Flat Caves Are Boring - Crafting Better Cave Tiles for D&D! 

I've included extra details here because RU-vid hates long videos and I'm finding more and more I need to keep them short. Please let me know with a comment if you find this useful! Some tricks for working with spreading casting plaster: • I mixed small amounts at a time so it didnt set on me too quickly. • For the first layer I used a 2:1 mix of plaster to water, both to make it tougher and a bit thicker initally for filling up all the tin foil gaps. • When I went back with the second layer I used a 1:1 mixture, pretty watery because it'll set faster when contacting the layer underneath. This doesn't need as much brushing, it'll flow into the texture pretty well on its own, the main goal is just to make sure it doesn't pool anywhere. • It can sometimes separate a bit when left to sit while you brush a bit on, so it's worth stirring the pot each time you get a fresh bit on your brush. • Lather it over the tin foil as quickly as you can, thick as you like, and use the brush to spread it across the stalagmite until both the tin foil is covered and you can see the texture beneath. • Cleaning and drying the brush with a FRESH water pot after every few brushfuls is important, or the leftover plaster in the water seems to cause the new plaster to dry near instantly. This also stops the plaster from setting IN the brush. You only need a fresh pot every time you mix up a new batch, but you could use a new pot each time you wash the brush by having a row of plastic cups with fresh water in each - it can only help :) • Bear in mind that the second coat will set faster than the first because it's going over other plaster, so keeping the mix thin and working quickly is advised. Don't worry too much about preserving the texture completely once in the second stage, it will get lumpy and covered in places, but that's part of the stalagmite look, don't worry about it. Is this a bit fiddly to work with? Yes. But it gives awesome results. You can use BMCs caulking mix from his recent underdark terrain video, but I found I didn't like the texture as much, and honestly I found it fiddly in other ways. Like trying to get a thick enough protective layer without either leaving brush strokes or leaving it a formless blob. It's good stuff, but I personally didn't like working with it, at least without more time to experiment with its features. Props to BMC for the creation though, it's definitely interesting. More details on how to make bridge/edge pieces: • To make these I cut some shapes from foam, and trimmed them down to 3/8" thick with the hot wire table, so they line up with a floor tile. • For the corners I took some 3" wide foam, and sketched on a rough semicircle that doesn’t stick out too much, which I hoped would line up when connected to the tile at the top… • For the bridge I just took a 6" long, 3" wide piece of foam and cut wibbles into the edges. • For all of the wibbly edges I took an exacto knife and cut the underside down a bit, just like I did for the other cave tiles but more so. • Once that was done I used them as a stencil to draw and cut out two chipboard pieces to fit the bottom, cut a 1" wide, 1/2" deep slot out of the flat edge of one of them (on both sides, for the bridge), and tacky glued that to the bottom, with the other stencilled bit on top. Then you just need to trim the card down with a sharp knife. • I textured the flat tops with the caveman technique, and used tin foil on the underhanging bits of foam to make the cuts look more rounded and natural. • Finally I made more stalactites for the bottom, hot glued them in place firmly and used modelling compound to cover the card and hot glue on the undersides, and then casting plaster to cover the stalactites. They're pretty much a weird shaped floor tile with stalactites on the bottom, but hopefully this detail helps if you wanted to make them yourself and had questions :) Details on the leopard spot technique: In general: • Make sure the mix is thin and watery, you want the colour to be faded. This way you can dab over bits you;ve already painted for stronger colour. It's easy to add paint, impossible to take it off… • Cast up some text pieces, whether that’s plaster rocks or lumps of tin foil covered in plaster to test your mixes on before using them on your main piece. These mixes can be a bit like cooking, and you want to check you're happy with the result before using on your hard work! On the rocks: • I used a 50/50 yellow ochre to tan mix to get the base colour of more sandy stone, which is dulled down by the final colour and I used in fairly large patches on the less sharp rocks that looked more sedimentary. • I used some burnt umber ( a reddish brown) in the cracks of the sharper rocks, I was trying to imitate seams of iron or other minerals. This one I thinned down about half as much to get a much richer colour. • I coated the whole thing in a mix of 50/50 black and tan, over both of the other colours to blend, shade and tone them down, as well as across the rest of the piece that wasn’t yet painted. On the stalagmite • I used a 3:1 tan to yellow ochre mix for the whole thing. • I then gave the whole thing a wash of 1:1:2 black to tan to medium grey, which I layered on a few times at the bottom to blend it better into the tile. • I changed up the mixture here because the casting plaster seemed to get different colours (more brown) when layered over tin foil, so I adapted a bit. It still came out more yellow thanI would have liked, if I was going to do it again I might drop the yellow ochre completely and just do a layer of thinned down tan. Details on adding dirt to mountainblocks: • I generally tried here to sprinkle it into cracks from an above angle for the square blocks, and for the sloped blocks, at an angle from above that more or less worked whether it was on its side or standing upright. This is just personal taste! Matt varnish: • This won't seal in a thicker layer of dirt, but for the dusting I did it works well and darkened down the dirt and blended it a bit better too. • I would use some newspaper to cover the plaster bits, my rocks seemed to frost up quite badly, possibly something to do with how cold they are. • I just held up some newspaper curved around them for later pieces and sprayed piece by piece, which solved the problem. The paint is soaked into the plaster anyway, so it doesn't need a varnish in the same way.

When tabletop goes Neverwinter Nights, Life comes full circle.

I love the idea of using the bridge as a low level bridge with dark and spooky stalligtites. Very atmospheric!

Man this reminds me of the magic in those early youTube crafting videos that I haven't seen in a long time. Godspeed.

This channel needed to be in my life. Why was the algorithm force-feeding me Blackmagic Craft but just today decided to show me this? Totally bonkers.

I love the limestone color of your cave. It shows you did your research

I love the column 💖 because that method of crafting them is awesome, and because: STALACTITES OF DOOM that one can hang off the top of the column. Because those can very easily be removed to show them "falling off" when the 7 INT bard inevitably talks someone into casting thunderwave in the cave system...

Of all of the handcrafted tile types I've seen, yours are by far the best looking. As an engineer, I'm impressed with the construction and building. You're attention to detail while still maintaining flexibility and modularity is astounding. Once again, very well done.

This stuff is awesome, and I love how modular this all is. However, having started making my own videos, I'm absolutely blown away by the production values of the video itself!

Wow, just wow ... I'm probably sounding like broken record by now but your work is just breath taking :)

Pure evil genius. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, --Bo

Freaking amazing build mate!

GREAT TIMING! I planning on making a cave encounter. THANKS!

The stalagmites are amazing and really makes the caves come to life. You rock!

I prefer short video (30 mn). I am always surprised by your creativity : stalagmites, bridge etc. Super !

Your work is amazing. You should be inducted as one of the Guildmasters of the Tabletop Crafters Guild.

This is out of this world amazing 😲

Another great addition to the system so many adventure ideas here I also split open tiles adding skulls bones and sometimes blood or small water pools to cracks which works well with all the stalagmites since its water that's what makes them.

Simply amazing! What a fantastic set of builds and as always perfectly modular. You're a wonder sir! Cheers!

These videos are amazing! I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Amazing dedication to detail. I want to see some game play video with this stuff.

That's brilliant! Thanks for posting this

Amazing, looks so natural. You're talented 😎

Awesome job on the stalagmite.

This looks so so good!

This looks nuts

Another good one - keep it up!

This is really good.

Excellent work

1:00 Alternatively, after you glue your chipboard squares into the corners, you could take the tile back to the Hot Wire cutter to cleanly cut out the remaining space between the chipboard instead of using the X-acto Knife. Great video & great improvement to the methods! I can’t wait to try this out myself!!

U can use nail polish to melt cracks instead of cut to give a smooth eroded look for puddles

Nicely done mate, These are great. Was looking to do something like this myself for my own channel, but I'll have to find another way now 😅👍🏻

Very nice work!

I am very happy to have discovered this channel, very helpful and inspirational as long as you don't eat the magnets!!!

Great job sir. My game has gone digital and so my desire and drive for crafting has tanked. But your stuff sparks the inspiration for me.

How the heck did I only just find this channel. Dang, these are so good.

From the guy that brought you fully modular dnd tiles of all sorts and developed a magnetic fully modular tabletop/sector terrain design. We present. Scatter terrain permanently attached to your tiles

Hey, just found your channel though Reddit, and subbed as I also have a table top gaming channel as well. Great content. I will be taking notes, you have a great filming methods.

This was actually the second of your videos I watched (your most recent video, "Flat, Hovering Roads Suck," was the first to show up in my recommendations), and remains among my favorites. I love gnarly, free-from cavern decor, and I hope one day to recreate an area from one of my very earliest dungeons, a suspended bridge over a yawning chasm infested with pterodactyls. Great inspiration, here! =^[.]^=

Great job man wow

The connect one (big one) is called a column. Once a Stalagmite and Stalactite touch they become a column.

Nice idea to use aluminum foil! Great work ;)

Very cool 👍

For your under dark theme you could always use UV reactive paints as well.

These look awesome dude! Can you please tell me how many tiles of each type did you make to build the scenes in this video?

This is how Wyloch does his tiles as well.

Also, foam adhesive, and suggestions for something cheap? Gluing two bits of blue foam together for instance. Something that will also let you use your hot wire cutter with after it has set/dried. My wife does the foam crafting and I do the resin/FDM 3d printing. So, it's really for her use but she asked me and now I am asking you... because I really don't have a clue.

The new method you demonstrate for creating the locking mechanism on the base is very similar to how Wylock crafts his bases. Inspiration or coinkidink? I assume inspiration as there is a lot of cross pollenation among crafting DMs.

Are those the new Wargames Atlantic spiders in the last part of the video?

What about melting small bits of wax for stalagmites? I would love to see the results of that

these are great! unfortunately, no one has ever asked me to do tiles, I would like to have a go ( although not keen on magnets much prefer the barbecue or cocktail sticks technique) I use that exact method to make stalagmites it's a great, you can also mix modge podge and baking soda into a paste it dries very quickly. I also use Luke's stuff it is great. I love all the hanging down stuff they look really good

I'm sorry but how does the tiles connect with those card tabs I wanna build using cardboard since it's by far the most materials I have currently

😱!!!!!!

Where did you get the spiders at the end? I really like them.

How did this channel never get recommended to me until now? BAD ALGORITHM!….. Here now!

I’ve got to ask, what did you use to pile the cave tiles on for that stepped part? It add variety to the terrain that I just have to have.

The only thing missing on your builds are headmounted cameras for the PC minnies and VR glasses...🤯

Where in the world can you buy 3" thick gray xps? I can't seem to find it anywhere!

where do you get your spider minis?

there is a foamsave zapp!

Kiev terrain :D

How i can buy those skulls?

Aint nobody got time for that, use graph paper and a marker. :D

I came across this video and stole all the ideas. At least I left a like in return.

Can I commission these?

It's been too long since your last video!

step one make many 3 x 3 tiles step 2 make many 3x 3 x 3 cube bocks

Where subtitle ? :(

Your terrain is full of black lines! Have you noticed?

BMC has nothing on this guy