Grishnakh's Custom Terrain

[Grishnakh]

Originally Posted by mcmeeple

I am curious what you have in mind. I have started thinking about designs I would love to add to the mix.

Haven't done anything other than mentally plan them out. And I don't want to say I'm doing these exact buildings since plans change. But I've been thinking about an official looking building like a bank, government building, or a museum, along with doing the Stark Tower.

These would work well in scenario based games like stop the bank robbery.

I also really want to make some more generic buildings so as to fill out my city street. Too many specialty buildings and the scene starts looking a bit odd.

Some more rundown, shabby Gotham City buildings would be cool as well.

It all comes down to time, storage space, and actually making buildings that will fit a modest to large playing surface. Still, the basic walls, footprint, and rooftop templates are in place and work great. So do the rules for half hexes. It's now really a question of making new skins for the buildings.

I also worry about making them more complicated. A basic "box" shaped building is fairly easy to assemble. A building with multiple levels starts to get a bit more complicated to fabricate. While it would be easy enough for me the problem becomes posting the buildings and making a "how to guide" for someone else to assemble them. That in itself becomes a bit time consuming. Plus I don't know how many people would actually build a more complicated building. Some people on this site have told me that they are "craft challenged"!

[Grishnakh]

Originally Posted by mcmeeple

I also can't stop thinking about the TMNT Heroclix that come out soon. I have been trying to think of how to create semi realistic/interesting sewers. I love the idea of having two boards that work together. One is above ground and the other is underground. With man holes to link the two.

Originally Posted by Porkins

Obviously not custom terrain, but it's a cool map and may help give some ideas.

Yea, you could always do that map.

Originally Posted by Tornado

I was just contemplating custom sewers myself.
Metal grating over swamp water tiles would be cool looking. Not sure if having actual pipes would be possible as it would restrict LoS and make it hard to reach areas.

If you are going all custom I suppose there is a lot of different media you could use. If you start a thread for it, I would be happy to offer suggestions.

Well, I did do these a few years ago. They were for a Melee/Wizard scenario called "The Sewers of Redpoint".

http://www.darkcitygames.com/display...eries=law&id=4

The walls have flat extenders on the bottom that slip in under the Heroscape terrain to keep them standing in place. They are the same width, color, and style of the Heroscape short wall that came with the road set. That way the blend in pretty seamlessly with the Heroscape terrain.

[Agent Minivann]

That Thunder Road board makes me want to put one of those together. I'll be ogling those pictures for a while.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Agent Minivann

That Thunder Road board makes me want to put one of those together. I'll be ogling those pictures for a while.

I saw this many months ago and it made me want the game.

[Grishnakh]

Originally Posted by japes

I saw this many months ago and it made me want the game.

I have to tell you it's one of my top ten, all time favorites games. It's the theme for one thing, I've always been a fan of the Mad Max movies. Plus it is so much simpler than similar games out there, like Car Wars for example. It is a dice fest though, luck does play into it. But if you scratch the surface you will find some strategy. Play it with the right people and the excitement level gets pretty high, people stand throughout most of the game. Which I find is a good indicator that people are really getting into a game.

It does take a little planning and work to create your own copy of the game. Everything you need is on BoardGameGeek. Universal Head reworked the rules. You'd have to make the two boards, collect the cars and the copters (hot wheels and matchbox), and make 1 custom die (for the road bonus). The game uses 6 sided dice so you're good on that. I posted my Advanced Rules as a download on the Geek if you want to add in some extra flavor. It's been fun coming up with additional terrain features as well like bridges, destroyed road sections, etc.

If any of you do attempt this it would be great to hear back from you as to how it went. Otherwise, just catch me at a game convention sometime and play my copy!

[mcmeeple]

Originally Posted by Porkins

There is C3G's Shadows over Gotham scenario:




Obviously not custom terrain, but it's a cool map and may help give some ideas.

This is slick, not what I had in mind, but it would work really well. Especially for a more "reasonable" sized board.

Originally Posted by Grishnakh

This is really a simpler idea then where my mind kept going. Looks like those are the normal RTFF walls from the bridge with an extra wall behind it? Unfortunately I only have 1 set of those. However, that is an interesting idea to simply make small walls to add to the side.

Is your stone texture on those walls spray mounted on like your buildings?

My original idea involved something like slicing a piece of PVC pipe lengthwise and putting something flat in the bottom as the hexes....it didn't seem like an elegant idea, which is of course why I am still trying to find a good idea.

[mcmeeple]

Originally Posted by Grishnakh

But I've been thinking about an official looking building like a bank, government building, or a museum, along with doing the Stark Tower.
...
I also really want to make some more generic buildings so as to fill out my city street. Too many specialty buildings and the scene starts looking a bit odd.

Some more rundown, shabby Gotham City buildings would be cool as well.

It all comes down to time, storage space, and actually making buildings that will fit a modest to large playing surface. Still, the basic walls, footprint, and rooftop templates are in place and work great. So do the rules for half hexes. It's now really a question of making new skins for the buildings.

I also worry about making them more complicated. A basic "box" shaped building is fairly easy to assemble. A building with multiple levels starts to get a bit more complicated to fabricate. While it would be easy enough for me the problem becomes posting the buildings and making a "how to guide" for someone else to assemble them. That in itself becomes a bit time consuming. Plus I don't know how many people would actually build a more complicated building. Some people on this site have told me that they are "craft challenged"!

Those three buildings: bank, government & museum could all have a similar feel with columns and such. What if you had an interchangeable sign on them? Like the names of the buildings mounted on strips with velcro so you could simply use the same structure for any of the three. This could be applied to other buildings as well in order to create interesting scenarios.

[Grishnakh]

Originally Posted by mcmeeple

Those three buildings: bank, government & museum could all have a similar feel with columns and such. What if you had an interchangeable sign on them? Like the names of the buildings mounted on strips with velcro so you could simply use the same structure for any of the three. This could be applied to other buildings as well in order to create interesting scenarios.

Oh, there would only be one building. I didn't make that too clear did I? It would just stand in for whatever you'd like it to be and could represent a bank, a government building, or a museum.

[Grishnakh]

Originally Posted by mcmeeple

This is really a simpler idea then where my mind kept going. Looks like those are the normal RTFF walls from the bridge with an extra wall behind it? Unfortunately I only have 1 set of those. However, that is an interesting idea to simply make small walls to add to the side.

Is your stone texture on those walls spray mounted on like your buildings?

My original idea involved something like slicing a piece of PVC pipe lengthwise and putting something flat in the bottom as the hexes....it didn't seem like an elegant idea, which is of course why I am still trying to find a good idea.

I scanned in the bridge walls and used Photoshop to extend them. Then the walls are spray mounted onto a piece of foam core. It's in one piece, it just folds over the top. Then there's a flange that the wall attaches to that goes under the Heroscape tiles. Makes an "L" shape. I just use the bridge walls to hold it in place better and so there's no weird looking gaps on the inside corner where the wall meets the tiles.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Grishnakh

I have to tell you it's one of my top ten, all time favorites games. It's the theme for one thing, I've always been a fan of the Mad Max movies. Plus it is so much simpler than similar games out there, like Car Wars for example. It is a dice fest though, luck does play into it. But if you scratch the surface you will find some strategy. Play it with the right people and the excitement level gets pretty high, people stand throughout most of the game. Which I find is a good indicator that people are really getting into a game.

It does take a little planning and work to create your own copy of the game. Everything you need is on BoardGameGeek. Universal Head reworked the rules. You'd have to make the two boards, collect the cars and the copters (hot wheels and matchbox), and make 1 custom die (for the road bonus). The game uses 6 sided dice so you're good on that. I posted my Advanced Rules as a download on the Geek if you want to add in some extra flavor. It's been fun coming up with additional terrain features as well like bridges, destroyed road sections, etc.

If any of you do attempt this it would be great to hear back from you as to how it went. Otherwise, just catch me at a game convention sometime and play my copy!

Yeah BGG is where I initially saw it and I know we've emailed in the past. You and your map bringing hot wheels and Matchbox cars into the mix is what got me interested since my son is still young and has a ton of cars.

[mcmeeple]

I finally finished up 4 of the buildings which I made of MDF. Turns out an orbital sander melts MDF like butter so it was a simple task to smooth out minor overlaps of the wood on the edges. This ensured that the artwork mounted smoothly.

Obviously they are super sturdy which is great.

I made a second 3 story building and I modified the artwork before printing it since it seemed silly to have two of the same building. My son is Jack, so naturally I made it Jack's Toys. And I modified the sides of the building to make room for huge worn out wall paintings.

Here are the photos:

Photos of my first batch of buildings

Thank you @Grishnakh for the fantastic designs.

[Tornado]

Those look great. Nice job.
Thanks for sharing.