Tomb Thursday P48: Down in the Dunes

Greetings, fellow desert dawgs! We’re all in on showcasing handy scatter terrain pieces in today’s weekly Tomb Thursday edition. Let’s zoom in!

To the average sand dweller, today’s 3D prints aren’t necessarily going to blow the lid off that sarcophagus. However, longtime hobby enthusiasts will give a thumbs up on our behalf as they’ll see how imperative these types of STLs can be to your gameboard building.

We open with this ornate broken chariot by Loot Studios. This amazing scatter piece is from their excellent The Crimson Sand Arena set. Guys and gals – this STL is a must. And we’ll show ya why.

DM Ben didn’t mind coloring this treasure up as it uses a lot of what he calls “Core Colors.” Meaning, he uses these paints all the time and knows they turn any 3D print into a worthy game piece.

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Wheels: GSW Skeleton Brown + Dark Tone Wash.
• Wheel Rims: ASP Enchanted Steel.
• Body: GSW Zombie Dipping Ink.
• Ropes: ASP Pallid Bone.
• Face: ASP Hoplite Gold.

For the base, he applied a layer of ASP Gravelord Grey, then added a flock of Cali beach sand.

We see a couple of slick in-game uses here. The most obvious choice is that this is the Pharaoh’s personal ride for the afterlife and it’s been sitting in his treasure room for a lonnnnnnng time. You could even place it in a nearby chamber to indicate to your gold hunters that they must be getting close to the main room.

You could also use this as a prop in a travel scene. This sun-soaked, broken chariot could have gotten stuck in a sandstorm, broken down during travel, or been part of the nomadic group that ran into some sort of trouble (like maybe an oversized scorpion monster).

Next up are these super important, 2×2 d20 half-walls by Aether Studios – our Beneath the Sands official terrain tile partner. Now, just about every standard hallway tile in our DnD hobbyverse is 1.5 by 1.5 d20 squares. The makers leave 1d20 square for a normal-sized miniature, plus a half-square on each side to hold the wall itself. We’ll show you in a sec why that traditional approach can be problematic during an actual combat encounter.

Side note: These versions aren’t officially released quite yet, but watch for them next year when Aether Studios plans more desert terrain release goodness. However, they did say these handy STL files are available upon request by Patrons and Tribers in the meantime.

We asked CEO Aether Will to craft these versions up for us, and he was such a pal to spin them up. Now, the reason DM Ben made such a fuss here is that he has plenty of 2×2 d20-sized monsters and wants them to sit flush in his treacherous tomb passageways. If he has to flop a mini partially on its side, that kills the whole gameboard immersion vibe that he worked so hard to produce in the first place. Look how perfect that hallway is for gameplay now!

Lastly, speaking of decor, we also wanted to share this other terrain tile wall option. You certainly don’t want all your rooms to be a bunch of repetitive, dull squares, so the wise Aether Studios design team made these nifty diagonal walls so you can break those rigid sight lines during the tomb room assembly stage. We’ll certainly share a few chambers utilizing these gems when we get to that encounter-building phase.

Until next time!