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View Full Version : DM Help Any tips/tricks for dungeon furniture?



ericgrau
2016-03-15, 10:27 AM
I'm a rather visual person. I'd rather not have to remind players what obstacles are where and what this X means and so on. So I'm trying to use models for encounters so that it's clear not only where everything is but what it is at a glance. Right now I'm mainly looking into furniture, pillars, weapon racks and other dungeon details.

Time is the main limiting factor. Money is less of a factor but I don't want to go nuts there either. So painting furniture minis myself is right out. Prepainted minis is an option but getting 1,000 of them for every little doodad shouldn't cost a fortune. I found foldable cardstock PDFs at drive thru rpg but they are in black and white for some reason.

Any ideas?

codyleaderbrand
2016-03-15, 10:40 AM
Get into 3D printing, there are models for literally everything that you can resize in google sketchup and export into the correct file. My 3D printer was $350 including shipping, material is $30 bucks for 3lbs and I've literally printed an entire dungeon(think Dwarven Forge) which was also free. I can provide more details if you're interested.

goto124
2016-03-15, 11:16 AM
Use your own home! Or whatever place you're using to game.

ericgrau
2016-03-15, 04:14 PM
Get into 3D printing, there are models for literally everything that you can resize in google sketchup and export into the correct file. My 3D printer was $350 including shipping, material is $30 bucks for 3lbs and I've literally printed an entire dungeon(think Dwarven Forge) which was also free. I can provide more details if you're interested.

Yes please, that would be wonderful. Details, pics, where you get the models. I presume it's all one color? Can I at least select that color? Brown for wooden stuff, light grey for metal and medium gray for stone. At least then people would be able to easily understand what it is even though it's unpainted.

My #1 concern is time so I like premade stuff that I can either order or shoot out of my printer and foldup. I was thinking about a 3D printer for other applications so that might be worthwhile. As long as I don't have to spend much time tweaking the model or searching for models. Would hopefully be close to: type in search, grab, download and print.

Kelb_Panthera
2016-03-15, 04:29 PM
I'm fond of having a laminated blank battlegrid and just makig little doodles with a dry-erase marker. If drawing things up on the spot is a problem, get a solid sheet of clear plastic with a grid on it and put your pre-drawn rooms under it. You can just make quick doodles of the moving parts.

Bohandas
2016-03-15, 09:44 PM
I'm fond of having a laminated blank battlegrid and just makig little doodles with a dry-erase marker. If drawing things up on the spot is a problem, get a solid sheet of clear plastic with a grid on it and put your pre-drawn rooms under it. You can just make quick doodles of the moving parts.

Or if you want to reuse the drawings you could make standees out of index cards.

codyleaderbrand
2016-03-16, 05:50 AM
Yes please, that would be wonderful. Details, pics, where you get the models. I presume it's all one color? Can I at least select that color? Brown for wooden stuff, light grey for metal and medium gray for stone. At least then people would be able to easily understand what it is even though it's unpainted.

My #1 concern is time so I like premade stuff that I can either order or shoot out of my printer and foldup. I was thinking about a 3D printer for other applications so that might be worthwhile. As long as I don't have to spend much time tweaking the model or searching for models. Would hopefully be close to: type in search, grab, download and print.
Sure thing, so we'll start with 3D printer...

I went with the Wanhao Duplicator i3 (http://wanhaousa.com/products/duplicator-i3-steel-frame) it was good for the price, simple build, 1 year warranty. All great things for a bigger, which I am. The only thing I would suggest is to prepare for some technical hurdles. You'll have to accomplish some kind of confusing computer driver related things which I didn't anticipate(I'll attempt to find this information as well). The community for 3D printing is huge and helpful though so you shouldn't have too many problems getting it all sorted.

Next thing is your filament, I suggest not going for a cheaper filament. Often times they contain impurities and will cause your prints to fail. Rather, splurge on a high quality filament like Hatchbox. Then you get to your next thing, which type of filament. There are a ton of different materials but the two most common are PLA and ABS. Personally I use PLA but it's really up to you what you want to use. There are different colors for both types so don't worry about that. PLA can be more brittle than ABS but at the end of the day both are hard plastics. http://www.amazon.com/HATCHBOX/b/ref=bl_dp_s_web_11373512011?ie=UTF8&node=11373512011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=HATCHBOX

Thingiverse is your friend. While you can't find everything in the world just ready to print this place has a ton of great models ready to print. Here is my personal collection of stuff just as a good starting place. The possibilities are endless. http://www.thingiverse.com/spoonsy/collections

If you can't seem to find what you're after it is possible to take something out of Google's 3D warehouse, dump it into Google Sketchup and export as a .stl (3d printing file) it's kind of complicated so you might want to look into that more if you're interested.

I'd show you some of my prints after they have been painted but I'm at work and unfortunately on the internet lockdown.

Hope this information helps!

ericgrau
2016-03-17, 08:04 AM
What's the time to print each object? Can the printer be left unattended?

Slipperychicken
2016-03-18, 04:31 PM
You could simply find images of the items you want, print them onto notecards, cut them out, and put them on the board.

ericgrau
2016-03-18, 09:25 PM
I'm shooting for a bit more 3D, like foldup cardstock or minis. Flat stuff is nice against walls and so on though.

codyleaderbrand
2016-03-21, 09:37 AM
Sorry for the late reply, was on vacation last week.

Depends on what you decide to print, for example, I printed out an airship(http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:151676) and it took me about 3 days. Running the 3D printer pretty much nonstop over a month only raised my electric bill ~$30. Small things like a bookcase, chair, or table could take an hour or less. You can leave it unattended but I typically don't. There have been house fires from 3D printers even if on a rare occasion.

Knaight
2016-03-21, 09:59 AM
What's the time to print each object? Can the printer be left unattended?

Time to print varies highly, with a number of factors - the printer, settings (layer height is a big one), and the size of the object are the big three. I'd generally expect things in the 1 hour range for tabletop use though.

On the tile side, there's this (http://www.dungeonarts.com/) site.

Kaspar
2016-03-21, 01:00 PM
I've been considering making cardboard props. Drawn myself because I enjoy that sort of thing. And I have collected lots of character images so I can make cardboard character figures as well.

The issue I'm currently considering is what to put on the bottom so they can't be easily knocked over.

codyleaderbrand
2016-03-21, 03:53 PM
I've been considering making cardboard props. Drawn myself because I enjoy that sort of thing. And I have collected lots of character images so I can make cardboard character figures as well.

The issue I'm currently considering is what to put on the bottom so they can't be easily knocked over.

You can buy miniature bases from Reaper miniatures depending on the size you need. Other retailers sell bases as well.

ericgrau
2016-03-21, 07:32 PM
I've been considering making cardboard props. Drawn myself because I enjoy that sort of thing. And I have collected lots of character images so I can make cardboard character figures as well.

The issue I'm currently considering is what to put on the bottom so they can't be easily knocked over.
Something like this: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/fantasy-flight-supply/products/plastic-stands/
You could glue a nickel, token, metal disk, etc. to the bottom for added weight and stability.

For me flat printouts are fine for floors, walls, doors, windows, and other flat things, but I'm going for 3D for the actual furniture.

I searched a bit harder and found this:
http://fatdragongames.com/fdg_3Dfan.html
http://fatdragongames.com/fdg0061.html

I guess I'll try that out.