Have Hobbit, Will Play.

This week’s installment of Miniature Monday focuses on an iconic character that just so happens to be a free download that is also easy to print and deserves a spot in your DnD Campaign. Let’s meet this hairy-footed lil’ fella!

Ya know him, ya love him. It’s The Shire’s most famous resident – Mr. Bilbo Baggins. We find it super fun to occasionally slip iconic characters into our TTRPG campaigns. Don’t underestimate the importance of nostalgia and interjecting a few bits here and there to warm everyone’s gaming souls.

We found Baggins from Bag End on Thingiverse by Printed Encounter. This free download is part of a worthy collection of files, including a fun Basilisk and Treasure Golem, so be sure to peruse their library. DM Ben particularly loves their Elemental series.

So, let’s meet our small but mighty new friend. Sometimes, we pair a miniature with a particular piece of scatter terrain so we don’t have to “dig it out” from our library later. In this case, this Fallen Tree Hand by Printable Scenery is a perfect woodsy match. Our resident painter, Kimmy Utah, colored both of these beauties.

Our 3D-printed miniature instantly conjures an image of the original Bilbo from The Lord of the Rings 1977 animated movie. We’ll take the character’s likeness but create a new NPC with its own name, backstory, traits, etc. Now, you certainly could call this hobbit miniature Bilbo, but that can make for a complex, tricky narrative. Still, it’s fun to tug at your players’ heartstrings sometimes.

We offer a diverse range of players in terms of age, so a few won’t even recognize this little guy…as painful and shocking as that is to type. That’s the cool part, though – maybe showcasing this Hobbit mini will entice our younger gamers to watch some of the classics!

How will DM Ben incorporate this Hobbit into our office DnD campaign? Well, we have several possibilities, including:

• Traveling Cart Merchant
• Hovertrain Passenger
• City Spy
• Town Shop Owner
• Tavern Patron
• Captured Prisoner
• Nation Ambassador
• Political Figure
• Player Character

Typically, when we pull miniatures to share with you or incorporate into our stories, we start with these categories unless something suddenly pops in our head (which happens a lot…usually while driving or brushing our teeth).

And sometimes, we discover a must-get miniature, download it, slice it, print it, and paint it without initially knowing how exactly it will fit into our TTRPGs. That was definitely the case with Bilbo here. We had no idea what we were going to do with this legendary hobbit but he was going to make an appearance at some point!

DM Ben decided that our Hobbit would be the perfect companion to our previously posted potion cart. We had a great wagon, but DM Ben needed an eccentric, memorable driver. Sure, it’s a bit odd to see a Hobbit outside The Shire, but that adds to the intrigue here. Why is our Hobbit on the road? What is he hiding from?

Our adventurers are going to run into him as he’s harvesting some rare mushrooms, but then things will suddenly take a very ugly turn (watch for this one-shot in a future post).

To round this build off, we just need to come up with a creature to pull the cart. Yes, it could be a traditional horse, but it seems only fitting that this mash-up would have a more colorful beast at the helm. Watch for that mini selection coming soon!

Until next time!