A Cool New Product or Missed Opportunity, Not Sure Which

After a really late night watching fireworks across all of Treasure Valley the Mrs. and I tried to sleep in today. I'm not a big sleeper-inner so when I got up relatively early I hopped online to work up a Free GM Resource post. I tend to try and work a week or two ahead, so I was on the prowl for something to share.

One of the rabbit holes I went down on the interweb was a link to what initially seemed a company called TerraTiles, but that is the name of this "product" by Rainn Studios. I have to put quotes around the word product because you can't actually go out and buy the TerraTiles. Evidently this is pretty much a Kickstarter-only item.

This really goes back to my post yesterday, which I won't really expound upon because you can just go read it for yourself. I will note that if the only way to get a "product" is through Kickstarter, then it is clear that Kickstarter isn't a crowdfunding platform but a sales platform. Everything about TerraTiles ends up linking back to a simple "refer-a-friend" page so they can let you know about the next sales.....er, Kickstarter opportunity on July 7th.

What is up with these Kickstarter's on July 7th? Is that day significant in some fashion I'm not aware of?

As much as I'd like to be able to get my hands on and check out TerraTiles, it looks like a big no-go. Why would I want to buy-in for the "reward" of the upcoming river & coastline set if I cannot get the older sets to use as well? Seems more like the biggest market is just those you've already sold earlier sets to.....

...at any rate if you sign up for notifications you'll get an email with notice that there may be an opportunity to pick up the earlier set which will be made available to those on the email list. You'll also get a link to download a free tree & wall terrain set.

I wanted to check out this free stuff, so I signed up. What I got was a two page PDF intended to be printed duplex on some cardstock, cut out, and assembled relatively easily. Here is a low-res picture of the "set".....see any problems? I haven't altered the pics any except to make them smaller....

I think the trees and walls actually look pretty good, but there is no way in hell I'm printing this up! I'd run out of black toner real quick!

Luckily the PDF has no security so you could take and open it up in Photoshop or the like to fix these issues. Still it is something extra you'd have to do, and if you want it to look good it won't be a quick fix.

I'm hoping things for TerraTiles will open up a bit, maybe make it so you can actually purchase these sets outside of Kickstarter. Heck, I think I'd get some great mileage out of these myself, especially at conventions. If I can get my grubby little hands on some I'll definitely get my gaming group in on a review. Until then all I can do is look at the potential of what could be....

Afternoon Update: I reached out to the guys behind the scenes and was told that they've gotten at least a few requests for the white background on the trees & walls PDF and a new download will be forthcoming.....

...and here is what it looks like. I can use this!