Dungeons and Lasers terrain has always intrigued us. Not just because it sells well, but because it’s truly the first ever plastic box set that actually delivers what it promises to do, and that’s being modular. In this blog I take a look at how the team behind Dungeons and Lasers becomes the dominant species in terrain world. Do note that I am talking about the fantasy setting here, not the Sci-fi, but the only difference between the two settings is the style of the tiles and bits.
Looking at the competition
During the time of the first Dungeons and Lasers Kickstarter, you had a couple of options that were good(ish). All are good in their own way, but just one (guess which one) is good on all grounds.
First of there is the Dwarven Forge with its Dwarvenite mix of material. They promise that their terrain is nearly unbreakable, modular and light. The one thing that makes a product excellent, is missing, and that is the size of the blocks. They are -traveling to and from conventions-, just a bit too big and take up quite the amount of space. For me at least.
Then there is Dragonlock, a printable terrain tile that could have been where the idea for Dungeons and lasers came from. The fact that it’s printable, made sure a lot of people use them. Another positive of this product is, is that it’s manageable, more than Dwarven Forge. The downside about printed tiles, is that they don’t live that long as plastic.
Enter Dungeons and Lasers
The third is on the main stage in this little blog, is of course Dungeons and Lasers. Archon Studio had already a lot of experience and the CNC machines to make HIPS plastic molds. The first win was it being pure plastic. This pulled the pricing way down to being affordable when buying more than one set at a time. Second is that there is a big diversity when looking at the product. You have true dungeons, sewers, complete castles and Inns. All of them have been built by the same concept of the 50mm square tiles. There are long and short ones, where the long are 100 mm long. The same goes for the walls.
Pathfinder and Dungeons and Lasers
Right after the delivery of the first Kickstarter, which was delivered in full height walls, came three sets in collab with Paizo. Dungeons straight out of the Pathfinder books, so licensed. This also meant, that part of the license, there needed to be half height walls to have better overview. The Dwarven Mine, The Abomination Vaults and the City of Absalom were the released sets. Thanks to the modularity being the same tile connection system, the half height and full height walls only added more flavor to where the adventurers would end up in. It never distracted from the excitement of the stories being told by the GM.
These three sets ended up being part of the four base sets and are still some of the best sold sets in the shop, apart from the miniatures of course. That’s a whole different story.
Enter the Dungeons and Lasers Miniature line
With the second kickstarter also came something new. Not modular board tiles, but full-fledged plastic model kits and miniatures, filling a hole that hasn’t been filled for years. Normal models in the form of townsfolk and regular NPC’s, but also a whole line of still expanding dragons. Simply said, no matter how much you bring these to the conventions, they are always sold out. Some sets have 65 models in them, with barely any duplicates, some have just 27 models, but are bigger (and more scary) than the regular humans in the bigger boxes.
Now that the miniature line has exploded, another Kickstarter came, called Deuslair. It promised more than 400 miniatures and is yet to release to retail, so I can’t say anything more than that I have seen on the Nuremberg Toy fair (tradeshow), and was blown away by the sculpts. Definitely something to keep an eye out for.
So, the modularity of the whole Dungeons and Lasers story?
Well… In short, everything that has a connector clip, can be connected to another tile, no matter what the set is from. Want to have six boxes of sewers? Fine. Want to add a tavern in the 6th layer of your dungeon, filled with undead, reminiscent of days long gone? Why don’t you put a torture chamber next to it for the folks that didn’t pay for their drinks, now guarded by a vermin swarm? Want to go up some levels? Well… you get the point.
They even thought about the builders instead of the painters. In the near future, there will be more pre-painted sets than the Dwarven Mine, based on the work of one of the studio painters, so even pre-painted, it’s pro-painted. A little more expensive, but you don’t have to prep that much before actually playing in it.
Rounded Corners in Dungeons and Lasers
The only thing that was missing is being added now, and that was curved corners. For the rest, the Dungeons and Lasers terrain, miniature line and bits sets have everything a GM would need to run their campaigns, in dungeons and outside of them. There are forest sets, trees sets, entrances, dungeons, whole towns, streets, roofs and more to keep the GM building and the players playing.
Dungeons and Lasers advice from ye olde father
Calculate what you need and buy the appropriate sets. Sometimes, when you need more than one starter set, it’s more interesting to take one of the bigger sets they have, as the amount of sets you need to take to get to the same point, is more expensive. These bigger sets, like the Undercity Hideout, the Inn or the Castle, are worth more in tile numbers. With that in mind, you can make more for less money.
When you are just looking for a good starting point, one of the 3 Half Heights or the full height starter is your way to go! Not interested in painting and need to have the set on the table in 2 days? Check out the awesome new pre-painted sets Dungeons and Lasers offer these days. In the future, every set will get a same set pre-painted brother or sister.
So, for a GM, there is no reason to not look at this product line, since everything you need is in it. Check out the Dungeons and Lasers sets in our shop and take what you need, start painting (if you didn’t chose the pre-painted ones) and start building! There are a million ways to build, one to fit every adventure you might think of!
Ps. Did we tell you that the Epic Encounters Local Legends series is a perfect drop in with these sets?
