Coming up with a variety of new materials for your terrain environment is critical. After all, you don’t want to stare at the same humdrum pieces game in and game out: different building materials means different color schemes. Ben turned to The Google for a little history lesson and came up with ivory as yet another world resource. Let’s see how he’s begun adding this material (and more wood) into his new game board.

We’ve already settled on the natural stone (otherwise known as “casing stones”). That limestone is the core material for our walls and floors. Thanks to the RPG community, Ben also started introducing wood into the setting. And now we’ve got ivory as yet another building material (hooray). Here are some possible fits.

Wooden Door
Ben has already made a series of ornate heavy stone doors for his tomb but decided he needed a simple alternative. If you think about it, there are plenty of common areas that simply don’t require a Fort Knox style entrance. Try these steps:

• Use the rickety old door from Hirst Arts (Mold #81)
• Paint it the Stronger Wood scheme for a somewhat sturdy feel
• Create two simple door supports
• Add a hieroglyphic brick for some message intrigue
• Slap on some optional stone décor or keep it simple
• Now that’s a nice door

Ivory Altar
Religious zealots need their space too. Ben has a couple of nice existing fieldstone options but this was his first tomb top attempt.

• Grab the column top from Mold #84
• Sand the bottom down so the piece can rest flat
• Prime it black
• Apply a flat coat of Bestial Brown (straight on but avoid big cracks)
• Put on a flat coat of Bleached Bone (straight on but feather it out with your brush)
• Dry brush on Skull White
• Allow for a couple exposed but subtle crevices
• Adorn with an appropriate object of suspense for a final touch

The Gothic mold series has some great options too (#41, 42 and 80). Ben made a couple in the ivory motif. These also work nicely as special décor or as bases for statues. The gothic ones just seem a tad large for tables or altars but it’s dealer’s choice of course.

Ivory Column
The Hirst Arts Egyptian pieces have an intentional gritty sand blast coating to them. That bumpy effect somewhat works against our ivory desires. The paint job normally works best on a smooth casted surface. No worries though – Ben thinks this idea is still a winner.

• Use the column from Mold #99
• Cast two toppers and a half a column
• Apply our ivory paint scheme (as noted above)
• Build a taller staggered wall to rest it against
• Imitate the partial column top from our inspiration
• Not bad, ey?
• Add this beauty to your column collection

See how great a room looks now with all our new materials diversity. That sand color no longer dominates our landscape. Benny like.

Questions to Ponder: What are some common room types that could use our simple wood door? What object would you place on your ivory altar? What do you think of our latest column – does it work with the rest of our tomb theme?

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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.

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They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery and when it is comes to terrain buildin’, you would be a bumbling fool not to utilize the vast array of RPG resources sitting at your keyboard. Countless photos, how-to guides and videos are scattered across this world wide web of ours. Let’s see how Ben called upon a few old friends for some help with this week’s new Egyptian pieces.

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Our Egyptian environment possesses all the basic terrain – doors, floors, columns and walls. Now Ben has entered a new phase in his game board development that calls for making good pieces better. A hobbyist relishes this innovation phase but it does slow overall production down a bit. There are a lot of nerves to overcome. For instance, Ben has often stared at a new pile of unassembled, molded pieces for hours before taking the creative leap. Let’s see what he slapped together this week.

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Thunderspire Labyrinth’s module finale is filled with all sorts of unique terrain pieces. And your last dance with Paldemar is meant to be a real humdinger. Every DM always want that final battle to be a memorable one so let’s see how Ben set forth to do just that.

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Nearly done? Guess again, Pharaoh. There are plenty of support pieces still to be made for this new Egyptian RPG landscape. In fact, sometimes Ben feels like he’s just scratched the pyramid’s surface. A daunting revelation for him yet wonderful news for you. Let’s get to the nitty-gritty…

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Hard to believe it was three years ago in March, that the little ol’ Pile took to the web. Well, 157 posts later, we’re thrilled to still have all our hit points. But most importantly, Ben believes…

Ben believes in the soul. He believes role playing is on the game group and not the game edition. He believes in lots of combat. He believes in minis that aren’t made of cardboard. He believes in the sanctimony of GenCon. He believes in never having enough dice. He believes in more closet space to store his stuff. He believes in the return of the Hobbit. And he believes in contributing to this great D&D community.

Ben and the rest of the Pile gang extends its heartfelt thanks to all the readers. And we promise to continue to believe in the game we love.

New terrain leads to fear. Fear leads to practice. Practice leads to success. OK, so maybe that’s not exactly how Yoda said it but the mantra still holds true for us builder-folk. Our growing library of Egyptian paint schemes is really starting to make multi-color pieces come to life. Let’s see how our RPG board has upped its game.

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New terrain environments often spawn new hobbyist techniques. Your RPG-churning mind becomes much more open to experimentation which often leads to an adrenaline-style knowledge gain. That’s where this week’s post comes in – Ben learned a great new taping technique that makes straight paint lines a snap. Let’s see how he did it.

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As our comfort factor rises with this Egyptian terrain, we’re going outside the box this week and crafting our own unique piece. Doors aren’t as straight forward in this particular Hirst Arts environment so Ben and Enygma had to think outside the box to get their desired entry results. Hop on our backs and see how we tried to tie everything together in this unique challenge.

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