Salt Dog – Ship Build from the Module Voyage to Storm Isle
May 31, 2016 16:34:05 GMT
tauster, Draklith, and 4 more like this
Post by milojaggerson on May 31, 2016 16:34:05 GMT
Greetings! I have been silent for some time, but not idle. Most of Ravenloft is primed and ready for final paint, but the build is currently under hiatus as I have reached my saturation point with the project. In the interim I am working on building the Salt Dog from Fantasy Flight Games Legends & Lairs Instant Adventures d20 System for Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition's module Voyage to Storm Isle.
Converting the module from 3rd edition to 5th edition wasn’t too difficult. Most of the creatures used in the module can be found in the 5th edition Monster Manual, and the remainder aren’t too difficult to throw over to the new system. I’m trying to treat all the major NPC’s as full-blown characters, to the point where each of them receives a fully generated character sheet. A little bit of extra work, but I like to have all the stats, equipment, and other items handy – the exercise forces me to familiarize myself with every NPC and think about their personality and interactions with the player characters as well as other NPCs in the world; at least I’ll be somewhat familiar with the NPC when the players meet them in game.
Early in the module’s description of events, the Salt Dog’s dimensions are given as being nearly 90 feet long by 25 feet wide. I believed this to be a fair sized ship that would provide plenty opportunity for high adventure and nimble hi-jinks for combat on deck. As I began the build though, I found the actual layout of the ship was better than double the stated size, the top deck is over 200 feet long with a width over 47 feet. I’ve been told that real-world sail ships did not reach that size until the 1600’s or later.
Oh well, that just gives us more room to “play” on.
I believe part of the problem with the discrepancy between the description and the layout occurred because of the scale of the map; it is not set to one inch equals five feet, but a “handy” scale of one square equals 7.5 feet. My build may be a little off from what the map represents, as I recalculated everything to the scale 1”=5’. But, this was the worst of my irritation with the project. Everything else has been fairly even seas.
These First few photos are from the end of the first weekend's work and required approximately ten hours.
The Aft Decks are sitting on a couple of small boxes at this point. I wanted to get an idea of what I was building. They coloring pencils belong to my bride. She came down and did some "adult coloring" to keep me company while I worked. It was a very pleasant evening.
The cardboard sticks laying on deck are the pieces that will hold up the Aft Decks. It was late, I was ready for bed, and wanted to get the pictures taken before I finished. Had I put on the spars to hold up the decks, I would have skipped the photos. Such are the trades made with one's self. Besides, they were easily put into place on the next evening's work in the shipyard.
Leaving out the blurry "Bigfoot Photos", what follows records the next evening's progress.
You most likely noticed that the walls are in place on the aft section, but missing in the fore section. WIP - I wanted to record each evening's progress, and bed time generally comes much sooner than I wish.
I am fairly excited at this point and ready for my players to embark on the vessel. I am running for my daughter, her friend, my nephew, my best friend, and his two sons, and am really anxious for them to see the ship. In our campaign, they had just exited the keep on the Lost Island of Castanamir and were stranded on that deserted scarp of a sand-bar. One of the group is playing an Aarakocra and flew out in search of rescue for his companions. Fortune smiled upon his efforts for he happened upon the good ship Salt Dog. Leading the vessel to pick up the band of adventurers, they found themselves thrust into the role of detectives aboard a ship-bound murder mystery.
I have tried to preserve the 2.5 D utility of DM Scotty's method, but the stacking of the decks works against the purpose of the method. However, the decks can be removed allowing for some interesting possibilities for locations in combat.
Just shy of being completely "walled" out, the Salt Dog is technically playable at this point. I am attempting to speed through the build at this point as my group of players are about two days away from actually seeing the ship. We did the rescue as "theater of the mind" and I really wanted to blow their socks off with the build. We played on the ship as shown in the next few photographs.
Used a dowel rods for the masts. Of course, I'm not representing them, but there are crows nests at the top of the masts. These are just to represent the masts, not be the whole thing...
So - Those are the photographs that show the build to the point were the players saw the ship for the first time. They were blown away. My friend and I wondered why we did not have this idea 25 years ago. Twenty five years ago, the internet was really just taking off, and no DM Scotty was there to document his work... My friends and I were too busy arguing over the virtues of various gaming systems during our free time than to be working on cool things like this.
So the next pictures start out with what you may recognize as cardboard meeting drywall plaster. For those considering drywall mud - DON'T! Perhaps DAP Ready-Mixed Spackling Compoind might work, but DO NOT use drywall mud. Cardboard starts to separate when it gets wet, and drywall compound makes things wet. After I did a complete course on the lower upper (? !!!) aft deck, I waited for the botched-attempt-to-speed-things-up to dry out, then used hot glue to seal it.
Hot glue stinks when it burns.
A lot.
I lay hot glue into the edges with my gun. Having learned from Strahd's castle how hot the glue can get on unprotected fingertips, I decided to use a hot knife to work the glue into the edges and walls of the ship. My wife (bless her) refused to come downstairs during this phase - not that it mattered, as the stench of burning hot glue crept upstairs and lingered in every fabric surface in the house. Fortunately we had a nice weekend to open the windows up and turn on the attic fan.
The Salt Dog is really coming along now. We are ready for the side cladding that will lend the ship more of a 3D feel than 2.5D. I am antsy to start finish paint... Patience.
Climbing a wave, perhaps? Or is it the photographer can't hold the camera square?
Nice shot over the aft decks.
And below is a shot from above...
Over the three day Memorial weekend I did not do much work on the Salt Dog. However, my mind was to at least get the ship primed and ready for final paint. I managed to prime the ships AND construct the stamps that will serve to lay paint on the decks. I should have the decks painted this evening, if everything aligns for work in the shipyard tonight...
Below are the photographs of the primed decks.
This is too much fun!
I am going to have to fire the photographer.
I ma making myself sea sick.
I should finish painting this evening. Pictures of the stamps and finished piece should be posted soon.
Thanks for reading!
Converting the module from 3rd edition to 5th edition wasn’t too difficult. Most of the creatures used in the module can be found in the 5th edition Monster Manual, and the remainder aren’t too difficult to throw over to the new system. I’m trying to treat all the major NPC’s as full-blown characters, to the point where each of them receives a fully generated character sheet. A little bit of extra work, but I like to have all the stats, equipment, and other items handy – the exercise forces me to familiarize myself with every NPC and think about their personality and interactions with the player characters as well as other NPCs in the world; at least I’ll be somewhat familiar with the NPC when the players meet them in game.
Early in the module’s description of events, the Salt Dog’s dimensions are given as being nearly 90 feet long by 25 feet wide. I believed this to be a fair sized ship that would provide plenty opportunity for high adventure and nimble hi-jinks for combat on deck. As I began the build though, I found the actual layout of the ship was better than double the stated size, the top deck is over 200 feet long with a width over 47 feet. I’ve been told that real-world sail ships did not reach that size until the 1600’s or later.
Oh well, that just gives us more room to “play” on.
I believe part of the problem with the discrepancy between the description and the layout occurred because of the scale of the map; it is not set to one inch equals five feet, but a “handy” scale of one square equals 7.5 feet. My build may be a little off from what the map represents, as I recalculated everything to the scale 1”=5’. But, this was the worst of my irritation with the project. Everything else has been fairly even seas.
These First few photos are from the end of the first weekend's work and required approximately ten hours.
The Aft Decks are sitting on a couple of small boxes at this point. I wanted to get an idea of what I was building. They coloring pencils belong to my bride. She came down and did some "adult coloring" to keep me company while I worked. It was a very pleasant evening.
The cardboard sticks laying on deck are the pieces that will hold up the Aft Decks. It was late, I was ready for bed, and wanted to get the pictures taken before I finished. Had I put on the spars to hold up the decks, I would have skipped the photos. Such are the trades made with one's self. Besides, they were easily put into place on the next evening's work in the shipyard.
Leaving out the blurry "Bigfoot Photos", what follows records the next evening's progress.
You most likely noticed that the walls are in place on the aft section, but missing in the fore section. WIP - I wanted to record each evening's progress, and bed time generally comes much sooner than I wish.
I am fairly excited at this point and ready for my players to embark on the vessel. I am running for my daughter, her friend, my nephew, my best friend, and his two sons, and am really anxious for them to see the ship. In our campaign, they had just exited the keep on the Lost Island of Castanamir and were stranded on that deserted scarp of a sand-bar. One of the group is playing an Aarakocra and flew out in search of rescue for his companions. Fortune smiled upon his efforts for he happened upon the good ship Salt Dog. Leading the vessel to pick up the band of adventurers, they found themselves thrust into the role of detectives aboard a ship-bound murder mystery.
I have tried to preserve the 2.5 D utility of DM Scotty's method, but the stacking of the decks works against the purpose of the method. However, the decks can be removed allowing for some interesting possibilities for locations in combat.
Just shy of being completely "walled" out, the Salt Dog is technically playable at this point. I am attempting to speed through the build at this point as my group of players are about two days away from actually seeing the ship. We did the rescue as "theater of the mind" and I really wanted to blow their socks off with the build. We played on the ship as shown in the next few photographs.
Used a dowel rods for the masts. Of course, I'm not representing them, but there are crows nests at the top of the masts. These are just to represent the masts, not be the whole thing...
So - Those are the photographs that show the build to the point were the players saw the ship for the first time. They were blown away. My friend and I wondered why we did not have this idea 25 years ago. Twenty five years ago, the internet was really just taking off, and no DM Scotty was there to document his work... My friends and I were too busy arguing over the virtues of various gaming systems during our free time than to be working on cool things like this.
So the next pictures start out with what you may recognize as cardboard meeting drywall plaster. For those considering drywall mud - DON'T! Perhaps DAP Ready-Mixed Spackling Compoind might work, but DO NOT use drywall mud. Cardboard starts to separate when it gets wet, and drywall compound makes things wet. After I did a complete course on the lower upper (? !!!) aft deck, I waited for the botched-attempt-to-speed-things-up to dry out, then used hot glue to seal it.
Hot glue stinks when it burns.
A lot.
I lay hot glue into the edges with my gun. Having learned from Strahd's castle how hot the glue can get on unprotected fingertips, I decided to use a hot knife to work the glue into the edges and walls of the ship. My wife (bless her) refused to come downstairs during this phase - not that it mattered, as the stench of burning hot glue crept upstairs and lingered in every fabric surface in the house. Fortunately we had a nice weekend to open the windows up and turn on the attic fan.
The Salt Dog is really coming along now. We are ready for the side cladding that will lend the ship more of a 3D feel than 2.5D. I am antsy to start finish paint... Patience.
Climbing a wave, perhaps? Or is it the photographer can't hold the camera square?
Nice shot over the aft decks.
And below is a shot from above...
Over the three day Memorial weekend I did not do much work on the Salt Dog. However, my mind was to at least get the ship primed and ready for final paint. I managed to prime the ships AND construct the stamps that will serve to lay paint on the decks. I should have the decks painted this evening, if everything aligns for work in the shipyard tonight...
Below are the photographs of the primed decks.
This is too much fun!
I am going to have to fire the photographer.
I ma making myself sea sick.
I should finish painting this evening. Pictures of the stamps and finished piece should be posted soon.
Thanks for reading!