As recently stated in Dork Tower, Cthulhu is the bacon of gaming. And you can’t have Cthulhu without tentacles. To help you create interactive tentacle minis of your own, I will show you how you can make them for mere pennies.
What you will need:
- Scissors
- Tape
- Pipe cleaners
- ($2.19 / 100 @ Office Depot, see Michaels or another craft store)
- Large “spacer” washer ($0.38 apiece at the hardware store, but a quarter can substitute in a pinch)
- Gaming Paper singles ($9.99 at Paizo for a package of 100). One sheet will yield 5 tentacles.
| The first step is to get all of your materials. The paper, the scissors, the pipe cleaner, the washer, the tape. Your cup of coffee is optional. Well, yours might be. Mine is not. |
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| Then you need to cut out a 2-square by 6-square rectangle of paper. |
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| Then you cut a small (0.25 inch) slit in the center of the rectangle. I like to go along the long axis. |
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| Then you fold your rectangle into a 2×2 square. |
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| Thread your pipe cleaner through your washer. You’ll want most of the pipe cleaner free of the washer. (If you use a quarter here, you’ll need to tape it to the paper, and the base is much less sturdy. Really, the extra $0.13 for the washer is worth it.) |
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| Open up the folded rectangle. Thread your pipe cleaner through the slit until the washer is flush with the paper square. |
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| Tape over the open ends to enclose the washer inside, giving it a weighted base. |
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| Twist your tentacle to form. The base should still support other minis, and the paper ensures that it fits nicely on most battlemats. |
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| Begin grappling your heroes! |
This is pretty cool. I’d like to see more craft based articles, they give me ideas :)
With a little variation you could make a “Black tentacles” spell template
Tentacular! There’s a guy in my design school class that just can’t resist drawing tentacles – octopi, monstrous, slubbery random multicolored ones. He’s not an RPG’er, and he’s *NEVER* heard of Cthulhu – he just digs tentacles. Go “figure”*.
I’m a gonna be making some of these just to stick on his desk some day. He’ll definitely appreciate it! Thanks Ben for the crafty idea – I’m sure we can all get creative with this “base”* concept to create all manner of exciting terrain, hazards and environments…
*Sorry. The puns wrote themselves. :)
I love how the pipe cleaner can actually hold onto a mini in the air. I will certainly be making some of these. Do pipe cleaners come in ebon?
I like it! Seaborne tentacle beast here I come!
Pipe cleaners come in an amazing variety of colors, Mike!
If you can swing the price, these are really nicely done.
http://www.auggiesgames.com/
Definitely, but they don’t give the visceral satisfaction of picking up their target, Roland. ;)
And I wasn’t trying to be flippant, Mike– they really have a ridiculous array of colors, from black to sparkly purple to the simple red I was using. (I’d been watching about Humbolt Squids, and thought I’d use that. Black would have been more multipurpose)
Well done Ben, well done indeed!
@ Hecknoshow: So would I. especially since I submitted an article not long ago about how to make treasure coins. :)