TtRPG Abandoned Riverwheel (Part 1): Planning and Design
“This fantasy village once had a waterwheel that they used to mill their grain. It worked well enough, having been in the Miller family for as far back as any living could remember, some said as much as five generations even.
The current miller’s grandfather did a little adventuring, and spent his hard-won coin on a modernized mill, one that used magical stone instead of water. As the grandfather was also a man of modest wealth, and had seen much suffering in the world, he charged next to nothing for the use of his magical mill.
With this new mill, no one risked falling in the river, people didn’t have to cart goods as far, and using it cost only what one could afford and wished to pay, the money going largely to maintain the mill and its guardians.
The new mill was wildly popular; the old mill was left unused. Abandoned after being stripped of any usable bits, the old waterhouse became a bit of a local legend.”
I have wanted to make something with gears and wheels for a WHILE now, and I am SO excited. It doesn’t need to work, in fact pieces of it have likely been carted off over time. It does however need to be believable.
The old mill should be a 3-story brick building with broken windows, with bits of door hanging off hinges, an immersive setting for our miniatures to do battle in! The brick is remarkably intact, built to last, and possibly enchanted; the walls are intact and perfect.
Notes
On the outside:
an overgrown garden gone wild, pillaged by animals
a water wheel, stuck in the mud and missing some paddles
the wheel has a shaft, a 15’ long 4” thick pole, with the gear (3’) wedged at what looks like an impossible angle
other gears have been stripped
one large gear (5’) is nearby, on it’s side, seemingly too heavy/bulky to drag off
The wheel should be 6’ diameter, with paddles. I have a somewhat hostile relationship with Tinkercad Codeblocks, but I think this occasion calls for it’s use.
On the inside:
stairwells going up, with holes in the floor where machinery would be
some bits of machinery still left, pieces too big and bulky to move, or ones that are worthless
a single makeshift ladder from the 2nd floor rafters to the 3rd
a broken shaft angled between the 1st floor and the 2nd (south of the stairs)
rafters on the top and middle floors (middle and bottom ceilings)
Scale and commonly used measurements. IMPORTANT: these pieces are 60% larger than standard minis.
1’ = .55”
3’ = 1.65”
5’ = 2.75”
10’ = 5.5”
15’ = 8.25”
I’m going to do each floor separately so we can remove the top floor completely, in case we need to do some action inside. I’m also going to add some removable sides for much the same reason: it’s easier to move our minis around in such spaces. I also designed it larger than usual because our minis never fit properly in the small squares. Their bases are simply too large. Sixty percent larger might be excessive, but the fractions were a lot easier to work with than some other percents I tried.
Now that the planning stage is done and rules are set, I’m ready to move on to the next stage: modeling!