Into the Woods - Build your forest - Tutorial

(Credits to Nelleke Pieters)

Under the dense foliage of the Ancient Forests, dark secrets and great wonders are hidden.

These woods hide incredible and strange things but also mortal perils which waiting all the brave... or fools .. who decide to venture inside them.

For every self-respecting campaign or battlefield worthy of the name, wooded areas must be present.

These woods or forests - call them what you want - serve both to give variety to the playing field and to make it pleasing to the eye but above all they represent interesting tactical challenges for adventurers who have to choose from time to time whether to cross them, circumvent them, exploit them or keep to them at proper distance.

(Credits to GeniusFetus)
.... Taking the shortcut wasn’t a good idea!

The composition of your side, the type of threat faced, the victory conditions of the missions or the special rules of the scenario are all elements that influence the choices to be made during the battle and that go to give the clash a new level of involvement and of tactical depth, thus making the game much more engaging and fun.

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Here I’ll show you my trees on the forest bases I done.

You could see all the steps to create them.

MATERIAL LIST:

- Trees 

- Grey cardboard 2mm

- Fine sands

- Vinyl glue

- Small pieces of cork

- Cyanoacrylate glue

- Water based colors

- Spray bottle

- Brushes

- 2 shades of flock

I’ll skip photo of basic steps.

Buy trees that fit your idea of forest/budget/color/height/shape... or build them (after several year of DIY, I opted for invest some money in trees that would satisfay me during time). I chosen HEKI's Deciduous Trees - Set of 8 (10/15 cm tall), roughly 20 euros.

Using a spray bottle, make the trees stronger by covering them with a thin layer of diluted vinyl glue.

HEKI Trees

Then place them on the grey cardboard, giving enough space among them. Cut the shape and double it (pay attention to resize the second one - just a little small of the first one). 

TIP: I suggest you to create roundish bases of differents sizes but with complementar silhouettes.

Cut out the rounds for the trees bases (widen the cut by 1mm), leaving enough space from the borders.

Glue the layers and when dried lay the upper surface with glue then cover all with the fine sand (pay attention to no cover the holes with glue to avoid troubles when you fit the trees on the bases). 

Paint them with medium-dark brown.

Repeat these phases for the round bases to glue under the trees.

When dried, using a brush put some spot of vinyl glue on the bases and sprinkle some flock on them (mixing 2 shades).

Push it down with fingers, wait few second then remove any excess (I prefer reverse the base then firmly tap - this seems align better the grass).

Cover with grass also the tree.

I creates some more rounds to wide the options (I’ll use them as marker, targets... or only to give more space on the base during battle - temporarily removing trees).

Then using the cyanoacrylate glue to stick some cork’s pieces on the surface. 

Paint these pieces and the ground using the dry brush technique.

ET VOILA!

 

I hope you liked this tutorials.. I not discovery hot water, I learn this from others but I develop my styles and I hope it was inspirational.

Thanks for reading!

Followers for Five Leagues form Borderlands Campaign

 

(Credits to TamasGaspar)

And now, it's time for the loyal retinue of our heroes

Followers starting stats

These scoundrels are no-name characters that serve the heroes, fighting and cheating for them.

Rarely them are noble knight, wandering clerics, merchants...but in the most cases these gregarious are poor souls who only want gain a better social condition.

Sometimes, only few of them can became themselves a hero. 
But in the most of cases, they become only a cold body on the nude ground.

Thanks for reading

Heroes for Five Leagues from Borderlands Campaign

 

Here are my Heroes for my 5 Leagues from Borderlands campaign.

I created a "sort of" band of scoundrels led by any worst vice: revenge, desire of becoming rich and will of obtaining fame and glory at any cost.

Their leader and “rotten core” is Marquand... not really a good man. 
Someone also could 't call him man, if knew what he have done in is life...and not only for surviving but mostly for satisfaying any own vice.
But, that is what we've.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

MARQUAND THE AMBIGUOUS AND HIS GOOD FELLAS

Heroes starting stats

I will post more info about them and their background

Thanks for reading

Incredibles tools for your games!

Here we are
I'll put down some infos about systems, tools and others things I use or I would like to use for running my campaign.

Rules: Five Leagues from Borderlands
https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/5701/Nordic-Weasel-Games

Minis: Demonworld from Ral Partha Europe
http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/

DIGITALS TOOLS (on an iPad Pro 2015 regenerated+ pencil)

- to create map basic hexmap- iOS app HEX MAP (free)

- to generate a complex and complete world with link to others free tools to populate, create the gerated map Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator 
https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/

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- to elaborate map and add symbols and graphics - iOS app BEZ (free)

- note - iOS app GOODNOTES ( 8 EURO...BEST APP FOR ME)

- to roll dice - iOS app NATURAL 20 LITE (free)

- to random pick for numbers or name from a list - iOS app PICKSTER (free)

All these tools are really useful and give you a lot of options.
Try them and, if you want, give me your feedback.

And last but not least .. if you know more useful tools write them in the comments !!!!!
I am very curious to know the ones you use.

Thanks for reading

First Drink!!

"Hi my friends!!"

"I didn't expect to see you again after the last adventure you embarked on with your companions.
I am amazed to see instead that you are all there ... moreover all intact!!"

Dave, the big Ogre owner of the The Black Axe Inn - one of the worst of all the harbor district-, points you to a table and beckons one of his girls to bring pints of dark ale.

The dark and smoky environment of the room prevents the various patrons from being clearly seen .. as if there was something interesting to see ..
The Black Axe was one of the many dodgy taverns in the port district. Famously known by the city guards and just as carefully avoided. The dangerous owner managed his affairs carefully and prevented fights and the victims, they left behind, from being a major topic in the chatter of the city. Furthermore, it was clear to everyone in the underworld that Dave had made important deals with upper levels of the Underworld that ensured that the situation did not degenerate beyond irrecoverable limits.

The inn's patrons were among the worst representatives of mankind and even the non-human world. Murderers, scoundrels, thieves, crooks, adventurers, desperate people, and countless other categories of depravity infested the place like thirsty rats.

But for this very reason that many stories of adventures, amazing conflicts, incredible scams had right from the beginning of The Black Ax Inn.

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This is the beginning of this great adventure.

I would like to use this space as a sort of diary of my wargaming / rpg plays.

A sort of binder with inside all the ideas, the game reports,  the inspirations and all the images about plays, modellism sessions, without forget any reflections about games and related.

I will try to post as much quality content as possible. However, having no experience in similar activities, I ask you for great support right now. Comment, write your ideas, give your opinion on every aspect of the blog, writing, images .. in short, everything.

By nature I really appreciate the sharing of ideas and the possibility of evaluating different points of view.

As you may have understood, I am not a native English speaker, so I will often find myself forced to use Google translator to try to make my writing work more fluid (both because the terms used are very particular and to be faster).

As of now, thank you for your support and your encouragement.

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The noise was deafening, a group at the back of the room had sung a dirty song that was soon followed by most of the drunks present - and that meant by most of the tavern - and many had thrown themselves into dancing and wild frenzy.

The party was at a secluded table talking to each other when suddenly the cutthroat dressed in elegant clothes suddenly stood up, warning his parents: "Shit, quick hand to arms, I don't know how they managed to follow us here but they found us those damned" and with a leap he launched himself on a dark figure who advanced on the steps that led to their table with a shining blade in his hand...