Barking Up the Wrong Tree

There are times when your band of adventurers is travelling through old established forests. In these cases, I use large tree trunks in the terrain.

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

There are times when your band of adventurers is travelling through old established forests.
If you modeled the forest using entire large trees, the players would have trouble seeing everything. In these cases, you need to pick function over form. It is best to only model the lower part of the tree trunk and not include all of the branches and leaves.

I use a technique incorporating pool noodles that have been textured using hot glue and painted. This approach was inspired by DM Scotty’s crafting videos on his YouTube channel “The DM’s Craft”.

The finished tree trunk prop with platforms for miniature figures to stand on

Pool Noodle Tree Trunks

Materials
  • Foam pool noodles or pipe insulation
  • Cardboard or jar lids for bases
  • Makeup sponges (Optional)
  • Hot glue
  • Paint
Directions

1. Cut foam noodle to length using utility knife.
The cut end of a pool noodle next to an exacto knife>
2. Wrap the noodle with crinkled paper if desired. For smaller tree trunks, I found that the glue texturing step was sufficient.

3. Glue noodle to base. If making a large trunk, glue trimmed makeup sponge pieces along the bottom to look like large tree roots.

Cut pieces of root-like foam being attatched to the tree base with a hot glue gun
4. Use glue gun to add texture to look like bark on the tree trunk. This step takes a while to complete.

5. Use several colors of brown paint to paint the tree trunk on base. When highlighting with a lighter color, Hold the paint brush at an angle so you only get light paint on the outside bark.

A hot glue gun being used to texture tree bark

A bullywug miniature figure on top of a tree trunk prop
Those pesky bullywugs love to jump up into the trees!

These tree trunks are a great hiding place for monsters or traps. You can add platforms to a large trunk to make a great focal point for an encounter. Brambles can be added using floral wire twisted around the base.

In our next story we’ll discuss crafting something much smaller in scale – just a simple tree stump.

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

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