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[Defenestration]

My buddy Trevor came up with a great idea, and he's currently gathering what he needs to get started. It turns out manufacturing quality injection molds are *really goddamn expensive* from the perspective of a normal person. This fine community has many people that enjoy games of the tabletop persuasion so I thought I might do everyone a favor and just point out this out. He calls them Terrablox.

My name is Trevor, I've been working as a graphic designer for a few years. I've done work designing cards for board and collectible card games, and I've started becoming more interested in tabletop games.

I found myself wanting simple, abstract, very modular, and setting-agnostic 3D terrain. Something that can be built quickly, stored easily, and would look and feel cool on the tabletop.

I've known about Dwarven Forge for a long time and thought it was great, but it's very expensive and sort of specialized. Heroscape (now out of print) is also neat, but not really the right size to use for typical RPGs and wargames, which are measured in inches, and many players do not like hexes.

But I thought, what if you just had cubes that linked together horizontally and stacked vertically? Have a handful of "natural" colors that you could intepret as a wide variety of materials. Make them one inch so they work with a lot of gaming systems. Plastic so they're durable, lightweight, and cheap.

I obviously have a personal interest in seeing this get done, but it's a goddamn great idea that I think a lot of people would be interested in. They would be much, much cheaper than Dwarven forge tiles, much more exciting than just cardboard dungeon tiles, and simple enough that you can construct your dungeon on the fly as PCs get into sight range of everything. As soon as he gets enough funds to get the mold done, he can start taking preorders; a set of 125 like the one that's the last picture of the page in that link will go from $40 to as low as $25 depending on demand... though I don't think that will be a problem if he can get past this step.



Did I mention there was a link? http://www.indiegogo.com/Terrablox

[Lottel]

If I had the funds...


But hell, I doubt I could even buy a set, let alone help fund it.

[T]

Just wanted to pop in and say I have the first set of prototypes printed, so I'll be uploading video of those soon and you'll be able to see how they actually work.

[Mongrel]

FYI, this already exists and looks almost identical, only it's hex-based. Most people who wargame and want this sort of stuff just buy Heroscape sets.

[Lottel]

In the link he talks about it, but see hexbased is good for war gaming. PnP RPGs on the oher hand, use squares. One inch squares.

[jsnlxndrlv]

Also, isn't Heroscape out-of-print, and therefore increasingly difficult to find?

[Defenestration]

As noted, Mongrel, it's already been addressed!

Heroscape (now out of print) is also neat, but not really the right size to use for typical RPGs and wargames, which are measured in inches, and many players do not like hexes.

[Niku]

hey defen the addressing was already addressed

[Ziiro]

I'm going to see what I can do to get the word out. This is pretty brilliant.

[Mongrel]

Well, Heroscape is still available in many retail stores and has a robust secondary market. Uh, actually, I'm pretty sure it's not out of print at all. Or at the very least, it's back into print after a hiatus.

Some people not liking hexes is a valid point, but on most wargaming forums (and I've been to many), hexes seem to be preferred to grids. I would say that the exact game rules would probably be the biggest factor there and that there's at least nothing wrong with having a competing product aimed towards the crowd that does prefer grids.

[Büge]

Some people not liking hexes is a valid point, but on most wargaming forums (and I've been to many), hexes seem to be preferred to grids.

A lot of RPGs favour grids.

[the asshole you hate]

IT WILL NEVER WORK!!1 but i guess it might

4th ed is very specifically designed to be played with 1 inch squares.

Ok this product is amazing. I usually have to build something stupid with cardboard and use tubes and weird shit to hold it all up, but with this I could BUILD the stone cliff or the trees or whatever. I'm all about this. Sorry I gots no cash but I need to eat more than I need to fund this awesome idea.

[jsnlxndrlv]

4th ed is very specifically designed to be played with 1 inch squares.

True, but it's not like it's hard to convert bursts and blasts to work with hexes rather than squares, and if I actually had a couple Heroscape sets lying around, I'd do it for my game in a heartbeat.

Either way, Terrablox seems pretty cool, and I'll happily send the link around to my contacts.

[the asshole you hate]

4th ed is very specifically designed to be played with 1 inch squares.

True, but it's not like it's hard to convert bursts and blasts to work with hexes rather than squares, and if I actually had a couple Heroscape sets lying around, I'd do it for my game in a heartbeat.

Why?

[Ted Belmont]

I want to use these to make FFT battlegrounds

[jsnlxndrlv]

4th ed is very specifically designed to be played with 1 inch squares.

True, but it's not like it's hard to convert bursts and blasts to work with hexes rather than squares, and if I actually had a couple Heroscape sets lying around, I'd do it for my game in a heartbeat.

Why?

Because it's a really dynamic landscape-creation tool. This has the same benefit. I'd happily use either, and the fact that Heroscape is hexes instead of squares wouldn't be enough to put me off if I actually had some.

[T]

Heroscape is also pretty big though (1.5" or nearly 2" inches, I think), and it's all exterior terrain only. Squares/cubes are better for interiors, buildings, etc. and still work for exterior as well, as Minecraft shows.

I think it's different enough to be viable.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, if I had a bunch of Herosacpe I'd use it for RPGs in a heartbeat. Fighting in a canyon? BAM, height differences friggin everywhere.

[Misha]

is there a reason he's on this and not kickstarter? It seems like in this sort of thing being on the biggest donation site would be a huge benefit

[T]

Kickstarter turned me down as not matching the feel of the site.

[Ziiro]

If you go about marketing/advertising on a larger scale: Go for a minecraft audience as well. Saw you posted it on the MC forums already. Okay then. There's no good "minecraft toy set" that I know of and this would be awesome for that. (Plus, if it really takes off? See if you can talk to Mojang about making a set with minecraft textures on them.)