Over on YouTube, Mythical Makers Workshop has posted a detailed tutorial on creating a swirling magic potion. It uses a suspension of mica powder to create the swirling effect and a magnetic stirrer to keep the potion moving. If the mica effect looks familiar, it's the same technique I posted way back in 2010. Back then magnetic stirrers were $50+. Now you can pick up multiple models for just $20 over on Amazon.
Dean Adelaide of Cthulhu Reborn is no stranger to these pages. Over the years he has become one of the go-to resources for all kinds of prop documents and handouts for Mythos gaming. He's distilled some of that experience into an excellent post providing detailed, step by step instructions for creating your own vintage prop documents.
"Over time I have developed quite a selection of techniques for using digital tools — designed to make crisp and precise artworks — to make things that are not at all crisp or precise. I thought that folks might be interested in seeing how different techniques can come together to make something like the example above look old … so here’s a quick run-through of how I approach creating designs like this.
Although the techniques I mention below make particular reference to features in Adobe Illustrator (my tool of choice), I’m sure that most if not all of them are also available in other drawing packages. BTW: for all images shown on this page, you can click to see larger versions."
Skill Tree has a detailed tutorial on crafting a glowing skull lantern. The materials are easy to acquire and it doesn't require any wiring at all. A couple of hours work and you'll have a great prop for your gaming room or LARP event.
We've frequently featured the work of MonsterLabs Studios over the years. Their latest is a detailed look at the design process behind a mummified fairy specimen. It's an in-depth, behind the scenes feature showing the deliberate artistic decisions that go into making something truly memorable. If you have any interest in gaff-making you should click through and read the whole thing.
There are few things more evocative in a tabletop RPG session than a hand-written letter with an impressed wax seal. The only problem is that traditional melted wax can be tricky, not to mention messy, to work with.* As an alternative, artist Katrina Crouch has an incredibly detailed tutorial on how to create them with a glue gun. It's aimed at brides doing their own wedding invitations, but the techniques are equally applicable to prop use.
*Personally, I also have some concerns about the safety of sealing wax. Most of the commercially available products are manufactured in China and carry a non-zero risk of being contaminated with lead and other heavy metals. I religiously use a respirator, but that just adds to the hassle factor of prepping a prop document.
Jake Hellbach has posted a detailed look at how he created Egyptian hieroglyphic tablets for an upcoming video project. The end results are impressive.
Once in a great while you come across a prop project that not only looks amazing, but uses a brilliant new construction technique. Such is the case here.
Black Jar Follies was kind enough to send over an email about their Shoggoth/Cosmic Worm and Grub installation at the Luminata Festival in Seattle. The figures were made from recycled pipe insulation sourced off of Craigslist, while the "eyes" appear to be off the shelf plastic domes. If you like what you see here you really need to click over to the full gallery on Instagram, including video of the full lighting effects.
I expect this project is going to go viral and become a huge inspiration for Halloween haunt creators this year and in the future.
Ancient tomes and grimoires are a staple of Mythos propmaking, as the 345+ posts with the "Tomecraft" label here on Propnomicon can attest. Over on YouTube, Adeels Bindery and Pen Art has been kind enough to post a complete, step by step guide into what exactly goes into recreating a medieval book. That includes everything from creating the signatures of paper to "sculpting" the cover using multiple layers of laminated fiberboard. The beautiful end result speaks for itself.
As an aficionado of ASMR videos, I've been impressed by the incredible increase in production values over the last few years. There are some creators with sets and props that are close to movie-quality, driven by the demand for believability in the era of 4K video monitors. Jake Hellbach is one of those folks. In addition to his imaginative videos, featuring everything from Victorian apothecaries to WW II spy hunters, he's produced a number of behind the scenes looks at what goes into his work. This one covers how he produces a number of items, including prop cigarette packs, period posters, and multi-page newspapers.
One of the things I hate about crafting videos on YouTube is the tendency for creators to just drone on and on without getting to the point. Thankfully, this isn't one of those videos. The "Cooking and Craft Chick" has a great series of tips for anyone crafting potion props. That includes helpful pointers for what liquids to use, why real corks are a hassle, and how to maximize the color-shifting properties of mica powder.
Over on Reddit, mrwhite_20 posted this gorgeous tableau shot of the upgraded prop set they created for the Call of Cthulhu scenario "Blackwater Creek", one of the two included with the Keeper's Screen.
Even better than the glorious prop pr0n, they've generously made the source files available over on their website. Click through on the link and you'll also find upgraded props for a number of other scenarios.
Greig Johnson was hired to create an interactive prop for the Lovecraftian LARP "The Key of Dreams". His directions were to create a period occult science device that could expose features of the "hidden world". Based on his build video, he delivered in spades.
Watching the assembly process is exactly the kind of prop pr0n I love. Beyond the construction and finishing techniques this is the first time I've even heard that something like inductive LEDs exist. As Mr. Johnson points out, they open up some amazing live-action possibilities.
Don't let their name fool you. Magnoli Clothiers is one of the premier producers of movie prop reproductions in the world. Yes, they specialize in bespoke clothing, in particular meticulously researched shirts, ties, and jackets from famous film franchises, but they do so much more than that. The One Eyed Willy's treasure map from "The Goonies" featured in this video is a good example. More importantly, at least for our purposes, it provides a master class in aging paper in less than three minutes.
1. The paper is stained brown with a light spray of tea solution and immediately dried with a heat gun. The entire process takes place on a flat working surface.
2. This is one of the very, very few cases where burning the edges of a paper prop makes sense. It's how the original screen-used prop duplicated the look of edge-browning caused by oxidation. Importantly, note how controlled the process is.
3. General dirt and grime is recreated using pastel chalks, with particular attention to the extra material caught by creases in the paper.
4. Finally, just for you closet pyromaniacs, some actual paper burning! Again, it's a very fleeting, controlled exposure to recreate the scorch marks on the original prop.
This is the way.
I love seeing alternate takes on subjects I've done myself. In this case, Levi Combs of Planet X Games shares his version of a mummified vampire heart. That includes a look at how he actually made it:
"I found the box at a yard sale. Got the heart from a Halloween Express and then coated it with multiple layers of adhesive and ash from my fireplace to give it a withered color/texture/look. The pages were taken from a small book inside the Hellboy Special Edition DVD."Reproducing the texture of very old mummified body parts using layers of ash is a brilliant idea.
Ammnra Creations brings us this tutorial on creating a variety of consumable items from the Fallout video game series. The best part is right at the start, where he demonstrates how to use drinking party IV bags to recreate RadAway, blood packs, and irradiated blood. After that he crafts a stimpak, Jet inhaler, and fusion core. Spoiler alert: that section basically consists of "I 3D printed the parts and put them together".
That's become an increasing common theme in propmaking. Don't get me wrong, there's certainly nothing wrong with that approach. The results are absolutely authentic since they're adapted from the actual game models. That said, I'm a devotee of the ol' skool "bash found parts together" method of prop creation. 3D printing seems to remove the creativity from that process and turn it into an exercise in kit assembly. Your mileage may vary, obviously.
"What We Do In the Shadows" is one of the funniest shows on television. I was a late-comer to the vampire comedy, currently working my way through the entire run as the final season plays out. Over on YouTube, Much Props has posted a great DIY on recreating Lazlo's witch skin hat from the show's first season. And remember, it's definitely not cursed.
Add a bit of tradecraft to your in-game correspondence with this tutorial on creating a diamond letterlock from the Hamilton Military Museum in Canada. The folding pattern produces a visually interesting sealed document that would be perfect for fantasy games.
MattsWithTatts has posted a fun little DIY for creating a cube puzzle for players in his Dungeons and Dragons game. The only caveat I would offer is that buying or producing 27 individual foam cubes, and then assembling them, probably isn't the easiest way to bring this particular style of puzzle to your tabletop. Commercial cube assembly puzzles are cheap and widely available. If you want to be particularly fiendish you can always use a Soma cube.
Much like Mr. Hanna, I've never completed the search for every Stone of Barenziah in Skyrim. While the reward is considerable, it's an incredibly frustrating side quest for a couple of reasons. The biggest being the fact money ceases to be an issue long before you're able to track down all 24 stones.
That said, the stones themselves are really cool. Luckily, that motivated Mr. Hanna to create his own and share this detailed tutorial on making your own.
No, not the necessary acceptance that you're getting older and will
eventually die, but the thought process behind aging and distressing a
prop.
Professional designer George Ledo brings us this insightful discussion about antiquing props.
He's speaking to an audience of stage magicians, but his thoughts on
developing an aging treatment hand in hand with the item's backstory are
equally applicable to Lovecraftian artifacts.
Antiquing isn’t a formula; it’s a concept. That’s a phrase I learned a few years ago when Donna and I attended a class on how to make paella, which is a Spanish seafood dish. One of the first things the instructor said was that there’s no “classical authentic recipe” for paella. Paella is not a recipe: it’s a concept--a traditional way to use rice, and chicken, and chorizo, and locally available seafood, to make a one-course meal for several people.
An effective technique is to think of the object as having a history, and of each part of its history as being a “layer” that can be addressed separately. Although it’s impossible to create a “how to” list about antiquing props, I’m going to show a couple of hypothetical examples of how I would go about doing this, using standard theatrical techniques. This will of course delve into the actual design of the prop, but I’ll focus on the antiquing.
