#gridscape

If you’re like me you have a ton of Dungeon Tiles from 3.5 and 4th edition, but you don’t use them very often because you’re frustrated with how they never stay in place when your players bump them. That’s why I was really excited when I saw the Gridscape Kickstarter last year;  I just had my package delivered, and I was not disappointed.

The Gridscape was really easy to build and blocks are a high quality plastic. The industrial pegboard is also great. Setup is as fast or faster than drawing it on a Chessex mat. The tiles fit inside perfectly, and I was able to make some really great looking setups, for a fraction of the cost and weight of Dwarven Forge, and I feel like this has significantly more modularity.  (That’s the demogorgon figure from Stranger Things shown below) 

The doors are 3d printed, and also available on Gridscape’s website. They really remind me of playing Hero Quest when I was a kid, which is the game that really inspired Age of Exploration (more than D&D even). I’m almost done with a ‘Hero Quest’ themed adventure for AoE, and Dave @flavoracle and I will keep you posted about how it’s coming. Gridscape won’t be required to play it, but we’ll definetly be using it in our playtesting. 

I made a whole bunch of different set ups and there’s a million different combinations of rooms you can make with it. If 18x18 isn’t big enough, it uses standard pegboard, and you can just go buy a bigger one from anywhere.

I also really liked being able to hide secret treasures or traps on the tiles without making it too obvious to the players. (Above) Here’s a tile that’s a pressure plate: If the players step on it, without searching first… it shoots out flame jets! (Below) A rug in the front hall is just decoration... surely the fountain is the real puzzle... but if they search the rug, they find a trap door under it.