My gaming group is currently playing the Pyramid of Shadows module, and we are having some truly spectacular encounters, thanks to our DM's love for scenery and assorted gadgets. The last one was so awesome that I was left with no option but to show it here. So, without further ado... Behold the Temple of Verdant Rage!
This was the initial battlefield setup. The forest tiles and 3D trees are sold in PDF by Fat Dragon Games. It took our DM a bit of work to print and assemble them, but the result is stunning (save ends). There are also some 3D walls, also from FDG. Finally, the miniatures are some of the latest aditions to our WoW mini collection.
A closeup on the monster miniatures. The big green thing is one of my favourites, a Bog Elemental- in the role of an Arborean Plant Terror, which would bring us a world of pain later in the encounter. Behind, you can see an Arborean Speaker and a Dire Bear.
The Arborean Speaker in its place of power. The altar was scavenged from a Hero Quest box.
A closer view on the trees. Properly assembled, they are sturdy as well as pretty. The Drow Sorcerer is posing on the treetop to show how they can support minis over them, though we didn't use that in this game.
This is one of the weirdest things our DM has come up with. Some kind of coconut cute head, to impersonate the Head of Vyrellis, the remains of an ancient eladrin. If you haven't worked it out yet, we love a bit of humour in our games - or was it a bit of game in our humour?
It's an ambush! Those innocent-looking cardboard bushes were actually hiding a couple of deadly Arborean Watchers. Our beloved drow Sorcerer would kiss the ground a couple of Sneak Attacks later.
Here you can see the climax of the battle. At the front, the Sorcerer has just been healed, only to find hersef hand-to-hand with a bear! Behind her, my Human Fighter (cloaked, armored mini) is trying to catch up with the enemy heavy hitters after being dazed, while a Dwarven Avenger and a Half-Orc Valorous Bard hold the line. An elven ranger sits comfortably on the background while she peppers her quarry with arrows.
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Much better terrain can be found here: http://www.worldworksgames.com/.
ReplyDeleteI prefer them, the textures are better (IMO) and the sets seem to be more complete (they have a solid mix of terrain, props, etc). Also, the new TLX stuff they are releases is so much easier to build then anything I have found before.
Thanks for your suggestions Cole.
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact, I own a couple of sets from WorldWorks Games, and I find the SciFi ones amazing. However, searching for a "forest set" I found the Fat Dragon one better for my tastes. The trees are amazing and the small bushes are a nice trick (which my players loved). But, as you have said before, this is mostly a personal preference matter.
I can't comment about construction difficulty since this was the first encounter I built using papercraft. The finishing of some elements was far from perfect but I counted on the "novelty effect" to keep the players happy.
I'm amazed by how even a LITTLE extra terrain can make a difference. We had a sewer encounter in our game the other day. The map was just drawn on our whiteboard with a couple lines to mark light-levels. For fun I added some pillars that weren't even inside the sewer, but somehow it made the map look 10x better. It's like having a nice frame for a really good picture, the sum is greater...
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