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Glue Stick Terrain, the free printable RPG terrain, is here
Terrain Wizard announces a new product line, Glue Stick Terrain. Glue Stick Terrain is free printable terrain made for Do It Yourself (DIY) Dungeon Masters(DM).
“Glue Stick Terrain expands our support of RPG terrain to the DIY DM. These DMs know that terrain enhances the gaming experience. Plus, they enjoy creating their own encounters. So they want and need something more than hand-drawn maps,” said company spokesperson Liam Fryers.
Contents
- 1 Wizards Of The Coast Start The Ball Rolling
- 2 DMs Want More Creative Control
- 3 Dwarven Forge Brings Us A 3-D World
- 4 DM Scotty Creates The 2.5D World
- 5 The DM G Teaches Us Modularity
- 6 A J Pickett Just Wants To Play A Game
- 7 Terrain Wizard Introduces Low-profile Modular Terrain
- 8 Low-profile Builds On The 2.5D Foundation
- 9 Free Printables Available In The Store
Wizards Of The Coast Start The Ball Rolling
When researching RPG terrain, we went straight to Dungeons and Dragons (DnD). The Wizards of the Coast (WotC) staff created card terrain tiles for their game offerings.
WotC released a whole series of terrain tiles to go along with their various offerings. At first, DMs used the cards to play out the encounters provided by WotC.
DMs Want More Creative Control
Eventually, DM’s wanted more creative control over the encounters. So they needed to create their own terrain.
Hand-drawn maps on butcher’s paper set the direction. But they were bulky and not very flexible. Then came an assortment of modular tiles. These were all steps in the right direction.
Dwarven Forge Brings Us A 3-D World
When Dwarven Forge created commercially available 3D modular tiles, it seemed like the ultimate answer.
But DMs like DM Scotty found there were some shortcomings to these tiles.
First, they blocked the DM’s view of the encounter. Second, everyone kept knocking them over as they played. Third, while they are beautiful, they are heavy and expensive.
He felt he had a better answer – 2.5D tiles.
DM Scotty Creates The 2.5D World
2.5D tiles introduced short walls, letting the DM see the encounter and allowing players to move without scattering the game pieces.
He even fixed the weight and cost problem by crafting his own tiles from scrap corrugated paper.
Clearly, DM Scotty enjoys the crafting part of creating 2.5D tiles. Plus, he plays a grid-free game. This led to a closet full of unique terrain pieces.
The DM G Teaches Us Modularity
The next step forward came from down under. The Dungeon Master G took the 2.5D tile and made it modular. So now, a much smaller set of reusable tiles can build an almost unlimited range of terrain.
But it still required everyone to craft their own tiles.
A J Pickett Just Wants To Play A Game
A J Pickett saw the advantage of the modular 2.5D tile but wasn’t really interested in spending his time painting tiles.
So he worked with the people at Heroic Maps to create printable modular dungeon kits that could be used to create 2.5D tiles.
You still have to go dumpster diving for corrugated paper, but you don’t have to be an artist to create great-looking tiles.
Terrain Wizard Introduces Low-profile Modular Terrain
We liked the modular, 2.5D, printed terrain idea that is why we created Glue Sick Terrain.
But we wanted to make sure that DMs had something easy to work with. It needed to be inexpensive and give reliable results.
So we recommend foam core board. After all, DMs want to create encounters, not go dumpster diving.
Also, there are many encounter scenarios. Hence there need to be many different kinds of terrain.
For example, a DM needs to be thinking about encounters in sewers, not how to create a sewer tile.
So we offer several kinds of tiles.
Low-profile Builds On The 2.5D Foundation
We also call Glue Stick Terrain low profile and not 2.5D. The reason is simple. We are keeping the best of 2.5D – short walls, but we are building on DM Scotty’s original ideas.
We hope to add buildings, scatter terrain, and other game assets that build on the 2.5D modular concepts.
Free Printables Available In The Store
Glue Stick Terrain is available at no cost through the Terrain Wizard store.
The PDF printables let your printer do the artwork. All you have to do is cut and paste—something you mastered in elementary school.
It also lets people on limited budgets create a rich gaming experience. Besides, it is an excellent way for people to try the low-profile system.
If you are a DM who wants to create a rich gaming experience, then Glue Stick Terrain, the free printable low-profile modular terrain, is made for you.