About Us
The Shorter Story
Modular RealmsTM is a company that designs magnetic, double-sided, flatpack modular terrain made for tabletop Role Playing Games (RPG’s) such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder and Warhammer. Our patent-pending magnetic system ensures each piece snaps to every other!
Our aim as a company is to make versatile, innovative gaming pieces that are everything that I as a DM would want to see! All of our products are designed and made by me, Annabelle.
The Longer Story
I got into Dungeons and Dragons in 2018, and it was love at first dice. After about six months I started to DM games and make maps and terrain out of pizza boxes and polystyrene packaging. The more I got into it, the further I wanted to push my terrain designs.
I wanted pieces that could flatpack, so I could easily put them in my bag when going to friends houses on the bus, and store them on a bookshelf. I designed pieces able to be set up quickly, so I didn't have to waste time at the start of each session. I wanted each piece to stick to each other so I could set up a game anywhere (we have even had successful games on picnic rugs and at the beach!) and for the ability to build taller and taller towers for my wizards to hide in.
In 2019 I was in a car accident and suffered a brain injury that caused me to drop out of my PhD. During rehab I was unable to work or read or watch TV and so poured my heart and soul into my terrain crafting projects.
I learned CAD in my Universities Maker Space so that I could start 3D printing terrain and experimented with putting magnets in. People in the workshop started asking if I would sell my terrain and eventually led me to running my first Kickstarter.
After experiencing for the first time making a product and delivering it to market (with all the mistakes, complications and joys that come with it!) I gathered feedback from my backers and started designing my next generation of terrain.
I started with ball magnets but due to a variety of problems eventually settled on the design we have now that snap together even tighter. I had to learn parametric modelling software to get my designs ready for injection moulding and spoke to many manufacturers before deciding on one based in England.
Having run a second Kickstarter last year to raise funds for the moulds and delivering to customers in over 21 countries, I am now ready to begin my next quest with the business.
Each new design that will come out in the future will be inspired by my players currently living in my homebrew kingdoms and principalities called the Mod'Ular Realms (yes, I'm a very cheesy person) and feedback from my customers.
You all are my primary beta testers and the ideas shared with me directly lead to what new terrain type I start developing next. Thanks everyone :) You help me make better and better terrain and it's something I'm very proud of.
Of course, starting a business can be a lot so helping me with production and distribution is my mum and possibly the most generous person in the world, Sandra (also known as my Overworked Apprentice). Each piece you receive will have passed through either one of our hands.
At the moment we are a small family business but just you wait! I have so many plans and ideas and am excited to see how far we can go! It's awesome that you are here on my website being part of my journey.
Thank you :)
Annabelle
We hope you enjoy our products and thank you for supporting us!
p.s. Just in case you guys want to read some of the articles that have been posted about us (because we have newspaper articles now! O.o ) I thought I would collate them in one space here!
1st article ever written about us, thanks to the Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland. I have a lot of really great friends there so you should check them out!