Dungeon Mastering a game of Dungeons and Dragons, but both you and your players are bored to tears of hastily drawn maps on dry erase grids? Maybe it’s time to look at bringing some actual terrain into your tabletop RPG sessions.
What Is Modular Realms Terrain?
Modular Realms Terrain is flatpack, double-sided terrain tiles that connect magnetically. The campaign is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with a base pledge level of $77 NZ(approximately $54 USD) for the “Adventurer Pack” of 30 tiles. There are multiple pledge levels available, including both unpainted and painted.
Modular Realms Terrain was designed by Annabelle Collins.
New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer.
Modular Realms Terrain Components
I was sent a painted Adventurer Pack for this review. It should be noted that if you pledge for an Adventurer Pack, the tiles will come in grey, unpainted plastic. Here are the tiles I received:
The tiles are double-sided, and when you pledge, you’ll get your choice of two out of four different textures. I received the “cracked stone” and “wood” textures, but there are also “flagstone” and “plain.”
In the Kickstarter campaign, there will also be several additional pieces available as both stretch goals and add-ons. Some of these include wooden doors, jail doors, trap doors, and curved floors.
How Does Modular Realms Work?
Each tile has magnets inside hidden sockets, that will actually spin and line up the polarity each time you connect tiles together. Here’s a short video from Modular Realms that shows off this feature:
This makes it very quick and easy to build maps on the fly. This layout went together in no time at all:
And, of course, you don’t have to deal with dubious drawing skills and messy dry erase markers when putting together your map.
Thanks to the magnetic nature of the tiles, you’re not restricted to building floor plans, either. I threw together this room with walls:
Another benefit to the magnetic terrain is that you can create your layout on an uneven surface, should you perhaps find yourself playing outdoors. Not the most common situation, but it’s certainly a fringe benefit should the occasion arise. Or you can use the tiles to create impromptu bridges, like this one over “lava.”
Why You Should Back Modular Realms Terrain
If you had watched the video above, you know that the original design for the terrain had static magnets on the sides, which required you to make sure you lined up the polarity correctly so that the tiles would stick together and not repel each other. This updated, clever design just plain works. You don’t have to worry about the direction of each tile, you just put them together and they attach. The magnets are just the right strength: strong enough to hold together while playing your games, but easy to pull apart when creating new designs or breaking everything down for storage.
Each tile is also broken into 1″ squares, which as any roleplayer worth their salt knows, is the standard grid size for movement in most tabletop RPGs. If you’re looking to get away from those 2D battlemaps and add a little more immersion to your roleplaying sessions, Modular Realms Terrain is an affordable, easy to use terrain system that allows you to quickly build out your maps on the fly.
For more information or to make a pledge, visit the Modular Realms Kickstarter page!
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this terrain for review purposes.
