RPG Evolution: Owlbear and Gnoll Terrain

I'm always a fan of terrain, and particularly terrain that doesn't require a lot of work. This are some rather expensive hills ... ranging between 40 and 80 bucks.

Owlbear Terrain Set​

The Owlbear set, retailing for $80, boasts over 98 pieces covering a footprint of about 3.5 square feet. The core of the set are 42 stackable hill pieces, which come in three different types. These offer good versatility for creating varied terrain layouts and even have space to accommodate miniatures on top, which is always a plus. They also conveniently nest within each other for easier storage.

Along with the hills, you get a good assortment of 56 logs, stumps, and rocks of various sizes and shapes, adding scatter terrain to your battlemaps. The rocks have a nice weight and feel almost real, though some may have visible seams. You also get six armor and weapon piles, which can be useful for adding flavor to a battlefield. The terrain is injection molded, which generally means better quality and durability compared to 3D-printed parts, and it comes pre-textured and colorized, making it usable straight out of the box. One point of note is that the terrain has 1-inch spacing clearly demarcated, which you won't get with do-it-yourself terrain.

For those who like to customize their terrain, it can also be painted. The plastic is immune to isopropyl alcohol and acetone, making it easy to clean off paint or permanent markers for re-customization. The set also comes in a carrying case.

Gnoll Terrain Set​

Similar to the Owlbear terrain, the Gnoll set promises a similar addition of outdoor elements to your tabletop, but with a smaller footprint and piece count. For a price hovering around $40, you get just over 45 pieces, covering about 1.5 square feet of gaming space. Similar to the other set, the hills are injection molded, pre-textured, and colorized, and can be stacked to create varied elevations. The smaller scatter terrain pieces consist of stones and twig-like logs. The set includes 17 stackable hill pieces in three varieties, 28 logs, stumps, and stones, and a three armor and weapon piles.

If you need hilly terrain and are willing to paint it, both sets give you a lot ... but then again you can probably make decent hills out of stuff you can find around the house if you're crafty enough. These sets are a fun idea, but at the price point, they may not be for everybody.

You can purchase the Owlbear Set at https://amzn.to/3Y2NhQR and the Gnoll Set at https://amzn.to/3QOjcAI Please note that I'm a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

 

[Von Ether]

Ah

Too busy and bright to be useful as a tool for tabletop with that setup. In my opinion the terrain and items on it should help convey what's going on for players when their characters are in combat or about to be in combat. The stuff in those pictures is noisy, loud colorful which is distracting. I use terrain setups when there is a battle, since theater of the mind in my opinion is too loosey goosey for keeping track of where each character and monster is. TotM I've noticed off an on for the past forty five or so years of experience always leads to issues. Terrain, mini's etc make for less debate and more clarity when used as intended.

Ah. I must have been wisdom that comes in those final four years. In my 41 years of GMing, it seems ToTM or grid really depends on the group at the table.

Some have a harder time visualizing what is described, and need visual aides, while some GMs have a harder time communicating a combat scene. I've done entire campaigns both ways.

 

[Paragon Lost]

Ah

Ah. I must have been wisdom that comes in those final four years. In my 41 years of GMing, it seems ToTM or grid really depends on the group at the table.

Some have a harder time visualizing what is described, and need visual aides, while some GMs have a harder time communicating a combat scene. I've done entire campaigns both ways.

Which is why I stated in my opinion and experience. I started gaming at the start of March of 1978 and through the decades my experiences were that for most ttrpgs that ToTM only works sometimes and it was dependant upon the group and the game. For myself as a long time forever GM I found that using a square or hex map along with easy to move around dominos (for walls etc), water based erasable pens and minis along with my APMs (all purpose meanies), really made my job easier and helped the players know where things (characters, npcs, objects etc) were. Thanks for sharing your experiences, which is what I was doing with my post as well. Your mileage will vary.