Owning gaming terrain and how it may affect how you game.

[modelwarrior]

Definetly a host player as I love building terrain.


"If you build it they will come"

[sonicReducer]

When I started gaming as a teenager and for many years I was definitely a guest gamer, playing mostly GW games. Most hobby money went to minis, paints and rules. Terrain was very daunting.

Now being older I greatly appreciate having good looking terrain to play on (not that I get many games in). Now terrain is a major factor in deciding to start a period or scale, and has been a major factor in me sticking with a single period and scale due to storage. So I would say I started as guest gamer and have grown into a host gamer.

[Grumpy Gnome]

What can either hobbyists or manufacturing companies do to make terrain less daunting?

[Digits]

Drop the price?


To be fair, I actually find most models not too expensive, but there are some out there taking the proverbial!

I wasn’t sure what to vote so voted for neither.

Yes, I have scenery but equally, I love to play on other peoples tables too!

I don’t like games that don’t look good…..nor do I like playing games with unpainted minis (even though I don’t like painting them!)

[robh]

Definitely "host" player by your definition. Was more 50-50 when living near a well funded and organised games club (Bristol UK) but since moving here I can only think of 2 or 3 games when the scenery/terrain was not all from my collection, to the extent of taking it to other players houses or a FLGS for games.
Generally I end up providing most if not all of the figures too.

[SJWi]

My little gaming group have a wide range of gaming interests/ periods. Almost everyone is a “host”, but not for everything. For instance I have masses of armies, terrain and bespoke gaming mats for ancients whilst others just have a favourite army. On the other hand I have zero terrain for 1/300 Cold War as another player has built up a huge collection, but I have bought some BAOR troops.

[Eric the Shed]

Fortunate enough to have a large gaming room/shed to store the massive amount of terrain I have mostly scratch built over the years. It always amazes me when I see some games how little terrain people use - a large number of trees, fences, walls and streams are generic for so many periods.

[RSDean]

And just a theoretical thought: I wouldnt bring any terrain to a game (unless asked for it), because I think its important to have a homogene style of the table, and more different sources of terrain pieces could hurt this.

I also answered the similar query on the Reaper Forums, for the record. 

I generally have some sympathy with BZ’s theoretical comment.  I do like to see a table that all looks like it belongs together when possible, so I don’t usually ask other people to bring scenery (buidlings especially) unless there is some compelling need, or I know that it blends in with the other planned stuff.

But, as a long time gamer, I own a *lot* of stuff, so that’s an easy position for me to take.  My son, who now lives away but within a reasonable drive, and I were considering this, and concluded that we could stage a house convention and fill 2 5x6 tables, 1 4x6 table, and three smaller tables with games simultaneously (all the tables we own), if we could find space for the three larger tables all to be set up. (It might overflow into the not-too-climate-controlled garage at that point.)

[Elbows]

What can either hobbyists or manufacturing companies do to make terrain less daunting?

Honestly, I'd argue that terrain is not daunting.  We've never lived in a time with better tutorials all over YouTube, great terrain making hacks and retail options for any budget - from the cheapest MDF to hand-painted resin terrain, etc.

Terrain has always been the neglected "third army".  It is a full third of the game's aesthetic, if not more...but is often simply ignored.  I'd argue it's more due to hobbyist lack of motivation/interest or simple laziness.  The same people who are fine playing with unpainted miniatures or even incomplete miniatures - likely aren't overly worried about the look of the table.  Whereas the hosting type players are likely very interested in it - a different part of the hobby.

I can barely motivate local players to paint their miniatures...so the expectation of them buying or building a table with painted/assembled terrain is absolutely out of the question.

It's incredibly frequent to hear local players say "Man, I want to build a table".  That means it's about $200-250 (if not less) and 20 hours of labor away.  Not a big obstacle, but it never happens.  That $200 will inevitably go into more unpainted plastic for their pile of shame...rather than building a table to play games on.  Some have a logical argument that they live in a small space and cannot accommodate even folding tables and a sheet of felt, or storage bins for their terrain - that is a valid concern/excuse.

Making a table is not an impossible goal.  It's solely down to the motivation of the gamer/hobbyist.


This table is simple.  It's a mat (can be replaced by cheaper felt), hills made from upholstery foam which is ripped up...spray painted and flocks.  Trees are Woodland Scenics armatures with lichen stuffed in them.  Fences made from window screening...and some plastic storage bins.  There's nothing in this image/table that can't be done in an hour or two at a modest budget with next to zero skill.

Now, no one is expecting people to go build amazing table, but common gaming tables are 100% reasonable and within the budget and skill level of almost any gamer.  It's just a lack of motivation or dedication to get it done.

[War Monkey]

I am very much a Solo Player. Anyone I know that plays, is more than a two hour drive just going one way. The thought of driving back after playing for hours just does not appeal to me.

How ever I do like having terrain on the table and I make all of my terrain. I really enjoy making new terrain for it's really relaxing. I use a lot of Cardboard and Chipboard for terrain making that is very durable, less likely to chip or break if it was dropped or knocked of the table. I haven't had a chips or breaks yet a lot of dust but no breaks. I have pieces that are years old and have held up very well with so little warping that it is not noticeable. I know it but if it was on the table you wouldn't notice.

My next big project is building a 4x6 gaming table and making 2x2 gaming terrain boards, the boards will have roads, rivers or just open terrain. However the hills will be modular to themselves so they could be connected and place on the table in locations or in directions needed. Much like Irisherb's mountains for his table.

[dadlamassu]

What can either hobbyists or manufacturing companies do to make terrain less daunting?

Making terrain does not need to be difficult nor does it need to be museum diorama quality.  A lot of my terrain is home made with simple tools - see my wargaming buddy's tutorials
http://www.morvalearth.co.uk/Terrain/Terain_Intro.htm

[Grumpy Gnome]

You make some interesting points.

For the record, I do not personally think terrain is daunting but it is something I hear people say quite a bit.

Heck, just buying a piece of aquarium decoration  at a flea market, garage sale, eBay and bringing it to games is the kind of first step I am talking about. But as you say some folks do not own, finish building or paint their own minis.

Your point about terrain being the often overlooked “third army” is spot on in my opinion and a great way to look at it.

So how do we motivate more players to make that first step to becoming host players?

[Diablo Jon]

I love building terrain and gaming tables I find the whole modelling process enjoyable in another life I might have even been a model railway guy. Building nice scenery doesn't have to be expensive (though it can be if you want it to be) but I do find it is time consuming. The hobby is a broad church though competition gamers rarely seem bothered by scenery I've been to plenty of shows where the competition gamers where using a bunch of cut out pieces of felt to represent everything from hills, woods and BUA, they seemed happy, but then for them I guess the fun is in playing and winning in an experience more akin to Chess (nothing wrong with that) where as for myself the painting and modelling is more important part of the hobby than the gaming.

[sonicReducer]

The description of terrain as a 'third army' is really spot on.

For me personally when I started gaming around 16 (20 years ago or so) my wargaming experience was very much narrowed to GW games. Being young, not much free money and moving a lot with my family with very little storage meant that building terrain never really happened. I was aware of the GW offerings but they were pricey and if I had £20 to spend it went on minis or a codex, not a box of 3 trees.

Now being older and owning a home and having a much greater exposure to other aspects of the hobby my attitude to terrain has changed. I really enjoy building terrain and there is huge variety of resources - some amazing Youtube channels for example. I backed the Kickstarter for Mel Bose's Terrain Essentials book and it's excellent. My biggest challenges with amazing terrain really are storage space (limited) and little hands who love to play with Daddy's toys

That being said I settled on Sengoku Jidai Japan as my main project a few years ago and as it stands I have 2 decent gaming mats, a good selection of MDF houses (MDF in this period actually looks good as the majority of dwellings were wood), fencing, roads, trees and bushes and some nice scatter pieces. I'm considering some expansions - I'd love a nice pond, some rice paddies and bamboo stands because hey, it's Japan. Also some more standing shrines would be nice.

I would love love love to build a big, static, beautiful gaming table. But due to space mostly it won't happen anytime soon - keeping things modular and stored well has kept things manageable.


That being said terrain is definitely a massive factor keeping me from diving into more periods. My terrain for Japan is around £300 or so, not huge but nothing I have lying around. Storage is the biggest factor. I'd love to play something Mordheim-esque but there just isn't space to store a 4x4 table's worth of buildings. Sticking to a single period has kept me honest at least.

[Grumpy Gnome]

And what I am hoping to spark is more folks who skip a box of minis to have a cool pond to bring over to add a bit to your table when you play.