My first Strange Aeons board

[forcedperfect]

Hi, aill!

My wife and I just picked up Strange Aeons a couple of weeks ago.  We've had great fun with it, and I immediately started working on some scenery boards for the game.  Here's the first one I finished (sorry for theme-inappropriate models, our pulpy models haven't gotten here yet).


2013-04-30 13.58.22 by tinyarmies, on Flickr


2013-04-30 13.59.09 by tinyarmies, on Flickr


2013-04-30 13.59.24 by tinyarmies, on Flickr


2013-04-30 13.59.47 by tinyarmies, on Flickr


2013-04-30 13.58.13 by tinyarmies, on Flickr

The whole board is just sheets of insulation foam trimmed into rock shapes with a foam cutter, with a popsicle-stick bridge and a chunk of leftover resin scenery from some old project in the center! 

Thanks to Uncle Mike and Co. for a great game, we'll be playing for a while! 

[superflytnt]

Love the cliffs and bridge, man. They're both grim and have a good "blasted heath feel" to them while having those cutouts so they're practical as well.

Good stuff!  All you need now is a Plasticville farmhouse next to that resin scenery and POOF, you have Color Out Of Space, Gardner farm and all!

[Mason]

Sweeeet!
 

That looks great.
Simple yet very effective.
 


Oh, and: Welcome to the Cult!
 

[forcedperfect]

For sure!  We're looking forward to making some of our favorite story scenes for the game.  We started making the Whateley farm before our "Bundle of the Beast" arrived, and were pleasantly surprised to find that our dimensions matched the ones described in the "Return to Dunwich" Black Dossier.  I've been spending my down time making boards for each of the scenarios in that Dossier while we wait for our Threshold crews to get strong enough to attempt the campaign!

I'm in love with the small format of the boards for this game.  It's super easy to whip up a great board to play on in no time at all!

This one was just the first we finished.  It's actually the backside of the board for the first "return to Dunwich" scenario.  Hoping to have that one finished before we move in a couple of weeks.  But after the move, we'll be in a town with a thriving nerd community, and I plan to spread the cult a bit farther after we arrive!

[Mathyoo]

I've just finished my first board few weeks back, but mine is plain straight

Really well done, especially like the bridge. I've found out I need more and more "3d" terrain as I would love to use rules for falling, blasting people off bridges, throwing them through windows...all so cool and rarely used!

[forcedperfect]

Thanks, Mathyoo!

My best friend and I are big fans of Necromunda (which is likely why I like SA so much), and building up "3d" boards is our favorite part of the hobby. 

And yeah, scenario-specific terrain effects and interactions are all the more reason to make cool stuff!  Blow up bridges!  Hit people with chairs!  Light things on fire!  WHEEEEEEEEE!

[jnr]

Nice bit of work there looking forward to it being finished.
http://jnrpaintshop.blogspot.co.uk/

[superflytnt]

Forcedperfect: For boards that don't require a lot of "hills" or landscape features, I use a 2'x3' sheet of felt that's been 77'ed...


...to foamcore, split in the middle so it's foldable for easy storage. This allows a nice looking desert or grass base that's easy to store, and you can set EPS (Pink Stuff) terrain features, houses, roads, rivers, or whatever you wish right on top. I like this method because, for instance, I can put my "middle eastern" buildings on the board for a game of SA and then next week lay down my "Wasteland Outpost" the next for a game of Wastelands 3 or whatever.

I'm keen on modularity because I play many different tabletop games and re-use my cadre of buildings and scenery in different periods; I hate to lock down anything.

That said, the board you made is pretty damned slick, and I could see it working for an "Arroyo Village" Fallout Warfare scenario really well.

[forcedperfect]

superflynt:  for sure!  i used to make a lot of modular scenery (and if i had any damned sense, i'd still be doing the same thing) in much the same way you described.  i'm just one of those looney modelers that really likes to build scenario-specific environments to fight in, especially for narrative wargames.  it's worth the week or so's effort to me to have a fresh board to fight on, and keep it stashed in the garage for the next time i want to play through that scenario. 

my current engineering challenge to myself is to build as many boards as possible that will be both double-sided and lay flat on top of one another.  makes for a lot of flat-topped "hills", but nice environments that store well.  not all my boards are so layered- i was just using offcuts from my other boards to make something useful here.  for instance, the whateley farm board is flat without the buildings, fences, and trees on it.

thanks for the responses, all!  really excited to get to know everybody and swap ideas.  this game is super fun and inspiring for projects!

[superflytnt]

Glue the boards back to back, then drill 1/4 inch holes in all 4 corners (and 2 along each of the edges) and hot glue centered 4" lag bolts into them so that the entire board (assuming 1" thick core board) is sitting on them, suspended 1" off of the table surface so that it is always flat. Sort of like piers.

If you !really! want to go bat-shit crazy, glue strips of velcro to the center along the sides and then you can attach a 2" wide by 10' long skirt of material to it to hide the upside down terrain.

[DeafNala]

EERIE & DARKLY ATMOSPHERIC; a perfect setting for a Strange Aeons Game or a Reality Show. GREAT WORK!

[einarolafson]

Very nice!! Looking forward to see all those boards you have planned!!

[Oldben1]

Well done, very eerie!

Now all you need is a well, some cotton and a flickering tea light.

[Uncle Mike]

Looks great! Seeing the boards is always my favorite part! 

[Black Cavalier]

Very well done.  & generic enough that it could easily be used for other scifi/fantasy/pulp games.  I love the 3rd picture of the zombie on the slope.  With his base, it kind of looks like he's snowboarding down the hill.