I'm super excited to share the first pictures of my custom terrain pieces for the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign I'm running (specifically, Episode 3: The Dragon Hatchery)! This is my first campaign DMing and my first attempts at terrain, but I'm very happy with how things turned out so far, so wanted to share with the community. The pools of water were my own additions, as I wanted to experiment with resin a bit. I'm sharing pictures with basic descriptions for now, but if anyone wants more details on the process and creation of these pieces, I'm happy to share more. :-)
This first post is just the pictures of what my players got through last night, but I'll share more as we get further into the cave. Be warned: there could be spoilers for those who want run in HotDQ later on.
First up, the entrance to the cave:
A better view of the outside of the cave:
A look just inside the entrance, at areas 1 and 2:
Areas 1 and 2 (entrance) and 3 (fungus garden):
Another view of the fungus garden:
Overhead of the fungus garden and area 2:
Areas 4 (stirge lair), 5 (troglodyte incursion), and the first piece of 7 (drake nursery). Also the awesome homemade dice bag and tray made by one of my players:
A better look at area 4 (stirge lair) with the painted on bat droppings :-P :
A long view of area 7 (the drake nursery):
The first part of the drake nursery with the "torches" I added:
The drake nursery after the players accidentally alerted nearby kobolds to their presence:
More to come as my players progress through this dungeon! I hope you enjoy my pictures (and I welcome all feedback and comments)!
Your stairs turned out so cool! How did you make your stairs? What's your advice for getting a grid on your handmade terrain?
Thanks, MellieDM!
So, most of what you see here was made from sheets of foam core. For the stairs, I calculated how many layers I'd need to make them to scale, then cut out each individual level, and finally hot-glued them together.
For the grid, I see that a lot of people out there like to do grooves (which makes a lot of sense when you have creatures larger than medium, for sure). I decided early on that I wanted to try to do a raised grid. My first thought was to glue down twine and then paint over it. Unfortunately, I misjudged and it turned out to be way too bulky for the scale. For the final product (and what you see in my pictures) I used thin lines of hot glue to make my grid. it's not as uniform as I had hoped for with the twine, but I actually think it turned out really well... it gives a bit of a more organic feel.
Ooh, that's a very clever idea! I've been toying with making my own terrain, but the grid has always given me a fright. I like how your hot glue turned out, though. Looks very cool! I look forward to seeing whatever you do next. :)
I love the idea of hot glue for the grids. It looks really good. I used to make all sorts of terrain for D&D and Warhammer 40k and am still learning. Nice work .
I know this is an old thread, but it has really inspired me in my creation of the Dragon Hatchery. Just wondering if you have more pictures of the build to share? Excellent job!
I don't have anymore pictures, but I do still have all the pieces. I will try to dig them out and get some more shots, as I don't actually any pictures of the rooms I'm most proud of. :-)
I'm super excited to share the first pictures of my custom terrain pieces for the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign I'm running (specifically, Episode 3: The Dragon Hatchery)! This is my first campaign DMing and my first attempts at terrain, but I'm very happy with how things turned out so far, so wanted to share with the community. The pools of water were my own additions, as I wanted to experiment with resin a bit. I'm sharing pictures with basic descriptions for now, but if anyone wants more details on the process and creation of these pieces, I'm happy to share more. :-)
This first post is just the pictures of what my players got through last night, but I'll share more as we get further into the cave. Be warned: there could be spoilers for those who want run in HotDQ later on.
First up, the entrance to the cave:
A better view of the outside of the cave:
A look just inside the entrance, at areas 1 and 2:
Areas 1 and 2 (entrance) and 3 (fungus garden):
Another view of the fungus garden:
Overhead of the fungus garden and area 2:
Areas 4 (stirge lair), 5 (troglodyte incursion), and the first piece of 7 (drake nursery). Also the awesome homemade dice bag and tray made by one of my players:
A better look at area 4 (stirge lair) with the painted on bat droppings :-P :
A long view of area 7 (the drake nursery):
The first part of the drake nursery with the "torches" I added:
The drake nursery after the players accidentally alerted nearby kobolds to their presence:
More to come as my players progress through this dungeon! I hope you enjoy my pictures (and I welcome all feedback and comments)!
Your stairs turned out so cool! How did you make your stairs? What's your advice for getting a grid on your handmade terrain?
Thanks, MellieDM!
So, most of what you see here was made from sheets of foam core. For the stairs, I calculated how many layers I'd need to make them to scale, then cut out each individual level, and finally hot-glued them together.
For the grid, I see that a lot of people out there like to do grooves (which makes a lot of sense when you have creatures larger than medium, for sure). I decided early on that I wanted to try to do a raised grid. My first thought was to glue down twine and then paint over it. Unfortunately, I misjudged and it turned out to be way too bulky for the scale. For the final product (and what you see in my pictures) I used thin lines of hot glue to make my grid. it's not as uniform as I had hoped for with the twine, but I actually think it turned out really well... it gives a bit of a more organic feel.
Ooh, that's a very clever idea! I've been toying with making my own terrain, but the grid has always given me a fright. I like how your hot glue turned out, though. Looks very cool! I look forward to seeing whatever you do next. :)
Thanks! It was definitely time-consuming, but to be fair, most of the build on this was.
My players are maybe a third of the way through this dungeon, so I'll definitely post more pics on this thread as they proceed further.
I love the idea of hot glue for the grids. It looks really good. I used to make all sorts of terrain for D&D and Warhammer 40k and am still learning. Nice work .
I know this is an old thread, but it has really inspired me in my creation of the Dragon Hatchery. Just wondering if you have more pictures of the build to share? Excellent job!
I don't have anymore pictures, but I do still have all the pieces. I will try to dig them out and get some more shots, as I don't actually any pictures of the rooms I'm most proud of. :-)
I would really love that!😄