Where to start with LEGO for D&D

You should use Lego for Dungeons & Dragons. But getting started can be overwhelming. In this videos I'll give you a breakdown on where to start and what to get first.
I've found the MOCs in the Video on Rebrickable.
Spider: rebrickable.co...
Troll: rebrickable.co...
#dungeonsanddragons #lego #legodnd

[@toddirvine5886]

I never understood why there wasn't a ton of Lego + D&D content on KZbin. Glad to have found your videos and I can't wait to see more!

[@critbrick]

Me neither! I'm only now seeing some creators in the comments and discovering more great content through that. Thanks so much for checking out the video!

[@ec-kd3wz]

As an an AFOL and a DnD fan I’m absolutely in love with this concept, your builds are so clean I could watch your videos for days. Continue to make videos like this, we will support you 100%. Truly inspiring.

[@critbrick]

Thanks so much for the encouragement! I’m working on the next one right now. Planing on getting it out by the weekend 🤓

[@ec-kd3wz]

@@critbrickSuper excited for it!!

[@critbrick]

Just finished uploading and entering the chapter-markers. Planed it for saturday 6am east coast time / 12pm central europe. Thought that would fit most people hopefuly 🤞

[@michaelnurse9089]

To speed up combat I don't run a grid - enemies are either at melee, ranged or out of range. So everything is scatter, pillars, elevations and figs. Monsters are represented abstractly with plates or bricks. Works great so far.

[@critbrick]

That’s very viable. Exactly the reason why I only used pen and paper for a long time. Elevation is something I only recently explored.

[@AnEsotericKnight]

Love the channel concept, and excited to see where this goes. I would definitely love to see more of your modular terrain. Show us some of your setups and ideas for different biomes, etc.

[@critbrick]

Thank you for the suggestion! I will try to deep dive into the different setups and biomes more. Additional to just showing the sets, what would you like to see in addition? I could maybe do puzzle, encounter or story ideas combined to each map. Would that be interesting to you?

[@BenedettaMardegan]

​@@critbrick I add myself in the thread here! :P personally I find the puzzles idea super cool, but I also would focus first on modularity and/or how to recreate the more common races/monsters :)

[@sikaiser]

@@BenedettaMardegan very fair point 🤓 with monsters, are you more looking for the big bads or the canonfodder?

[@critbrick]

@@BenedettaMardegan damn i need to watch the account I'm logged in to 😅 So with the right one: very fair point with monsters, are you more looking for the big bads or the canonfodder?

[@precascer8221]

Wasn't expecting this video to be SO professional, coming from the r/LegoDnD. Nice job, dude! Would love to see what this may bring in the future.

[@critbrick]

Thank you for the kind words 🫶 If you don't mind sharing, what have you struggled most with when you started out with using Lego for D&D?

[@precascer8221]

@@critbrick well...using in a campaign since I don't have much luck finding people to play with in person lol the average struggle for any TTRPG, I guess xd

[@critbrick]

@@precascer8221 I feel the pain! I started building Maps with Lego a few years ago but only recently was able to start a new group to use them with. I wish you the best of luck! Have you tried using this in a remote setting? I have not tried this yet, but you could use a Phone as a "top-shot" camera to film the set and enter the video call with that, so everybody sees the map.

[@ftjosie8395]

Fantastic video. This is the beginning of an explosion of Lego DnD content. Your editing and Lego building skills are superb! Keep up the content!

[@critbrick]

Thank you for the encouragement. I'm super excited to see where this is going. What would you like to see in a future video?

[@ftjosie8395]

@@critbrick I think you could get a lot of interest in making eara effect builds, for things like spells or explosions.

[@critbrick]

@@ftjosie8395 That's a cool idea! I've always eyeballed this untill now. But it would be cool to have this to also style the surrounding (like when a fireball explodes and the aoe is shown not by a simple overlay but rather fire and debris.

[@ftjosie8395]

@critbrick I think you could do both at the same time. Make area effect pieces that's transparent red and orange for fire. Maybe some fire elements are attached via snot bricks.

[@critbrick]

Absolutly! Great Idea! Tomorrow will be a video on modular tiles, as they where my starting point but I haven't descided on what to do next so I can't promise when I'll cover this, as I probably will need additional pieces for that (take my money bricklink 💸😅 )

[@gilbertbarnett8225]

Hi. I'm fairly new to DnD. I've been running a few games for my 10 year old niece. She is a fan of Lego and I have been living out my childhood memories for the past 6-7 years buying Lego and building with her. I've now branched out into getting some of the mature themed sets. It was a natural thing for me to want to combine Lego and DnD. I have been getting several of the Loke Battle Mats books and using them for the maps and then using Lego for scatter, monsters, player characters and other structures. It is a lot of fun for me. I'm looking forward to seeing the ideas of others on this channel.

[@critbrick]

The Loke Battlemap Books were my first “upgrade” from regular plain grids. I love the versatility they bring. How is the scaling working for you? Minifigs probably scale quite nicely but with scatter do you need to decide between 3 and 4 studs per inch?

[@gilbertbarnett8225]

@@critbrick DnD works with 1 inch grids and while Lego doesn't fit nicely to the inch it does seem to use the imperial measuring system. 4 studs is pretty much exactly 1 and 1/4 inch - making 1 stud 5/16 of an inch. Not the best result, but not the worst either. I work with multiples of three. 3 studs is 15/16 of an inch, so a 3x3 plate fits nicely in a map square. I tend to make my smaller scatter 3x3, 3x6 or 6x6. The first thing that has an exact fit is 16 studs being 5 inches and that is the only one that would have me move away from multiples of three. The thing with Lego is that the scale has always been fluid and Lego users are pretty used to that, I think. In the Lego world, vehicles are barely big enough to hold 1 person and the vehicles that do seem more realistic in size compared to the mini figures, have the same length/width as the houses do. Mini figures are bigger than they realistically should be so you can customize them and play with them. Buildings and vehicles are smaller than they should be so we have space for more things in our cities, etc. This concept doesn't seem out of place in DnD at all. Anyone calling me out for my brick-build dragon being way too big for the 5 foot square scale needs to be reminded that we are playing a make believe fantasy game.

[@gilbertbarnett8225]

@@critbrick In my mind there is nothing wrong with scatter overflowing a square by a bit, so absolutely nothing wrong with using 4x4 plates. The new DnD minifigures use a 3x4 base plate and they would work ok on a grid map. One idea that I've had, but I haven't done it yet, is to build DnD adventures around the Super Mario Lego set concept. They are kind of like an abstract path made with 4x4 or 6x6 (and some bigger) plates. I thought it could be interesting to make small built points of interest and build the path as decisions are made. That would be one way of throwing the scale issue away. A dungeon could just be abstracts nodes and connecting paths. I think that could be a lot of fun to build and to play.

[@critbrick]

Thanks for taking the time to get into the details with me! To your last point about the "path" concept: Love the idea. Feels a little like Lego Heroica as well. It gives of a boardgame vibe, and I think that is great. Also it get's out of just using lego for combat, which I think is also very cool. The feeling I get is a little like the "overworld" in a lot of games where you travel on a more abstract world map from POI to POI with encounters in between and then moving into these points of interest to advance the story more. To the sizing: I agree that we don't need 1:1 perfect size-matching in D&D. Even some regular Monster-Minis are out of proportion. For me having details be a little bigger is a plus, as it helps with visibility even if players are not right in front of the map. One of the main decisionpoints for me going with 4x4 was pricing. There are a lot of 2 and 4 width bricks I either had in my collection or was able to find online (like 2x2 jumper pieces), so it felt easier to go with that. Also I thought "the bigger the better" to make maps easier to build and better to see for players. I guess as you said it does not matter too much, and is just up to personal preference and piece availability. Another thing regarding the Lego-ness of it all: The DM for my non-lego group had a pretty fun idea for taking inspiration from the Lego movies in that the PCs are aware that they are in a lego world and can build stuff from the environment, move like Lego figures, etc. Haven't put too much thought into this yet, but like the idea and sillieness that would ensue. 😅

[@morannnon7blackgate522]

grow little one, grow. im more of a lego person and nerver played dnd in my life but i spotted the eyes on your fell beast and since you mentioned dreamzzz i supose that the never witch nightmare creatures was something that spoke to you and could be part of future videos. if not this set still encapsulates some very important thing that many especialy older legofans nowadays seem to forget. a house can become a boat and a tree can become an eagle or whatever lies in your imagination. dont be afraid to take your sets apart and rebuild them to what ever you want. only used lego is good lego :) there are some sets that are better suited than others for that and sometimes its better to just get the parts you want. talking more about finding the balance from a dnd perspective is entertaining me. also would love a vid on Lego Heroica but maybe that will be explored on the upcomming vid on terrain with scale. micro builds are an very special craft of lego and slightly bigger scale can be more intuitiv to build. looking forward to what you have been cooking. anyways enjoy the waves that the minifugure series caused in the bigger lego community and have a great time on YT

[@critbrick]

You are absolutly right. Got the nightmare creatures precisely for that reason. But they are big! I had hoped to be able to build more monster from the parts, but some of the Bionicle(?) actionfigure-pieces are huge and my party is still level 4, so will need to wait a little longer. I 100% agree with your take on rebuilding and repurposing. That is what I love so much with Lego (for D&D). When I started with 3D Printing I had so much single purpose stuff flying around. Now my goal is to have modular, reusable pieces like terrain, scatter, etc. and build the details of a map each time a new, so each map is uinque. Monsters is the one thing that I still struggle with the most. Because my perfectionism kicks in too hard and I always need to take a step back to abstract more. 🫣 Thanks for your comment! Appreciate that you took the time!!

[@jakewell8069]

Great video! I can’t wait for more content, topic of Lego x dnd is very rare on youtube. One thing that always gets me confused and wondering is what is how to reproduce dnd scale in lego, what best or most accurate ways to create a grid is, I read some people doing 3x3 studs, others just 4x4…

[@critbrick]

Thanks so much! I was worried nobody would care because I didn't find too much other content on D&D + Lego. I've already shot my next video on terrain and in that I'll also talk about why I went with 4x4 Studs instead of other scaling a little more, but in short: I love that the 4x4 Studs are a little bigger then the traditional D&D Gridsize, as I feel that bigger maps, monsters, etc. work well on a table where players are a little away from the actual map. I want the players to feel excited when I introduce a map, monster, etc. So having something that is bigger plays well into that. Also I desiced not to mix Lego with 3D Printing or other stuff I already had for D&D, as the vibe is so different. Hope to have you around for the next video :-)

[@kleinaber_manu]

Awesome! I love how modular this is!

[@critbrick]

Manu

[@Oldmanandasea]

I love this. I got into D&D really by an accident a month ago, but always was a huge Lego fan since I was a kid. I was actually hoping that something like this would exist, but haven't seen it mentioned anywhere until I bumped into your videos. Keep them going, even tho unfortunately I won't be probably able to play in sessions like these, even tho they seem like the most D&D type I would enjoy, I still wanna see all the tips and tricks.

[@critbrick]

Great to have you here! What keeps you from playing D&D with legos, if you don't mind me asking?

[@Oldmanandasea]

@@critbrick unfortunately I know only my group I got into who plays D&D and I don't know anyone who likes both D&D and Lego. But would love to play it at some point

[@critbrick]

Yeah, finding a group to play with is hard enough. As I'm DMing for my group I just descided that we use Lego for maps. But took me 1,5 years to get this group together. As a player in my other group I did suggest going with Lego, but it was the same as you described. We are still on grid-paper there 🥸 But at least you have a group! That's already a win! Anyway, thanks so much for watching the video and leaving a comment!

[@mrmaxmondays]

Crazy your channel is the size that it is, one day Imma be able to brag that I subbed before 1k. Good stuffs man!

[@critbrick]

🫶 thank you for the encouraging words!

[@mahatmagamgee1831]

I‘m actually building stuff for a Fallout TTRPG with Legos. Already the Most fun I had with Collection since childhood probably. Also the best way to make use of all the Johnny Thunder adventurer sets and minis I own. It‘s great to see other projects like this!

[@critbrick]

I've not played fallout but have seen a lot of footage, the setting is really cool. Are you playing with D&D rules or are you using something like "mutant year zero"?

[@Zakading]

Man, I wish my main playgroup wasn't forced to switch to digital a few years ago. This seems so damn fun to do if you have a regular group. Some 500 IQ Lego genuis surely would be able to come up with a set of bricks that can be rebuilt into a small selection of different creatures, though. Being able to just turn a green dragon or something into a whole horde of goblins or a group of lizard men, depending on what you need for the next session, would be SO cool!

[@critbrick]

Absolutly! One of the reasons I started with the terrain was because of the modularity. Having that for monsters would be perfect! I'm saddly missing that 500 IQ 😅 What kind of maps are you using for digital?

[@Zakading]

@@critbrick Oh, a mix. Usually our DM tries to just find some decently fitting ones around the internet or putting some together himself in Foundry if there's nothing appropriate around.

[@critbrick]

@@Zakading I realy enjoyed 2minutetabletop with their free offerings. I'm thinking of running a session with a lego map in a remote setup (just using a phone to "stream" the map into the video call). But I'm wondering if that might be hard to perceive. Would need to try this out more.

[@Zakading]

@@critbrick I imagine just "livestreaming" the table would definitely work, but being able to play the game with the actual physical Lego for sure seems like the biggest selling point. 2minuteTT does have some really neat stuff, that's true. Also can get a lot of leeway recycling maps from official adventures by Foundry importing them

[@critbrick]

That's ofcause right. And beeing able to move your head around to see all the details in a map also is cool!

[@switchman8053]

Wow the youtube algorithm never gives me stuff i like on the fyp but this time, it did its job this video is so good i subscribed in the first 2 min

[@critbrick]

Thanks so much! 🫶 I‘m really glad the algorithm worked this time 😇

[@AmorphousBricks]

Very informative and an important discussion to be had regarding d&d and Lego

[@critbrick]

What’s your opinion on this? Would you also suggest starting with Scatter?

[@silaskoot4308]

​@@critbrick I'd go, 1 a few figs (for your paper mats, 2 baseplate, 3 scatter and then 4 replace baseplate with brick.

[@critbrick]

@@silaskoot4308 solid startingpoint in my opinion, although i might forgo the baseplate. The studs really look to much "lego" for my taste 😅 (ironic I know)

[@Funlawyer1106]

Could you do a video on how to build modular plates

[@critbrick]

I will definitely do that as my next video! Have already started editing it, so keep tuned.🙌

[@thelegodm]

Great video! If you’re looking for more ideas for monster builds, my channel is only a few months old but my main focus has been building moc D&D monsters and sharing other tips I’ve learned using lego for my campaign for 4+ years now. I’m excited to follow you on your journey into lego dnd as well!

[@critbrick]

That's awesome! Will definetly check it out. Thanks so much for stopping by!

[@darkovinster2754]

If you can i would love a video showing how you built your 4X4 modular tiles to create map. Also for bigger feature like a tree (that probably use more than one tile) can you still snap it into the tile stud? Thanks 🙏🏼

[@critbrick]

I will definetly do that! Thanks for the suggestion!

[@fransgaard]

What a fun video. My wife and I are in both hobbies, but apart from each other as I have a long hobby in building terrain. If I were to use Lego I would not use grids. Takes too many bricks and would be tedious to make (as you pointed out). Instead I would use zones like e.g. "Ultimate Dungeon Terrain" as seen on the channel Dungeoncraft. The reason for that it leans into the strength of Lego: you just use a baseplate that you can give soon light decoration if you want and off you go!

[@critbrick]

I understand where you are coming from. When my "ocd-y" moments kick I really get a lot out of the modularity and cleaness of the terrain tiles. Someone else mentioned this in a comment as well: Legos are great for achieving height in a map. Although this is possibly also true for the terrain you suggested! PS: Just checked out the "Ultimate Dungeon Terrain" on classifieds. Wow is that expensive though 🫣 building that from Lego is definitely cheaper. Are you making the Terrain yourself? I've watched a lot of videos of people doing that and it looks amazing and very satisfying!

[@badddy361]

If Lego would be smart, they would make like 10-20 different tiles variations for each terrain, for example streets/citys, forest, swap, vulcanic areas, water or dungeons areas etc and add something like a wall, tree, some small enemies, they could sell them for like 10-20€ per tile. I think that would be a huge hit.

[@jrridinger5237]

I enjoy using for in depth character stuff, specifically stylized platforms to fit the character. Usually I start with a 4 by 4 base and make it removeable for play with larger the more the campaign goes on. Also frequent things the players are gonna use, like the sail ship I gave my players I completely built up.

[@critbrick]

I like the idea of "base building" like with the ship you mentioned. Could be very cool to have the players be able to add stuff and expand their base (could be a castle, small town they protect or like in your case a ship). Are you using the ship outside of combat as well?

[@jrridinger5237]

@@critbrick the ship I am using is what essentially their base as I made it a semi spelljammer, such that it can take them anywhere on the plane right now. I am using it in and out of combat with more out to be honest, specifically for guard duty things and for keeping track of what everyone wants to be doing which I have done by adding things like fishing minigames to allow that off the ship. Also built it with a 4 stud to 5 feet conversion with the actual flying fish ship provided (what it is based on)

[@teddybricks2705]

Great video! Its great to see lego dnd content!

[@critbrick]

Thanks for your comment! Glad to have you on the channel!

[@RogerMollet]

Please do that monsters video.

[@JessesBrickGalaxy]

Nice tips 👍

[@critbrick]

Your videos where recommended to me through the legodnd subreddit. Thanks so much for stopping by!

[@BROMLAZ]

Great video

[@critbrick]

Thanks so much for leaving a comment! Do you use Lego in your D&D sessions?

[@bolcio3863]

I feel like LEGO Harry Potter 76434 would be a great giant spider

[@critbrick]

Absolutely!!! I am a little arachnophobic. Otherwise that set would be on my wishlist right now 🫠 Have you seen the Thor Set with the Firegiant? I think it's a little big for my level 4 party, but would make for a sick big bad.

[@Peiro95]

It could be soooo cool if you did a KZbin show playing Lego d&d

[@critbrick]

Thanks so much for the suggestion! I will talk to my friends about this. 🫠🤞

[@Ninjamanhammer]

One thing that has always puzzled me about this approach is how to do larger monsters. Dragons are usually single important npcs so they justify a lot of effort, but what if you need five+ ogres or trolls?

[@critbrick]

You are right about this weird middle-size-larger-monsters. I feel that building huge creatures like dragons are pretty easy to get with cool details, but large humanoids ist something totaly different. This is my main painpoint right now.

[@Ninjamanhammer]

@@critbrick Yeah more beastly creatures seem better. I remember having Fenris from the Vikings line that would work well as a dire wolf. I was wondering if there was a way to incorporate bionicle parts to make it easier, but I don't know if it will look right.

[@critbrick]

I think that some of the monster-joints in the Dreamzzz Set I just got where introduced with bionicle. But they are very big, so only viable for realy big foes. The Fenris Vikings Set is definetly on my some-day-wishlist 😅

[@mickjameson4384]

keep it up

[@critbrick]

I'll give my best 😇

[@WoozyNate]

amazing video, only critique is avoid leaving in takes where you are reading the script!

[@critbrick]

Thank you for that critique! I do these in one shot with out a script 😅 I believe you are refering to the camera I have on my right (for the close ups on the Lego on the table). I sometimes check if my hands are still in frame. Don't know if you noticed but I'm holding the pieces too high a lot 🫣 I hope I'm getting more acquainted with the framing of the camera so I don't need to check that so often. Hope It didn't take you out of the video too much. Glad that you gave Feedback that's amazingly helpful! (did the first answer with the wrong account. Yt logged me out for some reason 🫥, sorry if you recieve a notification twice)

[@WoozyNate]

​@@critbrick super glad to help this channel already has amazing content and interesting topics! I'm anticipating more, honestly! Also don't worry about it, it didn't take away much I just feel like these videos are so professional and informational, so having scripts in frame or looking away from camera can ruin that authenticity for some!

[@critbrick]

You are right. In my next video I avoided all shots where I look over 😇 hope this will make it better. Do you have any wishes for topics or video ideas you would like to see on this channel?

[@WoozyNate]

@@critbrick I would love to see maybe some D&D MOC showcases and analyzation. Maybe some creative ways that sets lego D&D apart from others, and maybe a video with creative weapons and attacks?

[@silaskoot4308]

Any ideas for exessories like an initiative tracker?

[@critbrick]

uh. Nice idea. Honestly I have not looked into that as I mostly use D&D Beyond even for in-person games and it does the tracking for me. But having something tangible would be cool. Can't promise that I come up with something, but I'll try!

[@frenchtoastchopsticksmanga5792]

Do you have the MOC piece requirements/design for your tile sets?

[@critbrick]

I've not made this in a formal way. Which medium or plattform would you prefer?

[@frenchtoastchopsticksmanga5792]

@@critbrick It may make for a fun KZbin tutorial, along with a link to the parts needed? I like the idea of building up a collection of these tile sets over time and have them on hand for an adventure. I also think it would be fun to integrate them into that massive D&D set from lego. Your video has filled me with a lot of ideas!

[@critbrick]

That's great to hear 🤓 I need to have a look at a good plattform to create the parts lists. So it's easy to use. Tomorrow I'll release a video that get's more into detail on where to start with the tiles and what's important to think about. I've shied away from doing "just" a tutorial yet, because I feared you would probably find that too boring. But I'll try something out asap. Thanks for the suggestion!