Oct 162010
Please enjoy this video tutorial. It’s my first, as well as a recreation of my first 3D Battlemap. The original was used in a 4E D&D game as a warehouse/living space for a dwarf merchant. The PCs had to meet with the merchant on the loft when the place was stormed. The players loved the encounter, and I’ll never forget it.
ITEMS USED:
This 3D Battlemap uses the wood floor from the Dragonshire Expansion Set 1, though this is completely optional.
- Black (or white) Foam board
- Tacky Glue
- Box Cutter (Knife)
- Ruler
- Printer and Paper
- Dragonshire Building Expansion Set 1 ($2.99, optional)
Chris Stevens
In Chris's opinion, the very best vices are dirt bikes, rock music, and gaming, while the very best medicine is fatherhood. If he could just learn to balance them all, he'd live forever. He's much more creative than intelligent, often wakes up belligerent, and ponders many things insignificant. Lastly, in an effort to transform his well-fed body, P90X, Roller Blades, and Food are all laughing at him. And the pain continues.
Extraordinary! This was an excellent walk-through, comprehensive without being overwhelming. And yet another reason I really, really, really want to play in one of your games. Are all of those examples at the end of the videos yours? Man! I have no talent or skill. I suppose I can juggle, so that’s something.
(Nice to a put a voice to the e-mails, and now I know what your hands look like!)
Don’t fall for it Dixon, that’s a professional hand model!
All kidding aside, nice work Tourq.
Thank you kind sir. Believe me, they get a lot easier the more you make. Once you have the basics down, you can make anything.
Yep, those are some of the 3D maps I’ve created and remembered to photograph. In future videos, I hope to have John Lewis making some of his 3D maps (they’re a different style, but man are they good).
As soon as the shop is cleaned out we’ll get on that!
Awesome video! For all the DM’s out there, if you’ve never really done multi-level 3D maps like that, your players will go nuts over it the first time you introduce it. It adds a whole other level (literally) to your fights. It also makes it easier to visualize certain things in the battle. Players start backing away from edges to take away line-of-sight for enemies on a lower level. You start trying to knock people off ledges more, or block stairwells. It really adds so much to the game. You can re-use a lot of the items you create too. And once you’ve built several of them, you can start putting them together to make more unique and larger maps.
Fantastic video from Tourq. Especially considering the fact that you’re technologically illiterate (just kidding…). When’s the next video coming out?
Ahh Sam, you know me too well. But it’s not that I’m technologically illiterate; I consider myself to have a Deficiency in Technology! Afterall, I’m a nerd, not a geek.
As for the next video, I’m not sure when it’s coming out, as I have several other projects that I need to either catch up on or actually start (How to Set Up Your Own Gaming Blog, Contest #3, and Classic Fantasy).
Sam’s right, though, a 3D map really adds to the encounter. I remember everyone sitting forward in their seats as the fight started. That was just cool. Even more cool was when players tried to knock opponents off ledges, and then physically knock the minis off the map and watch them fall.
Ah, good times…