Dungeon in plywood project

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Nice work dude! These tiles look awesome, they remind me of the WHQ dungeon sections, I look forward to seeing more of this project!
Are you going to do anything special for the doors? I imagine you could carve some nice doors and arches out of the leftover wood and add detail with parts from your bits box. Do you have any plans to add (Dare I say it) walls to the set eventually?

BTW what kind of tools (other than the knife) are you using to carve the plywood?
 

[Marchomer]

Thnks a lot! I don't know what to use for the doors yet. I initially wanted to create doors in bricks. But the idea of the carved doors isn't bad! It could be the final choise, thanks for the suggestion!

No, I don't think I will add the walls, some years ago I've created a set of walls in bricks, but during the gameplay the walls blocked the view of some players, so I gave up with walls.

Yes, I only used the cutter, nothing else. That plywood is quite thin.

PS: I post this image to explain what "in bricks" definition wants to say. (Sorry for the quality, this is the only picture I found, unfortunately I lost those walls!)

[General Biakal]

awesome...

very impressed. have you got any plans for a big tile? only your style of floor would look very good with a few pillars and maybe a well on top...

they are gonna make your games pretty awesome...

[Marchomer]

Thank you so much!
Yes, the plan is to make some gadgets too. First of all some blood /mana fountains (like in Diablo videogames) for the modified heroquest game that I'm trying to finish.
One moment... Now you make me remember that I have some small low quality pillars and trees I've done, to replace the horrible ones in the D&D board game!

[Billiam Babble]

These look wonderful!  (I have a sudden urge to offer real cash and order some from you ;) )

I few years ago I tried to make some room and corridor tiles out of cork and card, but they warped when painted. These look much more sturdy.

Do you layer the plywood - or is that just one piece you're cutting into?  Really nice flagstone effect. :)

[Marchomer]

Wow! Thanks for the compliments!
I have no experience with cork, but I assure you that the plywood is sturdy, sometimes my cat* played with the corridors and they resist to the attack!
No I did't stick nothing, every tile is a single piece.  



*(his name translated from my Sicilian dialect is "Dusty", Yeah... I know... this is not a considerable information, but I love him and I must talk about him when he's quoted, so sorry)

[Marchomer]

Basic Set almost done!
Like I said before, this set is intended to represent situations more than create a whole dungeon (example: the players normally draw their maps described by the GM, when they meet NPCs or monsters, the place is assembled).
With the 4 rooms (in black and white squares to create a coniguous pattern), the 4 corridors and the 4 multipurpose junctions, I added a mana pool, a blood pool (to restore body/mind points) and a shrine (associated with a "bless deck" I think I will make up for Heroquest), the last things are made with bricks (like my lost walls ).
I'm not sure what to use for the doors, I'll try to create a printing plate and use it on the DAS to quickly build an entire set, I hope it will works!

Here some pics, the set is little but very modular!




Mad D&D board game heroes in search of death ^






My ancestors will be avenged!! Waaaaaaargh!!! ^

[SamuelF]

Looking fantastic Marchomer! I love the blood and mana wells  how did you make them?

I've been thinking of trying the pink foam, but this looks great, and very sturdy looking!

[Marchomer]

Thank you very much dude!

The fountains and the little shrine are made in plaster bricks, used in medieval model-making:


As you can see, those bricks are reddish, so I painted them in black and then drybrushed with gray and white, the liquid inside the fountains is simple DAS painted with abundant ink.

I see on the web that pink foam is very quoted on the dungeon-making hobby... and it surely is easier to carve than plywood.
The pink foam is very light (bad thing) but tough (good thing), however I never see pink foam tiles but in picture, so before I judge it I might try it!

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Excellent stuff!
Liking the fountains - one for healing and one of mana, am I sensing the influence of the Diablo games?  
Pillars are nice too, they have an interesting roughly carved strait-out-of-the-rock feel to them. I my self use the pillars used to hold up the layers of wedding cakes for a more gothic feel.


^picture from a game back in early 2009, showing lots of pillars

PS: is that a Darksword Dragon in the last picture?

[Marchomer]

Thanks!

am I sensing the influence of the Diablo games?

Yes, you are sensing right! In fact, I've made a shrine too, because I want to produce a deck to use when a character interacts with it, I've found on the web the effects (essentially gain/lost points,money,objects...) of the shrines of Diablo 1.

Mmmmh... I don't think it's a Darksword miniature... in actually I don't remember the name of the producer!
I painted it like a blue dragon but I remember it was conceived like a black or dark dragon....

[Billiam Babble]

Your set is looking utterly fabulous!!
Congratulations. :)

(I'm loving the fact that the boards are cat-attack-proof! :D )

[Marchomer]

Billiam Babble wrote

Your set is looking utterly fabulous!!
Congratulations. :)

Thank you!
By now I'm working on the second set with smaller rooms (HeroQuest style) and thin corridors... I'll finish the work in 10 years

[Billiam Babble]

It's good to set a time scale.  10 years sounds perfectly reasonable. ;)

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Sorry about the lateness of this reply, I'm spending today trying to catch up with stuff I've been meaning to do on the forum for a while!

Marchomer wrote

In fact, I've made a shrine too, because I want to produce a deck to use when a character interacts with it, I've found on the web the effects (essentially gain/lost points,money,objects...) of the shrines of Diablo 1.

cool, any progress on this? I've got some Wall Fountains from Black Tree that I plan to use in a similar way

Marchomer wrote

I don't think it's a Darksword miniature... in actually I don't remember the name of the producer!

It looks familiar but I can't think why ... maybe it's a Ral Partha dragon?

[Marchomer]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

It looks familiar but I can't think why ... maybe it's a Ral Partha dragon?

Shame on me... I really don't know... I don't remember!  
For pure curiosity I looked for this dragon on the web... nothing found!

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

cool, any progress on this?

Yes, all the projects are almost done!
Concerning fountains and shrines, I converted the effects of the shrines of Diablo I and Hellfire in HQ terms;
Concerning the dungeon, I must only carve the last six rooms;
Concerning the house rules, I've complete it (mixing existing stuff with something mine) but I think I need a little more beta testing yet, I named it HACK!, the recursive acronym of "Hack And Crawl Knack!" ( by the way, does it have sense in english?);
By now I'm starting to work on a mini-campaign based on the plot line of Talisman;

When I'll finish I will (translate and) post everything!

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Marchomer wrote

Concerning fountains and shrines, I converted the effects of the shrines of Diablo I and Hellfire in HQ terms;

excellent I look forward to trying them out!

Marchomer wrote

Concerning the dungeon, I must only carve the last six rooms;

Photos! Photos!

Marchomer wrote

Concerning the house rules, I've complete it (mixing existing stuff with something mine) but I think I need a little more beta testing yet, I named it HACK!, the recursive acronym of "Hack And Crawl Knack!" ( by the way, does it have sense in english?);

Sounds good, HACK is a great name for it
the acronym doesn't quite work in modern English though ... I assume your using 'knack' in the Old English way to mean break/damage/hit something. But that meaning is rarely used today apart from in the form 'Knackered' usually used to mean exhausted as in:
"I've walked all the way across town with the shopping and now I'm knackered, I need to sit down"
or to mean broken as in:
"You tried to fix the computer by hitting it with a hammer? ... well that's knackered it!"
More often these days 'knack' on it own is used in a different way to mean a trick, talent or skill as in:
"I tried learning to ice skate but I haven't got the knack of balancing yet"
also the 'And' is in an odd place for an English sentence

I'd suggest making the acronym something like: "Hit, Attack, Crawl, Kill!" or "Healer, Archer, Caster, Knight"

Anyway I look forward to reading your stuff when it's ready

[Marchomer]

Oooh yeah! I will post anything as soon as possible!

Exactly... with the word "knack", I would like to mean "talent", and so with all the acronym I wanted to say: "the talent of hack and crawl"... but if it does mean nothing, I think I will use "Hit, Attack, Crawl, Kill!" if I will not find a recursive acronym that means something!  (thanks for the suggestion).

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Marchomer wrote

Exactly... with the word "knack", I would like to mean "talent", and so with all the acronym I wanted to say: "the talent of hack and crawl"

yea that doesn't quite make sense in that context, sorry

I'm quite fond of "Healer, Archer, Caster, Knight" myself

[Umboman]

I would never have believed you could get that tile effect from Balsa wood,unless I had seen it with my own eyes.I have always dismissed balsa wood as fit for model flying planes only.Well with this & MortiS Balsa wheels I am going to have to rethink my attitude.Once painted those tiles look like cast resin-awesome!