Author: Troy E. Taylor

We gnomes often make it a point to say that it’s important to know your players’ tendencies, to riff off their “suggestions,” know when to hit them with the spotlight or even exploit their weaknesses. Mrs. Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) plays with her earlobe, one of her “tells” that prove her undoing at the poker table, in the 1994 film “Maverick.” (Warner Bros. publicity photo) But it works the other way, too. GMs have their own tendencies, poker “tells” as Mel Gibson likes to remind…

In this series so far we’ve created tiles from plaster using molds, assembled and glued them into place, and applied the base layer of paint. Now we’re ready to add layers of paint that will bring out the texture of the tiles. 1. Wash (then rinse) Here’s a spot where a small detail brush comes in handy. We’re going to do a wash, that is add a lot of water to a dollop of paint to make is extremely thin. We’re using black to fill…

In the first part of this series we cast the molds from plaster and in the second part we assembled and constructed the tiles into a modular dungeon set. Now we’re ready to apply paint. 1. Gather your painting supplies Apple Barrel brand acrylic paints are inexpensive and probably available at your local big box retailer or craft store. (More expensive brands of paints — acrylic or otherwise — are available, too.) Our set will need to replicate stone floor tiles and water in a…

In the first part of this series we selected a mold for casting, assembled some 250 pieces for our dungeon tiles, planned what our modular dungeon tiles would look like and cut out mounting board pieces to fit. Now we’re ready for the fun part — especially if you like building with Legos or Lincoln Logs or any similar toys — actually constructing our tile pieces. 1. Tile pieces, assemble! The first bit of business is to do a dry-fit of our various pieces on…

An aspect of the hobby I find rewarding is the craft side, namely painting miniatures and constructing terrain from plaster mold pieces. Here is a “how to” on constructing a modular dungeon set with a single mold, using the kinds of crafting materials that are available at craft stores and big box retailers. 1. Selecting the mold I purchase molds from HirstArts. For this exercise I chose one of the least expensive. Cracked Floor Tiles, Mold No. 203 is an excellent choice as a starter.…

Being stuck inside on a winter’s afternoon, it seemed an opportune time to run an impromptu game of D&D for two of my children. (Carolyn’s always in the mood for something fresh, so after weeks of train games and card games like Poo, Uno and Hike, she was willing to dive back into an rpg, while Jonathan was eager to use the new plaster dungeon terrain set he helped construct and paint). Considering the buzz about 5E/DnDNext from the D&D Experience — that the first…

Wizards of the Coast announces Monday it is working on a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. But what’s this mean for you as a GM? Other than speculation about what kind of game will be developed, what considerations should you be making now, before Wizards makes its first limited unveiling at the D&D Experience in February? Some might be content to wait until 2013 (or later) for the game to show up in a shiny box or book (or digital format, as also is…