Neon Alley
A rain-soaked neon street at night: a noodle bar, a corporate checkpoint and a warmech.
It builds in your browser in a few seconds, models, lights and miniatures included. No sign-up needed to try it.
The place
Setting: Midnight, heavy rain, neon reflected in the puddles
A city street at midnight in heavy rain, running between tenements and concrete blocks two to four storeys tall, with flat roofs, fire escapes and roller shutters. Neon boards hang over the pavements and spill magenta and cyan light onto the wet stone; puddles in the dips of the roadway catch it, steam rises from the manholes, and burning oil drums are the only warm light on the street. A row of small shopfronts and a bus stop line the east side, and a corporate block closes the head of the street.
The crew of four has come in from the south end and crouches behind a covered car. Ahead, corporate security holds a checkpoint of concrete barriers under floodlights: two troopers and a sergeant, an RK-11 android on the pavement with a second one waiting in a side alley, a spider drone, and a TL-22 warmech standing at the corporate door. The Lucky Dragon noodle bar beside the crew is furnished inside, with a counter, stools, a kitchen and its android cook, and it opens up when you lift the roofs in Play.
What the recipe places
- 75 props, lines and scatters
- 18 lights and effects
- 14 miniatures
Encounters it was built for
- Breaking the checkpoint: the barriers are cover for both sides, and the floodlights mean nobody crosses unseen.
- The warmech wakes: a slow, heavy target at the far end of a long, wet killing ground, with cover only on the pavements.
- Ambush from the side alley: the second android waits out of sight until the crew is past the barriers.
- A fight that spills into the noodle bar, among the counter, stools and kitchen, with bystanders under the tables.
- Up the fire escape: the flat roofs are a second level to fight on, and the ruler counts every storey of the climb.
Tips
- In Play, press U to lift the roofs and see into the noodle bar; only you see the roofs come off.
- The rain and the night are scene settings: switch the weather off or drag the clock to dusk for a different street.
- Mark the hidden android Hidden from players, then show it when it steps out of the alley.
- Start combat and every trooper, android, drone and the mech roll into initiative with HP on their token cards.
- Brush fog over the far end of the street and reveal the checkpoint as the crew comes round the car.
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Free top-down battle map
A flat, gridded version of Neon Alley for any other tabletop: straight down, north up, 25 by 34 squares at 70 pixels per 5-foot square, with no miniatures on it. Set your tabletop's grid to 70 px and it lines up.
Free under CC BY 4.0: use it, share it and change it, in paid work too, as long as you credit TerrainTale. Some buildings in it are other artists' CC BY models, credited on the About page.
Questions
Can I change Neon Alley after loading it?
Yes. A template is a normal scene once built: paint, drag, delete and add to it, then save it as your own project.
How long does it take to load?
A few seconds. The recipe compiles instantly and the models it uses download from the built-in library on first use, then stay cached.
Can I make my own template?
Write a recipe (see Build with AI) and import it with File ▸ Import Scene JSON, or save any scene as a project and reopen it from the welcome screen.
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