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I'm doing an experiment with abstract terrain built from off-brand magnatiles (an inexpensive kids toy) for quick setup, breakdown and minimal space for storage, and I'd like some feedback. The goal is to make something visually intriguing but non-committal to a genre; basically, I want to be able to have something that players could project their own setting onto. Think making an easily set up mountain town to explore for a Call of Cthulu game on Saturday, a 40k battle on Sunday, and a DND dungeon map sometime later in the week. Magnatiles themselves are also SOLID (they last for years with kids) and they assemble/disassemble quickly for scene changes.




To make these, I made up a 3D printed fitted stencil (i.e., one with raised edges that can just be popped onto the tile) and then either air brushed or dry brushed it. I put a polyurethane coat on it afterwards, as the magnets are strong enough to mar the paint in storage without some protection. The square magnatiles are 3 inches on the side (appropriate for one story in most model focused games) and individual painted tiles are one inch on the side. I tried to make both sides have a grid for easy visual reference in games, but one side has a more standard checkerboard pattern for dungeon crawls/grid based tactical gameplay (where quickly counting squares is all important), while the other is prettier for theater of the mind/ruler based war games. The grid is off kilter from the tile because 1) its aesthetically interesting and 2) tessellation for the checkerboard pattern only needs one pattern instead of 2.



There are other geometric shapes that these magnatiles come in, but I haven't made stencils for them yet. They would be useful in dungeon crawls (e.g., closed and open doors, windows), and the equilateral triangles would make a very nice hex grid.

What do you all think? Is this something worth building on and refining? Is there any additions that you all might make? I think one of my bigger concerns is that the black and gold are attention grabbing in a way that doesn't let the terrain fade into the background, but some of my friends seem to think the fancy look is nice. Later versions might have a more subtle color scheme.

I think there's a lot of potential here. Quick, simple and has a pretty cool pattern to them like there's a necron tomb erupting out of the ground. If you could make some longer 2 inch high walls to go with those 4 inch high walls you so far, you would have solid terrain for killteam.

But that pattern looks awfully familiar...

 Mr Nobody wrote:
I think there's a lot of potential here. Quick, simple and has a pretty cool pattern to them like there's a necron tomb erupting out of the ground. If you could make some longer 2 inch high walls to go with those 4 inch high walls you so far, you would have solid terrain for killteam.

But that pattern looks awfully familiar...

Now now, there's no need to lament the configuration of his terrain...