what's the most effort you've ever put into compensating for lazy storytelling?

[robertbevan]

okay... so really, i just started this thread to show off my battle arena to what may be the only group of people in the world who would really appreciate it. my wife and i built these towers out of chopsticks, cardboard, yarn, and glue.


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/endofthewor1d/2011-05-27130808.jpg

[Worira]

OK yeah this is pretty much unconscionably rad

[nedz]

I once hired this castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roch_Castle) just to run a session in.

[robertbevan]

I once hired this castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roch_Castle) just to run a session in.

dude. that ****ing rules.

[Lonely Tylenol]

At the request of two of the players, who were both sending me campaign journals at the time and wanted to know how to mark the dates (another player had been sending me journal entries, but marking them with real-life dates, so I had never thought about it), I constructed an entire calendar system from scratch (borrowing certain elements from other RPGs, such as the Common names for the five seasons, which I borrowed from King of Dragon Pass), which included lore for each season (both the elven lore, which shaped much of the way that people think about the day and year, and the common lore, which bastardizes it), fluff and crunch implications for the world, Gregorian counterparts for reference (I connected ten of the months within the Gregorian calendar--all except for July and August, which are named after Roman Emperors--as five pairings, which help explain the "five seasons" concept more adequately), and historical events dating back up to 4,602 years, marking two separate "Year 0"s: that of the Elven "Year 0" event, which happened first, and that of the Human "Year 0" event, which happened second. The whole thing turned out to be several pages long, and would reference itself and everything else in a roundabout sort of way in the events to come.

The problem? This amounted to more substantial in-world exposition than I had given them in much of the four months prior, and I just came up with it on the spot in under an hour.

[Dr.Orpheus]

I once made my DM screen out of all my books stacked in a semicircle; it even had pencil spikes sticking out.

[Kazyan]

That setup is wicked and I want to skillmonkey in it. Just sayin'.

[Agent 451]

King of Dragon Pass ...stuff...

The problem? This amounted to more substantial in-world exposition than I had given them in much of the four months prior, and I just came up with it on the spot in under an hour.

But you based it off of King of Dragon Pass, which means it is made of pure epic win.

[Lonely Tylenol]

But you based it off of King of Dragon Pass, which means it is made of pure epic win.

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJ5zo4vJlMw_aITWM8n0uH5tjZRAXi8 5GqjtwWf6AuOjx1LT3y Lonely Tylenol likes this.

[Invader]

I made the bridge from www.hirstarts.com

I liked it so much I bought more molds but its incredible time consuming if you don't have multiples of the same mold. I still think it's one of my favorite props. I've also aged parchment with tea, bought and used sealing wax and wax stampers for letters which turned out awesome.

And yes each block in the bridge is individually cast and glued together and then painted.


http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii636/invaderk2/bridge.jpg

[Vladislav]

This thread is at risk of exploding from pure overconcentrated win. Those platforms and bridges are amazing, and ... renting a castle!? Wow.

[Agent 451]

And yes each block in the bridge is individually cast and glued together and then painted.

That's awesome. Do you paint the entire brick, or do you colour the plaster that you use and then paint textures?

[Randomguy]

Wow. Out of curiosity, has anyone ever done anything like this (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/tabletop_projection/)?

[Invader]

That's awesome. Do you paint the entire brick, or do you colour the plaster that you use and then paint textures?

You actually glue it all together and paint the whole thing in the base color you want so for stone it'd be a mid to dark gray and then lightly brush on a slightly lighter shade of the same color for the mid points in the texture and then a 3rd lighter coat for the high spots on the blocks.

I'm an awful painter and have 0 ranks in artistic ability but its surprisingly easy.

[Othesemo]

At one point in my campaign, I wanted to drop a plot hook in the form of 'The Bible of Asmodeus.' Specifically, I wanted one page that had been historically retconed from the book. So, I did the following.

1) I used tea, a magnifying glass and the sun to create antique looking 'parchment.'
2) I studied up on biblical linguistics and idioms.
3) I wrote out a full text page of the bible of Asmodeus on google docs.
4) Using a handy translator online, I translated it into the Infernal language (actually just a very complex substitution cipher).
5) Using the infernal alphabet (from the Forgotten Realms setting), my antique paper and a calligraphy pen (with red ink), I wrote out the entire text page (1766 characters total) in the infernal alphabet.
6) It occurred to me that they would get it magically translated pretty quickly, and I wanted to keep the cool effect. So, I then went back and did the exact same thing, except in english.

In total, this took me about 8 hours of work to create this one prop. So worth it.

[Invader]

At one point in my campaign, I wanted to drop a plot hook in the form of 'The Bible of Asmodeus.' Specifically, I wanted one page that had been historically retconed from the book. So, I did the following.

1) I used tea, a magnifying glass and the sun to create antique looking 'parchment.'
2) I studied up on biblical linguistics and idioms.
3) I wrote out a full text page of the bible of Asmodeus on google docs.
4) Using a handy translator online, I translated it into the Infernal language (actually just a very complex substitution cipher).
5) Using the infernal alphabet (from the Forgotten Realms setting), my antique paper and a calligraphy pen (with red ink), I wrote out the entire text page (1766 characters total) in the infernal alphabet.
6) It occurred to me that they would get it magically translated pretty quickly, and I wanted to keep the cool effect. So, I then went back and did the exact same thing, except in english.

In total, this took me about 8 hours of work to create this one prop. So worth it.

I love making parchment, its so easy and it adds so much as far as a prop.

[Unusual Muse]

Everyone here is awesome and deserves kudos...

...but for me, this is just hands-down pure win!

I once hired this castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roch_Castle) just to run a session in.

[Unusual Muse]

Right up there with renting a castle... have you guys seen this? (http://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8714)

I will build this one day! :smallsmile:

[Invader]

Right up there with renting a castle... have you guys seen this? (http://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8714)

I will build this one day! :smallsmile:

And we have a winner lol.

[Callous]

I once hired this castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roch_Castle) just to run a session in.

And we have an absolute winner

[Callous]

Right up there with renting a castle... have you guys seen this? (http://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8714)

I will build this one day! :smallsmile:

I don't see how using a projecton on a horizontal surface is particularly inspiring. On the scale with.. drawing a maps/printing out maps to be used as a battle arena.. *shrug*

[Invader]

And we have an absolute winner

Its really just a fancy hotel though. Plus the rates claim it's thousands of dollars to stay there so I have my doubts :smalltongue:

[robertbevan]

Wow. Out of curiosity, has anyone ever done anything like this (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/tabletop_projection/)?

one day, when i move back to the states and am richer than god, i'll look into getting one of those.

[Agent 451]

You actually glue it all together and paint the whole thing in the base color you want so for stone it'd be a mid to dark gray and then lightly brush on a slightly lighter shade of the same color for the mid points in the texture and then a 3rd lighter coat for the high spots on the blocks.

I'm an awful painter and have 0 ranks in artistic ability but its surprisingly easy.

Yeah, I perused the site a while later. I was just wondering if you'd actually introduced any base color into the plaster of paris mix itself. That'd be the way I'd likely go at it, especially for stone work. Mix in some black paint, pour the molds, and boom! Insta grey, tan, etc., stone blocks, no painting necessary.

[Invader]

Yeah, I perused the site a while later. I was just wondering if you'd actually introduced any base color into the plaster of paris mix itself. That'd be the way I'd likely go at it, especially for stone work. Mix in some black paint, pour the molds, and boom! Insta grey, tan, etc., stone blocks, no painting necessary.

I guess you could do that, I was just following the painting directions on the site. The problem is if you're using the molds from Hirst it takes 17 castings with a single mold so that's 17 times you have to mix the plaster and 17 times you'd have to add paint.

If you had multiple molds or were making different models at the same time, coloring the plaster would probably save you a ton of time painting all models when they were all finished.

[Anxe]

I handwrote a 60 page journal for the main antagonist in one of my campaigns. I bound the journal in leather to make it look authentic and put little clues into it about the villain's power. The players then got bored of that campaign and I never got to use it. Sigh...

[nedz]

Its really just a fancy hotel though. Plus the rates claim it's thousands of dollars to stay there so I have my doubts :smalltongue:

It was self catering, and we hired it for a week in febuary. It was about twice as expensive as hiring a cottage at the time.