Using Lego to create battle grids and evironments

[Phhase]

Is it a thing? Has anyone done it? Is there some sort of guide or modular way to use lego that allows me to create grids quickly and easily? I feel like there must be. Anyone have pointers?

[Dimers]

I did years ago. Sorry, no real advice to give -- the important part for me was the minifigs. Switching out handheld stuff, headgear and clothing gave a good visual reminder of options the characters had. These days I would also use thin colored plates under the characters' feet to show other gamestates, like "bloodied" or "on fire" or "granting an aura", that kind of thing.

[LordEntrails]

You mean like Brickquest? It's a whole RPG boardgame based on using Lego's ... http://gunth.com/brickquest/

Their are also always some ideas on the Lego Ideas forums like ; https://ideas.lego.com/projects/d125...a-8d9bbf3b67de

[EccentricCircle]

It works well, but I tend to just use minifigs and objects on a regular battle matt, since building everything from lego takes a while. It looks great when it is done though!
Some things to note, best to use 4×4 square plates for 5ft squares, since inches are a bit small for lego figs. Alternate a couple of grey colours to get a chessboard like pattern, so everyone can see the squares. Then I tend not to build walls to full height. Just slightly raised, maybe by a couple of bricks, that way all players can see in comfortably. It also makes features like doors, statues etc stand out, since they stick up above the wall line.

[Hytheter]

the important part for me was the minifigs. Switching out handheld stuff, headgear and clothing gave a good visual reminder of options the characters had.

That sounds great, though I feel like it would be hard to get all the right parts. It'd be great if they made Lego sets specifically catering to RPGs. Not that I've bought any Lego in a long time, maybe it's easier now than I'm expecting.

[LordEntrails]

That sounds great, though I feel like it would be hard to get all the right parts. It'd be great if they made Lego sets specifically catering to RPGs. Not that I've bought any Lego in a long time, maybe it's easier now than I'm expecting.

It's easy if you are willing to spend money. Somewhere off the Lego Ideas site you can order individual brinks and accessories. But, just easier to buy a lot of Lego's (or imitation Legos) off ebay.

[daryen]

If you really want to use Lego this way, you can order parts directly from Lego using
Pick-A-Brick.

Separately, you might want to check out BrickLink or Brick Owl. With either of these sites you can order *old* parts. Not only can you get themes Lego is currently selling, but almost anything they have ever sold. While anything too old or too popular are expensive, many generic castle-themed items are available relatively inexpensively. BrickLink also has an extensive catalog of prior sets and their inventories, so that you can look through pictures of sets that have been done to get ideas. If you see a set that is really interesting, you have a pretty good chance to find their instructions on the Lego Building Instructions page.

For pure bulk loads of random bricks, your best bet is probably eBay.

Geez, I'm such a pathetic nerd ...

[Malphegor]

Yeah, lego’s pricey as hell.

Bricklink’s a good shout- fiddling about on that a little should get you pieces for most D&D stuff, though you might need to thnk outside the box for search terms to figure out what pieces you need to make something especially unique to D&D.

It can be done.

(I also recommend knockoff lego that claims to be compatible off ebay and amazon- you can get large quantities of generic fantasy pieces cheaply if you don’t mind the plastic feeling cheap and more flexible than Lego’s superior ‘holy hell is this plastic absurdly strong’

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've used minifigures before (a guy standing on a 2x3 flat block works pretty well on a one-inch grid), but I'd be hesitant to do much more than that. My experience has generally been that the more intricate the presentation--props, music, digital maps, etc--the more the game suffers. The closer you get to photorealism, the more apparent any flaws will become. Like, if I'm just throwing some dry erase marker on a whiteboard, everyone expects "this quarter is an ogre,these pennies are goblins," and so on. It's a lot harder when someone brings miniatures and has to say "okay, these two skeletons and this elf are the goblins, and this minotaur is an ogre. Humans are visual creatures; a complicated visual presentation will dominate your group's imagination, to the point that no-one remembers that you're fighting in the depths of a huge city-- just the two lego buildings you built with weird roofs.

Geez, I'm such a pathetic excellent nerd ...

Fixed that for you.

[Phhase]

complicated visual presentation

I don't intend on making set pieces, just the grid/obstacles like rocks or trees. Dry erase gets tiresome when you want more positioning complexity and intricate maps. That way I can make them ahead of time and just plop em on the table like a module board rather than painstakingly scrawling with a half-dead marker. Pennies or other tokens are just fine for what I intend. That or minis that are totally blank, just colors.

[Tvtyrant]

I never used legos, but I have used Styrofoam in combination with props. Using styrofoam for the map makes it easy to dig pits, rivers, etc. The props are mostly aquarium bits, like aquarium grass for trees and aquarium castles for castles. The characters were represented by chess pieces; I had some old LotR chess sets that worked quite well.

[daryen]

Fixed that for you.

Thank you!

[ErdrickOfAliaha]

I had success using the hex pieces from hero clix. Takes two sets and about half an hour to put together a boss fight area with 4ish areas for dynamic play- personal favorite was having a courtyard with gradual incline (stepped) on one side leading to a parapet over/across a drawbridge with some deep puddles (trebuchet damage) and broken defensive siege equipment. I think I left them a working ballista for fun.

I absolutely do Not recommend this for every or even most battles. The set up time makes it only for important, cinematic battles. If used sparingly and with great preparation, it can be intensely rewarding. I used the set up described earlier for a 3 sequence battle: invade, capture, then repel. Took about 4 hours to play through, but great fun was had by all And there was a place for everyone to shine. Those two factors combine to make the greatest RPG moments IME.

[KyleG]

Making some structures has always been my intent, just haven't got their yet. Can't wait to see it thou.

[ForzaFiori]

I've used legos once or twice, more out of necessity than because I had figures that matched characters. We used a big mat, and then just drew the basic map with 1x(X) blocks. Each person grabbed a figure, and other figures or blocks would be the monsters. It worked pretty well, but we eventually started making our own after we found OotS. We made OotS style figures on paint, printed them out, and attached magnets to them. Then we taped graph paper to a cooking sheet, and the figures would stay attached to it. It worked really well actually, you just had to be willing to make all your figurines.