Hobgoblin 3D is back with another great Kickstarter. Tavern-Born™: Pintsized Realms – 3D Printable Kingdoms went live yesterday and funded in moments. This time around, the Kickstarter features modular towns, villages, wizard towers, wilderness scenes, keeps, and even figurines. Each of the scenes shown in this post are demonstrative. The prints are 100% modular, perfect for the DM with 9 gazillion ideas.
Note: Hobgoblin 3D does not sell physical prints of these patterns. You need a 3D printer in order to use these patterns.
Scenes and Tiles
Above, you can see one of the village sets. This layout includes 26 square tiles, and is surrounded by trim pieces which cover the various prongs from the modular squares, providing a nice clean finish, no matter how you organize your villages. The best part of the trim pieces is that there are corners (exterior and interior), which means there’s never a gap at the edges.
I’m particularly partial to the village set because it includes wood post fences, along with basics such as houses, chapels, farms, and even a church/graveyard. In my own campaign, the heroes are pioneers mapping out unexplored territories, and their home base is pretty rustic. Of course, over time their initial settlement will grow, so it’s particularly useful to have a modular set because it’s super easy to add on without needing to print out a whole new set each time.
This wilderness scene is one I like most because of the versatility of it. Since you print and paint all of your own pieces, you can make these scenes set in any season and any terrain. If you don’t want too dense a forest, focus on tiles with fewer trees. I think this set will be best suited to beach-front scenery, thanks to the gentle slopes at the edges of the scene. Of course, if you’d like, you can use walls on the edges from any other design set.
A town set like this one includes sturdy stone walls, brick and stone architecture, and crowded urban scenescapes. Options include aqueducts, temples, a keep, and much more. The houses are laid out in such a manner than many of them can be repeated without too obvious a pattern emerging. Just paint them a bit differently, and you’re set to use tiles in many ways.
In the above photos, you can see the various tiles which are included in the Village Core pack. Backers who back at this level will receive patterns for all of these tiles and additional patterns for the stretch goals.
Assembly
Here I’ve zoomed in on some tiles and trim pieces. With the alternating prong/slot design, tiles snick in together easily and securely. Once they are assembled, I can carry a scene around without too much worry that it will collapse, but it’s fairly easy to disassemble them when needed.
Above you can see an assembled set of fully painted tiles. This village is made up of 4 scene tiles from the Village set, along with 12 trim pieces which cover the snaps. Forgive any broken pieces, please. My cat and I have differing opinions on what is a toy. Those breaks are not indicative of the hardiness of the prints, as these were never designed to take a tackle from a 10-pound floof-monster!
Backing Levels
The backing options range from £40 to £90, with the £90 level including all of the tiles on offer. For £40, you can get any one of the core sets (Wilderness, Town, Adventure, and Village), and for $65, you can get any two. The best value is easily the £90 backing level, and it is overwhelmingly the most popular choice.
Stretch Goals
Hobgoblin 3D has already smashed through their first round of stretch goals, and is steaming through to the next batch. Currently unlocked are the complete set of miniatures, the stone keep, and the round keep. Upcoming goals include a war camp with 16 new pieces, a moat and bailey, an orc camp with 11 additional pieces, and the Dread Fortress, featuring a super-sized lair and 3 war machines.
Pay Attention
Livestreams are coming up, and new tiles and designs will be revealed during those streams. The schedule is as follows:
- 30th October 2018 2pm-6pm Eastern
- 9th November 2018 2pm-6pm Eastern
- 14th November 2018 3pm-7pm Eastern
You can also keep up with the campaign by following Hobgoblin 3D on these platforms:
- Facebook @Hobgoblin3D
- Instragram @Hobgoblin3D
- Kickstarter
Disclaimer: Hobgoblin 3D provided a few tiles for the purposes of evaluation for this review.
Were you able to test out the printing of any of these? I’m curious how much time/materials are involved and the quality of the final print.
I was not able to print a test one out, though you can! There’s a sample pattern to download on the KS page so you can test it yourself.
I’m also going to add a picture of a pre-printed/painted one I received in a moment.