About us
The Shorter Story
Hi! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Annabelle!
I'm the founder and Chief Artificer of Modular RealmsTM.
I design and make magnetic, double-sided dungeon tiles.
Modular RealmsTM is my small UK-based business creating magnetic, modular, double-sided dungeon tiles and snap-on scenery.
This all started as a weekend crafting project when I was recovering from a brain injury.
Now it’s a real actual business and I ship terrain to players all over the world!
Modular Realms Dungeon Tiles are perfect for tabletop Role Playing Games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder and Warhammer.
The magnetic system wis of my own design, and has hidden magnets that rotate in sockets for automatic connection.
This means each piece snaps to every other regardless of polarity :D
My dungeon tiles are also double-sided, modular, and have a strong magnetic snap that let's you build 3D structures easily and without needing clips.
My dream is to get my business to a point where I spend half my time designing badass new terrain and scatter to use in my games, and the other half travelling to conventions to show people! Now that would be a cool life! <3
The whole selling them bit is really just so I can afford new fancy tools to make more cool new things ;)
The full backstory
You can the story of Modular Realms so far below.
Whilst I've always been an artificer, I was originally an alchemist by training.
Apparently every character needs a tragic backstory, and so it was for me when a car accident and subsequent brain injury meant I had to take time away from my PhD.
Unable to read, write or watch TV at the time, I was bored out of my mind! The spacial part of my brain was still working, so I put all my energy and passion into the one thing I could do - making gaming terrain!
I went into my university's Maker Space, Unleash Space, where they taught me how to do 3D Printing. That was where Modular Realms was born.
As I experimented with making magnetic terrain, people in the workshop started asking to buy my stuff. And I wanted to make more ... so much more!
I wanted pieces that could flatpack, so I could easily put them in my bag when going to friends houses on the bus.
Oh, and a cool fake book hidden on my bookshelf that I could store them in!
I needed dungeon tile pieces that could be set up quickly. In fact, considering how often my players go off the in random directions, I needed to be able to build instantly at the table!
I spent several months planning the Kickstarter, and finally I had everything ready to go.
I decided I'd launch my Kickstarter next Tuesday....
That Saturday, New Zealand went into level 4 lockdown.
I paused my Kickstarter plans and instead I'm proud to say Modular Realms helped provide emergency PPE to healthcare workers during the early weeks of the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic.
If you're curious, I wrote about it in more detail here.
Or if you prefer, the New Zealand newspaper Stuff covered it in an article here.
Once the PPE crisis was mostly out the way, I launched my first Kickstarter.
I asked for $2000. I got over $40,000!
Suddenly everything felt a lot more real. I had customers from all over the world!
I wasn't just designing myself terrain as a hobby project any more, I was actually delivering a product to market!
With the the help of my very supportive parents, we hand made and shipped out rewards to over 20 countries!
In the years since, I have seriously levelled up my game! :D
I devised a new magnetic system with auto-rotating magnets, so that every tile can snap to any other tile, in any orientation (that had been annoying me!).
The second Kickstarter enabled me to work with a factory in Yorkshire, UK, to injection mould my gaming tiles.
One of my dear friends and players (shout out to Artelocat!) designed a cool book box for me, so you can easily store your terrain hidden in plain sight on your bookshelf.
Entering plastics manufacturing for the first time, it was a bit of a bumpy ride, but boy did I learn a WHOLE bunch!
I moved to a new injection moulder in 2024, and I comissioned a new tool from them to make exclusively wall tiles (to forever end the great wall shortages of 2023 ;) ).
And the tiles that came out of it were the best ones yet!
I'd been tinkering to improve that magnetic snap and got it even more satisfying!
Then, at the end of 2024 I launched my Third Kickstarter!
And we unlocked Snap On Scenery! :D
I spent 2025 getting the product made, and into customers hands, with most sets being in peoples hands within a year.
At the time of writing, it is Spring 2026. I am painting the last 8 sets and sending them out. Until that is finished, I don't quite feel comfortable taking lots of new orders, so you may notice the shop is a little bare, but I will be filling it up with lots of wonderful goodies very soon!
If you're interested, you should also totally check out this interview with Robert Hartley GM (of VLDL fame)! :D
Want to hang out?
I stream on Twitch and am pretty active :D
The best place to find me is in my Discord - please feel invited to swing by and say hi!
Other than that, thanks for hearing my story. I hope you like my dungeon tiles. Thank you for supporting me on this awesome journey!
Annabelle
Some of the articles people have written about us!
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!