Mapping with the Kids, Watercolor for the win.

Hi Everybody, its been a while since i last posted, almost a month. What can i say life is busy. When your trying to make money anyway you can, spend time with your kids, and everything else that is life its hard to find time put some thoughts on paper.

I started to run P1 - King of the Trollhaunt Warrens with my group of players, its my first 4e pre-made adventure. I really liked the map that came with it but was a little upset there were no maps for the rest of the encounters.

Now the maps i use for the table has varied over the last year and a half. From D&D Map Tiles, to 1" grid paper using markers. I went through the entire book and created every single encounter using makers.

We ran the first night heading into the troll haunt, and the players had trouble seeing where they could go and where they couldn't because everything was still white spaced. I didn't know what i was going to do.

A few days later brought my 3 year old into the d&d room so she could paint some watercolor's, i even gave her one of my large 1" grid sheets. I love spending time with my kids and find being a dad the biggest role playing experience of my life. i noticed the colors she was using and though, jesh that looks just like it does in this book.

So i put away my happy face i was painted and busted out a few of my maps and started painting.

The result was solid. Not only did the maps look great but i also got to spend time with my kid while working on it.

I know recently there has been lots of talk about people building massive encounter using tiles, and even the 3d tile sets. But really who has the money. I spent $12 on paper for 50 sheets (50 encounters) and i spent $1 on the watercolor paint set that is still going strong. All encounters can be pre-built and once dry i just fold it up and write the encounter code on the back.

I've now increase my own personal enjoyment from the map by spending time with my little girl. The players enjoyed the map and feel it adds a lot of flavor to the game that cannot be added with store bought items.

Well for other DM Dad's out there, i say why not give it a shot. Hey go even further and design the encounter with your kids and see what your players think about it.

Well until next time, keep your dice on the table

DMs Top 5 things to get at the dollar store

Without mentioning classic, paper, pencils, erasers and sticky notes, there are a few items you as a DM should pickup from the local dollar store every once and a while that can help you with your game.

What i mean by helping you with your game, is that each of these items alone cost little (around a dollar!) and help overall by speeding up your game.

#5 - Poker Chips

If you use the +1 or +2 token rule this is a great way to keep track of them, usually you can get some white, red and blue tokens for a dollar. Use the white for +1, the red for +2 and the blue for action points.

It may not be the best idea in town, but it is something I'm almost sure people do.

#4 - Color Foam Sheets

These colored sheets of foam about the size of a piece of paper can be cut up to make your own burst & blast templates. You can use left over pieces to make bloodied/status tokens.

Four sheets for about a dollar, you simply cut a five by five inch section off, then a four by four, then a three by three and use the rest to make multiple one by ones.

#3 - Modeling Clay

Somethings you just don't have anything your need for your game, Modeling clay lets you spend a few minutes to accurately get what you need. Perhaps your building a wall, or simply some boxes. Using this an let the players know that indeed something is on the gird.

The best thing is its all reusable, just roll it back up and throw it in a bag. Just don't let your players make a dr. manhattan slong for your Degenerate Cultist of Orcus, i mean sure hes Degenerate but common.

#2 - Round Labels or Reinforcements

Reinforcements are the little round circles, the donut with the center. Often used to holes in paper that were riped. You can use a pen and write a number in the center circle, then use this circle on the base of miniatures to identify them on your initiative tracking. Sure you have 40 orc's, but now you can have them properly labeled. This works great for the round labels as well

The Outer donut an be colored with a marker and used as a status identification or bloodied mark.

#1 - Star Stickers

Yes, even when i first thought of this, i was like WTF. But then in dawned on me, i can get a pack of 400 star stickers, each sheet has 5 colors, yellow, red, blue, green and silver. Then i realized i can use this to significantly marked tokens, bloodied tokens and other effects.

Its simple and it works, Red of course is bloodied, silver can be a marked effect, yellow, blue and green can be any status effects you find come up a lot in your game. Prone is a big one.

Just peal the sticker off of the sheet, and use one of the star ends to stick it on the top of the miniature. Or but it on the base so it can be seen.

Now that you have some ideas of things you can get to help your game along, here are a few things to stay away from.

Dinosaurs: No they do not make good miniatures

Flutes: No, do not give this to your bard, the party will hurt him. And possibly you.

Fake Swords: This can only end badly.

Honorable Mentions

Small Sticky Notes

Sure i mentioned them at the top, but the smaller ones are great for making areas in books you need later on. Perhaps what page that orc is on, or what page of the players handbook the players treasure is on.

Freezer/Sandwich Bags

Yes, this are great. The freezer bags lets you store dungeon tiles in sets or in groups. If you want you can even pre-build your encounters and store the needed tiles in a large freezer bag, then user makers to write down which encounter it is

With the sandwich bags you can store multiple miniatures again by each encounter or type. Pickup a few blank labels and you've not organized everything in some easy to grab minis-dime bag.

Well there you have it, i hope i brought you some good ideas, or at least some bad ones.

Until next time keep your dice on the table.

Crafts: Tile Mat

This weeks late entry is about create a surface area for you tiles. I myself love the tile sets WotC puts out, our group rather enjoys them and we chip in on each set at least once.

Since 4e, we have continued to try and find a way to properly setup the encounters so were not bumping the tiles around, and as a DM i was looking for a way where i can build my encounters in advance and then go with the flow on game night.

This project has had many version, and this final version is the one that works.

What you'll need

• Tiles
• Sticky Tack
• Grip, no Slip shelve mats
• Large strong cardboard at least 30"x30"
• Hot Glue Gun

Roll out the mat on the cardboard, using the hot glue gun, glue the mat to the cardboard around the outside. Make sure you put your glue down in a zig zag pattern coming back on yourself, and only do a small length at a time.

Each time you press down, pat the mat quickly with your hand. Be careful the glue has not hardened yet, in fact this will hurt as glue particles ill pull up from the cardboard, through the mat and stick on your hand.

Why would you want to do this? well this will force the glue up through the mat and creates a better hold.

When your done, you have one encounter mat all setup. I have two because at most our group has gone through 2 encounters a night, that's all i need.

Now you take the silly putty and make small gob that you stick to the corners of the underside of the tile you want.



Then place it down on the mat and push it down with some force

Continue doing this until your encounter is finished. This creates a bond strong enough that you can tuck this away behind furniture all week and it will stay put. And with a flick of the wrist you can pull the tile off, reuse the sticky tack and nothing is damaged.

Crafts: Walls

So this week i am going to show you how to build basic walls. These walls are great when you need to show that there is something physically in the way, and can also be used as bushes.

Here is what where going to need to get started

Sharpie, Hot-glue gun, scissors, cardboard, tiles, cleaning scrub pads (pack of 12 for 1$)

Now first we are going to make a 4 square long walls, i make all my wall height 1.5 squares, because it gets the idea across and makes it pretty universal.



as you can see here, i traced a 2 square by 4 square area on the scrub pad, using the tile as a guide line. To ensure that i have the area i need i am going to make sure is 3 squares by 4 squares



Now we cut out what we don't need



We can save the excess (make 1 square bushes by rolling them up)
but our next step is to fold it in half, and have some guide lines.


you don't need to draw these lines in, they are just here to show

now that this is folded, we simply place hot glue along the lines one at a time, holding it closed and waiting a minute after each line to dry before proceeding to the next



make sure you add pressure to each glue so that the piece feels like one

Now while the entire piece is drying lets make the base, using the tile set and the cardboard, trace out a 2 square by 4 square area (if you have 1x4 blocks use them instead) and cut out that pathway



now place a bead of glue along the base of the wall, the base is the end that was folded onto itself. and place the wall in the center of the base you just cut out


and let it dry.

There you have it, a simple wall, you can sit back and make a bunch of these easy in an hour if you break everything down in steps.