When we picked up D&D again with 4th edition we went very low tech. I think most of us picked a mini for our characters but for pretty much everything else we used lego minifigs. Red colored minis were kobolds, green were goblins and orcs. We eventually transitioned into WotC minis the longer we played. There was no guarantee that things were going to last so why spend any money, right? We used legos for everything we could, including pillars. They work pretty well and don’t look too bad on the table but they’re still legos.
Now my kid gets a ton of candy for Easter and luckily she doesn’t eat a lot of it. So usually I wind up eating until Halloween and then the cycle starts over again. This is heading somewhere, trust me.
About a year ago while finishing off a tube of mini M&Ms she got at Easter I realized I found my new pillars.
Start by cutting off the lid using an x-acto knife or whatever is your preferred tool. A mini hacksaw would probably give you the most even cut. Remember no running! I’m pretty anal about these things so I measured the tube, found the midpoint and cut it in half. The cuts were a little wonky so I grabbed a medium grit piece of sandpaper and evened everything out. Now we have two proto-pillars ready to go standing flat and looking like, well they look like blue tubes.
Next thing to do was find a marble pattern using google’s image search. It can be kind of tough if you’re looking for something real specific but there’s plenty out there to choose from. I don’t remember now but I think I used a “large” sized image, it gave good details and I didn’t have to worry about having to manipulate the image.
After printing the image I cut a 1 inch square and wrapped that around the end that was facing up (the top of the pillar) and taped it down. A bigger square might be a little easier to work with but I was trying to cut down on the overlap. You just place it on top and fold the ends down, it gets a little crinkly but hey it free. Then I cut a piece of the marble image that was big enough to wrap the pillar itself. I taped down one side and just rolled the tube in the paper and sealed it with another piece of tape. If need be trim the bottom and your done.
Hey you’re gonna eat candy anyway you might as well get some use out it!