The 7th battle for my campaign through The Last Prospector supplement for Stargrave: Science Fiction Wargames in the Ravaged Galaxy. My Crews head to an unde...
Love that he uses Lego to run these. Makes tabletop gaming seen more accessible and it’s something I would have never thought about doing. Recently picked up the ulterior motive cards and hope I can get a game in with the local group soon.
Yeah, LEGO is a pretty great tool to give people a way to represent stuff visually without having to invest the significant amount of time and money that the miniatures aspect of the hobby can require. Obviously you can use tokens or wood cubes, but seeing a themed miniature does a lot to make the game fun.
I’ve been tempted to run a game that way myself, but I wanted to use my regular game table, so I’ve been tinkering with a 3D printable base for minifigures that actually abides by the 25x25 base size. I know the rules’ are base agnostic, but I do like the consistency.
Yeah that’s a decent idea. I’ve even seen custom Minifigure bits to resin print so you could really bridge the gap between Minifigure and miniature. I also feel like stud based measurement tools could simplify the measuring aspect as well. I’ve known a few of my friends to struggle with moving from a grid to free measurements.
I find trying to build an entire terrain set out of LEGO can be pretty expensive. It’s definitely easier to get into since you don’t have to worry about sprues, priming, painting, varnishing, basing, etc., but if you try to build a proper 48x48 table out of brick based stuff, it’ll probably be prohibitive. My recommendation is to use a neoprene mat for 90% of the place space, and then to use LEGO (or any brick based toys, honestly) exclusively for terrain, minifigures, and accessories. This saves a ton of time and money, and let’s you move and rotate terrain really freely. For surfaces designed for units to actually stand on, like bridges, I generally just use tiles to create smooth surfaces. The studs vs. smooth is a nice WYSIWYG way to delineate what’s meant to be rough terrain and what’s meant to be walkable.
Obviously minifigures don’t stand up well on flat surfaces, but I did create two STLs for basing minifigures in accordance to 1” Stargrave/Oathmark/Frostgrave base sizes. The first one is base with 2x2 studded surface, but because every resin printer and resin is different, it’s a bit tough to get an exact fit and probably needs minor scaling depending on the printer (±.01%). The second has a slot for a 1x2 studded plate so a real LEGO piece can be placed inside and glued in; this ensures minifigures attach to a proper LEGO piece and have proper clutch power. The bases are 25x25, and I’ve made a basic Oathmark movement tray for these as well that I’ve not tested yet but should allow for infantry movement with round bases.
This basically means quick and customizable terrain, modular warbands (especially if you like to place WYSIWYG style), and you can still measure with a regular ruler and use the regular rules. If you’d like to give them a shot, I have a 3D printer and can send you a few to try out!
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A community dedicated to Stargrave, a science-fiction skirmish wargame by Joseph A. McCullough.
Love that he uses Lego to run these. Makes tabletop gaming seen more accessible and it’s something I would have never thought about doing. Recently picked up the ulterior motive cards and hope I can get a game in with the local group soon.
Yeah, LEGO is a pretty great tool to give people a way to represent stuff visually without having to invest the significant amount of time and money that the miniatures aspect of the hobby can require. Obviously you can use tokens or wood cubes, but seeing a themed miniature does a lot to make the game fun.
I’ve been tempted to run a game that way myself, but I wanted to use my regular game table, so I’ve been tinkering with a 3D printable base for minifigures that actually abides by the 25x25 base size. I know the rules’ are base agnostic, but I do like the consistency.
Yeah that’s a decent idea. I’ve even seen custom Minifigure bits to resin print so you could really bridge the gap between Minifigure and miniature. I also feel like stud based measurement tools could simplify the measuring aspect as well. I’ve known a few of my friends to struggle with moving from a grid to free measurements.
I find trying to build an entire terrain set out of LEGO can be pretty expensive. It’s definitely easier to get into since you don’t have to worry about sprues, priming, painting, varnishing, basing, etc., but if you try to build a proper 48x48 table out of brick based stuff, it’ll probably be prohibitive. My recommendation is to use a neoprene mat for 90% of the place space, and then to use LEGO (or any brick based toys, honestly) exclusively for terrain, minifigures, and accessories. This saves a ton of time and money, and let’s you move and rotate terrain really freely. For surfaces designed for units to actually stand on, like bridges, I generally just use tiles to create smooth surfaces. The studs vs. smooth is a nice WYSIWYG way to delineate what’s meant to be rough terrain and what’s meant to be walkable.
Obviously minifigures don’t stand up well on flat surfaces, but I did create two STLs for basing minifigures in accordance to 1” Stargrave/Oathmark/Frostgrave base sizes. The first one is base with 2x2 studded surface, but because every resin printer and resin is different, it’s a bit tough to get an exact fit and probably needs minor scaling depending on the printer (±.01%). The second has a slot for a 1x2 studded plate so a real LEGO piece can be placed inside and glued in; this ensures minifigures attach to a proper LEGO piece and have proper clutch power. The bases are 25x25, and I’ve made a basic Oathmark movement tray for these as well that I’ve not tested yet but should allow for infantry movement with round bases.
This basically means quick and customizable terrain, modular warbands (especially if you like to place WYSIWYG style), and you can still measure with a regular ruler and use the regular rules. If you’d like to give them a shot, I have a 3D printer and can send you a few to try out!
thanks for the offer, but its not necessary. I have my own 3d printers and don’t have immediate use for them.
Not sure if you’ve seen these https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4745817 they also have a Patreon but looks like it has been dormant for about a year.