Kaer Maga: City of Strangers model

[Varthanna]

After trying (and failing) to accurately describe the utterly awesome Kaer Maga to my players, I thought a visual aid was required. So, I busted out some old terrain supplies, brushed off my elementary school craft skills, and constructed a model of the city as a player aid. It went over pretty well, so with that encouragement I thought I'd share it for all!

Below a link to how its turned out.

Pictures

[bigkilla]

Pretty cool.

[Son of the Veterinarian]

I like that. I have to admit that even though I own the book I've still had trouble visualizing the city, so that's a big help.

[ElyasRavenwood]

thanks, i think ill book mark it. It will be perfect visual reference when i run the "city of Strangers" PFS scenarios.

As Son of Veterinarian said, i also have had trouble visualizing the city as well.

thanks

[Peanuts]

Hmm, don't think it quite captures the complete three dimensional, multi layered mayhem of the city as described in the books, , but that's a damn fine model. Very nice work :)

[zagnabbit]

I'm jealous.
I've tried repeatedly to make tiered maps for Kaer Maega and failed. It never occurred to me to try a 3D representation.
Very cool, you just got a bookmark.

[James Sutter]

Wow! This is incredible!

Kaer Maga's always been hard to explain to folks--I've been struggling with that ever since I first imagined it, so I understand where you and your group are coming from. :) But I can safely say that, in terms of general shape and appearance, this is the most accurate interpretation I've seen. While obviously it would be insane to try to represent all the tunnels and layers that honeycomb the Ring Districts, being able to lift off the ceilings like that and see the ground floor is really fun. :)

Thanks so much for sharing this, Varthanna! I'm immensely flattered, and I hope you continue to enjoy the city!

(And I may just send this as reference to artists in the future....)

[deathsausage]

This dude also went above and beyond for my Kingmaker campaign. Fully textured hexes of the whole first map, into which we could stick little flags for control. Thing of beauty. I've seen pretty cool player handouts before, but Varthanna takes the cake.

[Stereofm]

Woah !

That's mighty cool man.

The only thing to top that would be to make a cake model of the town, so that your players can eat it afterwards. Would be difficult to find a hexagonal dish, though, I think.

Congrats !

[Jeff Erwin]

Stereofm wrote:

Woah !

That's mighty cool man.

The only thing to top that would be to make a cake model of the town, so that your players can eat it afterwards. Would be difficult to find a hexagonal dish, though, I think.

Congrats !

An excellent p(l)an!.

[John Kretzer]

That looks very cool. I'll use it I choose Kaer Maga as the city for my city based game. Or heck I'll even use those pictures if any of the games go there just for a visit.

[gigglestick]

That

Is

Awesome!

Now I ahve a better reference to show my players too.

Thanks!

[The black raven]

Impressive.

Most impressive.

Your elementary school craft teacher taught you well.

[Mothman]

Wow, that is really cool.

[Majuba]

Exquisite - thank you Varthanna!

now my bloatmage can point to where he lives...

[golem101]

Really impressive model, and very nice to have a "removable roof" section.

[Varthanna]

Thanks for the kudos everyone! Its amazing what you can do with Styrofoam, toothpicks, beads, and a whole lot of time. My attention span started to dwindle, and I ran out of the little hexagonal beads I was using as buildings, else I would have attempted to make Bis look more like Bis with them crawling up atop one another along the walls and more "hive-like".

The posters are right that say it doesnt capture the claustrophobic mess that is the Rings... I dont think I could show that even if I tried.

[Chernobyl]

are the large Styrofoam blocks supposed to be the cliffs? because the city is clearly on top of the cliff looking at page 52 of "city of strangers". The rivers flow through the highside stacks to the cliff side, and rivers don't flow downhill...

[Nickolas Russell]

This is awesome Varth! City of Strangers is one of my favorites.

Chernobyl wrote:

are the large Styrofoam blocks supposed to be the cliffs? because the city is clearly on top of the cliff looking at page 52 of "city of strangers". The rivers flow through the highside stacks to the cliff side, and rivers don't flow downhill...

Judging by the fourth photo it looks like the ground level is at the same height where the water comes out the other side. It is a bit misleading since the ground level doesn't extend outside the city though.

[Yakman]

Son of the Veterinarian wrote:

I like that. I have to admit that even though I own the book I've still had trouble visualizing the city, so that's a big help.

I second that.

[FattyLumpkin]

This is artastic! Love it. I was just reading The Asylum Stone and really wanted to see what was out there to give me a better impression of the Sutterific Kaer Maga. This REALLY helps. I was not even picturing the outer ring as "encasing," for lack of a better word, but open. I thought the "walls" were open. So, this is VERY helpful for me and I am seeing the entire city differently. I need to go back and see if I missed a text description about it. Time to crack City of Strangers.

Thank you for posting this!

[Mikaze]

Oh mans.

Seriously, this needs to be on a Fan Creations blog entry or something. The pictures alone could be of great use for GMs trying to help their players visualize Kaer Maga.

Awesome work. Crazy awesome work. :D

[Haladir]

That's amazing!

I'm about to send my Runelords party to Kaer Maga on a major side-quest (a modified Seven Swords of Sin), and a photo of your model will be immensely useful as a visual aid!

Thanks so much for contributing!

[LordofMuck]

So cool, i will look into making my own model, maybe for other cities too, like Magnimar :)