Scenarios that benefit from 3d terrain?

[NielsenE]

I have a large DwarvenForge collection, and keep wanting to use it when I GM society games. However I feel most of the scenarios I end up assigned at cons aren't particularly amenable/enhanced by terrain.

For the cons where I have a pick of scenarios, do y'all have suggestions for scenarios that have larger dungeon/castle/cavern type complexes, that are either the only/ early encounter areas. ( Ie allowing early setup and not having to interrupt a session to build.

[Swiftbrook]

NielsenE wrote:

I have a large DwarvenForge collection, and keep wanting to use it when I GM society games. However I feel most of the scenarios I end up assigned at cons aren't particularly amenable/enhanced by terrain.

For the cons where I have a pick of scenarios, do y'all have suggestions for scenarios that have larger dungeon/castle/cavern type complexes, that are either the only/ early encounter areas. ( Ie allowing early setup and not having to interrupt a session to build.

I have a small Dwarven Forge collection but I have used them in:

10-05 Mysteries Under Moonlight Part 1
9-01 The Cost of Enlightenment - as scatter pieces, not as rooms
5-04 The Stolen Heir

It's a short list, but I don't GM much and I've really only had my DF for just over a year.

[Tomppa]

Don't know what Dwarven Forge collection includes, but Beyond the Halflight Path is both an evergreen and one big dungeon, and would probably benefit from 3d terrain a lot. It's a cave, though, so your basic dungeon walls may not be that helpful.

Veteran's Vault would probably benefit from 3d walls and hallways, and you could probably set it all up at once.

[thistledown]

Eyes 1 benefits a lot from 3d terrain, so you can more easily tell the angles of the people upstairs vs the people downstairs.

[NielsenE]

Thanks, I'll check/review those tonight. I've prepped Halflight, (but only as a back up so I didn't consider packaging up terrain for it), and played Stolen Heir (and looking back definitely one encounter would benefit from the 3d build!)

I can definitely do natural caves as well as worked stoned dungeons, been collecting this stuff for 8+ years and have almost all of DF's environments. Basic dungeon or basic caves travels best, but for suitable scenarios I'd pack up the fancier resin pieces as well (volcanic hellscape, fey maze, ice caves, d(a)emonic/cultist lair, etc)

I did prep terrain for Shores of Heaven last year, but the parties didn't seem to need/use the terrain much (but its a simpler encounter/other important stuff going on). Not PFS but SFS, I've used it very successfully in the finale of Duskmire Accord. (And that's a build that takes me all of 1 minute so its easy to just setup without breaking flow).

Unseen Inclusion (first part) and Shrine of Sacred Tempest are ones that seem like strong candidates, but I think I'd like to find "older" scenarios -- not seeing those in the rotation too often these days at cons, and the "GM choice" style slots often want to be older scenarios that are less likely to have been played than the rather recent ones.

[Arnim Thayer]

Any scenario can benefit in presentation by 3D terrain, regardless of how you come up with it, either Dwarven Forge or Hirst Arts molds.

As someone else already suggested, I would look at evergreen scenarios first, since they tend to see a lot more replay. Older locations that have never benefited from a flip-map are also good ones to look at; the old version of the Blakros comes to mind, since it was used twice: 0-05 Mists of Mwangi and 2-11 The Penumbral Accords, to be exact. Added to that list, I would place the module Master of the Fallen Fortress, which is also replayable. It was one of the first games I ever saw 3D terrain constructed for and holds a spot in my heart because of it.

[Scott Young]

For me, I like to make 3D terrain either for very special scenarios (like Eyes of the Ten, or ones written by friends of mine) or ones I know I will run a lot of (so, replayables or ones that are just SO good).

I made the Pathfinder Lodge flip map as 3d terrain for eyes of the Ten, using WorldWorks Games' paper craft (as well as all the other major encounters in Eyes, since it was meant to eb a "capstone" back at the time).

The sanctioned portion of Mummy's Mask #1, The Half-Dead City by Jim Groves, is a level 1-2 replayable that fits nicely in a Con and has a nice mix of exploration and combat for new Pathfinders, so I used Hirst Arts' Egyptian molds to make that in 3D - it's a showpiece and attracts a lot of attention from the walkby crowd (to me, that's part of the reason for using 3D terrain, to attract new gamers at events).

Anything with multiple levels or sightline obstacles really benefits from 3D terrain, even scatter terrain, so players can easily see what they can see and what they can't. I have pillars, rubble, and just some big rocks in my GM case for this sort of stuff as well.

If your players haven't done it yet, The Quest for Perfection series (3-09-11-13) benefits from 3D terrain immensely. The first one has lots of multi-level combats and the Monastery flip map (which looks awesome in 3D!); the second one has boats, and the third one has a village and a bunch of peasants fighting off invaders. I think this is probably my favorite series for 3D terrain, and I've built the whole thing.

Best of luck!

[NielsenE]

Doing a quick spot check of some of the scenarios mentioned, just checking the maps, not the scenarios themselves

Veteran's Vault -- Sewer environment, cave/cavern, evil vault -- check -- got all three terrain environments, which the exception of some of the super narrow/small caves all easily reproduceable, might not be able to prebuild both areas in a regular con-table. Definitely a strong candidate for good looking terrain/setup. Not the most "interesting" from line of sight or elevation issues. Long hallways also have a tendancy to slow people down when in 3d terrain versus maps... They get much more nervous.

Quest for Perfection Part 1:
Overhang, I think I could actually build that with an combination of my mountains and castles, but it might be a finnicky build. Still for an actual cliff battle, could be very fun.
Path of Many Shrines -- looks tough to recreate in a playable way with my supplies.
Monastary, I can see how it would be an impressive build -- not sure if I have enough stairs to do it justice, definitely have enough elevation pieces though. Low combat to build ratio, given the other two areas first.

Halflight Path:
A/B Options: Very strong candidate for after this summer... all the new DF I'm getting then would make this one gorgeous.... Light up crstals, much better cave elevation, and narrow passage tools.
C: I can probably do now.

Mysteries Under moonlight:
Townhouse looks plausible with my city builder stuff, for once a house in built more or less along the 4x4 grid that stuff uses.
The other two maps don't look like they're worth the setup time.

[NielsenE]

Thanks again for the suggestions. Ran the Old Fishery from AP007 at a Con last weekend with a fun build. And am prepping Veteran's Vault for a few weeks from now. Also starting to prep Wrath of the Fleshwarped Queen, which I think should be very nice with the terrain as well.

A few shots of under-construction/etc, not really any in-play shots:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iQSPwzPcFuS26x2Q9

[RealAlchemy]

Thinking about it, several encounters from Orders From the Gate would be awesome with 3d terrain.