So some time ago (early 2024) I stumbled over this three guys trying to get attention to their Upcoming Kickstarter for a modular terrain system.

So, like any hobby hoarder in our hobby I emailed them with questions and before I knew it I got sent a big box of beta-pieces.

It took some time but last night I managed to have a game of Battletech with them. Because you see, the tiles are hex shaped and fit the maps great. Even though the beta test docs say:

We particularly designed the tile with Battletech and DnD in mind. Battletech uses a 32.8mm hex. This beta generation of prototype doesn’t quite match the scale, as ours are exactly 32mm, but our next generation of tile will be 32.75mm, and thus be indistinguishable from battletech hexes.

It’s barely noticeable and already looks and feels great. And my friend who I played with on that map said so too. Especially having a physical elevation is helping so much with planing on strategies. One layer of tiles is a Level 1 elevation, two layers are a Level 2 elevation and so on.  Let me show you some pictures from last night:

The only change I would do to this set would be to add some kind of system to have them interlock vertically. Since a mechanical lock would probably interfere with the playability for Battletech flat magnets could be a solution. And since my mechs already have metal washers in their bases it would help even more with accidental miniature movement when bumping against the table.

What do the designers of this nice set have to say?

• Lorescape is a 32mm modular hex terrain system for fantasy, wargaming and RPG tabletop gaming.
• Current graphical scale is 10mm scale, (5m of terrain per tile), and is ideal for travel maps or fantasy RPG in openworld, but in future will include 30mm scale (suitable for DnD interior combat maps) and 2mm scale (for big wargaming and campaign maps).
• 50pc tile packs come in a variety of biomes with both basic terrain and accessories packs with more detailed things like roads, rivers and forests
• Players can choose tiles suited to the biomes they want to represent, and play many different games on the same product, without having to have something specialised for only one game.
• There are opensource printable clips that attach to the top of the tiles (files available on our website), so that players can attach mini-figs, scatter terrain, buildings and tokens to the maps in precise placement without them being knocked over or moved around.
• The tiles are ABS, so they can be glued to with most standard modeling glue, and also painted on with pretty much any model paint. We highly encourage players to customise the tiles in whatever way they want. The come with pre-printed graphics so that people who don’t want to paint dont have to, but we aren’t intent on stopping those that want to.
• The major games that the system is intended for are DnD style map quest/combat RPG games, and Battletech style combat games.
• For DnD, we want to give people an option beyond the standard hand-drawn maps, which can be the real weak-point in the gameplay experience, or printed maps, which are lovely but can’t be changed.
• With Lorescape, a DM or GM can not only build a completely custom campaign or combat map, but change it on the fly during the session, add on and reveal new areas, and then completely re-use the tiles for the next session. Campaign maps can be kept to one side and added to over time, or used for hex-crawl sandbox discovery campaigns. You can hide treasures, traps and tokens under the tiles for players to discover, and initiate encounters.

There really isn’t much more that I could wish for. And I’m sure it will work great with any other hex based map system too!

What kind of biomes/types of terrain are there? Currently the website states:

• Grassland
• Grassland accessories
• Mountains
• Barrenlands
• Coastal
• Desert

But I’m pretty sure there is more in the beta test set but I’m not a 100% sure if I am allowed to spoil that surprise.

You can find out more about the project on their homepage and their product page. Also the Kickstarter page is waiting for you to click “remind me” here.

Last, but not least here is the KS trailer:

Let me just say: good work so far James, Rafal and Mateusz. If every KS would have such a well made product to start with our hobby would be so much better. And I so much more broke.