Transcript
Speaker: Good. Good. So good. Good. So very good.
Speaker: Welcome to the Good GM's Podcast. I'm E.A. Morris, and today's episode is The Map of Tiny Perfect Minis. And now, here's Chuck and James.
Speaker: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Good GM's Podcast. I'm James, and I'm joined, as always, by... Hello, Arthur, Chuckie T. Glad to be with you.
Speaker: ah We are very excited today, as as you all know ah from our constant raving about Savage Worlds and such. ah we have ah We have actually a Patreon supporter. You've heard his name many times at the end of our episode, if you listen all the way to the end. Full disclosure. We have Carl Kiesler. Carl Big Deal Kiesler, if I remember correctly. um he is He is joining us today. And of course, I closed the window that i had the intro in it, but I'll i'll do it from memory here. He's any award winner.
Speaker: You've worked with Just Insert Imagination with ah Eric Lamoureux's company, who was your co-host, ah and Gary McCallum. Yep. With the Wild Die podcast back in the day. um You've worked with Pinnacle Entertainment. You've worked with... um there was us Oh, i forgot the... Atomic Ninjas. Atomic Ninjas. um i Whenever I tell anybody, I'm like, oh yeah, we got Carl Gieser coming on. And they they're like, you know, either know the name or they if they don't know the name, I'm like, open any pinnacle book. And his name is in there somewhere. it's Pretty much, just about. Known for, I mean, his great design work, any award-winning design work. But also, he's if you're in the community, you know, you've seen his posts about his convention games. Yeah.
Speaker: that made me want to be a guy who makes maps and minis. Like Goonies meets Ghostbusters, Mystery Men, I remember Princess Bride, there's a new Briscoe County Junior game. That's coming up.
Speaker: You and and Doghouse Rules have created some of the best setting stuff I've I have the the um Fort Griffin books, which is a great like sort of sandbox Wild West city that you can like just drop your players in and they can go explore.
Speaker: yeah um It's kind of like i was when I was hearing you describe it on... um can't remember which podcast it was. you It was either Savage Interludes or ah the young guy that had his podcast. I don't remember. Anyway, I heard you talking about it. And I remember thinking, it sounds like it sounds like Dead Red Redemption, the role-playing game. Because it's like literally you walk into the bar and you can talk to the guy with the little diamond above his head. And he tells you a quest to go on. ands like It's a fun, like you said, sandbox.
Speaker: And we did that originally. ah But ah first, i want thank you guys for having me on. Oh, oh yeah. I'm a fan of the show. I'm sorry I was gushing so long. No, no, no. I really appreciate you guys. It's a great show.
Speaker: yeah Thank you. Thank you so much. But yeah, Fort Griffin, it's a PDF you can get on drive-thru. And we did that way back in the day. when, uh, when D 20, when we first got in the business, a dog house rules with D 20. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah And, uh, we converted to the savage worlds. So it is savage worlds. Uh, converted. We have maps and stuff like that. But yeah, it's it's just that it's a, it's a, it's a real historical Western town. This place really existed, uh, in Fort Griffin, uh, Texas.
Speaker: Um, and, uh, Well, but Billie, how Billie Holiday was the Doc Holliday was not holiday. Not Billy. Bill, Billy Holiday was a jazz singer. She never showed up in that town. Ella Fitzgerald was there. Louis Armstrong was there. It was all matter of fact, the, ah the Val Kilmer tombstone movie, the very beginning, a lot of people don't see the very beginning.
Speaker: where Doc Holliday is in a card game and he gets in a gunfight. That's at Fort Griffin. They actually say it in oh the movie. Oh, nice. Check out the movie. Watch the very beginning. It's at Fort Griffin. There you go. but yeah you should see You should see my... I have Kenka as my... ah my ah my world builder, uh, like campaign organizer. Yes. And I was good. I had a huge plans to run this at my gaming group. And, uh, and we just, it didn't end up happening, but I put in hours and hours and hours of work getting my world built. So someday I'll, I'll take you on a tour. Oh, that's all the little artwork I did for all the, all the guys, but no, what a fun, what a fun system. And, and also, uh, trailer park shark attack. Oh, um, my baby so many, so many great. And, and you know what you and I have one thing in common,
Speaker: is that I didn't realize you had done this when I had done this, but I made i made this game this self-contained. I read for you know have you yet to run it, but this is like survival horror nineteen eighty s serial killer in a cabin that' kind of game. And then it turns out you also did one too, which is great. Yeah, so I want to give props to my ah my partner at Doghouse, Chris Warner. He's the one that created Fort Griffin, and he's one that wrote it. but's my Our other friend who we've been collaborating with, David Anderson, he's the one that did our...
Speaker: camp terror it's a horror oh 19th horror one shot that you can there's pre-made characters in there and it's it's it's like a horror movie nice yeah that's awesome and he also wrote our occult city that we're working on right that's the other one yeah because that's i'm telling right now as soon as i saw that i i told my wife i was like baby i love you gonna spend a lot of money and We appreciate it, man. Thanks so much. Because it for me, it it hit on all cylinders. It's comic books. It's horror. yeah you know it is ah You're a fan of Cast the Deadly Spell and all those. See, this is why like this guy. yeah yeah yes It's all bigot deal hall levels for me there. So our topic today Actually, before we get into the topic, one one of again know that we're gonna spend half our time so one of the things we do, we talk about, I don't know if you've had anything to talk about, but I've i've obviously played my Mask and I are Lithotep game on the regular. Just finished my just finished my um
Speaker: ah my dagger heart one shot that my friend was running, um and that was a fun system. I'm starting a Monster Hunters Club actual play that's probably out by the time this this episode airs. I'm very excited about that.
Speaker: And i I signed up for this guy out of ah out of um Aurelia, Ontario, about a half an hour south of here. His name is his name is Johnny Awesome. That's his name. It's spelled with an H. Like, you know ah you know, like it's his real name. But he he apparently did legally change his middle name to Dungeon Master. Yeah. Everybody, when I moved up here, everybody's like, oh do you know Johnny? You play role-playing games? You know Johnny? i'm like, no, I don't know Johnny. How would I know Johnny? I moved up here during COVID. He moved away.
Speaker: But anyway, he posted that he's running, wish I could remember, Caverns of Something, a Gary Gygax 1982 a story from from ah dx like lost caverns or lost caverns of something can or that's yeah that's the one so he's going to be running that using old school essentials so i'm learning gonna learn some like classic dnd stuff awesome so that's what i've been playing how about you guys you got anything fun oh thank you uh well uh besides being um you know tortured in james's masculine lot of town
Speaker: You know, I think I'm on like the 17th character. I don't know. I've lost track. And that's you. That's all you, my friend. you you are you were You're camping these guys until we get to the big battle at the end, and then you're going to have an army. I i really am. ah But i'll be beyond that, um for my ah for my other channel, Sabbath Sessions, i've we've been going through East Texas University and my players are happy ah because The last several sessions is just I had to rerecord a couple that I apparently did not record. And so they haven't been using their characters.
Speaker: They've been using some essentially pre-made characters. And so now they've got to go back to their characters. Nice. Yes, yes, they're very happy and it's just pure chaos. You're gearing up for your Halloween game too, right? You're going to be recording that soon so ah the the thing, and what's in the cellar? What's in the cellar? What's in the cellar by John Hook. And then for, yeah, ah that's for Halloween. And then for Thanksgiving, we are doing Feed the Many.
Speaker: um by Lauren Hodges. Also, yeah, these are both called Cthulhu. Excellent stories. And yeah, my buddy ah Big Stompy, when we got when he got it at at Chaosium Con, he's like,
Speaker: na we should play this we should play this for Thanksgiving because it's all about a Italian eatery and there you go just start letting your mind wander on that it's in Arkham it's right in and I was like dude you're sick and then we got the lady on who wrote it and by the time we were done I was like you are amazingly terrifyingly disturbing and I love it so yeah so yes we're yes so we got yeah we're having havingvin fun we're having lot of fun but yeah so finish shirt You get to play a lot?
Speaker: No. he' going to Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I'm sorry. Tell us. What's that? You get to play a lot? Have you been playing anything lately? Oh, me? I'm sorry. I thought you were still checking the check. No, no. No, I'm done.
Speaker: Okay, sorry. I know if you're done checking. Yes, I have been playing. I have. We actually just finished Rise of the Rune Lords. Oh, nice. Just finished it. Man, we started this game like before COVID, before even the books. Oh, my gosh. And who's in that?
Speaker: Is that... that's Who's in it? Like players? Yeah. is that Is that one of those, like, is like Shane in there and stuff? No, no, no. It's a home game. It's a home game. Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah It's local local people here. A lot of friends here. Nice. But we started way before COVID, before I even worked on the Savage Pathfinder game.
Speaker: So I had my own rules up. Oh, wow. Then COVID kind of came and I started working on Savage Pathfinder with Shane and everybody. And I stopped the game because we all had to do digital stuff. And it went on hiatus for about a year or so. Then we all got back. Then I have all the new rules. I say, guys, we're we're converting it because yeah have the rules now.
Speaker: yeah So we've been doing a Savage Pathfinder, using the books and stuff like that ever since. And we just finished it. I did truncate some of the books at the end because it's a lot of dungeon crawling. I mean, a lot of dungeon crawling. But it was satisfying. It was literally up to a dice roll at the end for them to survive and and win the day. so you Nice!
Speaker: Nice! You know, Harold, sing the praises of our our our Lord and Savior, Savage Worlds, and say, like, what can't it do? Like, in all reality, it's it's it's really good at Pulpy. It's really good at this and that. But the fact that it can do Pathfinder, it can do rifts, it can do, like, you know, it can do any gen and genre or You know, i I've even got a ah section of the horror companion dedicated to how to run Call of Cthulhu, which, which yeah you know, i would I was saying to Chuck, I've said this a few times, I would love to, when I'm done with Call of Cthulhu masks in our lithotep, I'd love to do Horror on horror on the Orient Express Savage Worlds and see how see how it plays. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker: And so we're rolling with that in mind that you're saying that it can do pretty much everything. So we're, we're, we're doing a one 80 or three 60, I guess you could say completely. We're doing a savage star Wars game. So I'm going to run a nice. So nice. The sci-fi companion and there is a PDF floating out there. I've seen, I've got it. You got it. Yeah. I took some parts of that and I made my own kind of rules up with the, using a lot, lot of the species from there, which is amazing.
Speaker: Yes. Some of the equipment and stuff like that. So it's funny. Cause that's a good segue. Um, one of the things I've been, I know, no, because one of the things I've been working on is I've got a one shot, uh, star Wars using that book.
Speaker: I've made these massive maps of like basis that they need to, to go into that. I, I did color. I didn't, it didn't do quite the same like 3d level, but what I went in to do is I printed them in eight and a half by 11 sticker paper and then stuck them to these big sheets of like corrugated plastic board. Yep. You know, the buildings have the the roofs on them. So when they go to enter the building, I can lift them like, like and it's just two two sheets. And I've got, I printed all the little storm troopers and all the little dudes and all this and that. And and why I say that is because
Speaker: ever since I started following Savage World's community and seeing the stuff that you put out from maps and minis and what we're doing today is we're talking about maps and minis. um You know, it's it's always been so exciting for me to to to try to, you know, ah we did it. We did an episode last week on how to do theater of the mind um and knowing when to do it and when when to bring in maps. And now now we're going to do the other side of the coin.
Speaker: um And I figure if we're going to do maps and minis, who better? just good bring on yeah That is no lie though. That is no lie. I appreciate it guys. But just so you know, I do both. Just so you know, I do, I do a little bit of theater mind and I do maps and menu when you need it.
Speaker: Oh, exactly. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's the question then for you when, like when, when you are looking at a scene, you,
Speaker: what What are the red flags that say, no, this is this is not miniatures. This is theater of the mind. And then what are the green flags when when you're reading a scene and say, yeah, this is a good this is a good scene for this Well, ah for Savage Worlds, because it is because maps and minis, you're using minis. You're usually in combat.
Speaker: So right off the bat, any kind of major combat scenes, I try to get a map or something for and get ready for that. um But the like the con game I just ran in Genghis Khan this year,
Speaker: It had to do with a cult city. And of course, there was a big battle. There was a fight at the beginning. So I had a little diorama set up of ah of a bar. They were in the bar and they fought.
Speaker: Then there was a lot of investigation, a lot of talking, a lot of going to this place. And I'm not having a map for everything. So what I did was I took, I found stock images of an old asylum and I just printed it out, put it on a border. And i said, this is the asylum. I said, you're here. And I put their minis on that asylum.
Speaker: Let's talk this up. Uh, some other people went to a warehouse. I had a pre-made, uh, I did a warehouse piece of paper. All right. You guys are at the warehouse. I knew there wasn't to be fights. If there was, we could do, because it's Savage Worlds, you can do a quick encounter if you wanted to.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. You know, there's no maps and minis needed. um and there was a third place, uh, that was inside the asylum. There was a padded room. I'm like, okay, here's the padded room. There's some clues in there. You guys are going in there.
Speaker: so So you set the scene with ah with visual representation. exactly Exactly. You don't specifically need a map for everything. like Combat, yes. probably You probably will.
Speaker: But if it's a quick combat, probably not. We can just talk it out you know and just do theater to mind, which I've done before. um you know something something that's not going to be like a major tentpole in your adventure or your night. you know is ah could because Because it could really slow it down, especially in something like Pathfinder where higher level, when you're higher ranks, everybody's passing all these spells, all these things are going off, and it just takes a long time. So you don't want to drag it down too much. right so Or a con game.
Speaker: Yeah. Actually, that's funny. um When was researching, like, because I'm getting ready for this, this ah dungeon crawl, you know like, well, it's a dungeon crawl, but it's a old school essentials. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's suggested that the player, like one of the players is assigned to draw the maps. So in other words, you're describing the room and then they're drawing it, whether it's accurate or not.
Speaker: So it it creates that. But I like i know what you're saying, though. It it it does it it speeds things up to get a visual representation, representation especially when you're dealing with larger combat.
Speaker: Like I couldn't imagine infiltrating a an imperial base. Right. on a on a backwater planet without having an an idea of of where the different buildings are where the stormtroopers are are doing their rotations where the droids are it's almost as something would have to be drawn out even even if you get a chess x map and you just draw it out with you know wet erase markers or whatever or well that's it oh iber we all have that we all have you know i have them yeah i got a few that have some sharpie on it because one of my players thought they were helpful don't we all right
Speaker: Heck yeah. but thanks um But with maps and minis, I also find it helpful for me as a game master when I prep my games, like something new, for instance, um like this new.
Speaker: I did a mystery man game years ago. Oh, nice. Where I started out the mystery man from the movie. Heck yeah. You know, the shoveler, the spleen, all those guys. Yeah, it was fantastic.
Speaker: um nerdy So I created, create that game from the beginning with the characters and I really don't have an adventure in mind. I'm like, well, I want to do something with this because I think it'll be a fun game.
Speaker: Yeah. What can I incorporate with with that? Well, they fought the disco boys. So maybe if I have a disco, ah you know, a disco club in the game. So I made a disco club map and it got my brain to thinking like, well, what can happen here?
Speaker: So it's not only just the representation for the players, but it also helps me because I'm very visually minded like that. Yeah. to create the the scenario on what I'm making here. you know well and and and And that's the thing, right? So a lot of the work you do for these con games is is involved because like we talked about when we talked about preparing for a con game or when we talked about Chaosium Con, this is a show. People are paying to be there. Exactly. And they want an experience. They want to be able to leave. Even even when i I remember playing the the Monster Hunters Club game with you that you ran at ChupacabraCon during COVID online. know. It was the only time I ever got to go to a con. is Thank you, COVID.
Speaker: but But that's why i remember playing that game with you and you had the most, I still like i still to this day, i have you you you shared that map with me oh yeah of the of the... That was a man arcade and the tree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the tree house had like little, there was like a guitar magazine with Eddie Van Halen on it. And it had like, it had like, the Wolverine with the, you know, the come on on bub, you know?
Speaker: and And it had like, I swear it had like, like, uh, the, Red Book, Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah, I think it did. You had all those little pictures hidden on this 2D map. And it was like, it really made you feel like, wow, what ah what a cool clubhouse. And you felt like you were in the scene.
Speaker: Yeah. Right? Like it really created ah ah an imaginary thing. um Because of you, I did i did ah Scooby-Doo and Cthulhu 2 where i had I had the maps done up like, you know, um and then I did my next con, not con game, I've never been to a con, but if I had a con to go to, I would make these games, but I i do them at my local gaming stores. I did yeah i did ah Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yes.
Speaker: you know, a better mouse trap or whatever. And it was, and I made the maps were all in pizza boxes. I went to my local pizza store and just asked, can I get like two, three large boxes and four, four little personal size boxes and the personal size boxes had, had the character sheets on the top so you can roll the dice in the bottom. That's amazing.
Speaker: Right. But it's it's immersive. Right. it Exactly. Yeah. You know, it creates as as best as we can, know, because we are sitting in a table with probably, you know, six other tables in that room and everybody everybody's talking and yelling. But something to like, like you said, these people have taken their time off.
Speaker: They spent a lot of money to be there. They've traveled. I want to give them a show, you know, something. And it also keeps me interested, too. You know, i'm um' yeah I want to be prepared and I want to show the best thing I can.
Speaker: Not everybody can do that. And I understand that I played in tons of games where it's just. ah Chessex map and the guy wrote the character sheets in pencil on a piece of notebook paper but it was fantastic because it's also what you bring to the table well and if you have the artistic skill you have the money let's be honest there's some money you put a lot of money into making these maps and painting these videos it's not cheap it's not cheap it's not cheap hobby but like but even if you don't have those things you can still make something special Exactly. And so, like, I mean, we can talk about, okay, so logistics of maps and minis, whether it's a Chessex map and a couple of like, you know, whatever little, I've seen people make their characters out of Lego guys and stuff. Yeah, that's the right size. Yeah.
Speaker: what what's the benefit? Like, what's what's what's the benefit to describing that scene or laying it out on the map? like So, ah for me, like ah what I said earlier, the as making the game, if it's from scratch, is me as a GM, I get ideas from one um you know one idea bounces off another. Like that whole thing with the treehouse.
Speaker: I was like, well, you mentioned the treehouse fort, because it was in tree. I was thinking, well, there has to be a sleepover. Well, what if I make a tree house? Okay, cool.
Speaker: Yeah. And, uh, one thing led to another and I was adding things to it then. And, and now the map has all kinds of things in it. There's couches, uh, I think which gives the players ideas because when they start going well the demon dogs attacked I'm going to grab one of the controllers from the Nintendo and try to tie them up exactly yeah all right that's what's cool about it is making stuff like that I'm grabbing the magazines and I'm swatting them in the face with it or something that dog yeah I'm using this couch right here and I'm jumping behind it.
Speaker: I mean, sure. You can make that up on the fly. And, and I, I played in games where it's, you're just like, Oh, is there, we're in a basement. So I guess maybe there is you know, a washing machine here. Can I do this? But it's another thing to get past all that and just say, well, I see it on the map there.
Speaker: I'm going to use that you exactly it. Exactly. It feeds the ideas. And then, and tactically, I mean, tactically, it, it like, I guess the big, the big, uh, it's easier to measure something. It's easier to understand the perspective when you can lay it out on a map and you know that this square is, is, you know, two meters or whatever, dry or whatever it is that you guys use down there. Um, yeah.
Speaker: But like you can sort of go, like my character gets to move six spaces, and then if I run, I can move another three. It's more exciting than just like like, okay, you can get there in one turn, and if you run and maybe get a four, maybe you can get there. like It in takes away some of the the adventure of it. Yeah, you can just visually just see it right there in the middle of the table. you're You're Johnny on the spot, and you're like, bam, I'm doing my action. It's a lot easier to get your players to come up with the ideas when they can see it. And how many times have you sat there and you've made these these villains, these these are you know enemies for the players, and that one player is suddenly focused on, yeah, I want the skinny one and the tutu. yeah
Speaker: That one. Yeah. But what about, no, that one. Exactly. Today, i that one dies today, you know, ah because i because I've, I've, I've had that before where I just put it down and I just, I need miniatures. Okay. We'll put these down. And for whatever reason, I've had players and they get fixated on one. That one right there is just ruined my month.
Speaker: And it's going down. I'm going to do everything. Yes. So yeah, I absolutely love that. um When you are looking at, oh, the miniatures, yeah and ah because again you you are very talented.
Speaker: ah there's no there's no There's no denying that. There's a lot of stuff, and I've seen your posts that you've done where you said, I've i've made it from this. ah But is is there is that primarily how you do things or is there a, oh I saw this stuff online and it was, heck yeah, I snatched it up.
Speaker: Right. ah Oh, like pre-made or something? Yeah. Yeah. which Which road do you prefer to go? oh i'm start because I do now, have a 3D printer now.
Speaker: yeah a russian path yeah So I do tend to look at stuff now and see what I can incorporate my game, especially the Occult City game that we just playtested here for about a year and a half or something like want anyone to playtest online, I know two guys. Awesome.
Speaker: I appreciate it. But yeah, especially with that game, because there was so many cool monsters and stuff like that. Yeah, there was. Yeah. Yeah. You saw some of them, right? Heck
Speaker: Yeah. But yeah, I have built stuff in the past where I have an idea or I saw ah like a ah crafter online that has built them or even Halloween decorations. I've taken stuff.
Speaker: ideas from Halloween, do it yourself Halloween decorations that I've incorporated. Oh my God. The dollar store is your best. Like how many times have gone to the dollar store just to see if I can find a token that I could use or a mini that I can use or. Yep. Right.
Speaker: okay That looks like to be from a fish tank. I swear to God, I was just walking through Walmart and I saw that. going to talk to my buddy, Big Stop, because he's like you. he has he he That's his hobby, is the 3D printing. and he He's always like, well no man if you get you get me an STL, I can make you anything. yeah ah thrill Thingiverse is great. Thank you, Thingiverse.
Speaker: Yeah, so it is. It is great. So I've done both. I in the past, obviously, it has been a lot of hands on creating. well I don't I don't have this thing. I want I have this thing I want to make. So, you know, I'll cobble together and make it. Now it's I have a 3D printer. But now there's some times that I'm like, well, I have a 3D printer and I have this thing.
Speaker: How can I get something 3D printed and put it on this thing? like There you go. and ah Last year, I ran ETU game. It was... Was it ETU? second No, it was a Golden Girls game.
Speaker: We played all the Golden Girls games. Oh, my God. I love you.
Speaker: Seriously, the best. So I found STL miniatures ah of the Golden Girls with guns. oh They all had rifles stuff. Yeah. Blacksite Studios, I think, could put it out. Yes.
Speaker: I think that's the company. Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, I created a scenario with those gals. That's amazing. ah But it was... Thank you for being a friend.
Speaker: The scenario was called a Bubba Yaga. The scenario was called Bubba Yaga, not Bubba Yaga, but Bubba Yaga. And I had seen somebody do this online, but I'm like, how can I do this with my 3D printer?
Speaker: So I had an Airstream 3D print. I printed out an Airstream. Then I took out some chicken legs that I found from another 3D print and I sized them up. So I put the chicken legs underneath the Airstream. So now it's like a version of Bubba Yaga. Yeah.
Speaker: So kind of cobbling things together, using what I have and you know, trying to do what we can. Oh my God. okay this that's That kind of leads into another good question, which is, let's say for example, you don't have a 3D printer. Let's say you don't have you know, a way to like pay the money to get the the stuff from like, there's hero forge, which you can, we can buy minis from them. You can yeah color print them and have them sent to you.
Speaker: But let's say you don't have all that stuff. What are some like DIY tips that we can share with our listeners? Oh boy. um So there's pink insulation foam that you can buy from, i know you don't have it up in Canada, but Home Depot sells it. There's sheets of pink insulation. We we have we have we have insulation foam. we yeah you do I know you have that, but you don't have Home Depot. We do have Home Depot. It's cold up here. We need our insulation. No, but yes. we do No, we do have Home Depot and we have Rona. We have we have that stuff comes internet now too.
Speaker: You got it up there? Okay, cool. That comes, I think, 18-inch by 18-inch squares. You can buy like the thick stuff. And if you cut it up with a knife and you take a ball of aluminum foil yeah and you just crush it up against it, it makes it look like rocks. Yes. So that is cheap rocks right there. Another way to make something look like rocks is surprisingly...
Speaker: A rock. will A rock. No, no, I've seen, not to say use it as a rock, but yeah yeah I've seen people take a rock and and roll it on foam to create that rocky so Oh, yes, that, yes. I've done that before too. The reason why I don't bring rocks is because they're so heavy. And so when I travel- I wouldn't use the rock to represent a rock. I just meant to create the texture. No, you can't do that. I've done that before too. Yeah, exactly. yeah i have a rock somewhere somewhere actually used that. And again, you can use you can use some hot cot glue or just some glue, like some some za Mod Podge and and sand to create a sandy terrain. Exactly. That's what I do. um There's a guy that used to do stuff. He doesn't do too much anymore. And I think DM Scotty on YouTube. He has a bunch of great tutorials.
Speaker: Okay. DM Scotty is his name. DM Scotty. All right. Yeah. you look James, put that in the show notes. What's up, DM Scotty? Bring us on your show. ah I'm not sure if he does so much anymore, but he used to do all kinds of crafts, DIY ideas and stuff. Popsicle stick, log cabinet. Like I made a whole, for my Fort Griffin game that I want to play someday, i made a whole bunch of little buildings. I made like a church and a bar out of popsicle sticks and freaking white glue.
Speaker: Man. Exactly. Yes, exactly. But he needs, to just needs something like that. I mean, go to your craft store. therere Go to your, go to your craft store, go to your dollar store. they're graph exactly better yeah For sure, man. I mean, there's, there's all kinds of crazy stuff like that. We do have Dollar Tree up here too. Don't worry. oh do yeah oh A dollar store down here used to sell Jenga pieces, but it wasn't called Jenga. It was called like tumbling blocks. Yes. But they had little square, you know little rectangle blocks. Those are perfect for a little dungeon walls.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Just lay them down and you've got a wall. You draw them out. And again, again, there's the chest and the marker. But if you don't have that, like, like so I used to sell cars and we to have these big signs that were made out of this white corrugated plastic. Yes. I bet you if you needed something like that, you could go somewhere and ask, like, you have any old signs or any big sheets of something I can use? You can find that stuff and you can use that as your terrain. You can use that as your maps. For minis, like we talked about, go to the dollar store and find toys that are about the right size. They don't have to be perfect. They don't have to be to scale.
Speaker: Go use Lego pieces. Go go find, like, you know, you can you can get, like, even, again, I've done this before, printed pictures of the the the dude,
Speaker: glued it to a popsicle stick, like one of the thick ones, and then glued another popsicle stick to that to make like a T-base. Yeah. And then I have a little piece that I move around as my... you go. Perfect. I have a one-inch...
Speaker: pull hole punch that I used to take old magic cards that were worth like a nickel. Yeah. Punch out the goblins and the, and some of the nices and stuff like that. And now you have a pod, an inch round.
Speaker: Yeah. Just throw on the table. but That is, oh my God. i thought of that to be three dimensional to be represented where they are on the map. Right. Exactly. Oh, my wife is going to hate me so much. I'm going to have so much confetti in my house. That's good. You can use it at your ah at your recommitment ceremony. Look at that. Okay. All right. All right. Show off. Hi, Clarissa. So, okay. Show offs. Okay. So you've made some stuff.
Speaker: Okay. Clearly you've made some stuff. So couple things so what what is your favorite one oh that you've made and why? Oh, boy.
Speaker: Favorite like terrain piece or... Favorite thing you ever made. Oh boy. That's so hard, man. Which one of your children you love the most?
Speaker: I got it. So years ago, I ran a Savage Worlds Ghostbusters game. you at all And I introduced the Necronomicon into the game.
Speaker: You know, it has a face and everything. Well, at first I have um one of the Evil Dead DVDs and it it came in a plastic like little Necronomicon, but it was tiny. It was about that big.
Speaker: I'm like, that would be cool to bring at the table. And I was like, what if I had a real like sized book of a Necronomicon or like what I thought this was? So I went to the k craft store. Oh, no. Bought one of those um those boxes that look like books.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. okay So I did that and I took a bunch of Mod Podge. Yeah, that's exactly what I did. Exactly. Exactly. Why are you still stunder, James? I'm not still demonstrating his thunder. That's exactly what I did. i did something like that. I made, yep.
Speaker: yeah Does that open up? It's a box. It's a dice box. Yeah, yeah, okay. It's got the traditional crown royal bag. Oh, gotcha, gotcha. So mine looked like ah a book that opens up like a book. Oh, got one of so I brought, I made and I brought it to the game and I said, well, this is what size it looks like. Oh, this is what it is. So that's so cool. And so it would make noises. It would be annoying. So I'd hold the book up and I, you know, flap it around and stuff. So it was fun. It was like, Oh my God, that is so, it was like, I had a puppet there. I love it. Was awesome? I swear I've heard a story similar where that at the end of the con game, they gave it to the person who did the best of the game or something. but So I have done that before. Yes. did it with the Hellraiser cube.
Speaker: I did a game with the Hellraiser cube, the Lament Configuration, think that's what it's called. Lament Configuration, yes, it is. So I made that out wood box or a wood block. that I found at the craft store.
Speaker: And again, I found online, someone made the templates of the sides. And so I just colored them gold and yeah just print it out and just glued them on there. And I made like, I made one for each game.
Speaker: And so whoever, whatever character ended up with it at the end of the game to stop the big bad, I gave him the box. Oh, wow. That's double-edged sword there. yeah so Don't give me that. don't want that lament configuration. oh yeah I have a book somewhere here. I can't find it at the moment. I've had it on display, but I i took ah it took a a sketchbook from the dollar store. Uh-huh.
Speaker: And I did the same kind of thing I did here. So this is for for our viewers. This is this is Mod Podge and and and tissue like like Kleenex facial tissue. And the reason I use Kleenex facial tissue is if you look close enough, you can even see like like sort of the the the fibrous detail of the skin and stuff. So then I laid it on top, I glued it, I glued it, I glued it. Then I do the wet brush and then the dry brushing. And so you get that depth and stuff.
Speaker: And it really didn't take, like took a long time, but it didn't take a lot of money. No, it was cheap, right? It's cheap, just a lot of glue and a lot of, you know what I mean? I mean, I guess prices are the way they are now. Don't even have to use tissue paper. You can go get and steal some from the gas station, whatever. That's exactly how I made mine. I got it from some horror Halloween prop thing. I'm like, those be great for the Ghostbusters game. Yeah. right yeah that's awesome there is actually an episode i think of ghostbusters meet cthulhu with the necronomicon that was yes there is yeah yes yeah classic that's hilarious yeah i'm working on a i'm working on a real ghostbusters uh so part of my saturday i've got the scooby-doo i've got the i've got the the the teenage mutant ninja turtles and now working on the real the real ghostbusters you know from the real ghostbusters that's awesome that's awesome okay so that's probably my baby is the the necronomicon book I called it Benny box because we call them Benny boxes back then. Nice. I keep all my shit in there for the game. That's awesome. Put your bennies in there. Exactly. Oh, I love it. Okay.
Speaker: Okay. So that's great. Because you, man. Okay. So you, you covered a lot of amazing genres. You really have. I love pop culture. Oh, by all by the way, James, if you're not in the know, yeah, that is beautiful. Very cool, James. That's awesome. James, know, Webster Dictionary has a new edition coming out, and they're doing lingo, and ah FOMO is in there, and it just has a picture of Carl. Yeah, exactly. I still like Phobie.
Speaker: Fear of being included. Okay. So, so you've done a lot of genres. Is there any genre that you haven't touched yet, but you, you want to get it that you want to to cover?
Speaker: Oh, wow. That's a good question. Man. I haven't done like a real hard sci-fi game. Okay. Like ever. Like what is your definition hard sci-fi? Oh, something like a traveler type game. I haven't done anything like that. I've done Star Wars, which is to me, it's fantasy. It's fantasy. It's wizards in space. Yeah, but it is sci-fi. So something like The Expanse?
Speaker: Yeah, I haven't done anything like that. It's just, I would like to tackle it one day and do something, maybe make some terrain or something like that. Like they're on a d distant planet or something like that. You know, something like that.
Speaker: They're exploring a planet or something like that. Or like them going through ah you know, a dilapidated shuttle or something like that. Something like that. yeah Okay, good. So when you do that, give me a call. Thank you. Okay. Okay. You buddy. There you go.
Speaker: Yeah, take ah take an alien alien story and run it in Savage Worlds next to you. dear Lord. So I did do an alien story once, but it was I mixed it with Star Wars.
Speaker: you were all You all play clone troopers. ah And the Separatists had a ah new weapon. I'm using air quotes. A new weapon. And so you were sent off to this space station to figure out what it was and to to destroy it.
Speaker: And when you get into space station, back there's an alien queen there. Nice. That was a lot of fun. No one expects the Xenomorph Queen. Exactly. In Star Wars now. was the one shot I did at home. That was fun. That's amazing. Oh, that is so freaking cool. Oh, my God.
Speaker: So, so have we covered every cut? It's hard to tell. I think we covered a lot. he just so much my god This is really just fan gushing. It really is. No, we're professionals. promise It's a lot of fun. And the thing is, the thing is like, again, there's, there's resources out there. There's thingiverse where you can download free STLs or pay the, pay the artists. You can, you can go on a hero forge and they often have sales. where you can make all your, you know I've done all the X-Men, I've done all the, I did all the the the Thundercats just for fun while I'm sitting there playing around with the tools there. And then if I'm like, ah, you know, they're on sale, they're having a Boxing Day sale or whatever you guys have, Black Friday sale or whatever, you know, I'll just go on and they're like 40% off. I'll go buy the ones I wanted to print and I'll print them here or you can buy them and get them shipped to you. But there's there's plenty of resources for that stuff. And then yeah obviously your local gaming store has all of the, the,
Speaker: the paint what do they call it the warp something paint what are the paints that they oh the uh the pots paint pots yeah but it's usually a brand the brand that i'm thinking of citadel army said it all yeah yeah um what those monolith yeah yeah so they have all those little paints and buy yourself do yourself a favor if you're going to get into mini painting buy yourself some good brushes yeah and yeah Buy yourself the good paintings. Yes, I say go to the Dollarama, but if you're painting a mini, the penguin's too big. You need something small. It doesn't look good. It doesn't look great. It it ends up blobbing on the mini. tell you right now, ah for a lot of the painting I do, yeah, you you yeah the Citadel Army Painter, all that. Yeah, the good because...
Speaker: um Yes. Speed paints. Yes. um Haven't done a lot with those, but, you know, but they're all pre-mixed, right? So they're all good to go. yeah But I'll tell you right now, if, if you understand color theory at all, your best friend is really like Hobby Lobby, something like that. go get, go get those paints, those pigments, cause those are professional grade. Yeah. and you know, you find the right ones on that. Yeah.
Speaker: they they last They can last a long time. And those colors, you man, they're, yeah. I got a question. How do you make your mini not cross-eyed? I can't.
Speaker: How do you hit the first dot? You're like, it looks so good. You go to do the second dot, you're like, ow! It looks like you had cousin parents. So these days, since I'm probably a little older than you guys, just a little bit older, but these days, I don't do eyes anymore. I used to, these days I'm just like, I'm just painting flesh over that. They've got their eyes closed in this photo. I love it. The wash does most of the work, right? Exactly. Exactly. The wash or the speed paint. Or you could be like our good friend, Big Stompy. Yes, this is a big call out to him because he knows who you are. And if I said, yeah, I'm going to talk, he's like, cool. And you could be like Big Stompy because you're right. You know, we are, the three of us are getting up in age. We won't go into details. Hush you all. And he has, he does, he actually has the goggles that he puts down and magnifies it.
Speaker: Yeah. i got I got the, I got the bendy one with the light and like the the magnifier. like the light Yeah. yeah But if I really want the eyes, I do have a special brush that I always keep just for eyes. I don't use it for anything else.
Speaker: So it doesn't get bent. It doesn't get all messed up. It's, it's got a really good tip to it and I just take my time and you You don't you don't do the the hack where it's like the gray or the white or whatever and then get like the like the really fine tip pen? yeah No, no, no. I don't the pen. I just figured out how to do it. just figured out how to do it. You measure the distance between the eyes. And then yeah you get two brushes. Oh, dab at the same time so that slightly off center they're at least looking in the same it's like he's not looking this way he's looking this way oh this is fun um funny so you are a patreon supporter you have been you've been a good GM since the beginning and thank you for that great we we haven't seen you in the discord but we'd love to see you our discord you're welcome to join us if you do appreciate it um our discord i'm just bringing it up for the sake of our listeners to know our discord uh has been starting to grow and it's starting to get good we have a book club coming up where going start talking about and by this point by the time this one airs it's probably already started we're doing mothership um and we'll we'll pick our next book after that uh we've got pickup games that we can get into we're talking about doing a monthly one sheet one shot of uh just random one sheet games you can find online and and running those
Speaker: for fun. But if you're, if you're interested in joining the discord, all got to do is become a Patreon supporter. You don't have to be, you know, at the, at the $5, $10, whatever level you can do it at the free level and you get an invite over there to join us in that, in that if you have questions, you want to talk to other GMs about, that's a great place to get together.
Speaker: Also, it sounds like I'm wrapping up, I know. um But also, at the we haven't we haven't started publishing them yet, so you're going start seeing them soon, Carl. But at the $5 and up level, we have a special game that we play with with some of our guests that you get to. you get to It's called Game Masters.
Speaker: um And you'll get to you get to see that. Cool. that's a bonus Bonus content. Nice. so Yeah. Oh, okay. Can't wait.
Speaker: Yes. It's a lot of fun. lot of fun. So anything, one thing we always ask our our guests ah before we we say goodbye to you, I'm assuming we're saying but It feels like a good time. Yeah. It feels like a good time. um Never a good time to say goodbye to Carl, but we'll have you back on the show for sure. And hopefully if you have time after this, we'll do an episode of Game Masters with you. up to it um What's your best piece of GM advice you can give to our listeners? It doesn't have to be about maps and minis. Any topic you want.
Speaker: I would say listen to your players. Just listen to them, what they're doing at the table, how they're planning, how they're scheming. ah Listen to about what they're complaining about. Listen to what they're raving about.
Speaker: You can learn a lot. Just listen. Don't interrupt them. Don't say, well, you know, you could be doing this and that's That's one of my biggest flaws. Yeah, mine too sometimes, you know, but but then I think about what they're saying later and I'm like, well, maybe maybe they're right, you know? Yeah, yeah i I do like the philosophy. nu and you know It's like the the player is always right. And I know that's not always the case, but in when when they're when they come up with a plan, let that be the best plan that they can come up with. You know, like they're not going to come up with a better one. They're obviously stuck on this idea, you know? So, yeah, listen to your players. I love that. Thank you. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. yeah
Speaker: And and and ah for for the players out there, listen to your GM. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much for being on.
Speaker: Carl, absolutely. um Seriously. knows that you took thereon again but I love you. You guys are great. really appreciate it. Great podcast.
Speaker: Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you for watching. If you like or dislike what you heard, let us know. If you want to suggest an idea for an episode, ask the host a question, or just tell Chuck and James what you really think of them, join our communities at patreon.com forward slash good GM's podcast, or find us on the usual social media platforms.
Speaker: For now, I'm E.E. Morris, and you're all good GMs.
Speaker: We are so grateful to all of our Patreon supporters. At the gooder level, Weird Candy. At the good level, Carl Kiesler, Preston DuBose.
Speaker: Morris. I put my own money to back our projects because we're all good GMs.
