Wandering Wednesday: Woodland Woes

Nothing says Wednesday like a mitful of new Wandering Monsters, right?! Well, today we’re going to showcase a rough and tough STL from one of our favorite, support-free creators! Meander this way…

Our campaign has a ton of upcoming travel, so we’ve really made a concentrated effort to wildly expand our 3D-printed miniatures and scatter terrain for this key outdoor theme. Don’t get us wrong – we adore a good TTRPG dungeon crawl, we’re trying to stay laser-focused by building out the next chapters of our ongoing storyline.

Today’s crafty creator is no stranger to 3DRPG. Brite Minis is a staple in our monthly Patreon subscriptions and in our weekly slice sessions. You get all-in-one DnD miniatures with no necessary supports and the base included (so we can avoid that annoying glue step). They cover a wide range of themes and go out of their way to appease their fan base. Nothing but love for Brite Minis.

The eyeballs are very forgiving in this dangerous DnD STL so DM Ben didn’t mind picking up a brush this time. Besides, he’s been chomping at the bit to try some new Green Stuff World wood-friendly paint pots. He intentionally experimented with four different takes here just to see how these pigments looked on a deadringer forest creature miniature.

Regular 3DRPG followers know how much we’ve enjoyed these slick dipping inks from Green Stuff World. We’re just so impressed by them, and it’s pure bliss to follow Miniature Hobbyist’s YouTube tutorials with this full set in hand. DM Ben is a below-average printer, but his work always comes out a tad better if the arm’s length rule is applied. 😉

Here you can see that we testdrove GSW’s Skeleton Brown, Walnut Brown, and Swamp Brown. We also used one of our tried-and-true ASP Dark Wood colors. Skeleton Brown is still our fav, but it’s nice to have other wood options to keep things fresh on our Wyrmwood game table.

We especially like the backside of this Wendigo miniature. Those human-ish, grotesque spines ignite some goosebumps, but in an uh-oh player way. Full disclosure – we didn’t even realize that this was an actual DnD 5e monster since 3D-print creators often have to change the names of their STLs to avoid copyright infringements. After reading the intriguing descriptions from the links above and seeing all its intense abilities, we completely understand the mystery and madness of this creature.

There’s even a beffier stat block version, but our party of six adventurers is level five, so we’ll stick with the lighter stats for now. You could always use the tougher stat block for the squad leader.

DM Ben included a couple of bonus paints here as he’s trying to embrace experimentation and practice. Sometimes he gets paralyzed with color choices and either tosses the DnD miniature on our towering pile of shame, or he just keeps repeating the same old color combinations.

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Body 1: GSW Walnut Brown.
• Body 2: ASP Dark Wood (with Vallejo Ochre drybrush).
• Body 3: GSW Skeleton Brown
• Body 4: GSW Swamp Brown
• Head & Back: ASP Brownish Decay.
• Face & Spine: ASP Pallid Bone.
• Eyes: Contrast Flesh Tearers Red.
• Antlers: GSW Elfwood Brown.
• Optional: Hair, ASP Forest Sprite.
• Optional: Apply a Brown Wash over the GSW Walnut Brown.

The key to these steps was just mustering up the courage to try new things. DM Ben did his predictable, safe ASP Darkwood Brown, but then he gave it the ol’ college try for these other paint combinations. No harm, no foul, because they all turned out to be worthy game table mini drops.

Now all that’s left to do is update our free d20 DnD Wilderness Trek Wandering Monster Table! We’re tinkering with the frequency and methodology of what triggers a roll on the table. Two options: (1) Each player rolls a d6, and if one of the table results is a six, then a wandering monster is triggered. (2) The DM rolls a percentile dice, but the specific percentile ranges from 10 to 30%-ish based on the circumstances around their long rest or travel.

Until next time!