Red Golem Blog

You will need for this project: extruded foam, PVA glue, sand, baseboard, cheap acrylic paint, craft knives.

1. Cut your foam. Dry fit every part. Glue your foam together and on your baseboard.

2. Add texture (mix PVA - diluted with water - and paint; add sand) - the sloppy part! Wait for it to dry.

3. Paint (black basecoat, raw umber undercoat, raw sienna heavy drybrush, light grey drybrush). On the image, the light grey drybrush was done only on the top-right corner piece of the arena for demonstration.

4. Let dry. Varnish (matte) if you want it to last longer on the gaming table.

5. Play with it! The following image showcase a multiplayer Mordheim skirmish between a Skaven warband, a Drak Elf warband, and an Ostlanders warband.

One aspect of Mordheim that I really enjoy is the use of elevation. When I setup a table, I try to get different areas where models can climb. I made a natural rock bridge to create a large elevated area that could be used to cross obstacles such as rivers and chasms. It’s pretty easy to do yet very useful on a gaming table! Here’s how I did it:

1. Cut and shape your extruded foam to make a few levels. Glue the pieces together and let it dry well.

2. Create a rough texture by applying a mix of PVA, sand, and dark brown paint to your bridge. Wait for it to dry.

3. Spray paint it black (use a cheap can of all-around paint).

4. The best part to make it look nice. Apply a heavy drybrush of dark grey paint using a wide brush. Follow with a light grey drybrush in the same way as the previous layer.

5. Most importantly: put your work to work i.e. play! Here’s an example of a game of Mordheim where each warband tried to get on the bridge. It was the easiest way to get across the river. The undead had a hard time getting their zombies up the on the bridge (with their low Initiative score used for climbing rolls). The Skavens were fast to get a good position and damage the undead with their sling bullets.

The following pictures show the final result of the previous post. Feel free to use them in your Ptolus game! Again, if you know who wrote these Ptolus broadsheets, please let me know! Enough talking, enjoy!

This tutorial details my second batch of Parchment handouts to be used in my Ptolus D&D Campaign (Thanks to someone in the online community for providing the files - please let me know the author if you know who it is!). The first steps are similar to the previous homemade parchment post. This time, I toned my dipping brew with brown (red, yellow and blue food coloring added to boiling water, instant coffee, and a bag of black tea - because it smells good!). I wanted to have different parchment looks: off-the-press, old/wrinkled (like the one in the picture below), with blood and/or stains, etc. It is better to tear and rip your paper now if you want to have a damaged look to your handouts. The drying process makes these damages appear quite realistic (much better anyway than if you try to do them on dry paper).

Handouts were left to dry on thick cardboard. I added red food coloring drips on a few of them to look as blood. It turned out a bit too clear for dried blood. I tried to fix it with black ink while the paper was drying. It worked okay (see this post for final pictures).

Here’s the second batch drying… More pictures of the ready-to-use handouts in the next post…

When our group decides to start a new RPG campaign, I usually end up gamemastering, for many reasons. First, I like it (!). Second, I have some inspiration to get things going and I master many different rulesets/settings. Third, I take the time needed to prepare our games. This really makes a difference in my opinion between a “good game” and a “great game”! Recently, I have been including more and more visuals into our RPG sessions: miniatures, terrain, handouts and other props. I guess this is a side effect of playing miniature games such as Mordheim!

What I’m presenting today is a quick way to make your own parchment for handouts to Read the rest of this entry »