Terrain building diatribe

[number9]

There are a lot of great points there. I know I've suffered from some bad decisions that you've noted. I've also agonized over the perfect balance of playability and detail/appearance.

My own two major struggles are about interiors of buildings, and terrain bases.

I've more or less abandoned the idea of building 3d interiors for games meant to be played largely "on the outside". I've found it takes too much time, isn't used frequently enough depending on the game systems, can be really fiddly to move around in depending on the number of floors and/or size of the interior, and generally makes the entire piece a bit more fragile and require more constant touch-up and repair. Instead I've resorted to making simplified architectural drawing-style floor plans with doorways, windows, and stairs marked clearly. When a model elects to go inside I replace the closed building with the floor plan that it goes with. Without those pesky walls in the way, moving models is much much easier. Yes some visual appeal is lost, but the trade off for me is worth it.

Now for games that are played mostly on the interior like dungeons and spacecraft/colonies, those get the detailed treatment.

As for basing terrain, I've waffled back and forth a lot over the years. My preference now is "no basing at all where possible". Depending on the kind of surface you play on this is possible to varying degrees. If you play on a cloth mat over foam, there is no need to base trees, just mount a pin on them and stick them through to the foam. Same goes for simple linear obstacles. Buildings that I base these days don't have a base that extends beyond the walls or exterior structures that can be really seen. Obstructive terrain like rocky outcroppings or high hedges have been built with the idea that they won't get based, or if they do, that the detailed features of the piece will obscure the base entirely, leaving no lip. Things like barrels or crates or shrubs and small loose detailed objects don't need basing at all, in fact a lack of basing gives them a lot more versatility in placement around your board. Large pieces like hills, crop fields, roads, streams, bridges, and rough terrain are often a specific kind of detailed base, but with a little extra planning and material consideration hard bases of MDF or plasticard can be avoided or minimized.

Mostly these consideration have come about by moving to cloth table coverings over foam instead of fixed textured and flocked base boards. I can interchange game cloths to vary the environment, therefore it is more advantageous to reduce or remove terrain basing of any kind so the terrain I build can work attractively whether it is on a desert cloth, verdant meadow cloth, or urban cloth.

[zizi666]

Very true - anything that adds frustration and takes away the DBM-style certainty is fine by me!

Specialy when it's the opponent who gets frustrated 

[FramFramson]

There are a lot of great points there. I know I've suffered from some bad decisions that you've noted. I've also agonized over the perfect balance of playability and detail/appearance.

My own two major struggles are about interiors of buildings, and terrain bases.

I've more or less abandoned the idea of building 3d interiors for games meant to be played largely "on the outside". I've found it takes too much time, isn't used frequently enough depending on the game systems, can be really fiddly to move around in depending on the number of floors and/or size of the interior, and generally makes the entire piece a bit more fragile and require more constant touch-up and repair. Instead I've resorted to making simplified architectural drawing-style floor plans with doorways, windows, and stairs marked clearly. When a model elects to go inside I replace the closed building with the floor plan that it goes with. Without those pesky walls in the way, moving models is much much easier. Yes some visual appeal is lost, but the trade off for me is worth it.

Now for games that are played mostly on the interior like dungeons and spacecraft/colonies, those get the detailed treatment.

As for basing terrain, I've waffled back and forth a lot over the years. My preference now is "no basing at all where possible". Depending on the kind of surface you play on this is possible to varying degrees. If you play on a cloth mat over foam, there is no need to base trees, just mount a pin on them and stick them through to the foam. Same goes for simple linear obstacles. Buildings that I base these days don't have a base that extends beyond the walls or exterior structures that can be really seen. Obstructive terrain like rocky outcroppings or high hedges have been built with the idea that they won't get based, or if they do, that the detailed features of the piece will obscure the base entirely, leaving no lip. Things like barrels or crates or shrubs and small loose detailed objects don't need basing at all, in fact a lack of basing gives them a lot more versatility in placement around your board. Large pieces like hills, crop fields, roads, streams, bridges, and rough terrain are often a specific kind of detailed base, but with a little extra planning and material consideration hard bases of MDF or plasticard can be avoided or minimized.

Mostly these consideration have come about by moving to cloth table coverings over foam instead of fixed textured and flocked base boards. I can interchange game cloths to vary the environment, therefore it is more advantageous to reduce or remove terrain basing of any kind so the terrain I build can work attractively whether it is on a desert cloth, verdant meadow cloth, or urban cloth.

There's a good point in here about keeping base sizes fairly close to the actual structure. Minimizing your building footprint definitely allows the widest possible range of placement options.

[snitcythedog]

An excellent point, something I've considered but not really fully developed. I like the tip of keeping clocks/shelves/fireplaces/stoves/etc within 1/2 an inch of the wall.

I've more or less abandoned the idea of building 3d interiors for games meant to be played largely "on the outside".

If you do not do interior partitions, interior movement is pretty easy.  Here is an example of the forced perceptive.

This was a WIP photo and is pretty blurry.  If you look at the desk, the top is only a Popsicle stick.  For damage on the interior, I either pin everything, or have items glued to at least two surfaces.
Thanks for the comments all.
Snitchy sends.

[Gluteus Maximus]

That is a wonderful piece of terrain and far more detailed than you'd usually see 

[number9]

In a perfect world of limitless free time, energy, and money, I would cleverly detail every interior for every building I make, pretty much exactly as Snitchy has above. There really wouldn't be a reason *not* to at that point. I am unfortunately subject to the seductions of too many diverse scales, genres, periods, architectural styles, and game system mechanics to devote the necessary resources.

Definitely a great example to follow for those so inclined.

[Ironworker]

I agree with the ideas you've posted here although sometimes it doesn't always work out that way.  Your points about either using building interiors or slightly small buildings is very valid.  I've got some older buildings that are large and very difficult to use in games because they can't open up for interior play.  

Here's a couple examples from my own experience.  
http://ironworkersminiatures.blogspot.com/2008/03/rescue-on-tatooine-wizards-of-coast.html
I don't know why these images won't link but here's a link to the battle report.

Here's a shot from a battle report I did a couple years ago.  We had this old Tatooine style multi building base that was suppose to be the first part of the modular system.  However the buildings where all close off and the only real playable areas where the roof tops and some of the narrow ally ways.  It's huge and hard to store which is the main reason we stopped the project.  It's not bad to stick on the edge fo the board or on a corrner but if we had made a whole table we'd basically be playing big rooftop battles.  Not too bad but not as good as it could have been with even simple interiors.  



Here are a couple shots of our newer buildings.  They are simple construction but effective.  You can put minis on teh roofs or on the walkways or even under the buildings around the support pylons.  The roofs lift off and they have fairly spacious interiors.  Even with kinda chunky resin furniture the insides are very playable.  On some of the smaller buildings for theis set we will be using forced perspective furniture.  Rather than blocking off a large section of table with a chunky closed building now we have three levels of play surface on each building.

[Gluteus Maximus]

They look great and very useable. Plenty of space inside and I'm sure they'll prove to be ideal for gaming with