A good dungeon needs many obstacles, known and unknown, to spice up the RPG experience. This time Ben went with an oldie but a goodie – the ominous terrain cave-in. This classic creation is yet another golden opportunity to make your three-dimensional game board come alive.

Ben utilized the Fieldstone molds (# 70, 75, and 701) to craft the core base of this piece. He then cast some smaller Woodland Scenic boulders to accent the crumbled walls. Finally, a Skullcrafts Oregon Beach Sand flock and a Games Workshop paint scheme round out the job.

The keys to building this terrain boils down to two sets of steady hands and of course, lots of glue – four types to be exact. Ben and Rob (the voice of Magnum & Red Dawn on our weekly podcast) then did a dry assembly run on the piece including some helpful reminder photos.

The slickery paint scheme included:

• First mix 2 drops of Games Workshop Codex Gray with 1 drop Chaos Black.
• Now dry brush that darker gray combo onto the piece.
• Then apply a lighter dry brush of just Codex Gray.
• Then paint a lighter brush of Citadel Delvan Mud wash (for that dirty feel).

So whether it’s a sudden dungeon cave-in, an unfortunate sprung trap, or a simply portion of a ruined room, damaged terrain needs a permanent place in your own D&D pile.

See It

A trained killer always wants to see the face of its future victim. Any and all details are critical – anything to speed up the hunt.

Ben knows this allure well. So much so he created NPC tracker cards for his campaign. Now upstart Paizo, has sweetened the pot with a super handy face deck series including: the Friends and Foes deck and an Enemies deck. They’re a perfect complement to your game accessory hoard.

The decks offer a slew of NPC options. Everything from a grumpy Duergar to a fc_fireb.jpgraging fireball.  Of course, there’s always a couple hokey, cartoony ones in the pile but Ben still applauds the effort.

Ben still favors his custom campaign cards but these babies work great in a sudden NPC pinch. Just pull a name off Chris Perkin’s kick-ass list and grab a corresponding face from the deck – and presto!

At $10.99, these decks are very affordable. And new twists and ideas are on the way. Ben is especially giddy about the upcoming Plot Twist Cards.

Ben is a big Paizo fan simply because they constantly look for new ways to immerse the player into the game. Who doesn’t love their maps and item cards? Remember, it’s the subtle touches that raise a typical game above the bar.

See It | Get It

Great game shirts are a part of everyone’s own RPG Pile…so much so that Ben wanted to get jiggy and add another fantasy apparel option to the mix with an official website T-shirt.

The reasoning here is two-fold. First, we needed a team shirt for the Pile crew to wear at this year’s upcoming Phoenix Comicon Lava and a Cup of Java event in May. Second, we’re just a proud bunch of gamers who wanted to stand tall for our office’s traditional Dragon Shirt Fridays. 

Inspiration for the paint splatter effect came from an old Blizzard World of War Craft design. We picked two colors: blue to represent our local Gamers’ Inn shop and black cause every RPG’er loves to wear black.

A great work buddy (hereby known as “Lorenzo”) hooked us up with a killer local print shop. Mix that in with two insanely talented designers (Gabe-age and Reed) and you got yourself a winning clothing formula.

The blue shirt is up for sale in our Café Press store and the black option will soon follow. We’re excited about creating future t-shirts and tchotchkes but the group had to start with what’s closest to the heart.

See It | Get It