Terrain Workshop: Direction, Direction, Direction

Something I've talked about in private conversations is the idea of creating Compass Roses for every table-setting I've made.  The idea of having something on the table that establishes the direction things are facing helps to tie players into the game just a little bit more.  (It also helps when describing movement in battle reports but that just may be me looking out for myself.)  Anything that helps keep players rooted to the events happening on the table and invested in the story they are telling through their actions is a good thing.

Now I know it's a little bit late for the recent Ice 9 game at Paper Asylum but I managed to make one for that setting.  I dug out some of the printed Cardinal Direction tiles I had from the old Atlantis Treasure game and placed them on a 6x6 Round Plate.  I then placed a Large Jumper in the middle of the Round Plate.  Scavenging a Flame piece from one of the other builds, I placed that into a 1x1 Cone on top of the Large Jumper to make it sort of an "Eternal Flame" type installation.  I felt like it needed a little more "something" so I covered the remaining open studs on the Round Plate with Quarter Circle Tiles in Black.  It matches the black lettering and line work on the directional tiles and as this is the only terrain piece that has Black pieces it helps it stand out a little from the others.  I also added in three 1x1 Round Plates to bring it up to a total of six pieces for one full hit.

New

Old

When I first put this together, I originally had the direction arrows facing

outwards.  Then I started mucking about and noticed that there's

a greater continuity of White when they're placed in this manner.

The negative space describes sort of a snowflake type design which

is appropriate for the table-setting and I think it just plain looks better.

Let's take a look at how it compares to our usual suspects.  The base would be 15 feet across in 6P scale.  The spout is 6 feet tall and the flame is an additional 19 feet.  It would be the third tallest piece of terrain on the table.

Hopefully I'll get this on the table the next time we use the Ice 9 table-setting and, I'll also get more built for other table-settings so we can see what effect they may have.  Flickr page.