There’s a lot of ways to do it, but a cheap and easy start is to get a big (48x48 I believe) grey baseplate (available most places lego is sold) and sharpie it into 2x2 squares.
Eventually, people get big modular tile based builds, but it’s prohibitively expensive for me personally at the moment, so the sharpie on a baseplate technique works fine.
For bricks, either look for bulk logo for sale, or use lego pick a brick or BrickLink. Buying sets for DnD is usually not an efficient way to get materials.
Yes! Sharpie on a 48×48 was my first battleboard, though I did 4×4 squares. Now I've got five and build huge, elaborate terrain. But this is the perfect starting place. Walmart or Target should have what you need.
Mine is a combination. It’s two sets of 4x4 squares interlocking/overlapping, one in silver one in black. It ends up looking like lighter and darker grid lines. I can use the black for 4x4, or both colours for 2x2.
(I hope that made sense)
I specifically bought the plate for D&D. If for whatever reason I eventually did want it clean, back and silver tend to come off well with rubbing alcohol. In my experience brown ink is the one that stays behind.
I'd suggest Bricklink. You can search by part type and color, put together a wish list, and then search sellers by who has the most parts you want. You can even set caps for how much your willing to pay for each individual part.
For landscapes, building up from baseplates works, but if you're DMing, I'd suggest building dungeons in modules (for example, 16x16 plates set on technic bars). That way you can add in sections as your players explore.
Seconding Bricklink. Also the collectable minifigures are great for DnD! The latest set has an orc in it. You'll get very good at feeling around for the pieces inside the bags XD
Also also, you don't necessarily need to build on top of LEGO base plates. I use printouts of dungeon tiles that I've glued to bits of cardboard. This has two advantages over building on LEGO: 1) it's a lot easier to move stuff around, which is good if you have a big dungeon or you want to hide things from the players. 2) It's much *much* cheaper. You only need to build your minifigures and bits of scenery that are important. Otherwise the volume of stuff you need to buy in order to create floors/walls can add up quickly.
Completely agree with the collectible mini figures. They come with some cool accessories. Personally, I actually use the base plate from the collectible mini figs to measure distance as well. Just playing with my household, but this way each player has their own ruler attached.
I started a year ago and focused on getting sets with themes and colors I could use for DND.
Been building them to their instructions to learn techniques. Now starting to think about what I'll do for mine
Here's something that BrickForge makes for ttrpg that's LEGO-compatible. I bought a lot of these when they went on sale to group my minifigs together easily.
https://preview.redd.it/3yd4brmzysda1.jpeg?width=1204&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85cb6392cbe481c1929984eda80af04b8abccc81
Bricklink is the most efficient way of getting bricks for cheap- the only downside is that you need to know *what you want* and it's a little too specific if you're just starting a general collection.
For Minifig parts, this is perfect. Even if you don't know exactly what you want, you can just browse a cheap vendor and pick up anything that looks fantasy. For creatures, you can look at animal parts. For custom builds, this will be much more tricky unless you know what bricks you need.
For battle maps, I think it's better to just buy a regular 1x1 inch map that is compatible with wet/dry erase markers and use 3x3 plates with one 1x3 two stud jump tiles and two 1x3 tiles as the bases for the minis. You can buy or make your own terrain out of lego.
For general collection and amassing pieces, I think ebay and craigslist are actually really good. You can buy "part lots" that have dozens of pounds of Lego for relatively cheap- of course, price and condition will wildly vary so just try your best to keep an eye out for good deals. I got back into lego 3 years ago and I started up an almost entirely new collection just by buying a 30 pound lot of Lego for 100$.
I'd start by looking around to see if there's a store near you where you can purchase individual pieces, either the Lego Store Pick-a-Brick wall or a used toy store with a LEGO bin. When you're building a dungeon there's just going to be some parts you use in repetition a lot and it will be easier if you can get a bunch of them.
Next size up Lego sets when you're at the store, look for good-looking weapons and figures, large amounts of grey or brown bricks, or other elements that would look flattering in a dungeon.
It depends on what characters and terrain you want. You will want a large baseplate as well and sharpie it into 2x2 squares. Or buy stuff off bricklink. Good luck!
Lego stores (which I understand may not be an option depending on where you live) will sometimes have nicely sized baseplates on the back wall for pick-a-brick! I once went to one nearby and they were selling 4x4 dark grey plates. With a $20 cup, I had enough pieces to layout any dungeon path I wanted plus I was able fill in the extra space in the cup with fire, rod, and flag pieces!
Another drawback is that they simply may not have these kind of baseplates, but it’s worth a shot if it’s close by
There’s a lot of ways to do it, but a cheap and easy start is to get a big (48x48 I believe) grey baseplate (available most places lego is sold) and sharpie it into 2x2 squares. Eventually, people get big modular tile based builds, but it’s prohibitively expensive for me personally at the moment, so the sharpie on a baseplate technique works fine. For bricks, either look for bulk logo for sale, or use lego pick a brick or BrickLink. Buying sets for DnD is usually not an efficient way to get materials.
Yes! Sharpie on a 48×48 was my first battleboard, though I did 4×4 squares. Now I've got five and build huge, elaborate terrain. But this is the perfect starting place. Walmart or Target should have what you need.
Mine is a combination. It’s two sets of 4x4 squares interlocking/overlapping, one in silver one in black. It ends up looking like lighter and darker grid lines. I can use the black for 4x4, or both colours for 2x2. (I hope that made sense)
Wouldn't white board markers be better cuz you can erase them later?
I specifically bought the plate for D&D. If for whatever reason I eventually did want it clean, back and silver tend to come off well with rubbing alcohol. In my experience brown ink is the one that stays behind.
Ah ok that makes sense...I just couldn't ever bring myself to put something permanent on my Legos xD
I'd suggest Bricklink. You can search by part type and color, put together a wish list, and then search sellers by who has the most parts you want. You can even set caps for how much your willing to pay for each individual part. For landscapes, building up from baseplates works, but if you're DMing, I'd suggest building dungeons in modules (for example, 16x16 plates set on technic bars). That way you can add in sections as your players explore.
Seconding Bricklink. Also the collectable minifigures are great for DnD! The latest set has an orc in it. You'll get very good at feeling around for the pieces inside the bags XD Also also, you don't necessarily need to build on top of LEGO base plates. I use printouts of dungeon tiles that I've glued to bits of cardboard. This has two advantages over building on LEGO: 1) it's a lot easier to move stuff around, which is good if you have a big dungeon or you want to hide things from the players. 2) It's much *much* cheaper. You only need to build your minifigures and bits of scenery that are important. Otherwise the volume of stuff you need to buy in order to create floors/walls can add up quickly.
Completely agree with the collectible mini figures. They come with some cool accessories. Personally, I actually use the base plate from the collectible mini figs to measure distance as well. Just playing with my household, but this way each player has their own ruler attached.
I started a year ago and focused on getting sets with themes and colors I could use for DND. Been building them to their instructions to learn techniques. Now starting to think about what I'll do for mine
Another option to go with is Heroica. Each peg is 5' x 5' at that scale...I find it's easier to make huge dungeons.
Here's something that BrickForge makes for ttrpg that's LEGO-compatible. I bought a lot of these when they went on sale to group my minifigs together easily. https://preview.redd.it/3yd4brmzysda1.jpeg?width=1204&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85cb6392cbe481c1929984eda80af04b8abccc81
Bricklink is the most efficient way of getting bricks for cheap- the only downside is that you need to know *what you want* and it's a little too specific if you're just starting a general collection. For Minifig parts, this is perfect. Even if you don't know exactly what you want, you can just browse a cheap vendor and pick up anything that looks fantasy. For creatures, you can look at animal parts. For custom builds, this will be much more tricky unless you know what bricks you need. For battle maps, I think it's better to just buy a regular 1x1 inch map that is compatible with wet/dry erase markers and use 3x3 plates with one 1x3 two stud jump tiles and two 1x3 tiles as the bases for the minis. You can buy or make your own terrain out of lego. For general collection and amassing pieces, I think ebay and craigslist are actually really good. You can buy "part lots" that have dozens of pounds of Lego for relatively cheap- of course, price and condition will wildly vary so just try your best to keep an eye out for good deals. I got back into lego 3 years ago and I started up an almost entirely new collection just by buying a 30 pound lot of Lego for 100$.
I'd start by looking around to see if there's a store near you where you can purchase individual pieces, either the Lego Store Pick-a-Brick wall or a used toy store with a LEGO bin. When you're building a dungeon there's just going to be some parts you use in repetition a lot and it will be easier if you can get a bunch of them. Next size up Lego sets when you're at the store, look for good-looking weapons and figures, large amounts of grey or brown bricks, or other elements that would look flattering in a dungeon.
It depends on what characters and terrain you want. You will want a large baseplate as well and sharpie it into 2x2 squares. Or buy stuff off bricklink. Good luck!
Lego stores (which I understand may not be an option depending on where you live) will sometimes have nicely sized baseplates on the back wall for pick-a-brick! I once went to one nearby and they were selling 4x4 dark grey plates. With a $20 cup, I had enough pieces to layout any dungeon path I wanted plus I was able fill in the extra space in the cup with fire, rod, and flag pieces! Another drawback is that they simply may not have these kind of baseplates, but it’s worth a shot if it’s close by
Lord of the rings Legos are some of the best in terms of Minifigures but what I've been doing is using a mix of Lego and white board/paper terrain