Deathtrap Dungeon - 11 Level 28mm Scale Building Commission

[Remalis]

Hi there folks. 18 months ago, Friends approached my wife and I with an ambitious proposal. They wanted to commission us to create a scale building for an event at our FLGS.
Set in the Shadowrun Universe, it would play out a no holds barred deathmatch game of "Urban Brawl" in hotel that was about to be refurbished by a MegaCorp.
Being Shadowrun, there was of course more to it than that.... 

A few weeks ago, that game played out over 6 hours. Three GM's (myself included), 15 Players, a bar full of Spectators. Yes, our FLGS has a bar...
It was every bit as epic as we hoped. Without any intervention or railroading by the GM's, there were no survivors.... in other words, a perfect end to the game.

This thread is going to take you through the entire build of this HUGE project.
I was the architect of the building, designing a majority of the levels. My wife was the main interior designer, with many of the ideas that brought the empty shell "to life"  My friend and his wife worked tirelessly to help build the thing, adding there own brilliant ideas and sections to the design to bring us to complete this project.

I have no idea how many hundreds of hours went into it, but I hope you like the results.

It's going to take me some time to post the full build. I'll start at the end... with a couple of pics of the finished building to whet your appetite.
Enjoy.



This First Pic was taken Pre-Game before moving it out to the bar..



Yep, Working Lights. 3 banks of separate Circuits.



That's a preview... next we'll go right back to the start.  More to come soon.

[Remalis]

So after we agreed to this ridiculous proposition, the first thing to consider was how on earth we were going to build a skyscraper.
We brainstormed a while and came up with a rough plan of what each level might contain. The initial plan didn't vary too much in the final design. layouts changed, better ideas were formed as we went, but fundamentally, we kept to plan.
We decided that a shelving unit was the place to start.  And so it began...





Very early on I came up with the basics of a lift system. We knew this would be a fairly tactical element to the game itself. We also purchased a tonne of miniatures that would make up the characters and the cast of the game. My wife and I painted the miniatures up as well as doing the build, I was also still working on painting up my Nids as well. Because it was Shadowrun, and a story in shadowrun is never as straightforward as it seems, some of my stealers featured in the later stages of the game as the Shadowrun equivalent of Tyranids... I'll post up the cast of characters once the build stuff is done.

[Remalis]

This is what the lifts ultimately looked like. With two of our Player Characters shown for scale. Players had nothing to worry about, everything was gonna be fine!

[Remalis]

The first level started and last level finished was the rooftop. I started with the penthouse. The last parts of the rooftop were completed the night before the game.









From the very start, I designed everything to be modular for transport and accessible for game play. the penthouse could be taken off the rooftop as a separate building, knowing it was going to be too high to play in-situ. I also designed it to open up on both sides so players could reach in and move miniatures around easily. this side panel was where the interior staircase ran to penthouse roof (and helipad) the outside facing was a pathway for one of the rooftop lift. the other lift provided private access direct into penthouse.

[Remalis]

With floorplans roughly marked out on the cardboard, the penthouse began to take shape.










At some point, I decided screening the windows was a good idea. It wasn't. Looked heaps better, but it was a tricky job full of swearing and rage-quitting before it was completed.

[Remalis]

To add to my run of poor decisions, I also decided to make staircases. Foam for the bottom, wooden for the next level.





You can see the wooden staircase through the window. Meanwhile outlines of the rest of the building started. Our final level layout altered to provide more diversity in gameplay as you moved through the building. We wanted to ensure every player had a chance to fight in mixed environments before they inevitably were killed - windy corridors and close combat to open areas with long range fields of fire. 

[Remalis]

Walls were wallpapered over the foam to provide nice texture, floor detail was put down (marble floors for penthouse using contact) Security doors created and chainlink fencing on roofline. We were ready to start adding interior detail...

[Remalis]

Penthouse interior.. This is where my wife stepped up and got to work...










My wife not only printed a bunch of "paintings" for the hotel, she went and famed all of them!!

[Remalis]

That's it for the penthouse for now. Rest of rooftop next and then work my way round the different levels. Cheers folks will post up more soon.

[Remalis]

As I mentioned previously, rooftop was first place we started and last place we finished. The Penthouse was done early. We decided to split the roof into three sections. the penthouse itself, with two interior levels and rooftop helipad. A stairwell led from inside the penthouse as private access to rooftop. Out the "back" of the penthouse was a private courtyard and a "public" Swimming pool deck and bar - although public would in theory be restricted to the mega-rich who had lift access. Across the other side of the pool deck was a large dividing wall. This wall contained a lift to the skybridge deck, giving public access to the helipad. It also had a diving board platform halfway.

A security door separated the pool deck area from the rooftop industrial plant. Cooling, the obligatory giant fan and a communications array with a bunch of connecting gantries made up the industrial area. It also provided access to the secret lab on the floor below.....

All credit for the pool deck and industrial area goes to my friend's wife. My idea and I had the pool and dividing wall in, but she built the entire industrial section and pool deck area, while we were frantically and unexpectedly moving house... 












The swimming pool had fields of fire into casino below and saved the lives of two players, diving into it, when the roof exploded in one of the deathtraps titled "Just Like Die Hard"

[Remalis]

Even the lift from roof to skybridge had some 'unique' mechanics put into it. I built it with sliding joist locks to support it on the upper level.
I used actual Deck Stain for the finish, which, according to the tin, will give me "years of weatherproof enjoyment".

We have a couple more characters and the main twist plot adversary - The Big Bad Bug, named "The Whispering Queen" as a guest appearance..

Sliding Joist locks underneath lift holds in in place on upper level





My wife painted The Whispering Queen especially for the game , I had painted these two characters many years ago.

[Remalis]

Next up, I'll jump to the base of the building with carpark and work my way back up. More to come soon. Cheers.

[gigasnail]

That'd an amazing idea. Be easy to adapt to zone mortalis/space hulk, too.

Oh, and URBAN (please do not swear) BRAWL, hells yeah!

[Jabberwocky]

Epic project!

How awkward was it to play with?

[Remalis]

Cheers guys! Jabberwocky - not as difficult as you might think.
Levels were designed with visibility and access in mind. Could reach in on every level and very few blind spots on long edges.
The GMs managed levels, not people with myself taking upper levels of penthouse/ rooftop , casino and executive apartment suites.
As players died and alliances formed players bunched together. It got progressively easier to manage. Game in third act of the metaplot, naturally gravitated to rooftop. Thank (please do not swear) I had foresight to make that easily removable so we could play it on another table.

In terms of physical spacing, the active players (one for each gm) stepped forward to make moves and stepped back (with drink in hand) to plot and plan with allies. Kept things moving and stopped overcrowding play space.