D&D General Dungeons & Dragons Underdark Terrain Set

The start of a new line of officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons tabletop terrain sets from Archon Studio will be released on July 15th.

The Dungeons & Dragons Underdark Terrain Set is a fully painted, modular, plastic set of terrain pieces which lock together and which can be combined with other sets in the line.

This set contains:

• 14 floor pieces
• 4 U-shaped walls, 8 curved walls, 4 single walls, 4 short walls
• 11 corner pieces, 14 ledge pieces, 8 ledge corner pieces
• A 25- piece bridge
• A 28-piece Drow ruin

You will be able to pick up the terrain set for $139.

 

[sevenbastard]

I saw this and I think its to garish. Maybe a generic dungeon set would have been better for the first product.

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

Dock & Lock? Is that compatible with whatever other locking system Archon uses on all those Dungeons & Lasers sets they make?

 

[Mannahnin]

I saw this and I think its to garish. Maybe a generic dungeon set would have been better for the first product.

They may have thought that there are too many generic dungeon 3D terrain products out there already, and having something a little more fantastic, branded with one of their IP/Product Identity terms, would stand out more.

 

[Stormonu]

Archon's come a long way, interesting to see them coming up on Wizkid's heels. They make some great stuff (I'm waiting for Porthaven to deliver), but I think this set was a bad initial choice - I'm sure they wanted something that stands out from all the others, but it's too garish for my tastes.

 

[Distracted DM]

My first thought was "wait is this not wizkids?" Wow what must've happened for them to lose exclusivity... That's gotta be a blow. But hey that's better for us!

I agree on the garishness, but maybe it looks better on a table than white-background screenshots?

 

[el-remmen]

I prefer building my own terrain but I will say that garish purples seem to be the go-to color for underdark terrain for the DIY crowd too.

 

[Dire Bare]

My first thought was "wait is this not wizkids?" Wow what must've happened for them to lose exclusivity... That's gotta be a blow. But hey that's better for us!

I agree on the garishness, but maybe it looks better on a table than white-background screenshots?

Did WizKids ever have exclusivity? I don't think so . . .

While not actively being produced anymore, Gale Force 9's line of official D&D miniatures overlapped with WizKids product line.

 

[Stormonu]

Yeah, I don't think Wizkids had any sort of exclusive contract. Archon's minis & terrain started cheap and they've built themselves up quite the fanbase. With the cost of Wizkids minis and such rapid increase in price over the years (Poland costs vs. China costs), Archon might have been able to sneak in as a "cheaper" alternative.

I do hope we'll see more - terrain and mini-wise, and maybe it will encourage Wizkids to price their offerings a bit more competitively - some of their recent stuff has seemed wildly overcosted/superfluous to my eyes of late.

 

[Clint_L]

What a goofy looking set. I have a number of the D&L caverns sets from their KS, and all of them are significantly better looking than this one, which is basically a repaint of some cavern pieces along with a few new additions. I suppose to make it look more Drow? To me, this set is barely 3d terrain, given how few walls are included.

As far as Underdark caverns go, by FAR the best option is Dwarven Forge caverns, either painted yourself or in their "Underdoom" paint scheme (NOT "Underdark" tm). But, you know, $$$$. Wizkids also puts out a (sort of) Caverns set in their Warlock Tiles line (kind of), but it is widely panned and the less said the better. It's really more like desert scatter terrain.

Anyway, the pros of D&L terrain are that it is significantly cheaper than DF for the amount of table coverage that you get, and their "prismacast" automated painting system can produce good results, even if they woefully missed the mark on this set. The cons are that it relies on a connector system that is even worse than the Warlock Tiles one, if you can believe it, and all the pieces come on sprues, so significant assembly is required. And some paint touch-ups, IMO, and then magnetizing the tiles and shortening the wall clips if you want them to be fun and easy to use. But if you put the work in (I did), then they are a good option, in my case, for offering some settings that aren't covered by DF.

Here are a few images of their other sets, along with a few shots of how to magnetize them and fix the wall clips: