Help planning a first gaming board

[micahwc]

Problem: I have a large sheet of MDF which was left in my storage area by a previous renter. It looks roughly the size and shape of a counter top. It needs to go.

Solution: I just got a skill saw for christmas. I also have a band saw.

Therefore, I have decided to make a gaming board. I have never done this before. I have made many small terrain pieces in the past, some better than others, but nothing on this scale.

Where do I even start with planning a dedicated gaming board? I have seen several of the boards posted recently, and they are amazing. What kind of logistical planning is involved in creating a board?

Basically, what is the next step after "Gee, I think I will make a gaming board".

I have thought about doing something modular, or at least semi-modular, but I don't really know how to go about planning this.

I have always been the kind of person where I get a rough idea and just start cutting or painting. This doesn't always work well. Oddly enough, I get my best ideas when I can't sleep and am working at 2 in the morning.

[Serigala]

Making the board somewhat modular helps with storage and also allows you to mix things up a bit for variety.

If you only play Malifaux then 12" or 18" squares makes sense. If you play other games then 24" square might be worth considering.

Then you need to decide whether to make your board as a base upon which you place modular terrain, or whether you are prepared to sacrifice flexibility for the aesthetic. The nicest boards you see here, tend to be completely fixed, with little option to move terrain around.

[Antiquitas]

I would say that the first step is to ask yourself some basic questions:

Where will IU be using the board - always at home, always in the same room, always on the same table etc? - ie does the board need to be carried about and if so, how far?

How many people will be playing on the board at once - do you need 3'x3' or 4'x4' or go for a completely different size?

Where am I going to store it - between games and when it has to be put away for a while.

Do I need it fairly flat to store / carry - in which case have the buildings etc detachable or is height no problem - in which case you can fix the majority of features, have nice big hills and still make space for 'movable items' so you can vary the game play.

Once you thought about the maximum size of the board you can then decide if you want it in one piece (which is easier to build and paint etc) or in sections which is easier to transport, store, and if designed carefully can be joined in different positions to give lots of variation - BUT if you don't make all the boards at the same time, and do each stage of the construction and painting on all the boards at once then it is difficult to get hills etc. and colour schemes to match up!

After all that, just think of a theme - where you would like to battle - in swamps, in town, in the hills etc. and look at loads of pics and threads to get inspiration. Nobody minds you using their ideas if they've posted them up and your board will be unique anyway.

Then the fun begins...

[Demonn Agram]

Antiquitas makes a couple of good points.

what I could add is that you read some of these topics (I noticed you've read some, but just in case):

Mining Town Demo Board

Death Valley Board

Demonn's Lair (somewhere on page 3 or 4 there is a modular board tutorial...

Outskirts of Malifaux

A wyrd Village

hope these help. (third and fourth links are my tutorials, if you have any questions, you can ask me there. I'll be glad to answer and help if I can...)

[Antiquitas]

Demonn's boards are awesome and very well thought out - spend a bit of time looking through his threads - you won't regret it (unless jealousy is a form of regret ?!).

But the inspiration..........

[Demonn Agram]

But the inspiration..........

...is only 10 percent

[Antiquitas]

:laugh:

But unfortunately so so true...

Edited December 28, 2011 by Antiquitas
Not laughing

[Omenbringer]

All of this is great advice, but I might suggest setting a goal that is relatively easy (especially if this is your first foray into terrain building) that way you dont get discouraged right out the gate. All the boards linked to are great (ok amazing), but also quite a bit above the skill level of most people.

[fritz the cat]

off the bat, I'd more likely recomend a flat gaming board (use a gaming mat for its base, glue it down) And then make pieces of terrain to throw on top of it. Hills, forests, buildings, rockwalls and fences and the likes.

This gives you alot of playability, and you can continually upgrade it by making bigger/more intricate pieces of terrain for it.

[Demonn Agram]

All of this is great advice, but I might suggest setting a goal that is relatively easy (especially if this is your first foray into terrain building) that way you dont get discouraged right out the gate. All the boards linked to are great (ok amazing), but also quite a bit above the skill level of most people.

I agree with you, but what I wanted with this is to show the principles (and I think that was Antiquitas' idea also) of board making. The principles are the same with any board no matter how intricate. if you look again at the questions Antiquitas mentioned, you'll see that this applies to all projects no matter it's complexity or size...

[harbinger]

All of this is great advice, but I might suggest setting a goal that is relatively easy (especially if this is your first foray into terrain building) that way you dont get discouraged right out the gate. All the boards linked to are great (ok amazing), but also quite a bit above the skill level of most people.

Strongly agree with this. Which means Im probably going to step on the toes of few people thats already posted; sorry about that.

To OP....

Slow down and put most of what you've read up till now on a back burner.Its all great stuff but from what you've indicated, not where you need to start.

You want bare bones starting heres my opinion (and only mine.) Modular boards are nice but take lot of thought so they line up no matter how they are placed together. So now we are down to a straight forward board. Mobility shouldn't be a issue since it doesn't sound like your getting fancy with plaster sculpted and molded terrain features yet, the weight shouldn't be too bad on a 3x3 board (Im assuming we are making this for Malifaux?)

Ok so now your MDF has met your ruler, square and saw. You now have a Mali sized playing surface in front of you. It is time for an important decision. Will this board be based around mostly (A) building layout or ( terrain features? If you decide...

A) get some paper and cutout building size templates to play with.

start drawing features straight onto the board. Some cliffs go over here.. a river right here. Oooo I got some gremlins so this corner here can have some bayou features...

Now why did we do this? because if this is your first board, you are most likely going to over estimate what you can fit on to it. So many times Ive seen people sketch out magnificent plans on a piece of paper of the Taj Mahul they going to build in a 250x350' plot.

Dont fall into that trap. Get your drawing or templates onto the board. Place some figures in there to get a feel both for size and how things will play out in a game. Now, pull out the notebook and begin sketching your design.

After you have a clear idea of what the board is going to be, you can figure out what skill you do or dont have already for the features that will makeup your board. Come back to us for any help you need getting those skills and before know it will have a board to be proud of

[Antiquitas]

Strongly agree with this. Which means Im probably going to step on the toes of few people thats already posted; sorry about that.

Stomp away - it's very good advice!

Drawing the layout on the board is always a great idea as you can start to imagine how it will look and play, and moving figures about on it lets you know if you have allowed enough space between features and whether paths and platform areas are big enough to hold even 50mm bases.

This is the stage I usually enjoy the most and often completely redesign my layout as I 'play-test' the drawing and end up with marker lines all over the place.

Don't get put off by complicated boards - 90% of the techniques used are very straightforward and use cheap materials, and there are a lot of threads on different ideas.

The main thing to remember when building a board - it's your board - so have fun!

[harbinger]

Don't get put off by complicated boards - 90% of the techniques used are very straightforward and use cheap materials, and there are a lot of threads on different ideas.

AYE! That cant be said enough, it looks so much more complicated then is.

Also, there is some masters on these forums that create amazing playing boards. You dont have to be able to mimic them to have a good time. Would it be nice to have that fancy of a board? hell yeah it would. But do you have to have that quality? umm how many of us can remember the old days in Warhammer of piling up books then throwing a green cloth over it to to represent a hillside? If I waited till my figure painting skills was as good as Natalya Melnik before played Malifaux.. well maybe me great grandchild will get to play.

[Antiquitas]

umm how many of us can remember the old days in Warhammer of piling up books then throwing a green cloth over it to to represent a hillside?

Some of my most memorable battles in DBA and 40K were on book piles and beige with my sons, where the 'terrain' stretched right across the living room carpet and you would crawl or lay across the board to plan your next move. Fortunately we were all great readers so we had lots of terrain. Great days!

[Omenbringer]

I agree with you, but what I wanted with this is to show the principles (and I think that was Antiquitas' idea also) of board making. The principles are the same with any board no matter how intricate. if you look again at the questions Antiquitas mentioned, you'll see that this applies to all projects no matter it's complexity or size...

Like I said it is all great advice. The problem though, is the more complex the initial plan the more unlikely you are to actually get to the finished product (the commitment in time, money, and space can be daunting, especially when your signifcant other is complaining about the mess in the basement). This is especially true when first starting out.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Omenbringer
Word choice

[harbinger]

As said before about dont have to be expensive or excessive labor; I asked myself if wanted do a building a cheap, fast, and least work... and this what I came up with.

I made it out same materials as did the chimney when someone asked where get one, so Id say this has maybe .50 usd into it and I clocked it at 11 minutes total (not counting paint drying time.) If doubled the time you could make it look 4 times better.

Nothing fancy to brag about, but for person learning or on a budget.. decent stepup from western city made out of shoe boxes sitting around. Hmmmm shoe boxes......

[Demonn Agram]

Like I said it is all great advice. The problem though, is the more complex the initial plan the more unlikely you are to actually get to the finished product (the commitment in time, money, and space can be daunting, especially when your signifcant other is complaining about the mess in the basement). This is especially true when first starting out.

I must admit I agree with you to a certain degree. let me explain:

first Micahwc wrote: I have made many small terrain pieces in the past, some better than others, but nothing on this scale.

So I went from the assumption that he is not a total newbie when it comes to terrain building. Board making is nothing but a big terrain making.

Of course the commitment in time is greater (than making a terrain 4"x4"...), the money need not be an issue especially when he has a MDF board at hand, space can also be a difficulty, but judging from his initial post I figured ha has no such problem - or at least from the first post Antiquitas wrote - Micahwc could address the issue by answering the questions from the post.

Significent others can be a problem (if you're not as lucky as I am...) - you make a good point there.

What I had in mind is that he looks at the better boards at hand because the people who made them can properly answer his questions and give good advice. It is like when you teach your kid to play football (soccer, for you Americans out there ), you do not show him Millwall games (sorry to Delboy and other Millwall fans ), but show him how Barcelona and Messi play...

It was not my intention for him to copy those boards, just that he picks up the tricks shown there.

@harbinger:

nice buildings! not sure I understood how you made them, though...

[micahwc]

I started building terrain 13 years ago for Warhammer 40k second edition. I have played a few games with books for hills I lived in northern Montana at the time, so there where litterally no people to play the game with. I spent a lot of that time building terrain. I took approximately 4 or so years off from terrain building but actually assembled armies and painted them poorly during this time.

I have owned a foam wire cutter in the past and will probably build one in the future. I have been a lurker on the terra genesis forum for over 10 years. I learned at 15 that spending hours shaping styrofoam is a waste of time if you then proceed to spray paint it.

I have some history using powertools, but haven't really done anything since highschool with them. I love any excuse to use a bandsaw.

Currently my gaming group consists of 2 people. (GTFriday moved ) and apart from the terraclips I provide the majority of the terrain. The terrain I have built recently is all functional, but not especially pretty. Space is of some concern. I have some space to store things, but not a lot of space to actually build things in.

I had originally thought of making a board that was double sided. Badlands on one side and city street or cobble stone on the other.

I am thinking now about assembling either some 18 x 18 squares (maybe 6 or so) which could be arranged with some variety, or something similar with many 12 x 12 squares.

I have a new question for planning purposes. What would be the essential terrain features to demo a game of malifaux with? A worker at my LGS has expressed interest in Malifaux, and I am trying to convince him to let me bring my stuff in someday and demo some games for people.

Edited December 30, 2011 by micahwc
40k hill reference

[harbinger]

@harbinger:

nice buildings! not sure I understood how you made them, though...

oh sorry,

its foam board and cereal box

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27345&page=2

last post

[Demonn Agram]

first thing about modular boards (with a number of squares connecting), if you want the squares to be interchangeable (so you can make a new looking board every time) is that all the features on each module (like roads, rivers etc) begin and end in the same place on every module that has them. in my modular board I chose the middle of a side.

note that all the cobbled roads, rivers and dirt roads start at the middle of the side of each module. this enables me to change the position of modules for every game... It is not hard to do, but adds a lot of diversity.

next question you should ask yourself is how do you plan on fixing the modules to each other before every game.

-> you can use pins - two per side per module (one hole and one pin a side)

-> you can use magnets (as I did in my modular board - tutorial is in Demonn's Lair)

-> you can just place them together and rely on friction between modules and a table on which they sit to hold them together...

As far as the features for demoing the Malifaux game..

-> a couple of houses/buildings (as much as possible )

-> a couple of forrests (for demoing obscuring traits)

-> some rough terrain like rock formations etc (for movement difficulties)

-> as much small pieces of terrain as possible for giving cover and messing with LOS

-> a few markers (objectives etc) and counters (corpse, scrap..)

in my experience, if you add a lot of terrain you get a better game. you can't go overboard with terrain in skirmish games.

of course if your terrain looks Malifux-ish it is even better!

[micahwc]

By modular I was kinda leaning towards having maybe 1 square be buildings, 1 be ruined buildings, 1 be swampy, etc. They could be arranged differently for a different game, but would still all fit together. I don't really want to tackle roads and rivers yet. I promise this makes sense in my head.

Maybe have a basic city outline on some boards with places to place terrain. Make 2 versions of a building, 1 whole and 1 destroyed ( a third consiting completely of rubble?) . Both fit on the same foot print and there is space on the board for the foot print. I have some rare earth magnets to make them stick.

I guess I need to just start writing it all down. I am thinking now 2 sets of urban terrain on the outskirts of town, 1 which will hold a church and a grave yard, and 1 which will have a small orchard of creepy trees.

Forests are tricky because I play Lilith and have waldgeists, so I want them to be movable. I have some already made so maybe just some empty space to place forests.

I play against ressurectionists a lot, and so it is only fair to include a grave yard.

Add some small element terrain which could be placed anywhere. A small gallows, some stalks, stacks of barrels or crates, etc.

[Demonn Agram]

those are some cool ideas. Writing them down is a good way to start. You'll see that more often than not, a couple of things will get in each other's way and you'll be forced to make compromises...

once you have everything writen, I suggest drawing it in scale just to make sure everything fits, the models can move through the terrain or around etc.

fixing buildings with the same footprint by magnets is a good way to do it.

my suggestion is do not do the same buildings (whole and ruined). I tend to get boerd doing the same thing twice, and I noticed the same with a lot of my friends. just use the same footprint and design them differently. It'll be easier, trust me

also a suggestion, those bits you were mentioning in the end (gallows, barrels etc), make them also movable. just because you mentioned you might have some storage problems, and everything that sticks out (in the air) from the base of the board is likely to get knocked off if not properly glued down or damaged if pinned properly...

[micahwc]

also a suggestion, those bits you were mentioning in the end (gallows, barrels etc), make them also movable. just because you mentioned you might have some storage problems, and everything that sticks out (in the air) from the base of the board is likely to get knocked off if not properly glued down or damaged if pinned properly...

I had meant for them to be seperate so they could be placed in different locations for different games.

Maybe instead of 2 versions of the same building I could just make 6 or 8 buildings and have 3 or 4 slots to put them. Give them all a basic squarish footprint. The challenge would be making the buildings different enough as terrain; otherwise they end up being just "building shaped hard cover #1" and lose any character they have.

[Omenbringer]

I have owned a foam wire cutter in the past and will probably build one in the future.

If the finances allow I would recommend one if the hot knifes from here. They are really nice and aren't as fiddlely as the wire ones. The bladea are thick and able to cut thru up to 6" of foam at one time. I have the Pro model but the crafters model is also nice. Amazon has them cheaper.

I am thinking now about assembling either some 18 x 18 squares (maybe 6 or so) which could be arranged with some variety, or something similar with many 12 x 12 squares.

Floor tiles are great base material for modular builds because they come precut and are very durable (they are a bit heavy though). I prefer the 18" by 18" ceramics (can usually be found fairly cheaply at the DIY shops).

I have a new question for planning purposes. What would be the essential terrain features to demo a game of malifaux with? A worker at my LGS has expressed interest in Malifaux, and I am trying to convince him to let me bring my stuff in someday and demo some games for people.

City, mountains and plains will cover virtually all the exterior locations (especially if you already have some tree stands, rivers, and swamps).

[micahwc]

Harbor freight has a hot knife on sale for 17 dollars and change. Anyone have an oppinion on those?