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kahonen
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
358 Posts |
 Posted - 19 Mar 2003 : 20:56:40
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I assume that most (if not all) of the players and DM's use figures during a session, but how many of you have used models of buildings?
To give you an idea of what I mean have a look at:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fpm/archive
I've used some of these in sessions and they really are worth the effort.
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Elrond Half Elven
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
322 Posts |
Posted - 19 Mar 2003 : 21:27:30
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I used to use the models that you talk of, great fun however now i use 2D pictures of the tops of houses cut out so i can rearrange them, now however i have had the idea to make lots of floor plans instead (Because im lazy and dont want to continuously change the position of the scenery!)
Hanx
Elrond |
Once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While i nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
-The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe |
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Alexis Merlin
Learned Scribe
USA
115 Posts |
Posted - 19 Mar 2003 : 21:54:34
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I have used the maps (which included buildings etc) from the good old DragonStrike, Dragon Quest, and First Quest (Anyone else remember them? ), but in terms of 3D stuff I have used very little....though I do have some old Warhammer scenery which could come in handy....
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It is knowledge that influences and equalizes the social condition of man; that gives to all, however different their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal.
(Benjamin Disraeli)
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Lord Rad
Great Reader
United Kingdom
2080 Posts |
Posted - 19 Mar 2003 : 22:19:10
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| I have never used any minatures or models in any of my games, i think it takes the feeling of being there away from the players by depicting the area or situation as models rather than relying on pure imagination. |
Lord Rad
"What? No, I wasn't reading your module. I was just looking at the pictures"
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 19 Mar 2003 : 22:34:31
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Me too, i never use models. Sometimes when the action is very complicated i draw a quick drawing (i know drawing isn't the proper word, but it's the best i found)
For example: next time there will be a battle between 10 boats, and three sides (= 4 boats VS 3 VS 3) and a group of wizard teleport themselves in the middle of the battle ... durign the ToT... hard to describe no |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2003 : 00:06:14
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You mean "sketch" Zemd.
And I think that if you're looking for a good, imagination-filling play, you should put yourself there, not the model. If you get yourself there, then you feel like it's not just a character, it's you, and so you play more seriously. That's how I write my main characters. (Though, contrary to what it sounds like, I've actually only done one first-person story.) |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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Yasraena
Senior Scribe
USA
388 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2003 : 04:55:26
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I seem to be in the minority on this thread.
My group has used figures and battlemats from when we first started playing years ago. I find that if the imagination is there in the players to start with, then the physical representation just adds to the game, not detracts from it. We started to use the Dwarven Forge stuff recently as well as actually constructing full scale dioramas for the battles. Actually, my friend Duane has gotten to constructing them, not me. I'm no where near artistic enough to do what he does.  If interested, check out this link to my website dedicated to our group to see the lengths that he goes to for HIS game.
http://www.angelfire.com/wizard2/thepromenade/MyPage/Knights%20of%20Silver/KnOS_Home.htm
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"Nindyn vel'uss malar verin z'klaen tlu kyone ulu naut doera nindel vel'bolen nind malar."
Yasraena T'Sarran
Harper of Silverymoon |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2003 : 07:00:03
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quote:
Originally posted by Bookwyrm
And I think that if you're looking for a good, imagination-filling play, you should put yourself there, not the model. If you get yourself there, then you feel like it's not just a character, it's you, and so you play more seriously
It's the same for every action taken in an rpg. After all, if you're not involved in the game, every action you'll take will be cold-blooded decisions while as a character he would care for his life |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2003 : 08:45:27
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Exactly.
Of course, being so in-character is one of the things opponents of D&D (and other role-playing games) attack. Something about not distinguishing fact from fantasy. Absurd, no?
[soft chime] Oh, I'd almost forgotten about that! Excuse me, fellow scribes, but I have to pop over to Shadowdale. Elminster invited me over for high tea . . . .
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Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2003 : 11:07:04
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| Furthermore, i think it's the evolution between the birth of d&d (with Chainmail) and d&d as we know it today. It's no more just fights |
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Echon
Senior Scribe
Denmark
422 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2003 : 12:45:56
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I have never used models and neither I nor my players would want to. The tables we use are filled with books, sheets of papers and lots of dice already, it puzzles me how people have room for these things.
-Echon |
"If others had not been foolish, we should be so."
-William Blake |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2003 : 16:59:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Echon
I have never used models and neither I nor my players would want to. The tables we use are filled with books, sheets of papers and lots of dice already,
-Echon
... and food, beers, "cendriers" (cups to put your cigarettes in), plates from previous meal, CDs, DM screen, pen papers, lighters, cigarettes, glasses, ... and much more!!! |
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Echon
Senior Scribe
Denmark
422 Posts |
Posted - 21 Mar 2003 : 06:35:30
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quote:
Originally posted by zemd
... and food, beers, "cendriers" (cups to put your cigarettes in), plates from previous meal, CDs, DM screen, pen papers, lighters, cigarettes, glasses, ... and much more!!!
Save for those articles related to smoking (which disgusts me), I very much have to agree. Heh, you should have seen our table yesterday...
-Echon |
"If others had not been foolish, we should be so."
-William Blake |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 21 Mar 2003 : 08:13:35
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And ours during the 48 hours straight session!
Exhausting!  |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 22 Mar 2003 : 04:35:21
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quote:
Originally posted by Echon
quote:
Originally posted by zemd
... and food, beers, "cendriers" (cups to put your cigarettes in), plates from previous meal, CDs, DM screen, pen papers, lighters, cigarettes, glasses, ... and much more!!!
Save for those articles related to smoking (which disgusts me), I very much have to agree. Heh, you should have seen our table yesterday...
-Echon
Same here, Echon. Zemd . . . I'm surprised at you.  Shocking, just shocking . . . .   |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 22 Mar 2003 : 14:26:14
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| Surprised? Of what? |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 23 Mar 2003 : 19:59:16
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| Just more teasing, Zemd, this time about the smoking. |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 23 Mar 2003 : 21:46:32
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| Because did i ever mentionned that i smoked? Read carrefully... |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 24 Mar 2003 : 07:33:04
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| I know, I can read. It was just teasing! |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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Elrond Half Elven
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
322 Posts |
Posted - 25 Mar 2003 : 22:31:20
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Smoking is a nasty habbit that i am happy that i dont have! In ways i find the use of models exceptionally useful and in others not at all useful. I still encourage roleplaying by dealing out 0-400 Xp per game session depending on how well you roleplay.
Models are very sueful for battles and some times for moving around a town. Other than that they arent that useful. They do however give even a 'not so imaginative' player a chance to picture their character. |
Once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While i nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
-The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2003 : 05:50:26
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| I've been reading the Player's Handbook, and I've seen lots of illustrations to show the mechanics of things like spellcasting and battle. I think a sketch like that is very useful, to show who is where in a complicated situation. It doesn't need to be models, it doesn't need to be detailed. It just has to show what the DM's invisioning. (EX: Orc #1 behind door #8, goblin #3 behind a pile of rubble; or the layout of a puzzle-room that the DM isn't getting across verbally.) |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 26 Mar 2003 : 08:12:21
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| When i use plans, i always draw them quickly. I assume that it slows the game to draw something with a scale. A fight should be something that is quickly resolved, asking every players what he does as quickly as possible. |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 28 Mar 2003 : 07:16:54
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| I wasn't saying anying about a scale. Just a sketch. |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jun 2003 : 01:08:42
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I just found this picture a moment ago. I took a look at it and thought -- this would be perfect for a scale-model! It would be life-sized compared to D&D figurines. (At least I think so, not having used them myself.)
Either way, look at the detail on that thing! I have to say, I'm pretty jealous. And you can peruse the rest of his collection here. |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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Yasraena
Senior Scribe
USA
388 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jun 2003 : 04:44:27
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Yeah, that would be pretty close to scale actually.
player: "What do you mean the dragon ate my Character in one bite?!?!?"
GM: "Well, see how easily he fits in the mouth here?" |
"Nindyn vel'uss malar verin z'klaen tlu kyone ulu naut doera nindel vel'bolen nind malar."
Yasraena T'Sarran
Harper of Silverymoon |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jun 2003 : 07:20:20
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As well, LEGOs would make for easy model-making. Perhaps not so much for monster-types, of course; the only LEGO version of anything you could call a D&D-type monster is, first, a rock-monster I bought so I could use it as an earth elemental, and second, the troll figure from the Harry Potter sets. (This second figure is one that I also own, and makes a cameo in the stop-motion movie I mentioned that I was writing, except as an ogre. And it's really more of a background piece. Very dead background. Mostly that was to make up for the fact that only the right arm and the head can move at all.)
However, it is easily used for making nice, highly customizeable party figures. Soon after I posted the above link, and -- scarily -- right when I was thinking about this very idea, I found some pictures someone else had done that did just that.
Another thing is that it would make area models really easy, and (like the party figures) easily customizable. That way you can avoid repetition as well as ensure regularity of layout. It would be very easy to move the cliff you built aside and put in the Hut of the Slightly Odd Wise Guy Man Who Tells the Party Things. And then, when the Slightly Odd Wise Man summons his pet monster, it's obvious where the five-foot squares fall. |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jun 2003 : 07:48:34
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Actually for a lot of the monster-type figures in my games, I make regular use of my own creations from the Warhammer Armies miniatures. You can create nearly any type of monster for your D&D games from the materials. Of course, using some established creations works too.
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2003 : 12:21:54
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| Okay, I'm going through that same guy's collection on Brickshelf, having not actually done so when I posted the links above. I just had to link to another of his pictures. It's in a series he called "Arrival" which has some very nice looking custom jobs (the Evil Guy looks particularly nice). The pic that I really wanted to share is this one. I don't know about you, but that makes me wish I were DMing this encounter. |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2003 : 13:43:48
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Bookwyrm said -
quote:
The pic that I really wanted to share is this one. I don't know about you, but that makes me wish I were DMing this encounter.
I agree.
That is a great find Bookwyrm. I guess all that is missing from this picture is a clever caption...
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Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2003 : 16:04:31
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How about:
"Hey, did you hear something?" |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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Topic |
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Using models
