I love tabletop games. If you are reading this, you probably
love tabletop games, too.
Hey everyone, Reecius here from Frontline Gaming to discuss
ways to make your gaming experience more immersive. More specifically, how to
make miniatures games more immersive.
I love minis games because of their tactile nature. The
games are visceral: they have real components that you really put together and
painted. They have a little piece of you in them. We all create narratives in
our minds about our little army men and women, even the most hardcore
tournament gamers amongst us, while we play that make these games so much fun
to play. That’s part of the appeal of minis games and why I prefer them to
video games. We create a little universe that exists in part in the reality of
the setting we create through our creative efforts and in part in our imaginations
which we then share with other human beings. It’s collaborative story-telling,
creation and competition all in one. Sweet!
One of the ways we can ramp this experience up is by
creating an evocative setting. Beautiful minis with a fully fleshed out back-story
(and yes, I am that nerdy. All my armies have written stories to go with them!
Fan fiction FTW!) played on a piece of felt with a stack of books here and
there is fine to get started with minis (and I know as a kid, my buddies and I
started out in just that fashion), but to really take the experience to the
next level, building a beautiful scene for your games to play out on is the
next logical step.
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| We built all of this terrain for the LVO! |
There are lots of ways to do this. Having built—literally—hundreds
of tables of terrain in my gaming career I can tell you that while those
mind-blowing custom tables we see in white dwarf or around the net are amazing
and set the bar for what we can all aspire to build; for most of us that is
either beyond our modeling ability, or we simply lack the time and inclination
to build them.
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| Terrain kits, and custom jobs created from a mix of common items. |
Easy ways to create a more immersive gaming environment are
all around. Using a combination of household items like soda and tin cans,
sprinkler pipes, bendy straws, etc. you can form a great foundation for some
easy, custom terrain. Combine that with some items bought at the hardware or
craft store such as hard board (awesome for basing terrain pieces), foam-core
and the AMAZINGLY useful plastic pattern, and you can easily create some
awesome terrain pieces. Mix this in with some purchased terrain kits such as
those from GW or Amera to name a few, and you can economically create fun,
playable, terrain that really enhances your gaming experience.
And, of course, I would be remiss not to plug out own
products, the F.A.T. Mats. F.A.T. Mats are beautiful, durable, portable gaming
surfaces to stage your games on. We actually have some new designs up for
pre-order now for anyone interested. Just click here to see them. These really
crank up the immersion of your game. For an example of how dramatic the
difference is, take your terrain, put it on a sheet of felt, or wood table (or whatever
you happen to use) and then pick it up, put a F.A.T. Mat down, and put the
exact same terrain on the table and look at the amazing difference!
Another fun way to increase the immersion of your games is
to write a back-story for them. I love doing this, but, I am a writer by nature
(obviously). For those that don’t enjoy the act of writing, you can even just
get some cool pics from the net to evoke the setting you are shooting for, and
write a few bullet points about the key things you want to communicate about
this particular battle. Email these to your gaming buddies before a game to
create a more meaningful game and it gives you something fun to do when you
should be working! Creating a narrative like this can take a normal Wednesday
night game from fun, to epic. The best part about this is that it is easy to
do, free, and is an enjoyable creative exercise of its own. You can link these
games together too, with an ongoing narrative if you and your group are
enjoying them. My old gaming group (hey, hey to the CCMG guys and gals!) and it
was a blast. We created stories about our main characters and the battles they
had between one another, it was really fun.
Lastly, document your games! Creating bat reps is fun, even
if they are just for you and your friends. Written with pictures, videos, even
something crazy like an audio drama recreation! Let your imagination go wild.
Any of these can really enhance the game play experience.
Hopefully this article has given you some fun ideas for ways
to increase the immersion of your game! Check out these pics of the new F.A.T.
Mats which are up for pre-order now, and if you like any of them, head on over
to Frontline Gaming to grab one. Happy gaming!
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