Train Tuesday Part 129: Train Travelers

Greetings, Hovertrain passengers! We’ve got a brand-new Train Tuesday mini-series for thee, and we’re excited to showcase our first colorful group of travelers to kick it off. Allllll aboard!

DM Ben believes our harmonious Hovertrains are the perfect setting to get our adventurers where they need to go while also introducing the group to new colorful characters and intriguing sidequests. So, just as we made a new group of NPCs for The Bramble Bush Boarding House and our Train Raiders pirate crew, DM Ben wants to be able to quickly pull from a group of premade train passengers too!

Let’s start with these two Dino Deinonychus miniatures that really caught our eye. We love unique sculpts and, as usual, all Brite Minis STLs are support-free. Heavenly for 3D-print hobbyists. They even have a saddled mounted version, but we haven’t printed that one quite yet. After this TTRPG blog post, we’ll certainly have to crank a few out.

Resident painter Kimmy Utah was the lead colorist on these sharp-taloned troublemakers. We’re always just in awe of her blending and shading. DM Ben always remarks on box opening day, “How on earth does she do it?!” Her red and reddish-orange color picks were also spot-on here. And those spooky yellow eyes just scream danger incoming.

We think this portly green guy might be a Vae Victis e-newsletter free download, but we couldn’t find the direct link. Or, this one is from one of the ol’ Humble Bundles that we’ve bought in the past for charity, and they’re notorious for old-school minis. This one has a small slot on the bottom of its base, which is a telltale sign that he’s a pretty old STL.

We think this chubby, highfalutin goblin makes his fortune on the rare animal black market. Hence, he’s not like our previous evil Collector NPC, but rather a man of commerce who discreetly puts outlawed creatures into the hands of the highest bidder.

Here’s a quick pic of our freshly minted miniatures from the back, so you can see the excellent model details and Kimmy Utah’s excellent brushwork. You could also frame these two Dino Deinonychus creatures as his bodyguards, instead of his current for-sale cargo. If he is indeed transporting, these guys will fit perfectly in Aether Studios’ animal Hovertrain car. Otherwise, their talons stay by his side at all times in a first-class passenger train car.

So let’s get to the NPC particulars here:

• Colorful Name: Blix Skitterback
• Character Race: Goblin
• Accent: Talks very fast. Sounds like Curly from the Three Stooges
• NPC Role: Rare Animal Dealer (on the black market)
• Painted Miniature: NA
• Quirks: Behaves like a tourist street swindler. Wants fast, quiet transactions.

We’re considering searching for larger Raptor-style STLs so we can show, in a future encounter, how quickly his two bodyguards have grown. The only bummer with that narrative is that it makes Blix walking around more cumbersome, especially since he prefers a lower profile and these younglings already draw enough attention as it is.

Let’s conclude by creating our two young dinosaurs’ DnD 5e stats; these Velociraptor stats are a nice pick for our campaign (with our characters currently at level six). For the shifty Mr. Skitterback, we’ll just use MonsterShuffler.com, FastCharacter.com, or the The Thieves Guild.

Until next time!