"Pizza-box Spaceship Deckplans?" Topic
11 Posts
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Mako11 | 15 May 2015 6:59 p.m. PST |
I'm wanting to do a boarding action type scenario, or three, and am considering using clean, unused, pizza boxes for the hull structures, and then outfitting the interiors with paper, cardboard, or foamboard interior bulkheads, corridors, rooms, etc. Seems to me they should be reasonably low cost, fairly robust, and easy to carry, and store. Not sure if I'll be using 15mm/18mm, 25mm/28mm, or the 32mm Heroclix figs (perhaps all three, eventually), but want to give this a go, since a lot of the commercial deckplans are a bit to small, and only having one corridor, or just an open cargo bay seems to restrict tactical options a bit. I really want at least two corridors to fight down, and/or more than one deck, if only a single corridor for each. Still up in the air about layouts, etc., but thought perhaps a single box up front for the vessel flight deck/bridge, and flight crew quarters. Then, perhaps two rows of boxes, side by side, and two to three boxes long for the main hull, cargo storage areas, passenger rooms, etc.. Finally, a single box at the rear, most likely, for the engine room. If I lay out the hallways correctly, they should be able to be easily reconfigured too, for a vessel that is only a single box wide as well, for vessel variety. Then, I could put two single rows near one another, to represent upper and lower decks, if desired as well. Obviously, by varying the size of the boxes used, you can make a lot of different vessels as well, e.g. personal-sized box, small (12"), medium (14"), large (16"+), etc.. So, just curious if anyone has tried this of late, or are doing something similar? I seem to recall some mention of this, and/or some pics, a few years back, which is where I got the idea. If so, did you make your own deck and wall artwork, or purchase something commercial? Any ideas for inexpensive, interior details too, especially for the smaller scale of 15mm/18mm? The interior building layout for the Star Trek crawl that was posted in the last few days got me interested in doing this again. |
JSchutt | 15 May 2015 10:13 p.m. PST |
I would encourage you to try some experiments. I actually thought of doing something similar but never went further than sourcing boxes on the internet. I'm sure if you were a regular the local pizza joint shlub would slip you a nice clean box or two on the side. It would work best for 15mm and might even support multiple levels. As for interior try using paper craft punches for punching out floor tiles or fun-foam children's crafts multi-geometric shapes for interesting wall and floor applications. Tons of interesting ideas will come to mind while patrolling all departments of your local crafts store…especially in the the kid's section. Busted electronics and children's discarded toys are a treasure trove of awesome bits as well. Good luck! |
Sargonarhes | 17 May 2015 5:47 a.m. PST |
I can see all sorts of scenarios from Legend of Galactic Heroes boarding actions with this. |
Oberlindes Sol LIC | 17 May 2015 8:35 p.m. PST |
Great idea. Please let us know how it works out. |
Mako11 | 17 May 2015 11:50 p.m. PST |
Will do. I'm thinking about creating my own flooring, and wall art, just using MS Word, in 15mm to start, since I've done a little of that in the past, with some success. May twist the arm of an artist I know to assist, if that turns out reasonably well, for some more elaborate artwork, down the road. On a related note, I ran across some artwork in an old Battlestations posting here on TMP, that showed some nice, small spaceship sections being designed/used for that game. They're square, and reconfigurable, to permit multiple spaceship deck layouts to be used with that game, and looked very nice. They have different sections for the bridge, engine rooms, hangars, etc. |
Ghostrunner | 18 May 2015 7:54 a.m. PST |
The problem I've had is that 'rational' ship designs aren't always the most interesting for skirmish gaming. Long, single passageways and lots of dead-end rooms tend to lead to a lot of choke points with real-estate that doesn't hold any tactical value. I would love to see if anyone has any designs for mid-sized starships that manage to look somewhat plausible and still be gameable. |
zircher | 18 May 2015 6:22 p.m. PST |
One perk about pizza box gaming of any kind is that it is real easy to include everything in the box that you need for a con game or similar setting. |
WarrenAbox | 18 May 2015 8:27 p.m. PST |
Ghostrunner – You can fix many of the problems with ship floor plans by adopting less of a "small smuggler freighter" approach and more of a "small space station" approach. Instead of fighting inside the Millennium Falcon they'd be fighting inside the Death Star. Or maybe the Axion (from Wall-E) if you favor a more sleek version of the future. I can think of at least three types of large open areas with lots of entrances that are appropriate for spacecraft – large lounges, cargo holds, and hydroponic sections. Each one gives plenty of sight blocking cover and allows for plenty of entrances including those wider than a single figure. Put those in the corners connected by wide open corridors – like a shopping mall – with smaller offices between, and you can have plenty of room for maneuver, cover, and everything you get in planetside skirmishes. |
Ghostrunner | 18 May 2015 9:04 p.m. PST |
I went the 'Death Star' route with 8" square tiles that joined edge-to-edge with small magnets.
Pity my gaming group never plays Star Wars Miniatures anymore. |
Mako11 | 18 May 2015 9:41 p.m. PST |
That looks really neat. Thanks for sharing your pics. Yea, I'm definitely wanting to avoid the typical Traveller vessel designs, since the single corridor doesn't really do it for me, and a lot of the deck plans are too small for interesting boarding actions. Must have at least two corridors/pathways per deck, or at least two decks with a single pathway. Of course, I guess players could always opt to blow/cut their way through passenger and storage room walls, with the right ordnance/equipment, but I want to limit that tactic as much as possible, since I doubt it would be standard procedure on a vessel in space (works for streetfighting in citieis though). The other option would be to go outside the hull as well, but I suspect internal fights would be more the norm. |
infojunky | 19 May 2015 4:32 p.m. PST |
I keep eyeing the stacks of pizza boxes in my local Cash and Carry, I haven't decided between 10 or 12 inch boxes for use with 15mm…. |
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