Train Tuesday Part 94: Need a Lift?

Our Hovertrain hangers still need some eye-catching scatter terrain here and there to better immerse our players in this new technology era! Besides, work smarter, not harder, right? Time to lift up your spirits!

The Forgotten Rails is more than just marvelous Hovertrains by beloved Aether Studios. It’s the dawn of a new age in Waterdeep, and we want all the right 3D prints within arm’s reach! DM Ben wants to set the perfect scene as our one-shot encounters begin to float into frame within our ongoing DnD campaigns.

That brings us to our newest Tinkerer scatter terrain piece: the Gravity Loader by EC3D Designs. This gem is from their wicked good Novus Landing set, which really should be joined at the hip with Aether Studios Hovertrain series. We found so many compatible 3D prints for our homebrewed campaign setting.

DM Ben “volunteered” to color this one up. First, no eyeballs, so that’s a huge win. And second, we’ve already settled in nicely with that cityworker–work-vest- yellow-ish vibe. The Army Painter Metallics are also incredibly versatile, giving novice painters like DM Ben a great deal of confidence to try their hand at coloring any 3D print these days.

Alas, we were so giddy with our latest DnD 3D print that we sadly forgot to add a wash over the top of this one to make it more grimy, but we’ll “fix that in post” like all those cool digital editors say. 😉

A nice feature of this Gravity Loader 3D print is that the driver’s seat accommodates a traditional DnD miniature like a boss. Omin Dran never wants to pay employees overtime, so a robotic workforce is right up his alley. Here, we placed one of our Lifter Constructs from an earlier post so you could see how a mini fits snug as a bug (with no OSHA necessary).

Obviously, The Lifters are required to load and unload Hovertrain cargo as fast as possible, but even these revolutionary Constructs have their limitations. They can only carry so much weight, and they don’t move incredibly fast. So, these robots will often utilize other hover vehicles to move much larger crates more efficiently. A typical Forgotten Rails Construct will max out its speed at 20 ft, while our new loader can move 80 ft.

Lastly, when it comes to total weight, a common DnD formula goes like so: a Construct can lift up to 30 times their Strength score for how much they can push, drag, or lift. For example, a construct with a Strength score of 20 can lift up to 600 pounds (20 x 30), while one with a Strength of 10 can lift 300 pounds. Regarding lifting capacity, it’s 15 times their Strength score, which is the weight they can carry without penalty to their speed

With that guideline in mind, our Lifters (or any other robot, for that matter) will likely max out at 600-800 pounds. Meanwhile, our Gravity Loader will hoist up to 10,000-12,000 pounds.

Until next time!