Quest of the Ringbearer: Pop-up Bree, Part 2

Good morning gamers,

Before we get into the meat of this post, I just wanted to note that we recently passed 1 MILLION page views on the blog (if you trust the Google analytics). From all of us at TMAT, thanks for reading the things we post - it really does keep us going!

We have our annual grand tournament here at TMAT coming up next week and for this tournament, I decided I wanted to bring my Bree board to the event. Naturally, having 17 buildings on the board wasn't going to happen (Army Leader brawl during Contest of Champions in the Prancing Pony, anyone?), but I did want the board to be finished and about 8 buildings on the board (2/quadrant). If possible, I wanted to get all of the buildings done so I could say, "It's done" - and I also wanted things IN the buildings to make them more interesting. So today, we're going to see what I did!

Board Construction

Bree - multi-functional for Matched Play or Scenario Play . . .

The board is basic - two 2' x 4' half-inch sheets of polystyrene (cut from an 8' x 4' half-inch sheet of polystyrene) that can be arranged in two ways (one with the Prancing Pony in the center of the board, one with the prancing pony left off and the rest of the town kind of staggered). While not ideal for modular play (would have been better as four 2' x 2' panels with nothing overlapping the edges), the board is designed to be used in the Escape from Bree scenario (which is why the Pony spans the middle) and does have a lot of alleyways for moving troops around. Frankly, I like it.

As I mentioned in the last post, I wanted the buildings to be removable and easily storable - and part of the removability was to have their bases affixed to the board. I glued the bases to the board with PVA and used a collection of works from William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to keep them flat as they dried. Some warped a bit, but on the whole, they came out just fine. Each was cut with a knife to make floor designs and then sprayed with Kona Brown spray paint.

The ground texture was caused by a mixture of rolling a foil ball across the surface and spraying textured spray paint over the top. I've put rocks and other grit on boards before and sealing them up is really difficult. Both of the techniques I used this time either indent the board OR adhere directly to it. Because I knew I was going to be spray-painting directly onto the board (instant death for polystyrene), I decided I was going to leave the plastic layer that came with the board on it as a layer of protection for the polystyrene. It seemed to work pretty well. Everything then got sprayed in Kona Brown (I went through two cans getting the board and bases set).

Finally, a few of the buildings were going to be heavily used by animals or feed for said animals, so I put some dull grass flocking in some of the areas (glued with watered-down PVA) and then sealed it with a sealant spray. I didn't want this stuff flaking off, so the seal helped make it rigid.

Buildings and Fillings

I wanted a WIDE variety of buildings, both in their height and in their function. Ultimately, with everything being square for the pop-up style to work, there was a host of challenges in making the town varied.

But I also wanted things inside the buildings - and so I looked to 3D printing. My good mate Centaur has a subscription to Loot Studios - and they make GREAT 3D printing STL files. Like, they're REALLY AMAZING. I saw in their welcome kit that they had a bunch of tavern supplies, so naturally, I commissioned him to print me up some. $3 later, I commissioned some more things. $3 after that, I decided that I needed a few last pieces and so commissioned a third set. For less than $10 in materials, I have a bunch of items to flush out Bree.

Multi-Purpose Buildings

The Barn - the northeast dice tray

I designated two buildings to be a community stable and the blacksmith shop - and both of these buildings were going to double-feature as built-in dice trays. Set on different sides of the board, each player will have a dice tray near him that should keep his dice from rolling everywhere. Neither of these buildings will have figurines in them as part of the terrain, so I don't have to worry about anything breaking.

The nature of a rolling tray makes putting things in the barn a bit perilous, so for game play, the goats, trough, and Bill the Pony will be outside the stable. If players brought their own dice trays, then the bits could easily be moved inside. In the future, I may commission more animals, but for now, this is fine.

The Smithy - the southwest dice tray

Both buildings were spray painted with Kona Brown after I carved into the sides the shapes for the support beams. The spaces between the beams were then painted white (two coats), which gives it a very Wattle-and-Daub look. While I could have continued to coat it until it became pure white (or even spray-painted them white if I wanted to try to protect the beams), this is Bree - it needs some dirt to it.

The bits for the blacksmith are simple - a Dwarf blacksmith (dubbed Osur Stouthammer after a character in Lord of the Rings Online) and a sharpening wheel with stool for him to use. No forge yet - may have to revisit that later.

Split Buildings

Leland Underhill's Winery - shop with attached storeroom

I did another house that had a divider running between it - this was the first prototype of this design that I did and I rather liked it (so much so that I did it in two other places that we'll see today). By splitting this building into two smaller rooms that aren't connected, you give players the ability to more strategically use the map. I attached some of the extra foam bits that I talked about in our last post to the outside and painted them green to serve as shrubs on the exterior.

The two rooms are part of the same shop - Leland Underhill's (from LOTRO again) winery. Leland is shown enjoying his produce with a keg on the side and has a rear storeroom with four unopened casks of wine. The wine casks will be treated as heavy objects.

Clar Whitethorn's Apothecary Shop & Bonnie Milkweed's Notary & Book Shop

After experimenting with the split-house design, I grabbed a section of cardboard that was longer than one of the houses I built and made slots for it to hang across the house, giving us two very long rooms (as opposed to two squat rooms). This limits the kind of items I can put inside, but I decided these two rooms were going to be connected (allowing for sister-shops to be run from them).

The building will contain Clar Whitethorn's (hint: everyone is from LOTRO) Apothecary shop and Bonnie Milkweed's notary and book shop . . . between them they know everything. Their rooms are sparsely decorated - a table and bench each, a bookshelf here, a cauldron there. Various little things.

The Alternate Prancing Pony

The Prancing Pony - the busiest building I made

The final building on this side of the map is the alternate Prancing Pony. While the ACTUAL Prancing Pony would be in the center of the map, I had a bunch of internal bits for the Pony that I wanted to have on the board - and so I picked an out-of-the-way house to serve as the Pony. This one is also near the stable, conveniently, which is accurate to the books. As a small building, I avoided the Wattle-and-Daub appearance and went with all-wood. Barliman makes bank and decided to show off a bit.

This place is a bit crowded, with a keg from Leland's, a large table, a roaring fireplace, a pantry shelf, a bar (featuring Barliman Butterbur), and a Ranger in the corner (Amlan).

The Massive Building

Verity Tyne's Tavern - two adjoining buildings

I had in the designs for two buildings to abut each other - and as I was cutting them out, I made a huge mistake and oriented one side the wrong way so I had one doorway touching the ground and another touching the ceiling. Instead of redoing the whole thing, I decided to carve out one side of the building and just attach it to the building it was next to - giving us one HUGE building which will serve as the tavern. I went with two different flooring designs - one will be a main space for patrons to eat in, while the other holds two side rooms (one as a kitchen, one as a private party room). Unlike most of the other buildings (and similar to the Pony), I decided to do this one all in wood - no Wattle-and-Daub action here.

This place is also packed, with three tables, a keg, and a pantry shelf. The tavern is run by Verity Tyne and has a table specifically set up for gambling . . . hmmm . . . Oh, and there's a random well nearby . . . if you didn't see that. :-)

The Final Building

The Granary - bales of fun

Our final building for the tournament was the granary - where all of the animal feed is stored. While across the town from the community stable, it's near the actual Prancing Pony stable and is the only building I made without windows. Similar to the construction of the blacksmith and the stable, I went with a Wattle-and-Daub appearance but again, there's just one door in it (the rest of the building is closed off from the elements).

In it we have three stacks of hay/feed that can be climbed upon by models. The distance to jump down them isn't dangerous, so we'll see if anyone holes up in there.

The Final Touch

Finally, the board wouldn't be complete without some objective markers - and for that we have a bunch of townspeople! You'll find here Bonnie and Clar toasting, Verity Tyne passing out drinks, Bonny Thatcher playing music, and the mysterious Ranger Saeredan keeping watch. These models will be needed in 4/9 possible scenarios - and can be placed in their shops during the other scenarios (Bonny the Bard will probably be in the tavern). Their scale is a bit bigger than the GW models, but I don't care - they came out great.

Conclusion

There are a few more houses I have to finish, but I will provide an update on that in the future. I've learned a lot from this project - and hope to build on this later when I start my next board, which will use the templates I got from Zorpazorp for the Minas Tirith project. Stay tuned for more and until next time, happy hobbying!