Train Tuesday Part 100: Boom Goes the Pirate

Our adorbs Hovertrain weekly series hits a big milestone with its one hundredth entry today! Pretty darn cool if you ask us. Let’s celebrate all this DnD train goodness with a bang!

Longtime readers certainly know one of our favorite DnD mottos, “Everything is better with pirates!” We love pirate sayings, pirate movies, pirate decor, and of course, pirate prints. So much so that a natural story element to our Forgotten Rails series is to inject it with a full cast of Hovertrain heist mongers.

Then it sort of dawned on us that we were only thinking of one side of the dabloom. Yes, we need a nasty group of pirates who simply want to rob a Hovertrain every chance they get. However, there are plenty of freedom fighters who simply don’t want to adapt to this new technology, and more importantly, these individuals want to protect the environment these mighty trains are rumbling and stumbling through.

Think of the first group of pirates as the adventurers who ransacked trains and stage coaches of the old wild west. While the other group of marauders simply wants to protect the environment and its inhabitants, like marine conservationists.

You can certainly add today’s featured 3D-print to our existing Train Raiders crew, but consider making a set of pirates battling for the good of the forest. There are so many characters and critters that consider their woodlands to be sacred, and it’s another cool storyline if you make a small group of good guys also fighting “against the man!”

And that leads us to our featured 3D print today by STL Miniatures. They have a slew of slick pirates, but this particular cannoneer was a must-acquire for our game table. Our nature lovers are going to be very Robin Hood-esque, utilizing a lot of fight and flee tactics and needing some mobile artillery options in their attacking arsenal.

Resident Painter Kimmy Utah embraced bringing this scrappy fella to life through the art of color with both hands. She got everything right with her deep blacks, wavy yellow coat, and brilliant hair features. This is hands down one of our absolute favorite pirate miniatures. We can’t wait to use him in a game!

Our forest freedom fighter looks just as good from the back with his bulging bicep and ammunition in hand! Come on, what’s not to love here?

• Colorful Name: Mobly
• Character Race: Dwawrven
• Member Rank: Fellow Forest Freedom Fighter
• Key Role: Artillery
• Weapon of Choice: Hand Cannon (and dagger)

We’ve had quite the office debate for the final DnD 5e stats for his mighty cannon weapon, but at least, there’s a nice Reddit thread on it.

We also found this unofficial entry on D&D Beyond, but the damage was way too weak. We envision this cannon firing with enough force to damage a Hovertrain premapped route or even disable some of the engines on the lead car.

• Range: 80/120 | 20-foot-radius-sphere.
• Attack: Ranged Spell Attack (Int Modifier + Proficiency) | like Firebolt.
• Misfire Chance: Natural 1 (cannon explodes) | Misfire Score is 4.
• Damage: 8d6 fire damage (Dex save for half), bludgeoning
• Misc: Minimum 17 Strength score to yield.

Still, we see his trusty weapon sorta like a mobile fireball spell. DM Ben would even allow the player to add a 1d6 of damage for any character level over three. So, what’s the catch? The ammo ain’t cheap, so Mobly has to make every shot count! We’ll give the above mechanics a test drive and make any necessary modifications.

Until next time!