Stefan Alexander Pokorny is an American designer and artist, known for his origination and popularization of miniature three-dimensional terrain systems, now widely used in role-playing games (RPG) including Dungeons & Dragons.
[1][2][3] Prior to Pokorny's innovation, D&D was generally played on 2-dimensional maps drawn on graph or grid paper, with miniature player pieces.
To achieve his design objectives, Pokorny developed a proprietary PVC-based casting material he calls Dwarvenite®.
[7] In 1996, Pokorny co-founded Dwarven Forge to manufacture and distribute his designs for the first fully modular 3-D terrain systems for games.
[8][9] The business model he developed, based on a series of multi-million-dollar Kickstarter campaigns,[10][8] continues to fund operations as of 2023, with over $23 million raised to date.