A Long Shadow Falls Over Short Lives

Greetings, fellow TTRPG gamers! The coming weekend sure sounds swell to us, and we thought we would share what might be the simplest 3D print we’ve ever done, so you can try to sneak it in for your upcoming dice sesh.

DM Ben wanted more options for creating wild and wacky long-rest encounters. These rest and refuel mechanics are a natural, important part of any campaign, but dungeon masters don’t want their players to take them for granted. A great DM keeps its players on the edge of their seats, never knowing what the heck might come next from behind the screen.

So, you’ve probably guessed that today’s set of featured DnD 3D prints is all about those lurking, spooky shadows. What better form of miniature to spy or ambush your party with? Imagine our glee when we came across the perfect set of STLs, as long as you think it through.

Our featured creator is the mighty Schlossbauer, who offers this freakish set of Shadows as a free download from his amazing library. His slim versions were especially appealing as we were used to our DnD Shadow miniatures being much bulkier. Still cool, of course, but not designed like the ones we were about to show off.

Initially, we 3D printed these in resin, and that first attempt went very poorly. Their skinniness is what makes each model quite cool, so when they came out warped and bumpy from traditional supports, the air really left the room. Then, one of our wise teammates said we should have tried them on our Prusa FDM printer! But of course!! Lots of red faces around the water cooler that day.

So, we printed these in black PLA and had one side face down on the print plate. This carefully calculated slicing gave us really good odds of success. And sure enough, they came out great! Here are the two tallest versions from Schlossbauer’s set. Pretty wild, right?!

Here are the other three versions we did. We skipped one STL as it was just soooooooooo thin and we didn’t want to risk the whole batch failing. We might circle back and try that last one on its own, though. See how one side of the miniature has that little kickstand ledge? You simply dab a little Loctite Gel Super Glue on it and adhere it to a clear base. Perfection.

Now the next time the players take a long rest at night and someone is on guard duty, your DM has all sorts of nifty options at his/her fingertips. You could have the sentry player make a DC 17 Perception check on several occasions. Maybe the group has been getting ambushed or had sensitive information leaked, and they can’t figure out why. Then, finally, a successful check will make it all make sense. They’ve been spied on for quite some time now.

For our own ongoing campaign, our players have made a lot of enemies, including:

• The Six: the franchise the party impersonated.
• Merv the Swerve: the greatest swordsman on the Sword Coast.
• Deke Rivers: the betraying Bard.
• Lyra Shaw: the demented Night Hag.
• Lord Galobax DuGalle: the Crosstown Killer.

That’s quite the list of formidable foes, and DM Ben wants to keep the group guessing as to who is trying to take revenge at any given point. Now, we’ve got some sneaky Shadows that only make that identification on any given day even tougher to decipher.

Until next time!