bigironvaultnot just a hobby, it’s a lifestyle

Issue 5: June 2010

Table Top &Gaming RoomEdition!

Featuring Game Room of the Year!

Mat Nastos &Elf SongElf Song

Jess Hartley: TheShattered GlassProject

I have dice older than you!

Fantasy Grounds II:Call of CthulhuCall of Cthulhu

Shawn Morris:King of the 15mm! Tips for your

game room!

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Big Iron Vault #5 was printed and published Jun. 2010 by Keith Foo doing business as Big Iron Vault a registered business in Ontario, Canada. COPYRIGHTS The materialin this magazine is copyright of Big Iron Vault unless noted. The Big Iron Vault logo, cover art and all other symbols referring to Big Iron Vault are copyrights and/or trademarks of Keith Foo. All Rights Reserved. SUBMISSIONS All material submied tous for publicaon is only accepted/published if the right to publish the submiedwworkin queson for commercial use is assigned from the author to Big Iron Vault.DISCLAIMER The views expressed by our various contributors are those of the contributors themselves and may not reflect the posion of Big Iron Vault. Big IronVault may not be held responsible or liable for any of the facts represented by thecontributors. Always check “facts” out for yourself!1st Prinng June, 2010.

CreditsBig Iron Vault

Keith Foo Publisher and Layouts

Robert Howard Eding & Guy in charge of giving the boss crap for not eding properly

JessiJessica Beltran Big Iron Vault Correspondent

A special thank to the following guests and people who have contributed to this issue.

Mat NastosDoug Davison, SmiteWorks USAKeith Hackwood Jess HartlJess HartleyShawn MorrisGarry Stahl Cheryl Foo

Playtesters: Fantasy Grounds IICheryl FooRob FlickEErick Ling

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Stuff in this issue! Special Features

Greatest Gaming Room Ever!

Living with a gamer

Featuring Mat Nastos!

The Game Master’s Corner

Shattered Glass Project

By Jess Hartley

Destroying the world to save it!

By Keith Hackwood

Table-top madness!

Stoking the Flames of War with

Shawn Morris

A girl gamer’s blog

Thank you gaming!

By Cheryl Foo

From the vault

I Have Dice Older Than You!

by Garry Stahl

Fantasy Grounds II: Reviewing the

Crack’d and Cook’d Manse

Fan Fiction

The Battle Part I

By Garry Stahl

Editorial (aka where you get to

give the boss crap!)

Words from the

boss!

Issue #5 and we’re still alive and kicking.

Someday I wonder if readers will look back

and take my comments about Big Iron Vault’s

lifespan as humility or self-deprecation.

Whatever the decision at that time, I hope

that the fun we’re having today doesn’t get

lost.

I mean, Big Iron Vault has opened many doors

for me in the last year and for that I’m

eternally grateful. I’ve also had the

opportunity to meet a parade of fantastic

artists, writers, editors, photographers and the

list goes on! It does feel these days that the

magazine and indeed the company as a whole

are starting to take on a life of their own.

Strangely enough, the passing of various

“media credibility” tests has only justified Big

Iron Vault’s existence even more. The fact

that we’re recognized by institutions such as

GenCon and numerous other conventions as a

“media” outlet is pride and happiness all of its

own. For some, that’s not a big deal – sheesh

practically anyone could get something like

that with blog and a website. True enough on

some occasions. On the other hand, it’s the

small things that fuel the independent

publisher. Without these small “victories,” I

dare call them, independent publishing would

not exist, and the passion would fade.

So thank you to those that consider us worthy

enough to be labeled as “Press” or “Media”.

You’ve made my year.

Keith Foo

Big Iron Vault

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This issue we are super lucky to get a chance

to sit down with Devon, the proud owner of

one of the most viral game rooms we’ve ever

seen! If you haven’t seen it, it’s quite the

masterpiece. Completing it is no trivial task

for sure. Let’s learn how Devon and his

brother Shawn first started this monumental

project. Hi Devon!

Hi Keith, thanks for interviewing us. It’s pretty

exciting. We didn’t expect our little project to

cause such a stir.

Well it has, and for good reason, sir. Why

don’t you start by telling us a little about you

and your brother?

My brother Shawn and I are both

commercial/industrial electricians living in the

Indianapolis area. Both of us were born with

the collecting gene turned on. Like with many

kids growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, it all

started with ball cards and comic books. We

were both introduced to Dungeons & Dragons

in the early 1980’s by separate people who

would become lifelong friends. We have been

playing and collecting D&D off and on for over

25 years now.

Our Dungeons & Dragons collection started

with just wanting to build up a nice library of

modules and accessories that our group could

use for play. We were slowly filling in the

holes, and our collection was up to maybe

three feet of shelf space. Then came 2nd

Edition D&D. They were releasing product so

fast we could never afford to keep up. Each

week we would check out the local game and

hobby stores and buy whatever box set or

module caught our eyes. We had also been

picking up Star Frontiers, Boot Hill, Marvel

Super Heroes, and any other role-playing

product TSR had produced.

About eight years ago we started to fill the

holes in our D&D/TSR collection by searching

online auctions. We soon learned about the

growing D&D collecting community and

several sites like acaeum.com,

tomeoftreasures.com, and dragonsfoot.org

where likeminded people were going to learn

more about collecting and join the discussion

forums. It is amazing to see how many people

are getting into collecting and playing old

school D&D again. This lead to expanding the

GREATEST GAMING

ROOM EVER!

What it takes to have the …

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collection to include anything and everything

TSR ever produced. That meant different

printings, board games, war games,

miniatures, licensed items (action figures,

puzzles, clay kits, etc, etc), original artwork,

and even employee only items. Eventually we

even bought a 1987 Bally’s D&D Pinball

Machine and a 1994 CAPCOM D&D Tower of

Doom video arcade game for the great room.

Another thing that got us back into playing

and collecting more was when GenCon, the

largest gaming convention in the U.S., moved

to Indianapolis in 2003. We have been

attending every year since. This year will be

the second year we share an exhibitor’s booth

(House Atreides, booth #2008-Come see us!)

with our collector friends from England. They

deal in very rare Magic the Gathering cards

and we sell mostly out-of-print and rare

Dungeons & Dragons items.

Your path to fame seems to be this awesome

gaming room. When did the idea come

about?

We had been storing most of our collection in

boxes and on inexpensive particle board

shelves in a spare upstairs bedroom. The

shelves were sagging under the weight of the

books and there were so many boxes we

couldn’t fit a table in the room for playing. I

was thinking of constructing some “built-in”

bookcases out of real wood that could take

the weight and hold most of our collection.

This would also make room for a table. About

that time I caught a show on cable, I think it

was called Monster House, where a group of

construction workers would go into a family’s

home and remodel part of it to reflect the

owner’s interests or hobbies. I thought if I was

going to build the bookcases why not go all

out and construct a purpose built room for

gaming that looked something like the inside

of a medieval castle or manor? I took a few

measurements of the room then tried to

picture what the inside of a castle room would

look like.

The planning process must have been pretty

complex. How did you go about planning this

and what were some of the barriers initially

to the idea and execution? (I can think of

some for me - namely my wife!)

I knew I wanted stone walls, big wooden

beams, and a portcullis. After hours of

walking around in hardware and home

improvement stores, I found the materials

that would work. I would use “cast” stone for

the walls, high grade pine for the bookcases

and beams, and 1”x2”s for the portcullis. I

also found “log cabin” style wood siding that

would look great for the ceiling.

We also wanted the room to be a great place

to play D&D or any game. That meant a sound

system, dimmable recessed lighting, sconces,

weapons, decorations, etc. Over the next few

months I kept buying the tools and materials

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needed for the project. I didn’t have a set

budget, but knew that if I used real stone or

oak the costs would be out of reach.

At the time my brother and I were working on

Lucas Oil Stadium, the new home for the

Indianapolis Colts. Like most construction

workers, when you get home from a hard

day’s work the last thing you want to do is

more construction. The materials for the

room were just sitting in the garage gathering

dust. When the stadium was completed,

hundreds of workers, including me, were laid-

off. Finally, unfortunately, I now had plenty of

time to work on the “D&D Room” as we had

begun to call it.

Please tell our readers about the hard and

laborious part. What did you tackle first?

What were some of the fun components of

the project?

After cleaning the room out, we removed all

the wood trim, the closet door, the ceiling fan,

and all the old electrical outlets. Next, I

covered the insides of the windows with vinyl

film that looks like sawn crystals and

semiprecious gemstones set in lead. This gives

privacy as well as extra U.V. protection for the

collection. There was a return air vent in one

wall that was right where one of the ceiling

beams was going. I really didn’t want to see a

modern air vent set in a stone wall, let alone

have a wood beam partially blocking it.

Luckily one of the walls in the closet shared a

return air vent with the hallway and we were

able to cover the old vent and cut in a new

one in the closet. The new portcullis door

would let the air in the room flow into the

closet and back to the furnace.

What were some of the hardest choices you

had to make and what decision did you make

and why?

We then tried to remove the old ugly

wallpaper. After seeing how time and labor

intensive it would be, we decided to just cover

all the walls with an extra layer of 3/8” drywall

to give the cast stone a nice clean surface to

adhere to.

The portcullis was also a lot more labor

intensive than I expected. I was able to use

the original closet door as a template for

laying out the 1”x2”s so that the fit would be

perfect. After cutting all the pieces and laying

them out on the door I decided to try to make

the wood look as much like old hammered

iron as possible. My brother and I took ball-

peen hammers and spent hours pounding the

pieces until they all had a uniform hammer

finish pattern. Now I glued and bradding all

the pieces together and drilled shallow ½”

holes where each piece crossed another.

Gluing in wooden hole plugs gave the look of

rivets. After installing the old door hinges to

the side, I sprayed on several cans of “aged

iron” textured paint to complete the portcullis.

It is held shut with a secret hidden latch.

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