Out on a Limb

One simple and quick way to make miniature deciduous plants for your RPG game is to use aquarium plants.

This is the third of a five part series on Crafting Plants and Trees for RPGs. To start at the beginning, click here.

One simple and quick way to make miniature deciduous plants for your RPG game is to use aquarium plants. Aquarium plants are made of plastic or fabric and often have a small scale as they are designed to be used with small tropical fish. By hot gluing these pieces on a base and adding a little paint, you can create shrubs and trees to use in your games.
Aquarium plants being used as miniature trees in a role playing game

aquarium with fish and castle
Hey Fish, do you really need all those plants? You won’t mind if I take a few…

Aquarium Plant Trees and Shrubs

Materials
  • Plastic or silk aquarium plants
  • Poker chips, jar lids, heroscape tiles, or other circular bases
  • Hot glue
  • Paint
Directions

1. Select aquarium plants that contain parts that resemble trees or shrubs. The tree on the right was original an aquarium plant that came detached from its base over time.
aquarium plants removed from their base
2. Spray paint the new bases dark green. You may want use primer or spray paint designed for plastic.
poker chips being spray-painted green
3. Remove aquarium plant from its original base and trim as needed.

4. Apply generous amounts of hot glue to attach it to the base.

5. Drag glue to form tree roots and other texture on base.

hot glue gun being used to attach plants to bases

6. Use brown paint to paint any roots on the base. Paint over the aquarium plant to make it blend into the base and look more natural. Texture the base by painting several green shades over the spray-painted base.

plants and base being painted with small brush

completed trees for rpg game

You now have plants you can add to your terrain in your RPG. These shrubs and plants add some variety and give your players and monsters interesting places to hide. In our next story, we’ll discuss crafting something a little bigger in scale.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comment field below.

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