Making a Cheap Battleboard for the Final Battle

Okay, so my running of Paizo's Shackled City Adventure Path has reached the final climactic end battle. I experimented earlier with making battleboards using foam-core poster boards and decided I'd do a big one to make this battle more of an event.

First up I took a close look at the Chamber of the Tree in the Fiery Sanctum where the baddies constructed their big portal opening device. At 1 inch (25mm) to square on the map it would just fit on a 20" by 30" (500mm x 750mm) poster board.

I got some wrapping paper with 1" (25mm) squares printed on the back and taped it over the board. Then I used that grid to help free hand draw the main outlines of the cavern walls and lava channels.  When that was done I used a craft knife to cut through the paper along the traced lines to mark the actual board. Removing the now shredded paper I went over the cut lines in the board with black felt tip marker to outline everything. Next up came yellow fill with red and orange swirls for the lava channels.

For the lava rock floor I took the opportunity to use up some old gray acrylic paint I never really liked the shade of anyway.

 For the rock walls, I started with some cross hatching...

  ...then decided it looked totally awful...

...and painted over it with some brown so nobody would ever notice.

At the game I added four generic markers to portray the supports of the huge tree-shaped device. I'd made these a while back by gluing unpainted wooded pegs onto small square wood bases and painting them gray. They're handy for showing columns, trees, weird tall creatures, etc.

 ...and then the huge demons charge out of the shadows and attack!!!!

Our next game session will see if our heroes can fight their way back into the cavern in time to stop the activation ritual now underway (which they won't even notice is happening until a round or two from where we stopped last session).

Let's Talk About "The Longest Day in Chang'an" 《长安十二时辰》

Okay, so I finally finished watching "The Longest Day in Chang'an" 《长安十二时辰》on Netflix.  This is a massive new period drama from China, with 48 episodes for your extended viewing enjoyment. The basic plot is the Department of City Security in the capital of the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an, is aware of a plot to carry out some sort of massive terror attack during the Lantern Festival. They recruit Zhang Xiaoying, former soldier and security operative, from death row to lead the investigation--but they only have 24 hours to break the case.

The show apparently borrowed the format of the television show "24", but these episodes each cover 15 to 30 minutes. But before we go any further, watch these music videos of the two main songs with scenes from the show. They're basically trailers for the show and will give you a great sampler of what the show looks like--also great music.

《短歌行》 (A Short Ballad) "Tanka"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUUcnCECZio

《清平乐》 "Spring Day at the Royal Palace"
(sung by Zhang Zining of "Rocket Girls 101")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0rJGM-8lY

First off I have to say the production is movie quality rather than the typical cheap-looking TV show quality.  The locations and the costumes are visually stunning.  Huge effort (and expense) went into keeping everything as historical as possible. In some of  the daytime outdoor scenes the lighting is a bit off, but not badly. The main themes are intrigue, conspiracy, action, tragic back stories, and unrequited love.


I you want to delve a bit deeper into it, there also some cool "making of" videos about the series:

礼仪特辑《长安十二时辰》
(this one is about the various ways to bow or show respect in Tang China; 4:14)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Yo21eEsDQ

服装特辑《长安十二时辰》
(this one is a detailed look at the clothing and armor of the Tang Chinese and foreigners: 4:32)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L_6wcm4gro

唐妆特辑：唐朝是色彩最浓郁的一个朝代《长安十二时辰》
(this one is about the makeup and hair styles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO1JmFb4ABY