sotf
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Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Sept 13, 2015 4:34:12 GMT
I've been considering options for a large, deep forest, trying for a redwoods or Endor style look with the towering trees where there isn't likely to be as much of a low branch issue there and started expanding the idea through to other bits and pieces.
Taking a few of Scotty's ideas, only start with a single TP roll, cap both ends and then build the roots off the base and a bit up and down the sides to shape it up as the base of a tree, just using the leveled end of them as a sign that it's not the tops of the tree but that it represents the tree while removing the sheer height you would need to represent the full tree.
Makes things easier to see and it also means that you don't need to store a pile of massive trees
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Post by ogrestamp on Sept 13, 2015 8:42:25 GMT
Have you seen the Redwoods? I am not sure where you live. I do live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Redwoods are really close by. Those things are massive. But what is amazing is when a tree falls, the downed trunk is a major obstacle with tons of dirt and plant material building up around it, making a soft ramp almost to the top of the fallen trunk. I think that would make a fun project in a forest setting.
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Post by bluecloud2k2 on Sept 13, 2015 9:37:53 GMT
Get you some Cardboard circles from a Cake Shop to plant on top (three layers thick with criss-crossing corrugation, minimum!). Cut a hold just big enough to fit the tree trunk paper-towel roll, and put a TP roll on top.. then you can build a treetop village.
I've only thought of this because I got a box of cake circles that weren't waxed from work and the boss couldn't send them back.
I should point out I have over 200 of these things.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Sept 13, 2015 17:30:13 GMT
dmscotty made quite a good vid showing us true 2.5d tree with plyability over 3 floors of trees ! you could see that and make some true tree fighting scenes !
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sotf
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Post by sotf on Sept 13, 2015 23:13:36 GMT
dmscotty made quite a good vid showing us true 2.5d tree with plyability over 3 floors of trees ! you could see that and make some true tree fighting scenes ! I like Scotty's Trees, but they don't work for the type of tree I'm thinking of here. This kind of thing and here's another that covers a bit more direct scale The intention with my idea isn't one with the upper layers of the trees, this is kind of like the various encounters on the ground floor during the Return of the Jedi. You have the trees where if anything is in them, it's far enough up that archers aren't going to be able to hit there from the ground and only a few spells could do anything. Doing things like the upper levels is actually rather easy to do in the long run, and I was thinking more of things that would work for the ground in this type of forest without needing to cross the problem of making it a nightmare to handle with minis. A few fallen trees would work in it, but the idea is to basically cover what would be 15-20 feet of the trees height and letting the rest be more imagination for the players. Remember these are the types of trees that they used to bore through a few for two way paved roads due to the sheer size of the things in the real world. It's the type of terrain that is often described for fantasy, but rarely done in D&D because it's harder to represent because the standard height for these trees, if placed on the floor, would be higher than the normal table height. So, having the "base" portion of the tree covered is largely all that would be needed, and having a parallel layout of the higher levels with things like the bottom sections of a rope ladder or one with a circling stairway/ramp built around it. The basic trees that would be usable as somewhat large "normal" trees would be the height of a toilet paper roll, the top end capped off flat (probably painted black as well) with the relatively uniform height being there to imply that the pieces are the representation of basically the portions that the players can interact with, and that what the characters would be seeing would, infact, be towering FAR overhead to the point where it looks like it might just be breaching the skies because the trees dwarf even some of the greatest of dragons in sheer size.
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Post by gnomezrule on Sept 14, 2015 0:29:27 GMT
If that is your plan don't forget to get some pringles cans and a few coffee cans for some variation in width.
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sotf
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Post by sotf on Sept 14, 2015 1:17:19 GMT
If that is your plan don't forget to get some pringles cans and a few coffee cans for some variation in width. Pringles cans are likely to work, the coffee cans tend to hit that point of being to large to be useful because part of the feel comes from a consistent height for the trees and while hills and such can create variation to some extent, the trees will still be the same when flat and close enough for larger...and I'm not about to try hacking apart metal cans to match it while pringles cans can be cut apart to serve as a starting point. I do have some other rolls from various wider tapes and ribbon rolls that are pretty close to tp roll height
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Post by gnomezrule on Sept 14, 2015 1:44:29 GMT
Sounds like you already thought this through;)
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sotf
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Post by sotf on Sept 14, 2015 2:47:19 GMT
Sounds like you already thought this through;) I largely have, just mainly trying to figure out anything specific or ideas people might have for this type of thing before I make a bunch of them only to find out there was something I hadn't thought of.
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Post by bluecloud2k2 on Sept 14, 2015 3:21:35 GMT
Might try texturing them with crumpled foil... cuz that's a LOT of hot glue.
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sotf
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Post by sotf on Sept 14, 2015 4:19:34 GMT
Might try texturing them with crumpled foil... cuz that's a LOT of hot glue. Foil isn't really that good for a bark look. And it's less glue per tree than Scotty's big trees, especially with the tp layers to bulk it out.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Sept 14, 2015 12:45:02 GMT
when i did my trees for my sets... i did some large one sand some mediums ones. i have yet to do huge and gargantuan trees. but basically you wanna do what i did... basic tree trunks to show the trees goes way higher above.or like DM scotty did whit his gnarled trees without foliage cause well... its just a trunk.
i can tell you... a large tree.. 10x10 is pretty darn large for minis already. huge would be to me, the biggest i would go. 15x15... 20x20 is pretty darn big already. i mean 16 squares ont he table... man that tree is surely an elder. seems to me like you wanna do some colosal trees... 30x30 which are 6 squares by 6 squares. and even bigger then that... i'll tell you this much. that tree trunk will be very very big, like as big as elder dragon. heck as big as a tarrasque. and if you want spells to barely touch the foliage... that means your tree is more then 100 feets off the ground. because most spells goes to that height. some spells goes even higher then that.
as for bows and arrows... they can shoot up to 600 feets. with disadvantage that is. yeah bows and arrows in 5e are abusive. but think about it, with the right feat a character can easily fire that 600 feet distance. so it really depends on your game and rules though. but im just giving you a heads up ont he sidze of things.
by what you showed us, you wanna do some 3x3 up to 5x5.
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Post by Erasmas on Sept 14, 2015 14:41:35 GMT
This is what I did for the trees in my jungle piece for my Monster Slayers terrain. I didn't want to have the towering parts, so I actually made them both out of one TP roll, cut in half. I did the cross-section look mainly for the kids' sake, but also to see if it would turn out.
As for rolls to use for centers - duct/packing/painter's tape, plastic drink bottles, 2-liters, etc. If using anything plastic, you probably just want to score it all over the outside so that the TP you cover it with has something to grip onto.
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Post by twiztedterry on Sept 14, 2015 19:52:25 GMT
as for bows and arrows... they can shoot up to 600 feets. with disadvantage that is. That's firing bows across a horizontal distance, firing them directly into the air would have to take into account not only the physical resistance of the arrow, but the weight resistance due to gravity, not to mention firing upwards through dense foliage to try to hit someone in the tree. I think firing upward to 200ft should be the max range increment for a vertical shot. If I were wearing the DM hat, I would allow them to attempt the shot, but first they'd need to make a check against concealment (probably 50%) and then make the attack roll at the normal disadvantage for max range increment, plus an extra disadvantage for firing at such an awkward angle (probably -4). Then if they missed, I'd roll a d4 and a d10 to determine direction and location of the arrow when it lands. If it lands on a party member, I would have them make a reflex save equal to 10 plus the archer's Full Attack Bonus, failure means they roll for and take the damage. If the player rolled a nat 1, the arrow would hit them, and they would do the same.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Sept 15, 2015 9:06:50 GMT
Twitzerterry, since when are RPGs realistically viable ? sorry but shooting 600 feets away with a bow... it requires tremendous strenght and a very big bow. yet in 5E it is possible.
as for the vertical lift... sorry but just like a gun, the bow can easily shoot upward. and if you say its easier to shoot horizontally then vertically... that simply means you didn't try true bows. they have no problem shooting one way or another. the only problem is not the side from which you shoot. but the curve the trajectory will do. shooting 600 feets requires you to aim way higher then the actual target. good luck with that. shooting vertically is much wasier since the curve is much less pronounced to begin with. but still, shooting 600 feet upward is still an impossible feat, just like it is for horizontal shots.
so in th eend... its all about the ruling of the books. and no, im not gonna ever start adding realism into my campaign just because its realism... my players and i, hates realism.
so as i said, it depends on what you play... the idea of very big trees is a good one. but knowing players they will easily try to take advantage of it and it will make for very very very tactical fights which may end up taking up the whole session. but i still dig the idea.
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Post by twiztedterry on Sept 17, 2015 18:42:38 GMT
Twitzerterry, since when are RPGs realistically viable ? sorry but shooting 600 feets away with a bow... it requires tremendous strenght and a very big bow. yet in 5E it is possible. if you say its easier to shoot horizontally then vertically... that simply means you didn't try true bows. 1.) I never said that bows couldn't fire 600 feet horizontally, I said that they couldn't fire 600 feet VERTICALLY, gravity exists in 5e, just like everywhere else, otherwise firing 600 feet horizontally wouldn't require you to aim the shot at an angle. 2.) I didn't say it was _easier_ to shoot horizontally, I said that firing a longbow at such an acute angle is awkward, the most direct path to shoot the person on the tree would be to fire directly upward from as close as you could get to them, (Since firing from a farther distance would only decrease the vertical range you could fire even more.)
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sotf
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Post by sotf on Oct 8, 2015 1:25:17 GMT
Well, I've gotten a few steps into making them now, was going rather slow with layers to build up the paper while trying to keep it dry. Still need a bit of work with hot glue before prime and paint, but I've got 4 still drying before that stage.
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Post by ogrestamp on Oct 8, 2015 6:13:10 GMT
This looks cool as is. You could layer on some glossy varnish and call it an ivory forest.
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sotf
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Post by sotf on Oct 8, 2015 14:59:25 GMT
Part of me wants to use them to make molds and cast a bunch of them. Not entirely sure if it's a workable idea as of yet. Though with the detail mainly going to be oriented in one direction, it would probably be rather easy
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sotf
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Post by sotf on Oct 9, 2015 21:00:13 GMT
Okay, got the hot glue on them. Trying to decide if I want to base them in the end or leave them as is...
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