Forget the endless pile of dragon hoard treasure…what every RPG’er truly wants is simply more time to game. In order to maximize those precious hours, Ben uses pre-cut game boards to stage each of his dungeon room encounters. The results will simply amaze you.
All the credit goes to game group member Bobby Hurley (who plays Magnum and Red Dawn in our weekly podcast). He’s the innovator on this crafty idea. Here’s how it works:
The boards can be purchased at Home Depot and are 1/8” in thickness. Hurley cuts them to different square shapes to accommodate Hirst Arts floor tiles (typically 3 by 3 increments). As an added touch, he also spray paints them a dark green to ensure they blend into the game table background. He’s even cut 1 3/4″ tall PVC pipe and camouflaged those when we need to demonstrate dungeon levels.
Prior to game time, Ben stages each room on individual boards and keeps them under wraps. He then lays down the pieces with ease in real time as the adventures move forth. By pre-building the rooms, Ben avoids those pesky 15-minute-plus setup delays.
Pretty soon you will get really creative and experiment with traps, more traps, trap doors, and pits. It’s all pure genius and easy to do. Give it a try and see just how much extra time it saves you in your next game.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
awesome! dude, where did you get those 3D doors? i’m looking everyone online but the only place i found were dwarven forge, but it comes in the set.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Those doors are actually from Hirst Arts. There are lots of cool doors in many different molds. See our 8-4 “Doors, Doors & More Doors” blog post for details. We love Dwarven Forge for its sturdiness & easiness. Hirst Arts lets you design your own but there’s more time involved. It’s a win-win for either choice.
December 9th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Thanks! I’m looking at Naloomi’s Workshop (they have a link to this site) regarding ordering some 1″ tiles and maybe starting with that. Not ready to dive into making them myself!
Also, loved your game sessions so much I recorded my first session: http://blip.tv/file/2948769. Not as fancy as yours but thanks for the inspiration!
December 10th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Awesome – very cool on the blip game session. We will absolutely check it out this weekend. Bravo.
March 23rd, 2010 at 12:23 pm
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