I've been handling with the card-stock terrain tiles one of my players has been making for use with Warmachine. Nothing really fancy, but they work really well for many situations. I'll try and get some pics of those up soon.
Next week I should start updating more regularly again with the individual Vaults of Madness. I'm going to carve them all out as complete foam dungeons and my group is ALMOST at that point in the path. But first...
*wanders over to the Obituary thread to add some new entries there*
~P
Yar!
***I guess I should officially note that these posts will contain possible spoilers***
heh, you know what? The more I think about it, and now that I've started building them, the more I think I'll be alternate between massive one piece dungeons and multiple piece 'put-together-like-puzzle-pieces' 'build-on-the-fly' dungeons.
I need to get a hold of more Advanced Hero Quest pieces. They were great for that.
Simply put, some of the Vaults of Madness are massive, and would not fit on even my extra large gaming table (a 5' by 9' billiards table) if built to scale.
Some of the later areas are even worse/more massive. The Fortress of Thousand Fangs ends up having a 10 foot diameter when reduced to 1/60th scale! :O
For example, the aptly names "First Vault" is drawn in the book where each square is actually 10 feet! That's 2" by 2" for each square in your 1/60th scale that miniature combat uses. While it actually fits the width of my table, it is also built/designed in your typical "Hallways and rooms" dungeon... so for that one, I'm really thinking I will carve out individual rooms and hallways to put together as it is explored (and thus makes it MUCH easier to use for other dungeons in future campaigns).
I really should do this with plaster casting instead of foam...oh well, I only have 5 days before they're likely to start the first vault (yeah, I'm bad and cutting it down to the wire), so that will have to wait (I don't have any plaster casting supplies at the moment anyways)...
But some of them will be simply to fun to not do as one giant piece.
Argh. Now I'm all excited about it.
*runs off to carve and build and paint*
~P
I am such a bad DM.
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I am such a bad DM.
No,man. You are not a bad DM (clears throat),GM. I have never played in your game but I have read your posts. You are invested in your game and your players. You prep as well as come here seeking inspiration and in other Serpent's skull threads look at what other GM's have done to avoid pitfalls and improve your game and your players experience. Lots of GM's don't bother.
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Yar!
I must admit, I've been so busy IRL with work and whatnot, I haven't had the time to build as much as I'd have liked. I'm still going to build some of the areas we've already played through, simply because they were cool scenes, it's fun to do, and could be useful in the future should a similar area ever come up in future games (for example: the Camalutz's nest I changed to be on top of the dam, putting the statues on top of it, making THAT the first thing people would see coming into Saventh-yhi from that side, statues of soldiers and the hero-companions of Saventh atop a huge dam/bridge, instead of on a wide street in the city down below - that encounter was a big one, and would make for a great piece of s3 terrain, and useable in any situation requiring a bridge or dam)
... however, the "First Vault" is finished (and has been for a while) and I finally put pics of it up.
Only 3 pics, and I forgot to place the doors at the main entrance for the pics. Oh well. It's low detail dungeon tiles (made from foam), made for the First Vault, but usable with any dungeon with some creativity.
First Vault (the whole thing completed)
First Vault (exploring from the center out)
Also, my goblin has new eyes (they glow in the dark), and I have pics of him up now as well: HERE. I'll be making him a friend/brother soon.
~P
EDIT: oh yeah, I checked out that guy's work. Pretty good stuff, though still too expensive for me. I'll take the extra time and MUCH less money to do it all myself for now. ^_^