Hunting and a Camping

Teleportation goes with DnD like jam to bread, but where’s that addicting 3D-print spin? We got you. Sound the trumpets because it’s the inaugural entry for our new Kinda Sorta Portal series! We’re super-stoked to start building a new random table for our home-brewed, arcane gateway item we shared earlier this year. Places, everyone, places!

Our mission is clear: to bring fun and engaging 3D-prints wrapped with tasty RPG content ideas so you have everything you need to drop your new miniatures and scatter terrain onto your game table as quickly as possible. This new ongoing series will bring forth new scene settings on a d20 random table for whenever someone opens that powerful pocketwatch, and its magic doesn’t initially quite get you where you want to be! 😉

A quick recap: the party was given a magical timepiece from Waterdeep’s master gnome tinkerer, Tink Urbelle, allowing players to return to their home base once per long rest. There’s just one small catch. This arcane doorway has a 30% chance of temporarily placing you at the wrong location…that’s the “Kinda, Sorta” part of the “Kinda, Sortal Portal” magic item.

The portal itself is represented by this slick 3D print by Kraken 3D Studios and their Mole King’s Lair Kickstarter. And the sequence goes something like this:

• Activate the portal (takes 2 rnds/12 sec).
• There’s a 30% chance of being transported to a random location.
• Players are temporarily stuck in that unplanned spot (for 6 rnds/36 sec).
• Then they have up to 3 rnds/18 secs to get back into it again.
• The timepiece holder has to go through last.

The mechanics aren’t too bad, right? Plus, there’s a fun percentage dice roll, and the more dice that hit the table, the better!

So, today, we’re utilizing some scatter terrain from the brilliant creators at Infinite Dimensions Games. They made this must-print Hunter’s Camp set, and we just fell in love with it instantly. These pieces print support-free on your FDM printer but also turn out fab on any resin printer. They’ve been releasing more and more of these fun, themed sets lately, which makes their monthly Patreon subscription a no-brainer.

We’re focusing on the core scatter piece: the hunter’s tent. We added a mini here to help you better see the overall model scale, but this rugged shelter covers a perfect size of 5 x3 d20 squares. Resident painter Kimmy Utah brushed this beauty up for us.

While we love all the different furs strung about here and there, the assorted hanging meats on one of its sides give us the biggest chuckle. Pork chops, anyone?! We also like how the creator inserted little scenery touches around the tent to make the encounter feel more immersive.

Now, let’s create what happens when the party suddenly appears in the middle of this camp! DM Ben has some ideas…

• Portal drop point: literally on the campfire (1d4+1 fire damage | athletics save for half).
• Typical forest sounds fall around them.
• Two shadow-spotted bedrolls are on each side.
• Large xx prints can be seen in the ground.
• Chaotic combat sounds can be heard inside the main tent.

The players have been transported right into an ongoing wild animal attack! Blood in dimly lit areas looks like shadows at first, so the players won’t be able to tell what has happened outside the tent immediately. If investigated, they will see two fresh, torn-apart victims. The noise from the tent is an active combat between a large human warrior and one deranged beast.

If you need some wild animal ideas, the angry creature could be a large bear, giant spider, dire wolf, or even a giant snake! Even better, another cool feature of this terrain piece is the hollowed innards. That makes it easy to put any surprise miniature underneath it for a big reveal! Granted, a larger monster probably doesn’t fit underneath our tent perfectly, but it’s fun to have that reveal option as a DM.

The DM never knows when someone in the group will activate the portal and roll 71% or higher, so we need our Kinda Sorta Portal destinations at the ready! We’re using some old Hatchbox filament print boxes to store each Kinda Sorta Portal encounter entry with its corresponding table entry labeled on the outside.

We’ll throw all the necessary pieces into the box, including our tent, a campfire, warrior miniature, wild animal mini, two sleeping bedrolls, and even several Dwarven Forge Wilderness trees. That’s the beauty of this brief encounter – you can make it as detailed or bare-bones as you like.

You could also plop this one down on the table whenever the party simply camps for a night. It’s worth noting that this type of encounter fits nicely into our Wandering Monsters Wilderness Trek table if you want to include it there too!

Now, all we need to do is update our table!

Until next time!