Welcome to a special edition of Finder’s Archives.
I’ve had meandering topics about the reality of tabletop and RPG-gaming before, including an article where I linked into the various tools that you can use in your games. In those, I deliberately avoided mentioning miniatures and terrain – we all know miniatures – and terrain is usually made for wargaming, but with the opportunity, I had at an early view at Dungeons & Lasers, I couldn’t resist showing it off here. (This was actually helped by Egg Embry, an author who joined us recently here at d20radio, but who I’ve known for a while longer).
So what you see here is a Demo Box for Dungeons & Lasers – a system for creating modular terrain for your RPG games. The pieces here are display pieces, so they are fantasy on one side and Sci-fi on the other, but the real deal will only have one of the choices.
I will note that the pictures do not do it justice, but you can find more pictures of it on their own site or on Instagram or Facebook.
Appearance:
The detail on these is rather good, not EXTREMELY detailed, but well done, and especially at the distances where you play, they should look very nice. There’s just enough detail for it to look good on your table, and just enough that it’s not too much of a hassle to paint. The sci-fi stuff, in particular, is inspiring, probably because it has a very H.R. Giger feel to it (and I can only imagine playing the upcoming Alien RPG with it. Urrrggghhh (or YEEEAH! – depending on your outlook).
What you see here is one of the sprues as they look.
Quality:
Oh my god… When Michael from Dungeons & Lasers originally contacted me, I was expecting this to be either cardboard, MDF (laser-cut), or resin terrain. What I was NOT expecting was what we got. Which is plastic. Extremely strong and durable plastic. Like we’re talking Games Workshop plastic when it’s at it’s VERY best. It’s strong enough that getting it out of the sprues was hard for my side-cutters (which I’ve used a lot over the years, and which are very good and sharp), and I tried to snap one of the thinner floor pieces, and while I think I “CAN” do it, it’d take so much force that I’m worried I’d hurt my fingers. It is very likely the best terrain quality I’ve ever held in my hands, and considering I worked in 2 different gaming stores that sold wargaming miniatures and terrain – and that I did it for a decade, not to mention the 2½ decades of gaming: That is high praise. I really cannot emphasize how good this stuff is.
Versatility:
This one is a little more difficult for me to judge, given that it’s a demo box, and the pieces are limited. But what I can say is that the pieces snap-fit together (without the use of glue, which means you can change it as needed), and the snap-fit actually works WELL (unlike the snap-fit models of Games Workshop from back in the day) is a huge bonus in my book. Just so that you can see what I’ve mean, I’ve put in a picture of a piece of terrain built with one sprue, and one built with two.
Painting:
I haven’t painted any of the pieces yet, but what you see here is one that has been spray painted. It looks superb in real life and from what I can see and how it feels, it should paint up very well.
Conclusion:
I have to say that this is one of those rare Kickstarters that I’ll be watching very closely indeed. There’s a few reasons for it: 1) It’s terrain obviously – 2) The team is located in Poland, which should mean that it’s EU friendly as well, and I imagine they’ll have some sort of deal set up for the US residents, so that it can avoid the extra VAT and shipping charges. Those have always been a killer for me on other Kickstarters. – 3) It’s gorgeous. It really is, both looks-wise, but especially the material. As I mentioned, it more than anything reminded me of the strong GW plastics – like the ones used in Warhammer Quest or the ones that Mantic use in their terrain series for Dungeon Saga. And finally 4) – There’s a free miniature for the pledgers who join in the first 48 hours, once it launches on the 13th of August – I mean look at his little face and his sword! (I will say though, that while the other parts of it could be put together without glue, I wouldn’t try it with this one – that one needs it. 🙂 )
Kim Frandsen
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