Trouble Rubble

Greetings, fellow Dungeon Crawlers! We’ve got some delightful modular dungeon terrain to show off today, and it comes just in the nick of time! So, let’s set our marching order and put that party Rogue front and center to check for traps!

Longtime 3DRPGers know that we’ve set a few DnD environment ground rules. Since we can’t 3D print every gameboard type, we selected three to fully 3D print: Villages, Hovertrains, and Egyptian Tombs. We’ll still use our “replicators” to crank out supporting pieces for add-on terrain, but Dwarven Forge has become our official go-to for core Cavern, Wilderness, and Dungeon terrain.

Since Dwarven Forge suffers from brutal supply and demand, we’ve got some great 3D-print paint guides for Dungeon Ruins and Caverns so you can enhance your setups with all the right scatter terrain. It’s a win-win for hobbyists, for sure. We think many of you would agree that it’s just not humanly possible to do every single TTRPG piece via your 3D printer(s)…especially when you factor in all the miniatures we’re obsessed with making, too!

We think today’s featured 3D prints will pair well with the insanely good Dungeons Reforged Kickstarter that is making its way to our doorstep this week! We went all-in on this particular Gamefound Dungeon Reforged offering, and we’re really jazzed to show off future dungeon builds with y’all. It’s just so darn nice to have some spectacular terrain completely finished and ready to go.

Thankfully, we have a slew of sensational STL creators like Cast n Play that know of this constant conundrum of finding the right accent pieces! They created a secondary Patreon called Terrain Essentials that continually tugs at our DnD heartstrings.  So, when we saw this recent Modular Dungeons Set release, we didn’t hesitate to pull that Tribe trigger! Let’s start with a few of these swell scatter terrain pieces.

We’ve come up with a very user-friendly paint scheme for core Dungeon pieces like these, so we never hesitate in 3D-printing them.

• Wood 1: ASP Dark Wood (with a drybrush of Vallejo Ochre).
• Wood 2: GSW Skeleton Brown.
• Skeletons: Citadel Contrast Skeleton Hoard (with Citadel Screaming Skull edging).
• Spider Webs: ASP Holy White (with Black Wash).
• Metal: ASP Enchanted Steel (with FAN Soft Tone Wash).
• Stone: ASP Runic Grey (with Black Wash).
• Dirt: Americana Burnt Umber or ASP Brownish Decay.

With this particular color lineup, you can crank out any new dungeon piece with ease.

The other 3D-printed dungeon piece we wanted to share today is the Tall Debris STL, also from the same Modular Dungeon set. The larger terrain is mostly rocky ruins and handy platforms that can be dropped into a particular scenario as needed.

Now, any DnD painter will tell you that matching 3D prints to Dwarven Forge’s stunning dungeon color scheme is no easy task. Yes, they have an amazing series of paint tutorials (and Pokorny Paint Line), but for whatever reason, you’ll probably never get your final prints to match their factory-painted pieces. The key seems to reside in their base layer. We use their Dungeon Gray, which is close enough.

We have a great two-step candle color move for you: ASP Zealot Yellow (for the flame) and a FAN paint (for the wax). Will circle back here to add it. For the ground cover, ASP Desolate Brown works really well.

We try to follow this specific Dungeon Dwarven Forge Tutorial, and it’s genuinely a very simple process. Since we own the whole Pokorny Paint Line (a must if you like to integrate 3D prints with their professional tiles), there’s not much to it. Don’t get frustrated by your tiles not perfectly matching, though – “close enough” is a great TTRPG hobbyist motto to live by here.

DM Ben also did this piece, and he’s pretty happy with it. There’s a lot of circling back where you might take a second drybrush run or apply a little more wash. Again, don’t stress…have fun with it. After all, you’re building your own amazing dungeons like some sort of God!

Until next time!