Fat Dragon Games: The Castle Project (Part 1)

Back when I was running my Crimson Tombs campaign a few short months ago I decided to run a Goodman Games module as the next phase of the campaign. (I don't want to say which at this stage because I'll still be using the material at some point in the future.) While I really loved the module, the maps left just a little to be desired. So, I decided to improve on this by building one of the major sets (as in the Hollywood term) for the adventure: a castle. I decided to use Winterhawk Castle by Fat Dragon Games as the basis for the backdrop.

However, I went way beyond that and ended up building a huge custom castle of my own design. I also redesigned it's connectivity, so the walls could be rearranged easily into different castles. Fat Dragon Games uses a foam core system to connect buildings to a foam core terrain bases, but I decided I'd rather be able to place my castle parts on any surface and be able to rearrange them. So, placed strategically inside the paper castle walls and towers, etc. are pairs of strength 9 mini magnets (available at Hobby Lobby).

Below are several pictures of the finished castle with all of the courtyard buildings. (Note: the back wall is open for reasons I'll go into later--I've not built the chasm that will appear at the rear of the castle.)

I would like to thank my lovely wife for taking the pictures for me. Incidentally, these pictures also display my huge 5 foot by 7 foot custom gaming table (I hired a carpenter many years ago to build it for me.)

The closest building is the castle headquarters. I plan to add two more buildings to it's roof, a barracks and armory.

Another view from the rear of the headquarters. The smallest building on the right is small barracks.

The building at the rough center of the courtyard is the smithy where weapons, armor
and slave chains are forged. Behind it is a tiny well.

The far building was once a stone cottage. As you'll soon see, it suffered a fire.

Last but not least, the front gate. You can see the cottage's burned out roof as well.

Next Up: I'll go over my designs for each building--all of them are of custom design and thus not detailed in the Fat Dragon building guides, so I thought I'd share for everyone's benefit.