Terrain I Should Make

gaming, garbage in your games

When I started How to Use Garbage in Your Games, I had a tiny list of terrain I should make. Then I asked myself what terrain I would actually use. So I looked at a ton of stuff. As I looked at more adventures, and more websites, and videos, and more pictures online, I decided to make a list of scatter terrain everyone should make. The list is on Trello, but is kind of a mess right now. So, instead of sharing the Trello board, directly, I think I’ll write a post about the scatter terrain that I think everyone should have.

This is a list of the types of terrain everyone should make, not how to make them. Those, of course, will either be links or futures posts. Also, this is not a list of everything, but the most common things (IMO, of course). Everything can be made to reflect different seasons or temperatures. Another good option is to make some stuff, and print some other stuff onto paper, cardstock or transparencies.

Tiles and Floors

Tiles are the foundation of terrain making. If you don’t have maps to place terrain on, most people make tiles. Here are the tiles that I think get the most use, from most to least (this ordering is based on the fact I play fantasy, not sci-fi games). I prefer to make my tiles in various sizes. I recommend generally making them without walls, or with low walls. A good alternative to individual tiles is a very large floor system, and then to use scatter terrain for walls (see next section).

Try to make some squares, rectangles, curvy pieces, and round pieces. You can make your tiles with or without walls.

  • Cave floors
    • Squares (Some recommend increments of three inches, others 4). These can also be used inside of other pieces to make larger areas.
    • Tunnels (I like them with non-straight borders), curves, corners
    • Uneven ground and raisers (tiles you can stack)
    • Intersections with multiple exits/entrances
  • Outdoor tiles
    • Grass
    • Water (clear, muddy, swampy)
    • Dirt, rocky terrain (you can re-use cave tiles for this often) (or desert/sand)
    • Frozen
    • Trails, roads, paths of varying width (dirt, brick pattern, pavement) (straight, intersections, curves),
    • Streets with and without sidewalks or sewers
  • Building floors
    • Wooden floors
    • Stone or brick floors
  • Specialty Tiles
    • Lava
    • Sewers
    • Winter versions of all the above (or, if you prefer, cold / frozen versions)
    • Ships, docks, other things your PCs might end up on (these usually require different shapes, but not always)

Terrain Walls

You can use walls in conjunction with tiles, maps, or large “tiles” you make or buy. You really have control over the layout this way, but you need A LOT of them to show all the walls. Usually, if a tile has nothing next to it, it’s a wall (for me), especially if it is a cave or building or ship or something…..I mean, as said above, you can make your tiles with walls also.

  • Cave walls
    • “Straight” walls
    • Round and curved and odd angles walls
    • Corners (straight, or angled)
    • Dead ends
    • Cave opening/mouth
    • You’ll want short walls, uneven walls and tall walls
  • Building walls
    • Houses, huts (stucco, wood, stone, brick)
    • Castles, towers (generally stone or brick), crenelations, with or without places for the minis to stand on the inside side
    • Churches, bars, places of business
    • Broken walls of all kinds
    • Roofs (thatch, stone, brick) (angled, flat)
    • We’ll throw fences and gates in here (wood, cemetery looking, metal)
    • Wooden fort/stockade
  • Note: for all types, you’ll want sides with doors, gates/entrances, windows, solid walls, walls with openings of various kinds.
  • Note 2: You might add faces, tapestries, sculptures/relief to them.

Scatter Terrain That Mimics Tiles

Rather than build all new tiles for some of the above, I like to make scatter terrain that I can put on other tiles. This makes things more re-usable, since a river piece can go on a cave tile, or grass tile, or whatever.

  • Water terrain
  • Pits (rather than build a pit tile, just print out something or make something that looks like a pit, spiked, with bones, acid, whatever)
  • Lava
  • Symbols (magic symbols, religious symbols, anything that looks like writing that you can place on other things)

Scatter Terrain for Caves

  • Rocks
  • Stalagmites, pillars and the like
  • A way to make floors uneven (Note: Most cave systems have uneven floors in real life. I’d not make my tiles so minis can’t stand on them, but bumping them up or down with another layer of foam or whatever adds interest.)
  • “Doors” between caves/tunnels
  • Ramps and steps/stairs

Scatter Terrain for the Outdoors

  • Trees, bushes, shrubs of various kinds, tree stumps
  • Rocks, boulders, cliff faces/walls (cave entrances, waterfalls)
  • Tents, campfires, sleeping bags
  • Bridges (stone, wooden, rock/natural) (flat, arched) (also useful underground or in a town/city)

Scatter Terrain Inside Buildings

  • House/Homes/Huts
    • Chests, crates, barrels and other things to smash and search
    • Tables and chairs, beds
    • Doors between rooms (especially good if you don’t use walls)
    • Rugs, carpets, tapestries
    • Fire, fireplace, fire pit
    • Steps/stairs
    • Food
  • Places of business
    • Bars, walls with bottles, larger tables, benches
    • Blacksmithy, anvil, weapon rack, weapons, fire pit, pot of water, archer target
    • Churches, altars, holy symbols, raised dais, sacrificial areas
    • Cemeteries, gravestones, mausoleums, fencing, coffins, sarcophagi
    • Alchemist/Wizard, bookshelves, magic circles, bottles, cauldron/fire pit, bottles of all sizes

Scatter Terrain for Cities

These are useful in any size city, village, town

  • Wells, fountains, sources of water, water troughs
  • Coaches, carts, wagons of all kinds (whole or broken)
  • Posts, pillars, announcement boards,
  • Stalls/tents/huts for markets or buildings not large enough to really enter or for scenery
  • Sewer entrances

Piles and True Scatter Terrain

Some of this is an individual piece, like a sword. Some looks like a pile of gold. This is true scatter terrain, stuff that goes on top of other stuff.

  • Rocks, stones, pebbles, sand
  • Traps (pits, swinging blades, acid pools, etc.)
  • Treasure piles (all kinds, coins, weapons, whatever)
  • Bones, body pieces, bodies (or, put these on walls, that’s creepy)
  • Steps, stairs, ramps, ladders
  • Gates (the magical kind, doors work well for this sometimes)
  • Spell effects (a big hand, fireball, webs, walls of force, flying weapons, tentacles (also good in general))
  • Cages, gallows, torture racks
  • Weapons (individual, or piles of them)
  • Webs and eggs (you might also make webs that can be upright)
  • Logs, sticks
  • Elevation pieces (or, see this post for doing it cheaply) to manage 3D combat
  • Barricades (stone, bars, stakes)