Good ol’ Aether Studios has made sure we have an abundance of 3D-printed Egyptian tile offerings, and we’re pretty jazzed to keep highlighting our favorite pieces to you during this sandy series. However, everyone has amazing, continuously growing DnD collections, and it’s essential to intermix your pieces for maximum gaming pleasure.

Today, we’re going to highlight Galladoria Games, and the reasons are two-fold: they create really cool TTRPG scatter terrain, and they were the catalyst for our entire Desert Tomb paint scheme. Let’s take a look at few of our favs, because what is our beloved hobby without inspiration?!

These are some highly detailed pillars by Galladoria Games and come from their kick-a$$ Kahari Desert series. We’re completely baffled why these imposing columns are no longer listed (even as out of stock). They just immerse you in the game so quickly, wouldn’t you agree?

We also wanted to show the other side of the desert pillars because we love the whole vine effect! We adore it when certain DnD scatter terrain pieces have distinct sides because then everyone gets a cool view at the game table. And you just get more storytelling and room descriptions out of the terrain, which gives Dungeon Masters all the right feels.

In that same vein, we also grabbed these cool tomb oracle-style monuments. Honestly, what’s not to love? These are frickin’ amazing and so well done. Absolutely drenched in details while being so darn mysterious. The DM could use one of them. He/she could scatter them in different areas of your DnD tomb. You know you have a great piece when numerous encounter ideas are racing through your head!

Again, these are also completely missing from their store, and that mystery will probably rest with our sleeping pharaoh forever. 

We accidentally forgot to include the other two DnD scatter terrain pieces from the set above, as DM Ben had pulled them for an upcoming encounter. The water one is actually our favorite of the four oracle-like statues. Plus, it was so cool for them to include a ruined version too! That one by itself could keep the adventurers endlessly guessing about what comes next!

As we continue to build out our large desert dungeon crawl, DM Ben wants a slew of Egyptian options, so we’re really stoked about featuring many more pieces from our oversized DnD collection. Variety is the spice of life, right?!!

Until next time!

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Longtime readers might remember fabled Terry the Troll from our post back in February 2024. He’s continuously stood on guard for thee at the infamous bridge that connects Waterdeep to The High Forest (otherwise, you have to take a very long way around).

Locals love the guy, and his combats are legendary. He loves collecting meaningless things and has a poor memory. To cross, players simply need to give him something with a double letter, like a bOOt, kiSS, shEEp, etc.

The original Troll Bridge gameboard featured a nifty bridge we downloaded off Thingiverse. The players loved the setup, and the roleplaying to get by our faithful Troll guardian was an absolute hoot as they finally pieced together the clues on how to cross. Good times!

This time, DM Ben wanted to feature a mightier, more memorable core bridge piece. Every time he’s in PetSmart (because dogs are awesome), he always takes a gander at all their aquarium terrain. They primarily carry a brand called TopFin. So, one time, he saw an insane oversized log bridge that was part of a big discounted sale. He immediately snatched it up! You have to act fast because these sorta pieces come and go. Amazon is also another good source to search for this kind of scatter terrain btw.

The legend goes that Terry the Troll took down a mighty tree after a once-in-a-lifetime flood cut off access to Waterdeep (from the forest). He even saved several Waterdeep citizens during that crazy storm. Oh, that Terry.

That core bridge piece has all these different levels to it – a feature that Dungeon Masters salivate over. Giving players advantage, disadvantage, cover, and new opportunities to use their skills like athletics and acrobatics always makes for better gameplay!

Our new bridge piece also had this nifty overhang piece where Terry keeps his mysterious chest (which, unbeknownst to the players, simply holds all his toll knick-knacks). DM Ben loves teaser gameboard features that become irresistible to players, ultimately encouraging them to investigate.

The other side of the Terry’s bridge is just as cool! Of course, there’s an exit point, but the party is still pretty high off the ground (say 100 feet-ish). So, we printed up this rope later by Custom Miniature Maker and used that for a nerve-wracking descent (DC 12 Athletics check).

The rushing waters eventually receded, but his access bridge remained, and it’s still the most efficient way to cross over from Waterdeep. We had these ancient rubber-ish river tiles from a previous GenCon and were delighted to dust them off and use them in our TTRPG home game! We forgot we even had ’em! We used a murky swamp pond under the original bridge, but this rushing river terrain is so much better!

Additionally, we aimed to more clearly convey that the bridge itself is the only way to pass. The dangerous waters also have dense, sharp thickets standing at the ready to shred any adventurer who tries to move through them. We recently acquired these cool thorn wall scatter pieces by Dwarven Forge that paired nicely with these other elf barricade pieces from a Galladoria Games Kickstarter. Together they sell the natural impassable wall.

We also added a few more violent scatter terrain pieces to demonstrate to the adventurers what happens if a person refuses to pay Terry’s toll. We keep a box of misfit prints and such, and then from time to time, recycle those broken bits to make new pieces, such as the one in the pic above.

Lastly, DM Ben wanted to add a longer approach to the bridge itself, so he built out a pathway leading up to it. He grabbed a super handy road map from Loke Battlemats’ Long Road RPG Toolbox. Sprinkle on a few trees and boulders, and that snazy grid play surface instantly comes to life.

Our next challenge is to add a couple of encounters to this gameboard. On the first go-around, the players were a bit bummed that we didn’t have any actual combat on the bridge itself so we’re currently pondering a few one-shot encounters to add in here: one for the road leading up to the bridge and one on the bridge itself. We’ll share those with you next week, but we have some ideas in the hopper!

There you have it, though! A new and improved gameboard featuring various memorable sections that are sure to fully immerse players at your gaming table. Much better, don’t you think?

Until next time!

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What an exciting time to be alive in Waterdeep! The Forgotten Rails is ushering in a new industrial era thanks to its rapidly expanding Steampunk-ish innovations. Once considered outcasts (and frankly, off their rockers), Gnome Tinkerers are now front and center and rushing out more and more inventions to the Rhealm. After all, technology always breeds new and better technology, right?!

When Aether Studios released this marvelous supportless FDM Dune Waste Catamaran, our DnD minds went into immediate overdrive. This crazy sand vehicle is a perfect fit for your next desert campaign, but also slots in nicely with our own Forgotten Rails Hovertrain setting. Crazy spinoffs are part of any invention cycle, so we need a few of these mechanical wonders to be spotted in the wild sooner rather than later.

We even printed multiple sand skiffs here, as one FDM 3D-print would never satisfy our insatiable sprockets’ appetite. Plus, we wanted to experiment with multiple paint schemes because sometimes you just never really know if you picked the right color palette until you try a few brush strokes out.

This TTRPG model comes in five pieces: a deck, two pontoons, and two turbines. The STLs are designed to fit together really smoothly. We cringe at assembly stuff sometimes, but this model was a breeze.

DM Ben had plenty of anxiety painting this one as he just couldn’t get comfortable with his colors. In hindsight, that angst was quite silly because experimenting is part of our beloved DnD hobby. You don’t get anywhere with your pile of shame unless you take some chances and jump in with both feet. It’s no big deal if you don’t nail the colors on the first try. As Aaron Rodgers once said, “Relax.”

Besides, we want multiple vehicles for true encounter building flexibility. And they would never be colored exactly the same. It’s not like you go to your local Skiff Dealer and pick one off the lot. These beauties are more like kit cars with their own personalities and styles.

Also, there’s plenty of space on its central platform for some hair-raising battles as you zip across the desert. Can you imagine drawing swords as this beast rumbles across the sands? That’s one bumpy battle if we ever saw one.

We initially fell in love with Army Painter’s Hoard Bronze Speedpaint when we colored this Flickering Knight by Loot Studios. Alas, we learned that this particular metallic works well on smaller minis, but the color can overpower a 3D print if it covers too large an area. It’s not a major deal, as we could always prime it again, but we’re digging the junker paint scheme.

So, where do we go from here since we have two fully assembled 3D prints here? Well, it turns out the talented crew over at Galladoria Games published a brilliant Sand Tutorial on their Instagram many moons ago, and we’ve never gotten around to trying it! This FDM print seems like the perfect place to finally try it out!

• Prime Flat White
• Apply a light Reaper Paints Sepia Wash (09310)
• Continue with a heavy spotted Polished Leather (09430) Drybrush
• Finish with a Bleached Linen (09436) Drybrush

So, we’ll move to painting the entire second skiff in this scheme and then circle back and add subtle touches of various metallics, like ASP Enchanted Steel and Fanatic True Copper, so no one color overpowers the piece.

Until next time!

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It’s not the tallest or most ornate temple in the city, but everyone knows that if you need a divine helping hand, popping in to see the infamous M. Knight Holymon is the place to go.

This pious pal runs the Church of Consequences and accepts religion in any form. He cares more about one’s spiritual connection rather than the god itself. M. Knight feels a religious connection of any sort means you’re more likely to do good than cause harm…just don’t say the “cult” word around him.

So how did we get here? Welp, a member of our adventuring, early on in the Acquisitions Incorporated free DnD module, the players entered a mummy chamber. Unable to resist the urge to loot everything in sight, they went to town on the main wrapped body in the center of the room.

DM Ben was left speechless by their brutal salvage tactics and just had to drop a curse. One player in the group failed his Con save and, consequently, has been carrying the burden for several sessions. Initially, the plan was to ultimately turn the player literally into a toilet paper-carrying banana. However, we love that Wandering Monster table entry so much that we will save it for later.

Instead, DM Ben will have the cursed character drop some (gold) bread on the padre so he can wipe the Barbarian’s conscience clean. A tribute of 80 gp to the Gods, as it were.

Our game group just completed a significant victory in our office campaign. They were able to eradicate a Night Hag from The High Forest and stop her evil abduction scheme.

Word traveled fast through Waterdeep, but M. Knight Holymon knew the work was incomplete. Initially, the witch captured men and women for her magic experiments but soon realized their tears did not restore her youthful beauty. So, she had to alter her witchcraft to extract the key ingredient from “smaller” candidates.

His temple wants those souls removed from her shallow graveyard and brought back to the Church so they can finally rest in peace. If the party completes this task, then bye-bye, nasty curse. Those poor souls need to get unstuck!

Needless to say, there will be several Church stops in the coming sessions, and we all know how much DM Ben loves a good setting! So, he’s tapping Galladoria Games and Cast n Play for the proper decor.

Galladoria does prepainted pieces with exceptional quality and detail. We picked up a sandstone set of the Divine Maidens and grabbed one from there. The other two prints are from Cast n Play. Since the Church of Consequences accepts all deities, a sacred scatter terrain mix was key here.

Our office campaign just advanced to level five, and the party Cleric was able to pick up the Remove Curse spell. However, the deed was dastardly, and only part of the hoodoo voodoo was extracted.

Our Barbarian can finally take a long rest without losing levels of exhaustion due to all the messed-up dreams. However, the mummy’s evil whispers persist, and he still tries to make the player attack his comrades during battle.

M. Knight Holymon will ask for 80 gold to be interspersed among all the shrines. Then, the blessed book will begin rapidly flipping pages. It will violently stop on a page, and the gods will hand out the freeing quest.

Until next time!

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You get five terrific tomes in all to stack a bookshelf or place “innocently” on a table or dais of your choosing. We picked the handpainted option for $20 but you can drop some color on ’em yourself for just a mere $6.

The five spell tomes are a skull tome, an eyeball tome, stacked tomes, a large arcane tome, and our fav…an open tome. So now you can put ’em in a big ol’ pile for the group to sift through or pick the paperback that best fits your next DnD encounter.

So that got us thinkin’ – what might these Galladoria tomes actually contain or how might any of them slip into your campaign? Thankfully, the Internet once again has our back!

We found a brilliant D&D Beyond Forum post where someone suggested “a recipe book, but if they read it all the way to the end, there’s actually a spell or two in it.” Another person recommended, “a few alchemical texts. Along with this, there should be books on botany and the biology of animals and fantastic beasts.” And lastly, someone proposed doing, “D&D spoofs of real-world books. Things like “Of Mousefolk and Men,” “Pride and Prestidigitation,” “Little Warlocks,” or “Charlies and the Construct Factory.” So good!

Or, if you’re looking for a quick and easy d100 table, the wise crew at DnDSpeak.com created a Library Books table to roll against! Our absolute fav from their most-excellent library list was, “101 Ways to Cook an Ooze’ – Interesting recipes include a gelatinous cube cocktail, ochre apple jelly, and salted pudding.”

So three cheers to Galladoria Games! You’ll always be a bookmark in our tome!

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