I learned from Hero Quest that you can make 1,000 dungeons from a single board and some furnishings, and I never looked back.

I've been shouting "use blue tack to stick stuff together beforehand" for 5 minutes and then you said it. Should've known to trust the professor!

“Here in the game room, known to my spouse as the dinning room even though we only eat here twice a year.” So true. Between this and you getting blue paint on your marble countertop you might be in the dog house for a while.

Thought this was going to be some kind of April Fool’s joke, but this was much better! Terrain (like any collection) can get out of hand fast

This is the best Dungeons and Dragons channel on KZfaq!!!

I made a section of front gate , portcullis , end towers and a drawbridge for a campaign . It is two ,two and a half foot section , and a one foot gate section. At our library we have a gaming night for teens . And my local shop holds games , ( pre pandemic) , l loaned it to them and kids can " check it out " , so far, it has not been damaged. And young gamers get a cool place to campaign. And my local shoppe is always happy when people pick up and drop off , they tend to buy something. I am now taking time to craft one big piece to add to my Legacy collection at the hobby shop.

I confess I have a small fortune in Dwarven Forge, but when the session is over if we have a scene set up, we all have a fun ritual where we set up the empty box(s) and everyone starts chucking everything in without a care and it takes mere seconds and I don't have to worry about anything breaking. I also don't set up scenes unless we are going to be there for an hour or more like in an important battle. Prof DM has the best solution to quick and usable terrain hands down. I too love the "bring the terrain to the party" concept. Overall there are enough key moments in our campaigns that merit my Dwarven Forge setups, but it is only maybe 5-10 percent of the time. Fantastic video!

A versatile game room can be used, occasionally, for dining.

Whether using minis or making digital maps for playing online, this advice is golden.

Hard lesson learned, I love building intricate terrain because it appeals to the,fine scale modeler in me but you’re absolutely right, a scaled down, minimalistic, open walled combat arena like you made is more than enough.

Wow good job. The title is so compelling. I just couldn't resist such a seemingly controversial assertion. Having listened to your reasoning, I see that your approach is really quite effective and efficient! I appreciate you sharing your years of experience with us.

This is genius. I saw someone else who had made essentially the same thing and thought it was goofy. But, seeing it with a handful of props it really comes alive. You're right. Much easier to use and see. I've got a TV built into my table, so I tend to use that, but I love making brickwork and all of the props like you have. I made a tavern just because. But it would require people getting up. A simple piece like this along with some crates, tables, chairs, and stairs adds so much.

It can make for a special game to have a board set and ready-to-go for that end fight scene. Also, I think for a lot of crafters are just making terrain to make it.

5:30 As soon as you decide to only use terrain for combat, it becomes a good idea to occasionally use it elsewhere. By using it here you're giving your players a good visual aid of the scene, encouraging to spend some time really investigating. You're also unconsciously suggesting combat by using terrain, which puts the players on edge and adds tension. Finally you're giving them something they can point at and ask questions about, super helpful when you're running a mystery session in a tabletop game, especially if you sometimes forget to mention important clues in your description or a player misses something you said.

For scatter terrain, I’ve really enjoyed using Crooked Staff Terrain. Cheap and easy and very little mess. And they look really good.

the fun of the hobby is the creativity. the joy is sharing with family/friends that appreciate your efforts. being able to use the pieces for your game world is simply a bonus. ... but yes, it can easily get out of hand.

Two videos this week. I had to give you a thumbs up then take it back so I could give you two thumbs up. GOOGLE really needs to give us a "two thumbs up" button!

Craft for encounters. Craft to scale for combat. Love your UDT ideas. I transition between theatre of the mind, high view impromptu drawings, and arranged set pieces as the situation requires. I run a true free roaming world. The party has both long term and short term goals. About half the time they go off track and I have to semi-improv. Rarely I pull a DM trick and make the Next Thing in front of wherever they are instead of whatever I envisioned. The players often don't know where it matters and where it doesn't with regard to terrain, which they say is more fun. The base of our playing area is a Chessex mat. I'll often draw what they see on paper (letter size or brown craft). As they explore the 'map', I may have to pick it up quickly and draw the confines of an area on the mat. Sometime it leads to an initiative role, sometimes it gives them visual stimuli as to what to manipulate in the environment. I do have a staging area where I can pull planned terrain, but also have a variety of scatter terrain also sorted in dollar store bins. I never take more than 3 minutes to set up the board. The players are responsible for cleaning the mat after we are done with the area (ideally). I guess this is a long winded way to say that suggestive terrain is enough for game play. Highly detailed buildings, etc. are for the enjoyment of the DM more than anything else. A new thing I'm experimenting with is using my 3d printer to produce models at much smaller scale. I can throw a whole keep together in a small area. If the need arises, I can grab the full size model of say, a tower, for player interaction.

I have spend several hundred dollars in beautiful terrain without playing a single session with it yet 😅 It becomes like a hobby in its own way.

Could not agree more with the concept of the staging area. I found a discarded tiny folding table a few years back that I set up at my DM’s station’s right hand to keep minis and maps ready to go. It helps tremendously with speed and organization.

I started making terrain for my D&D games, but I ran into all the problems you talked about. Now I only make terrain for my 40k setup. I do plan to make a set for udt though.

Cool UDT commercial Deathbringer! Looking forward to the end of the plague where I can run games in person again and utilize my set of UDT. Cookie for the metric.

This is a great video and offers one great way to do things. I also craft and 3D print buildings and terrain. I use what I make in games and my players LOVE it. Also crafting, 3D printing and painting is a hobby in itself. There's never a right or a wrong way to play. Theatre of the mind, UDT, Full terrain it's all good. One person should not tell another not to make or craft things. I encourage everyone to make whatever your heart desires. Whether you use it in game or as a shelf piece. I have many pieces and enjoyed making and using them all. As long as everyone is having fun roll them bones and craft away Cheers!

I am a big fan of scatter pieces. 2" tall columns to represent any height, doors, trees, boulders, a well with and without a roof and bucket, a few torch stands, and so on. - All of the buildings I make have the walls attached to the floor above, and not the floor below, so there is no fighting with fat-finger syndrome to move minis. I have about a half dozen different sized buildings and two round towers. Almost all of the houses can stack to make taller buildings as the roofs all lift off leaving a flat floor. - I have built some generic boats that can be ships or canoes, all sized to fit mini bases, and a number of objects that can be standing stones or mass grave markers or columns. - I have only built a couple of items for specific one-off encounters, and only because the project helped my improve my techniques and are generally small items made from scraps.

Greetings from Puget Sound in Western Washington, Professor. Excellent video on the practical implementation of sound philosophy to improve our crafting and gaming experiences. Bravo!

This one time I was really excited to host a particular one shot. I spent a while (maybe a few hours, not a HUGE time) crafting the map out of foam core board. It wasn’t the most elaborate thing ever, but I used multiple layers of board to represent different terrain and elevation, there are little three dimensional touches for thinks like stepping stones through the water, I built the little altar in the center, and drew a uniform grid over the whole thing to make sure it would be functional and have no confusion. It was simple, but I was really proud of it. For whatever reason the players never reached that final encounter and we never finished, so no one ever saw the map I’d built and I was really beat up about it. I’ve never tried to make terrain since, as much as I might like to, but I’m always worried about it going to waste se we just use the same old blank dry erase map.

Im finally giving up for this ultimate terrain, this is the perfect compromise.

Its a good thing to have a great number of buildings in an adventure thats, for instance, "the group is trapped in a part of the city by a magical event"; i also find to be a good ideia, in those cases, to spread multiple puzzles on the buildings, giving the players the need to explore and keep there. Removable floor with magnets to cover and uncover parts of the mistery its a good call, too

PDM is old school with flare! He does not need to show off a bunch of expensive terrain creation tools or specialized materials in order to demonstrate how run the best to game for your players- less is more!

When I play TOR, you stay in the same terrain type for alot of the time (ex. traveling through Mirkwood taking months). What I do is have the players help setup foliage, bushes, rocks, etc. I use trees at the back and in key areas around that dont block views. Everything 3D printed. Danny's 3d printed tabletop Volume 1 is pretty much all I need for everything. I do City Gate, interior furniture, taverns, etc. Big pieces are for major things I setup and smaller scatter for the players to setup. The players setup the tiny detailed terrains like food on tables or rocks/bushes while I setup what is super important for the scene like a massive waterfall or ruin walls. It's pretty fast and doesnt slow things down, and all the scatter terrain really add a lot. Not too different from DungeonCraft's tavern scene actually from what I see. Except we do move the miniatures a lot. I even make them dance or hang them by thread when they're captured by a net trap. Those circular spinning bases and modular pieces look amazing btw. I will try to improve to be more similar to you bc that is kick ass and way better prep than I do. Would save even more time.

I picked up a bunch of maps and picked up the tiles sets for dungeons, city, and wilderness. I have been making creature tokens by glueing pictures to wood bases. The day before the session feel out making the boards in advance and take pictures of what I make. That way I can remake the boards easily. I’ve had a lot of success with this. Everything is visible. Air template can rest on top so there is no confusion for spells.

Fantastically pragmatic. Well done sir!

I can't wait to try out UDT once I'm able to play in person again. what I'd really like to do is combine that with paper mapping for full dungeon complexes, although I'm not sure how excited my players will be for that latter. :)

A picture being worth a thousand words; that murder scene actually is like combat except you're fighting the environment. Instead of you trying to describe every little detail, like the fireplace, immediately followed by a player saying, "I'll investigate that!", you present them with the scene and they can make choices just like in combat. The cleric could investigate the body to try and determine time of death; the rogue could search the fireplace for hidden compartments; the wizard could look through that stack of papers on the desk for clues. Combat is D&D doesn't have to be violent to be combat.

Ahhhh Gen Con Milwaukee! Such found memories!

There are also many beautifully-rendered maps out there that add a lot of atmosphere to your encounters, including 2.5D that blurs the line between maps and terrain. With some of those and a few dozen versatile terrain pieces, you are ready for anything. I don't make towers, cottages, ruins, etc. except for display.

I made a UDT 8.5 inches in diameter so it can go in a backpack with the standard D&D books and not get smushed. It’s not as claustrophobic as you might think. Plenty of room for several hero minis to crowd around a monster.

One thing I have learned playing online is, just because you can make maps for everything, doesn't mean you should. I think it's the same principle as using terrain only for combat.

I like Deathbringer’s Freudian slip at the end there.

Nearly all of my gaming is virtual, even before the pandemic, due to my long time players being spread across the country. I use Tabletop Simulator on Steam. I have been implementing the principles of PDM into my virtual table setup to try and keep things flowing. I think it has helped a lot. Thanks Professor!

prof DM! try this with your grids: make 4 square flat cut-outs as well! thick printed paper cards if you really want to save space. one side black for impossible terrain (wall, pillar, gap, etc) one side rugged for "rough terrain traps" (roll save to use at half speed, or suffer a minor consequence such as hot coals, quicksand, river current, etc.) - 10' grid and 10' weapon reach respectfully. waves of enemies walking in 120' foot spacing. - roll a die for the amount of rough terrain traps, and a die for the amount of impossible terrain pathing. Flavor text and placing patterns can make anything from church pillars and ruins to rivers and lava falls. - you can endlessly randomly generate maps this way with big battlefields for zoning and kiting without taking up too much space on tables or having big clunky walls. - with 10' grids, the 25x25 map has the potential for great encounters! especially with monsters who have limited sight or tremor sense. place lots of monsters down to scare players, but only trigger into combat if they are spotted, etc. - use a push pin if you don't mind holes in the center tile cracks. Let me know if you try it! I swear by it!

Very sound advice. I like the idea of a staging area. Nat 1 Videos recently showed a magnetic board on his channel, a UDT version of that would work great since you don't even need poster tack.

Dining room? LOL we turned ours into a computer room when we moved in. Loft for my kids to hang out and watch a separate tv so they don't fight? Nope after 5 years turned that into my craft room when we got back into D&D. And I just converted the largest bedroom(other than my own) into a game room with tons of shelves to hold all my terrain and minis.

I try to set up as much as possible before game time. I only use it for combat encounters. I call moving your minis around a village or town set up dollhousing. It's better just to use a map to explore a city.

With this video come to my mind a conversation with some friends about a big tower who come to market last year. It was huge and very expensive and I told them, for that amount of money you should think in a very long campaign that happens entirely inside that tower just to not feel robbed for paying so much money and use it in one session.

Funny. Our "dining room" looks like yours. Constantly covered with gaming stuff. Except twice a year when my wife makes me clean it off, which is this weekend :(

I totally agree. That being said, I’m still building my big cities cause they just look so nice hahaha

Well thought out. I really appreciate the advice. I am super addicted to building large sets of terrain. And I have it stacked and piled everywhere. I could do without any of it.

Great Great episode! The one I have been waiting to see. I unfortunately learned a lot of these lessons already the hard way, but very worthwhile to share. Great job Professor!

I'm not into crafting, but I just enjoy watching these videos and also always learn some useful DMing tips

Great video. I am someone who LOVES miniatures and would be a little sad to play D&D without them. That said, I think PDM is right here that there is a level of versatility and compromise that can be achieved. I think in one of his early videos, he talked about only including thing that would encourage players to interact with the scene. Funny enough, I always drop a chair or two in with a table scene, because I want the visual reminder for my players. :)

I honestly don’t think there is any other channel as helpful for DMs as this one.

I basically use (when there is no Covic) UDT but I skip the lazy Suzan. I have a 2'x2' piece of black steel in the center of the table and I drop on cardstock tiles that have magnets on the bottom to stop them from sliding around. I use poster tack to stick the furniture tiles and/or doors in place.

Getting lots of good info for my return to DMing. Got a few tiles made, getting minis painted etc. Will be looking for a few cheap props like I used to use, mini poker chips for monster markers, grid paper. I was a broke college student back then, but we had fun.

At the 4:00 mark, your list of what terrain one should make is great.

Guess your player's are different than mine. They love the terrain I use. Everytime I don't use it they complain. I have several group's (own/operate an FLGS). Mayhap you just lack space? I have my terrain set up on pine boards for easy swap out set pieces. Keeps scene transitions fast and easy...

Love the poster tack idea.

I always loved beautiful terrain setups... until I had to play on them. A couple of years ago, I thought I'd give UDT a try on a lark. I really didn't believe it would work for me. Well, that lark is still flying and I have a second piece, thanks to my wife, and I can't imagine any other way of playing. For that you get a big, "Thank you!"

First off, I am a big fan and strong proponent of Ultimate Dungeon Terrain and range zones, especially when using ICRPG for my game engine instead of 5e. I have build my own versions of your UDT concept (as big as 24” square) to employ on a lazy Susan, and it is incredibly convenient and versatile for the savvy DM to integrate at the table. That said, I do a lot of 3D terrain crafting and generally conform my buildings to a 1.25” Wyloch-style grid (usually implicitly as opposed to explicitly) to support their modularity and versatility by making components with compatible standard sizes. This is a follow-up expanding upon my original comment in light of some recent actual play at my table. When I saw an impending city encounter coming in my current campaign, I spent a lot of extra time in the weeks before the session crafting new buildings, extra floors, and roofs to populate my table for the urban campaign setting. Everything you say in this video is true: it can be easy to make things too tall, although designing my buildings so that the walls lift off with the story above to leave a tile-like play area for each encounter helped a lot… (Also, my keeping things modular, you can aid players’ lines of sight by only removing the offending component blocking view instead of the whole building. The adventure I ran was essentially a heist-except nothing was stolen except for information; the PCs needed to break into a private library and find a book that would lead them on their next step to locating a major MacGuffin. While there was no combat, their was a lot of complex stakeout action, hiding in plain sight, breaking and entering, and an epic getaway chase-all of which was greatly enhanced by the three-dimensional nature of the city tabletop layout. If DMs are foreseeing similar kinds of quests and encounters, I would suggest they consider expanding the application of your rule of thumb in the video to encompass non-combat circumstances where exact location, distance, and line of sight can inspire and inform play. I always enjoy your content.

I totally expected this to be an April Fool's day joke, but I was pleasantly surprised. Excellent advice! Wish I'd heard it 4 years ago!

I am lucky, my players love terrain and miniatures. Most of my builds fit on a 2’x2’ board but I do do full table builds that they really enjoy.

I made some chairs for my brothers goblin cavalry. They were supposed to ride direwolves, but my brother wanted those separate. I also made some benches that are more useful

I have to admit that I'm making a village but its for myself not my players. Love your tips. Thanks :)

I was just wondering about this subject today, for good tips on scenery, as I really don't have $1,000's of dollars or alot of storage space for the amazing (but costly) 3D piece tiles, bldgs, and scenery I have been seeing online and Etsy. Amazing timing. Many thanks for these videos!

You make a lot of great points. I have a bunch of battle maps for different situations but the most useful are the generic street map and grass mat which I have plastic trees and barrels which I normally give instructions to the players to place on the map without knowing what the scene is and it is easy to modify afterwards if needed. I normally have map tiles that I can put over top of battle maps to modify the layout making each map reusable. Often I will prepare all of the map layouts on the table before the game and cover up any non generic maps with a cloth if I think it will take more than 30 seconds to set up. For quick set up maps I usually have a transition scene where the players are role playing or encountering a trap or buying equipment for the journey or travel montage so the players are always doing something. I use maps not just for combat but also for exploring since I could go on lengthy talks of everything in a room or I could show a battle mat. A picture is worth a thousand words and I have found on some occasions that the players will choose to interact with things they find on the map that I didn't even think of which is great.

10/10 agree and also recommend dungeon corners. Theyre a huge part of the foundation of UDT #impliedwallsarethebestwalls

I’ve been waiting to test out my UDT at the table. That will help me decide what set dressing to start with. I’ve been using Jamboard for zone combat online.

I'm of the old school belief in theater of the mind. I've always felt that putting miniatures on a table and moving them around turned the games into a miniature war game or video game on the table top with modern rules making players so damn powerful. I like terrain making for dioramas or if for instance in my campaign world there is an iconic or awesome location that can be turned into terrain that is a different story as it will help draw players in but I won't break out miniatures or terrain for RPGS.

"It's hard to read with this helmet on."

My group transitioned to online sessions. As a hobbyist, I have since gone to the detailed walled buildings/terrain route for my solo games.

This was an exceptionally helpful video. It was good to get recommendations of what types of scatter terrain are essential with UDT.

I love my Chessex Mondo Mat -- sometimes you just want to be able to draw out the entire dungeon on one mat, without erasing and re-drawing! Crayola Ultra-Clean Washable Markers can be left on any mat, for weeks, without leaving any ink behind, when washed away with water. The vinyl mat, with water-erasable markers, is one of the single greatest inventions for TTRPG's, bar none. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool miniatures gamer, as well as a 40+ year veteran RPG DM. I use the right tool for the right game: vinyl mat for RPG's with character and monster mini's, and full 3D terrain for miniatures games. TTRPG's are not full-on mini's games, normally, and mini's games are not TTRPG's. Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Cheers!

Trying to get more into crafting, I made my own UDT, kind of a mix of version 1,2 and 3 lol. It looks fantastic! Next are the smaller pieces, thanks Professor!

"with Shakespeare" I love the imagery of Professor Dungeonmaster and Bill hashing out a D&D adventure. 🤣

Professor DM: Dropping videos to feed off the mortgage lenders Me: Commenting to feed the algorithm. PS- Another great job, Professor. Thanks for sharing the insights you've gleaned over the years. Kudos.

4:24 Nice paintjob on those tables 👍

You know, I think you could mass produce the UDT out of some kind of plastic pretty cheap and sell it to people who don’t want to spend the time crafting it

I have made PDM's dungeon terrain- and I have used it. My players... are still on the fence. But... that said- they have no problems with me pulling out the Dollar Tree 18" square pet carpet tiles that I picked up for grasslands, swamps and rock/cave tiles and using those. I think it is because they are square. I like the zoned idea- but that is the hardest thing to get my players mindset into.

The downstairs piece is nifty!

While I do love terrain, I understand it’s got plenty of issues when it comes to dungeon based games - in 40K and other war games we of course have the birds eye view so big builds are no bother as you said What I’ve seen used for Dungeon games in the past is a system of using flat tiles to represent pathways and ground, but spaces between them are left up to the imagination and a few walls on the DMs side of the table, sort of like the isometric view you would get in the old fallout and baldurs gate games Can’t help myself building a big ol tower or ruin from time to time though, love making something to display!

I’ve been getting a lot of the wizkids warlock tiles and dungeon dressings. Past on some for the exact reason you stated. Versatility. Some of the market and town stuff coming out is cool but doubt it gets used much in my games. Same with the farming sets.

I hope you use the really large D20 in the background in games.

I do love my tavern builds and found many excuses to use them through my swashbuckling campaign.

We're using UDT with Mork Borg to great effect.

Thank you for this. I watch a lot of crafting channels and many of their projects seem to have only one use. How many times is one going to need the Graveyard in Hell with 3d-printed Archdevil of Scraping-Mayonnaise-From-The-Bottom-Of-The-Almost-Empty-Jar ("thanks to the sponsor of this video, Useless Miniatures") and special color-changing LED pool of demon sputum?

Very useful information Professor! Thank you!

Another fantastic vid. Have you ever made any UDT for a post apocalyptic theme?

Also if you don’t make a big terrain build, you won’t run a foul with Mrs. Professor Dungeon Master by getting paint on the counter top.

Mission: Watch latest Professor Dungeon Master video in its entirety, give thumbs up, comment. Mission: Accomplished.

I did successfully run multiple games using town models, tavern, houses, etc. if you’re gonna steal, steal from the best. I totally ripped off Marvel comics Atlantis Attacks I had several groups playing over the course of a week at a gaming store which provided the mats and town models. My players went crazy over it. It was one of the most popular things I ran, besides my underwater Storm Giant ruin game. Sorry your players weren’t in to it Professor especially after all that work. At least you have really nice decorations for the “dining room”

Or, if you're thinking about replacing a flat screen tv. Buy a cheap table, use a jigsaw to cut a hole that is the shape of that tv in the center of it. Put chip board held up by 4 vices on the under side

I guess I am more of a wargamer than a D&D player, then. I'd rather have the DM tell a story that connects a series of well thought out battles in a nice-to-look-at miniature environment than roleplay talking to an inn keeper or merchant for an hour just to have a 10 minute dungeon brawl on a circular terrain piece that only slightly resembles the actual environment. Combat was always my favorite part of D&D. Everything that visually enhances it is a win in my book.

dont just build for combat, build for events! investigation of a murder is an event, shopping for potions is not (unless while shopping the potions fall over and explode turning the patrons into fishmen which is now a combat event)

Let’s hope Mrs. Professor Dungeon Master doesn’t hear that crack about the “dining room”!

Yes! That's why you're the professor!

Other than love of minis I’ve never seen the point of taverns, shopkeeper and wench minis, etc. Unless I’m fightin’ em I’m not paintin’ em!

I have been playing on plastic with dry erase for a long time. And I made 5-6 DnD boats for "Privateering" IDK why I am telling you this. But the algorithm likes comments and this is one of those.

I made UDT and then covid made my group go online. So i made UDT on roll20 and its been working out great.

I love terrain crates!

Am going to try your UDT online in the spring, we'll let you know how it goes.