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Hey guys, I wasn't sure where to put this because it has to deal with multiple games.

The group I am playing with needs gaming terrain for multiple games, (DnD, Zweihander, Warhammer 40k, etc.) and have run into issues with finding something that suits us.

I've looked into making my own, but generally I would prefer to just buy pre-fabricated stuff or easily built ones. I do not have enough practice in crafting, and I'd rather have a decent looking product than one that looks like garbage that I made myself.

So, this brought me into looking at the Streets of Malifaux set. It looked like it perfectly fit what we needed, but the product has been discontinued. Does anyone know of similar products?

The current set up is that we need something that would cover roughtly 8'x6'.

 Professor_Plum wrote:
Hey guys, I wasn't sure where to put this because it has to deal with multiple games.

The group I am playing with needs gaming terrain for multiple games, (DnD, Zweihander, Warhammer 40k, etc.) and have run into issues with finding something that suits us.

I've looked into making my own, but generally I would prefer to just buy pre-fabricated stuff or easily built ones. I do not have enough practice in crafting, and I'd rather have a decent looking product than one that looks like garbage that I made myself.

So, this brought me into looking at the Streets of Malifaux set. It looked like it perfectly fit what we needed, but the product has been discontinued. Does anyone know of similar products?

The current set up is that we need something that would cover roughtly 8'x6'.

Filling an 8'x6' with off the shelf terrain is a potentially pricey proposition.

What's your budget? If it's big enough and you don't want to do much work, commissioning custom terrain might be a good way to go.

If the Streets of Malifaux product caught your eye, I'm guessing modular design is important. That's going to constrict your market as well.

I'd suggest you look into 4Ground's Fabled Realms range.

4Ground is a little spendy, but great value, and pre-painted. Just build it and play with it.

Within Fabled Realms you've got The City of Mordanburg for buildings, fences, and such. You've also got The Ruins of Daldorr for multi-level dungeon-like terrain or ruins. And also the new DREOZENDE OF KARAG HAIM if you want to add some dwarfish flair.

If it sounds like I'm schilling for 4Ground, it's just because I really like the products. I've always been pleased with a 4Ground purchase, and you get free international shipping at like $70 or something.

Some of their stuff can be a challenge to assemble, but again, if you're looking for something ready-to-go and don't mind spending money, it's a good option.

For something lighter on the wallet, there's lots of companies selling unpainted laser cut terrain. I'd have to noodle around a bit to bring up a respectable list of links to the kinds of products you are looking for. My off-the-top-of-my-head recommendations start to break down at fantasy corridors and dungeons unless you want SERIOUS modularity.

Anybody else got ideas?

It's right after Christmas, so hit the craft stores and grab the cheap pine trees while they're on sale. You can make some decent forests for a few dollars apiece. Maybe not get the ones with snow-effects unless you plan on that for the rest of the board.

You might luck out and find a Christmas village in close-enough scale on sale. Just paint over the word "Santa", give it a heavy wash of brown shade to grim-dark it up and you're good.

 MindwormGames wrote:

 Professor_Plum wrote:
Hey guys, I wasn't sure where to put this because it has to deal with multiple games.

The group I am playing with needs gaming terrain for multiple games, (DnD, Zweihander, Warhammer 40k, etc.) and have run into issues with finding something that suits us.

I've looked into making my own, but generally I would prefer to just buy pre-fabricated stuff or easily built ones. I do not have enough practice in crafting, and I'd rather have a decent looking product than one that looks like garbage that I made myself.

So, this brought me into looking at the Streets of Malifaux set. It looked like it perfectly fit what we needed, but the product has been discontinued. Does anyone know of similar products?

The current set up is that we need something that would cover roughtly 8'x6'.

Filling an 8'x6' with off the shelf terrain is a potentially pricey proposition.

What's your budget? If it's big enough and you don't want to do much work, commissioning custom terrain might be a good way to go.

If the Streets of Malifaux product caught your eye, I'm guessing modular design is important. That's going to constrict your market as well.

I'd suggest you look into 4Ground's Fabled Realms range.

4Ground is a little spendy, but great value, and pre-painted. Just build it and play with it.

Within Fabled Realms you've got The City of Mordanburg for buildings, fences, and such. You've also got The Ruins of Daldorr for multi-level dungeon-like terrain or ruins. And also the new DREOZENDE OF KARAG HAIM if you want to add some dwarfish flair.

If it sounds like I'm schilling for 4Ground, it's just because I really like the products. I've always been pleased with a 4Ground purchase, and you get free international shipping at like $70 or something.

Some of their stuff can be a challenge to assemble, but again, if you're looking for something ready-to-go and don't mind spending money, it's a good option.

For something lighter on the wallet, there's lots of companies selling unpainted laser cut terrain. I'd have to noodle around a bit to bring up a respectable list of links to the kinds of products you are looking for. My off-the-top-of-my-head recommendations start to break down at fantasy corridors and dungeons unless you want SERIOUS modularity.

Anybody else got ideas?

Unfortunately I only have 200 USD or so to spend on it. Seems like there's a massive hole in the pricing for terrain. It all either seems to be "Build your own" or "Pay 100+ for this small set" with nothing inbetween.

Build your own.

With a little work you can have a lot of terrain for not much money.

Foam core and insulation foam (blue or pink) a little bit of cardboard and 1/8 inch thick Masonite is all you need to make some great terrain pieces.

There is absolutely no need to buy terrain or terrain kits.

If the Terrain is goign to be for the group to use, why don't you all pitch in and collectively bite the bullet.

Instead of buying terrain premade, you can all make terrain, even using it as a community building exercise. Have everyone think up a piece they want, and get the supplies all together. This way you can have a bunch of different kinds of terrain, and you will all have an investment in it.

I've found that the oft overlooked Ziggurat is a great starter terrain piece. Inch thick blue/pink insulation foam, cut into progressively smaller squares and stacked. Lots of room for improvement as your skills grow and can fit nearly any setting.
The "spooky abandoned city of the Ancients" is pretty universal.

 Carnikang wrote:
If the Terrain is goign to be for the group to use, why don't you all pitch in and collectively bite the bullet.

Instead of buying terrain premade, you can all make terrain, even using it as a community building exercise. Have everyone think up a piece they want, and get the supplies all together. This way you can have a bunch of different kinds of terrain, and you will all have an investment in it.

Unfortunately, you play with a group much different than mine. The first idea wouldn't work because no one else can afford it. The second because they're not the type of people to do it.

Basically it's just me for it all.

Making terrain is super easy and fun!



I made this one recently and it's pretty straight forward, you can find (somewhat) of a step by step here:
http://commodusleitdorf.blogspot.ca/2017/01/cleaning-off-paint-table-god-i-suck-at.html

Although I gee making terrain isn't everyones cup of tea. there are plenty of companies where you can get stuff

http://escenorama.com/shopping/
http://www.gamemat.eu/our-products/terrain/us/

Just some ideas for you to play with no mater what direction you go in.

 Commodus Leitdorf wrote:
Making terrain is super easy and fun!



I made this one recently and it's pretty straight forward, you can find (somewhat) of a step by step here:
http://commodusleitdorf.blogspot.ca/2017/01/cleaning-off-paint-table-god-i-suck-at.html

Although I gee making terrain isn't everyones cup of tea. there are plenty of companies where you can get stuff

http://escenorama.com/shopping/
http://www.gamemat.eu/our-products/terrain/us/

Just some ideas for you to play with no mater what direction you go in.

Do you happen to know the most common tools and materials needed? I could stop at the store on my way home from work, but I have no clue what I'm looking for.

Since apparently all decently priced scenery isn't available anymore.

3D printed terrain might be a good alternative if you don't want to drop tons of cash on the pre-made/pre-painted stuff.

I've bought from this guy before and plan to do so again: https://www.amazon.com/Seus-Corp-Ltd/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_13108731011?ie=UTF8&node=13108731011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=Seus+Corp+Ltd

Pair one of those with some bits from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue and you've got yourself some nice sci-fi terrain that's ready to be painted. Here's a thread I posted a little while back with some pictures of a 3D printed bunker (bought from the seller linked earlier) that I painted: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/710569.page . It's not some mind-blowing piece of terrain, but I don't think it's too terrible.

You can also pick up some of those blue plastic electrical boxes and PVC pipe from Home Depot/Lowe's for <$10.00. Something like this is what I'm thinking: https://www.lowes.com/pd/CARLON-25-cu-in-2-Gang-Plastic-Old-Work-Wall-Electrical-Box/1098507 . I nabbed one the other day and am currently sprucing it up with some bits from the Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue...haven't finished quite yet but it's shaping up quite nicely. The PVC pipe is good because it screws/links together and can be painted up to look like some mega-industrial pipes or something.

I was thinking 3d printing as well. check Mantic Games out, they might fit what you are looking for. But its not easy combining 40k and D&D other than the generic 'open plains' look.

If you have access to a 3D printer then there are plenty of sites out there that you can download designs from

Professor,

You're making a tough ask, basically wanting a lot of terrain for little output in money/effort (at least on the side of your friends). That's a set-up for disaster, but not impossible. You state you want to have modular terrain for use with a variety of games? Then I'd suggest the following, initially: natural terrain. Avoid buying up techno-buildings or fantasy buildings if you need to really span your genres.

There isn't an issue with trees/rocks/hills/rivers/etc. Those kinds of terrain features can be found anywhere. Once you have the "basics" of this stuff covered then I'd suggest moving on to buying some buildings etc.

While building your own terrain is pretty easy, there are pitfalls (namely if you rush it and use poor materials). You could make some disposable terrain which will last six months before you bin it, but that's really wasted effort.

Initial suggestions:

1) Research online for sheets or panels of MDF for basing your terrain "pieces" on. If you have the ability to purchase MDF and cut it up yourself, even better.

Here is an example:
http://krakenskulls.com/product/scatter-terrain-bases-7/

This kind of stuff will allow you to plant several trees or rocks, or whatever and base it and make easy to layout sections of terrain. The above ones may be wood and not MDF (I prefer MDF personally) but you can see they're quite cheap. You can find squared off larger panels of MDF for mounting buildings on as well.

2) Trees are easy:

https://www.amazon.com/Deciduous-Tree-Armatures-Woodland-Scenics/dp/B000BLI6T0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483474032&sr=8-2&keywords=woodland+scenics+tree+armatures

^Bag of 23-25 plastic (bendable) tree armatures. Cover them in flock or cheat and use Lichen (also available cheap in bags). This is how I do my trees:



(MDF bits...trees...lichen)

3) The age-old classic...hills. Tons of YouTube videos available for hills. You'll generally be using compressed insulation foam (pink or blue - available in 8x4 sheets from Home Depot/Lowes). A crap load of tutorials on YouTube to guide you through this. A bunch of different ways to do them as well.

4) If you're on any kind of budget, look at Pegasus Hobbies pre-made terrain pieces. Very reasonable priced for painted and ready-to-go stuff.



These can be had for very reasonable prices. Now, these would obviously be useless in fantasy games but they do some nice sandbags etc. for 40K.

Their fences need some touching up but can be very nice when done. These are ones that I clipped, primed, and re-based/painted to make them more useful/attractive:



For rocks and outcroppings I would have suggested the fantastic Battlefield in a Box stuff, but they've discontinued most of the lines and that sucks ass.

If you've got $200 to spend on an 8'x6' table, unfortunately the solution is going to be scratch built terrain.

As I typically say, terrain (like anything) is about money vs time. The more money you have, the more time you can save.

The more time you have, the more money you can save.

I strongly recommend picking up some basic scratch building techniques. You can do a whole lot with minimal supplies, minimal skill, and minimal labor.

Edit: Elbows has some darn awesome suggestions.

I don't have time right now to go into core philosophies about building a terrain collection from scratch in terms of both skill and material, but Elbows has a great set of guidelines right there.

In general, terrain falls into three categories:

Area
Scatter
Blocking

Area terrain is something you put minis INTO but is still a broad, demarcated area on the table, e.g. a forrest.

Blocking terrain is a large SOMETHING that blocks movement, line of sight, etc., e.g. hills or buildings.

Scatter terrain is small stuff that can go lots of places, fill in gaps, create interesting areas, etc., e.g. fences, hay bales, rocks.

My rough and dirty tips are as follows:

A) Put your time and effort into one or two nice pieces of blocking terrain. Make a cool tower, splurge on a fancy building. It will elevate your entire setup.

B) Get lots of cheap, easy scatter terrain. Rocks scale incredibly well. You can literally find some cool rocks and put them right on the table. Throw a little money at some hay bales. Make some basic broken fencing. Use little scatter pieces to learn a new skill, try out a new technique, etc.

C) Felt makes the cheapest, easiest area terrain. All you need is just a LITTLE something to sell what the area is supposed to be. One or two trees, for example.

If you start there, and Elbows is right that starting with natural terrain is a good idea, you will quickly have a collection that you can play with and easily expand and improve.

 Professor_Plum wrote:

Do you happen to know the most common tools and materials needed? I could stop at the store on my way home from work, but I have no clue what I'm looking for.

Since apparently all decently priced scenery isn't available anymore.

Sure! It's actually pretty straight forward and not all the difficult. I'll admit, this was my first attempt at my own terrain piece. I based it numerous blogs and Projects I've seen on this site and others but never got around to do. It was actually pretty fun and faaaar cheaper then buying resin stuff from other sellers (or plastic from GW)



Basically you need MDF board, which you can get big pieces at a Home depot or smaller pieces at any art store. Polystyrene you can get large slabs at a Home Depot too, usually not all that expensive for a big pieces although a bit unwieldy. Foamboard, Popsicle sticks White glue and paint I used I all got at a Dollar store. Balsa wood I got at a hobby store where they sell pieces of varying size. Lastly the basing material aI already had but I got that at a hobby store as well.

All in all it only cost me about 20 bucks for everything I needed and I have a ton left over to make more buildings.

Hope it helps!

If you've only got $200 and don't want to go through all the work of scratch building stuff I would suggest paper terrain. Download the files, print, cut, glue and there you go. Fat Dragon games is a good source but there are quite a few out there.

Add trees, a few walls and such and you'll have a nice table for cheap

Terrain from Dwarven Forge is high quality, and modular. Issue here is that it doesn't come cheap. Just search "D&D Terrain" in google and it's one of the first links.

I love this topic. I can't get enough information for inspiration.

OP-

I have a few things for you, as well, along with the common thread.

Minimum tools that you need, unconditionally.

1. Glue Gun, and glue sticks.
2. X Acto Knife with blades
3. Wire cutters
4. Tweezers
5. Assorted paint brushes of different sizes. (Medium house painting brushes on down to extra craft fatties.) Around 3-4, depending on your preference.
6. A bitz box, which is a combination of evolution from your hobby, budget, and anything you bring to the table.
7. A foam cutter, either a stick cutter, or the enclosed wire one.

With this, you can go on to materials.

Here are just a few-

Styro foam- you can get it from anywhere. ( sheets, odd sizes, scraps from boxes electronics, etc...)

Foam board

Popsicle sticks

Balsa Wood

Plastic sprue materials from models/ gaming figures

Crisp(Chip) cans, Peanut cans, Soda cans, Coffee cans, etc... ( cans. nuff said)

Card stock

With these, you can go absolutely ape, and fill an 8 X 8 table in a day or two with basics.

You can use plastic trees from those bucket of solders, dinosaurs. knights, etc. along with some of the other terrain that comes along with them for the ride.

Ready made materials from assorted companies. ( barrels, trees, sandbag nests, trench lines, etc.)

go to Drivethru RPG, and download plenty of FREE printable cardstock terrain pieces, and can go to outside sources, such as=

1. http://matakishi.com/

2. http://hawgleg.com/

3. http://www.hobbylinc.com/model-railroad-scenery

4. http://www.thearmypainter.com/documents.php

5. http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/

to name just a few. There are hundress, of not thousands of informal resources.


Hope this helps. I will be watching this thread with professional interest.

Check out http://www.hirstarts.com/ can be a little bit pricey for the initial molds and materials etc, but you can build as much as you want after that

http://terrainforhippos.blogspot.com/?m=1

This guy is wonderful, his entire thing is cheap, easy to build terrain that looks good.

This, my friend, is the website you're after. Cheap and cheerful, with pieces of all sizes and types. Not the most detailed, but let's you cover a table for $100.

http://www.amera.co.uk/

If you are looking for rocky terrain you could always go with aquarium pieces. I have many rocky outcrops, plateaus, and ridges for my desert themed board. Not too pricey, depending on manufacturer (I mostly go Top Fin).