Rubble can raise a game board’s landscape to newly entertaining and eye opening heights. Yes, yes – some of the build steps can be meticulous at times but the payoff is bountiful. Hobbyists will also enjoy a cavalcade of artist expression…more so than most terrain creations. After all there’s no wrong way to make modular ruins is there? Let’s take a look at the Pile’s piles.

Wood Paint Scheme
Let’s start by understanding some color schemes that Ben utilizes for his timber (easier said than done). Depending on the object, there’s actually two nice ways to go here.

Traditional wood: Flat brush of Bestial Brown (2 coats), dry brush of Snakebite Leather, lighter dry brush of Bubonic Brown and a Citadel Gryphonne Sepia ink wash to top it off. Ben applies this tone to his more common wood objects.

Stronger wood: Heavy dry brush of Scorched Brown, lighter dry brush of Bestial Brown, and a P3 Brown Ink wash finishing step. This wood color speaks more to a stronger, rarer material origin.

Caveman Clumps
Little smatterings of rubble throughout one’s dungeon was something Ben first discovered from legendary Hirst Arts officiando, Caveman. Nobody does it better. Just jaw dropping detail. An envious Ben wanted to incorporate that same style effect in his own terrain but has always been gun shy. Well, one can’t start to mimic that effect happen without first readying some actual rubble.

Modular Rubble Pile
Ben got a great insight from a Dungeon Master Mark video regarding Egyptians and their use of wood. Of course, this raw material wasn’t abundant but it had real uses back in the day. For example, the Egyptians were the first recorded people to use sails on their ships. Wood was used from planks to the mast and oars. This is excellent news as Ben needs another resource option since metal in Dark Sun is so rare.

The revelation reminded Ben of a modular rubble pile he made for some feisty Gnoll Archers in Phoenix Comicon’s 2012 Ark of Souls. Now he had a chance to create a new one with some Egyptian flair.

• Study your inspiration
• Gather painted test pieces
• Use a jagged wood plank as your rubble base (Mold #220)
• Grab a snippy thingy to weather and break up the pieces
• Paint any of the individual pieces before gluing (easier)
• Glue down your rubble
• Cover any glue spots with flock
• Enjoy your new

Your new creation works great for archer fire, combat cover, athletics skill checks and movement over difficult terrain.

(Purple) Worm Hole
Sometimes Ben will inexplicably go off on a random terrain tangent. Remember the wolf lair? Well, here we go again. There sat Reaper’s iconic Purple Worm miniature on his bookshelf. He suddenly decided to make a pyramid worm hole of sorts with oddly stacked rubble. It would also serve a spin-off on stairs to go between tomb levels.

• Grab a four by four square to serve as your gluing base
• Create circular rubble outline around your miniature (like a nest of sorts)
• Glue a mix of shattered pieces down
• Color in the details (using previous Rover series palettes)
• Paint the center black to indicate a deep dark tunnel
• Put in some special touches with flock
• Drop in some warning skulls or luring treasure piles
• Behold! A Purple Worm lair fit for a Pharaoh

Standing Rubble Piles
Let’s carry that permanent square rubble pile a little further with some semi modular pieces. These types of terrain squares are a little limiting but still fun to make. Here are some quick ideas. Ben drew from his non-traditional squares trick from our crumbled Passageways video. It’s fun to have a square not really be a square on the piece. The key is just making sure your mini base fits accordingly as you glue. Also, you don’t need to be Einstein but at least try to make the fallen terrain seem somewhat plausible.

Start simple and try some broken pottery and fallen stones. You could drop this square in a room or in the middle of a hallway. Simple but classy, ya know?

Or, get a little more elaborate. Ben liked the idea of a blasted wall that ultimately reveals a secret passageway of sorts. So gather some bricks and shake (or break) things up a little by introducing your own rubble scatterings. Remember, these weren’t the steel high-rise days…every stone eventually crumbled.

Questions to Ponder: What effects do you place on rubble for your game board? Got any fun ideas on rock pile combos? Got any flock tips?

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