Something of a Maze

Because of my slight mistake with the framework, I need to raise the floor a little.   To do this, it was time to bust out the trusted Proxxon hot wire cutter.

I cannot recommend the Proxxon highly enough, and it is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to cutting and modelling with XPS.

I dug out the leftovers from my Tomb build.   It is a mixture of irregular cut pieces and some more squarish bits.

Using the Proxxon I cut thin slivers that I could use to raise areas on the wood.

I indented the edges to help reduce the step up from wood to foam.   It is not massive, and this may not actually be necessary.  It’s possible that once the ground covering is in place, the ridge will be unnoticeable anyway.

Using blocks of XPS, I started laying out pieces on the layout to simulate the placement of bushes, trees, rocks and other objects that would impede movement.  I still need to add more, but this was just to help form an idea in my mind.

At its heart, I want this to be a forest, but I also want it to serve double duty as a maze.

For most games, it will simply be a dense forest; however, for my Cedarwood Road project, there are certain creatures that, with a particularly good dice roll, can alter the landscape. This is where the ‘Shifting’ element fits in.  For example, the Pal-A-Dins, on a good roll, can forgo their action to perform a shift, slightly changing the layout.   OF course, I could keep it so that you pick up and move a bit of terrain, but it’s more fun for kids if the whole tabletop can move like a puzzle in itself.

The tricky part is to make it not too obviously like a maze, and also so that each tile appears to flow into the next without any overly obvious seams and to also have a defining border that does not look like a wall.

At the moment, I am leaning towards an autumn setting.  I think the colours will fit in nicely with my Victorian City, and I like the contrast that the orange leaves give.