D&D: This DM Built A Water Treatment Facility Encounter With Actual, Working Fog
Talk about a setpiece encounter–here’s a scratch built water treatment facility with custom grates, walls, tanks, and a steady stream of actual mist.
It’s one thing to grab some of Dwarven Forge’s expertly crafted terrain to bring a game world to life in glorious 3-d (4-d if you count the ambient smells around your gaming table). But it’s another thing entirely to build your own battle map out of plastic and foam, resulting in a tabletop fight scene that looks as home in a diorama as it does on an actual table. But, the best part is, this one emits real fog onto the mat. Take a look at this design, created from scratch by u/Flashfletch33
I love the subtle details in this piece. Look at the battle grid, pre-built into the floor, but it also fits in with the cobbled pattern of the stones. It’s very convenient. If you’re wondering what a D&D city is doing with a water treatment plan, here’s a little more about the location from its creator:
The campaign takes place in Waterdeep. The tanks are lined with a permanent purify water spell that purifies it and the center tank is the one that moves it into waterdeeps plumbing system! It could also work in Eberron or Ravnica!
And if you’re wondering how this glorious display piece was created, it’s a mix of foamcore, XPS foam, straws, plastic canisters, and lattice stitches for the grating. And the fog effect is the result of an ultrasonic transducer:
It is a humidifier for a reptile terrarium. It works great, but will leave a mist and start to puddle water if left on for some time. So you need to make sure your terrain and minis and properly coated for it if you use it.
I base the Foamcore in a black acrylic thick enough so when I finish everything I mist a matte clear coat. You have to make sure the coverage is complete as you can melt the foam if it’s not. You can also do a base coat of thinned gesso before basing black to help make sure you have no melting when clear coated.
This map was created for the actual-play streaming show D4, which airs every Sunday at 7PM EST/4PM PST, VoDs can be found here.n
If you find another cool creative project like this one out there, be sure to let us know! What’s the best battle map you’ve ever seen? Tell us in the commets!
