As longtime readers know, we’re running the same core DnD campaign here with the 3DRPG Studios team and also with our fam at home. The office crew got a big head start, and this was the only way DM Ben could commit to running two ongoing games a month. However, what does a Dungeon Master always need more than anything? Yep, you guessed it – time.

With additional crafting hours on our side, we’ve made a couple of fun improvements to better immerse the home players in this wild homebrewed storyline. We’ll share those tweaks as we outline what’s in store for our adventurers this Saturday.

First, let’s open with a brief recap from the last session. The party completed their five-day trek deep into The High Forest to finally locate the witch’s cabin in the woods. The showdown hasn’t quite started, but things are definitely gonna come to a boil this week.

The last previously completed encounters included:

• Stone Cold Trouble
• Witch Way Did She Go?
• Rat Swarm Wandering Monsters
• Watching Our Every Move

Once again, DM Ben proved that players simply can’t resist cheese, no matter how obvious the danger is. We added a wild monster to the pit, which quickly raised everyone’s blood pressure. Darn fun times, though!

So, here’s the dice plan for this weekend!

• More warning signs of what lies ahead! (new)
• Venus Print Traps
• Arrow Barrage (new)
• The Scarecrow Knows
• An escapee reaches the party
• Meet the Night Hag (see below)

DM Ben was itching to try out this slick Mystery Wilderness gridded rubber mat we got off Temu. The quality is exceptional, and it just screamed “tucked away in the forest” to us! Sadly, the prices jumped considerably, so we doubt we’ll grab another one anytime soon.

DM Ben is going to use a little Wizard of Oz inspiration to let the players know they are getting extremely close to cornering the Night Hag on her own turf by seeing a plume of steady smoke rising in the distance. What they might not fully realize is that the witch has been watching their every move nearly the whole way and is basically daring them to fall into her well-planned ambush.

For the subtle smoke, we have these old plastic markers (from Pelor knows who) that we grabbed at Gen Con like 20 years ago. DM Ben will place it on a taller flight stand and describe it to the group. Surprisingly, we didn’t have any smoke effects already 3D-printed, but we might try one of these.

Again, with the benefit of more prep time, DM Ben also wanted to tease what a dangerous situation the party is walking into here. Yes, they’ve already found one adventuring party turned to stone farther back in their journey, but a second sign certainly wouldn’t hurt. DM Ben fully admits he adores teasing what’s ahead (almost to a fault), cause clues are good ol’ fashioned fun.

So now two different groups of adventurers have turned to stone?! That can’t be good. One instance could have come directly from an earlier, direct Night Hag tangle, but the other instance could be from the underground Bulette nest that the group will find once they’re deeper in the caverns below the cabin!

Another intense tripwire DM Ben wanted to add is a huge volley of arrows that the party will trigger upon reaching the edge of Nigh Hag’s cabin. This surprise attack harkens back to all those old medieval movies where you just see this almost wall of arrows blocking the sun and raining down on the opposing side. First, the group will find fallen adventure with half a dozen bolts stuck in him. We’ll be using a corpse from STL Miniatures’ Injured Villagers Set. The poor soul will even have popped a healing potion, but passed before it could reach his lips.

And for the arrow-firing mechanism itself, we’re going to use this awesome crossbow scatter piece by Dwarven Forge. DM Ben will just explain that the 15 strategically placed crossbows are pointed upward. This DnD scatter piece is from their Wildlands Pole Accessory Pack. Each player will get +2 partial cover if they’re directly behind a tree, but each bolt will be a +5 attack with 1d6+2 piercing damage. The group’s faces as DM rolls 15 d20s at once will be priceless.

From there, it’s time to meet that “innocent old lady” in the woods, and thankfully, all those encounters are already nicely prepped. Here’s the planned sequence of events…

• Cabin Exterior
• Main Interior Room
• Thorny Situation
• The Key Challenge
• Suspended Cage
• Backyard
• Basement | Boxed In | Trapped Door

DM Ben wrote pretty solid prep notes for this portion when he originally ran it with the 3DRPG office crew, so some might find that write-up helpful. Gonna be a great weekend of gaming, y’all.

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Apr 2026, Home Edition) appeared first on 3DRPG.

So, normally, we are all about Tomb Thursdays, but this dramatic environment change (Forest to Dungeon) in the office campaign is so intense that DM Ben needs a little more time to get ready for Friday. Also, he truly uses this post to get all his dungeon master ducks in a row for prep, and writing the article on game day doesn’t do as much good, since he can’t just dash back home and grab something he forgot. Hence, for office monthly game days, he’s going to do the article on Thursdays to help him remember what to pack to bring into the office.

Let’s start with a new 3D print we were able to sneak in before game day to further improve an upcoming encounter. We have two key rooms in the Tresendar Manor mini-dungeon crawl where things haven’t gone according to plan for the original inhabitants. There’s Area 7: Failed Ritual and Area 10: Far Realm Rift. For either room, DM Ben wants to convey that something went awry and provide clues about what might have happened to The Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose AI Franchise that the party is trying to locate.

These humorous barrels by STL Miniatures are from their wonderful Abbey Monks Set, and we were eager to get them onto a gameboard. What better way to show the players that someone was hastily trying to clean up a mess that got quickly out of control? DM Ben just isn’t sure which room he’ll put them in – that’ll be a game-time gut decision.

No eyes, no problem here, so DM Ben was happy to color both pot versions up in time for game day. He was also really stoked to come up with two simple paint scheme options for future TTRPG scatter terrain, as these came out swell!

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Dark Barrel P1: Layer FAN Leather Brown.
• Dark Barrel P2: Drybrush FAN Desert Yellow.
• Dark Barrel P3: FAN Strong Tone Wash.
• Light Barrel P1: Layer FAN Wasteland Clay.
• Light Barrel P2: FAN Strong Tone Wash.
• Legs: FAN Barbarian Flesh + Black Wash.
• Shoes: Citadel Contrast Snakebite Leather.
• Barrel Lid: GSW Skeleton Brown.
• Liquid: Citadel Contrast Plaguebearer Flesh
• Liquid Effect: AKI’s Water Effects

The office was split right down the middle on which stone/clay pot paint scheme everyone liked best, so we’ll probably use them both on future scatter terrain pieces.

To briefly recap how our Game Day post and prep that went in February, the group spent the entire four-hour sesh doing this insane Goblin ambush battle! This office group of players is alllll about rolling as many dice as possible and doing a lot of combat. They just live for that kind of stuff over any character/story immersions. That’s fine by DM as he’s here to give the group what they want. And none of our Goblins were pushovers (by design).

They killed over 25 Goblins, including both the leader and his second in command, thanks to multiple fireballs cast by the two magic users in the group! Some Shady Tree’s Angry Acorns even came to the group’s aid in the late rounds, but their axes weren’t even really needed thanks to those devastating fire artillery-esque spells.

So, that means alllll the other prep DM Ben lined up in the last Game Day post wasn’t even needed. No complaints from DM Ben, as he loves it when some stuff carries over to a future TTRPG sesh. The only bummer is we were all having so much combat fun that he forgot to deploy the Banana Curse on our ancient-crypt-wrecking Barbarian, so he’ll be saving that for a future battle. #darn

Hence, everything else DM Ben had lined up for the last game is still in play!

• Return young Adrik to Krufer Promentory | collect reward.
• Return young Shamus to Ewan McHook | offers to build them something.
• Return the mysterious human girl, Deliilah, | Lord Gallobax DuGalle
• Meet Omin Dran to collect Night Hag monetary reward (600 gp per character).
• Get the Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose franchise quest.
• Pick up the first Forgotten Rails Hovertrain escort mission to Phandalin. | Shady Tree Sabotage
• Encounter an underderess Lizardfolk alchemist named Thetsis on their way to the hideout | P1, P2.
• Do one random encounter roll on the module’s Traveling to Phandalin table.
• Begin the Tresendor Manor Dungeon Crawl.

So, the plan here is to allow the players to return to Waterdeep. Hit all the bullets above and then have them go back out onto the road to find out what happened to the Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose franchise.

DM Ben mentioned what a big deal combat is to this group of players, so he’ll ensure we at least get the Ax Beak Wandering monster stampede encounter in for the night, and even add in the Lizardfolk alchemist encounter in there too.

He also needs to dish out the loot from the huge, massive goblin battle, which is going to have a pretty nice stash of stuff because the group killed both the goblin leader and his first in command before either could flee (thanks to a fireball range of 150 feet). They also have a Ranger in the party who can make sick shots from a long distance, thanks to his trusty longbow.

Here’s what he’s thinking in terms of possible treasure:

• Money: 25 monster kills, so probably something like 200 gp, 120 sp, 300 cp.
• Temp Magic Items: a couple of utility scrolls (like Greater Resistance) and potions (like Greater Invisibility).
• Fancier Magic Items: Horn of Silent Alarm | Living Gloves

DM Ben keeps a go-to tin of Magic Item Loot in a card tin – stuff he’s researched and knows that won’t overly shift the balance in the game, so he’ll sift through those options too.

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Mar 2025, Office Edition) appeared first on 3DRPG.

DM Ben is really cutting this one close as he still hasn’t fully cleared off our Wyrmwood gaming table and put away the Dwarven Forge Dungeons Reforged bumper crop of terrain goodness. Sometimes, dungeon masters just have to ride the wave and bear down is all. Meaning, somehow…someway…he’ll be ready!

As longtime 3DRPGers know, we’re playing the same campaign between our Office crew and DM Ben’s family. The work game is a bit ahead of the family game, so that’s allowed DM Ben to spruce up some encounters where he simply ran out of prep time previously. Case in point, he wanted some more signs that the players are being watched by the witch as they trek through the woods to finally locate her dastardly operation.

So, he had 3D printed these wild Curious Eye Stones from Fantastic Plants & Rocks a ways back but felt like this past weekend was the perfect time to paint ’em up and add them to this weekend’s DnD sesh.

After what has felt like constant trial and error with rocks, DM Ben is finally getting comfortable with a specific set of paint steps.

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Base: Layer on ASP Runic Grey.
• Wash Option 1: a black wash.
• Wash Option 2: a brown wash (for dirtier rocks).
• Circle back with a light grey drybrush.
• Finish it off with an even lighter white drybrush.

And then we just added in some white for the eyes and light green for some pupils to hint that the witch is watching their every move. See below for how we’re going to integrate these into an upcoming encounter. He also applied a little GSW Gloss Varnish to the eyes so they popped a bit more.

Let’s briefly recap what happened last time. The gang is in the midst of a five-day-ish journey (mostly on foot), so several Wandering Monsters from our free Wilderness Trek table were the big focus of the last somewhat shorter session.

• Sudden Stampede: Axe Beaks!
• Unchained Melody: Harpies!

DM Ben didn’t do a random roll for the Axe Beaks; he was just super eager to try out that encounter and felt the existing forest gameboard was perfect for this particular scenario. Plus, he’s super proud of the miniatures he painted. Hence, he just decided to insert this one into the game.

For the Harpies, DM Ben played the “Down to the River to Pray” song from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. It was just hilarious. Some quick thinking by the group and some really great rolls by the players really saved their skin for that one.

The group is at a key point in the story, where they must travel deep into the mysterious and dangerous High Forest. That nasty Night Hag isn’t just going to be standing there in the wide open. She’s hidden her operation well and absolutely has plans to wear the party down, should they reach her house of terror.

• Venus Print Traps
• Stone Cold Trouble
• Witch Way Did She Go?
• The End is Near
• The Scarecrow Knows
• Wandering Monsters: #5, Rat Swarm

DM Ben is going to place those Curious Eye Rocks from above within the Rat encounter during their next long rest and will swap out existing boulders with these spy ones.

So, we still have a pretty decent list of encounters, but it’s likely these skilled DnD players will knock all of these out this weekend. DM Ben is so paranoid that he’ll even set up the first face-to-face scenario with the Night Hag.

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (March 2026, Home Edition) appeared first on 3DRPG.

So, we did roll some dice in December but had to punt on a January DnD sesh because the dire scheduling monster reared its ugly head. No matter – a new year means new adventures, and we’re back on track here in February! We’ll open with a recap in case you need some fresh ideas for your own campaign and/or if you’re enjoying following ours!

Recapping our last game night, the group completed their encounter with Tibarious Trunk, a protector of The High Forest who is doing everything in his power to derail the impending Hovertrains from destroying his beloved natural habitat. His chaos shennanigans including destroying sign markers for new rail routes. He was causing so much confusion that The Forgotten Rails dispatched Probe Golems and Detection Dawgs to hunt him down.

This mechanical encounter was significant because DM Ben finally feels comfortable enough to integrate The Forgotten Rails campaign setting into the D&D 5e Acquisitions Incorporated module. We’ve done 113 (and counting) dedicated DnD blog posts for our beloved Hovertrains, so it’s finally showtime!

The game group also encountered these Pulverizer Constructs, who were hammering in these posts, claiming imminent domain on High Forest land for The Forgotten Rails. The party turned these guys into scrap metal, but these mystery mechs are here to stay, and many more thrilling Construct encounters are forthcoming!

The players also encountered one of Shady Tree’s Angry Acorns, who was having a tiff with a rival mushroom clan. The mushroom grew tired of the fruitless banter and bailed. The group spoke to the bully acorn in a tense exchange. DM Ben is going to bring the Acorns back in tonight’s sesh because the only thing Acorns hate more than humans is goblins!

For their stats, we’ll keep it simple with this Warrior Infantry 5e profile: AC 13, HP 9, Att +3/1d6+1. Each player in the group will be given one Angry Acorn. DM Ben will play the leader, Eddie…Eddie the Angry Acorn.

Speaking of those nasty green lunatics, as the party progressed through The High Forest, it made a wrong turn, hit an unfortunate choke point, and walked right into a shocking ambush! We rolled initiative and called it a night. So, that’s where our beloved DnD game picks up this evening.

The High Forest is quite large in size, and it is a powder keg of different creatures and factions, all vying to exert more control over these lush lands. Inhabitants respect the clear travel paths, but when travelers wander too far off the beaten path, weapons are drawn.

DM Ben’s battle plan is to swarm the board with a slew of Goblin minis, with two fierce commanders farther up the path. Here’s the monster breakout he’s going to use for the wide range of enemy combatant miniatures on our lush gameboard.

Goblin Minion: AC 12, HP 7, +4 att/1d4+2 damage (scimitar or short bow), Stealth +6 (with Disengage or Hide). DM Ben will have at least a dozen of these guys in the battle, coming in and out of each round.

Goblin Warriors: AC 15, HP 14, +4 att/1d6+2 damage (scimitar or short bow), Stealth +6 (with Disengage or Hide). DM Ben will have at least ten of these guys in the battle, coming in and out of each round.

Goblin Hexers: AC 13, HP 45, +5 att/2d8+3 damage. Jinx Reaction (Wisdom Saving Throw: DC 13, The attack misses on a failure). There will be three of these, with one assigned to protect the leader.

Goblin Boss: AC 17, HP 75, +6 att/1d6+4 damage (scimitar or short bow), Stealth +6 (with Disengage or Hide), Redirect Attack. WotC by default only gives this one 21 HP, and that was waaaay too low, as the goal of the fight is to push the party to its limits, and then they’ll run to ultimately fight another day when their overall numbers get too depleted. DM Ben also gave him a +2 scimitar.

During this big ol’ battle, DM Ben is going to finally invoke the Banana curse! He’ll do a pseudo roll in the early rounds and then pop this magnificent mini on the table to replace the Barbarian fig. During the battle, it is likely the curse will transfer to an opponent (Con DC 12). This experience should make the players think twice before desecrating future tombs.

After the battle, Acorn Eddie is going to say to the Monk and Barbarian, “Have we met before? You look really familiar.” The players will probably think nothing of that brief exchange, but it’s going to set up a brief encounter up the road where the group bumps into an animated message board. When they touch a particular pinned notice, the board will suddenly animate and describe two people wanted for murder.

A while back, it turned out that two of the guys at the table had very similiar backstories, and DM Ben loved it so much that he wants to pin it in the game!

The arcane sign will then read the following: “Hear ye, hear ye…wanted for murder! One male wood elf, brown hair. Last known Alias: “Mr. Hands.” Last seen traveling with his accomplice, an older, grey-haired, muscular male human who goes by the name “Close Shave Glaive. Armed and extremely dangerous. Last seen near water deep. Reward is 2,000 gp each – dead but preferred alive.”

It won’t take long for two players at the table to know it’s them and that they are now officially being hunted. Now, they’re going to have to be more aware and stealthy when they get back to Waterdeep!

If time allows, DM Ben will conclude with our Axe Beak Stampede encounter from our free Wandering Monster Wilderness Trek Table. DM Ben ran this one in the home game, and it was a huge hit. Besides, he simply loves these miniatures he 3D-printed and painted!

Lastly, once the group completes the large Goblin ambush battle and realizes a few of them are wanted men, they’ll have to tread carefully as the party arrives back in Waterdeep to refuel and collect their rewards. Here’s everything DM Ben has lined up on their arrival back in town:

• Return young Adrik to Krufer Promentory | collect reward.
• Return young Shamus to Ewan McHook | offers to build them something.
• Return the mysterious human girl, Deliilah, | Lord Gallobax DuGalle
• Meet Omin Dran to collect Night Hag monetary reward (600 gp per character).
• Get the Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose franchise quest.
• Pick up the first Forgotten Rails Hovertrain escort mission to Phandalin. | Shady Tree Sabotage
• Encounter an underderess lizardfolk alchemist named Thetsis on their way to the hideout | P1, P2.
• Do one random encounter roll on the module’s Traveling to Phandalin table.
• Begin the Tresendor Manor Dungeon Crawl.

Let the dice rolling begin!

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Feb 2025, Office Edition) appeared first on 3DRPG.

Surprisingly, we were able to play a DnD home game in December, and boy howdy, did we have a great time! And we’re defying the evil scheduling Gods again by playing in early January. Crazy, right?!

Before we get to today’s Dungeon Master prep post, let’s do a quick update on our beloved mascot of 3DRPG Studios, the adorable Winnie Lou Who. This beyond-cute Cavapoo pup is actually DM Ben’s new dog, as he sadly lost his 13-year-old pup in November. Both our family and our office DnD players love pups and her new arrival, so she’ll certainly be spoiled rotten. She came home on 12-13-25, just in time for Christmas. Winnie Lou is the best, but snakes alive, she requires a ton of constant attention.

Before we recap our last sesh and explain what DM Ben has prepped for this Saturday, we have a new gamer group development to cover. Since we have many younger adult gamers in our home game, we added another player to make future scheduling a bit easier. Hence, we added another Fighter to the party.

The current party makeup is like so:

• Amara Shadir, Elf Warlock/Genie
• Grace, Human Wizard
• Iris Xiphium, Half-Elf Rogue/Soulknife
• Rhogar, Dragonborn Cleric
• Maeve Amidala, Elf Fighter
• Beldroth Zopyros, Human Fighter

Maeve and Beldroth will basically swap in and out of the, depending on who can play in any given month.

With all those updates out of the way, let’s talk about what these adventurers accomplished last sesh. Our typically hyper-focused group moved a bit slower this last time, but still completed some important missions.

• Shopped and then purchased a horse and cart to travel to The High Forest.
• Had another Terry the Troll Bridge Crossing (without incident).
• Survived an Axe Beak stampede!
• Realized the Night Hag has her eye on them.

We had less time than usual, but the group made solid progress nonetheless.

The players’ core mission remains the same here. Find out why so many children from Waterdeep have gone missing and learn the fate of the original rescue party that went deep into The High Forest to find them.

• Venus Print Traps
• Stone Cold Trouble
• Witch Way Did She Go?
• The End is Near
• The Scarecrow Knows
• Wandering Monsters: #5, Rat Swarm
• Wandering Monsters: #16, Harpies 

That’s a sizable list to burn through in a single Saturday, so DM Ben feels pretty good about having enought DnD game content to pull from…alas, RPGers are never predictable.

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Jan 2026, Home Edition) appeared first on 3DRPG.

Playing for just the second time in just five months has been a huge bummer, but DM Ben has a secret weapon to get all our young adult kiddos back to the game table on a more regular basis in 2026.

Sadly, we had to make the dreadful decision to put our beloved dog, Sandy Paws, down right before Thanksgiving. She was a beloved member of our family and the office mascot for nearly 13 years. We were so blessed to have her in our lives. We had already been planning to add another pup in December.

Meet our newest team member – Miss Winnie Lou Who. The pic above is Winnie, just a few weeks old. She comes home this weekend! Nothing brings folks to a game table like new puppies, right?!

If there’s one thing DM Ben never has to worry about with our home DnD campaign, it’s a slow pace. Do you think it’s true that younger players go at a faster game pace than older players? Well, it sure does seem to be the case for us.

In our last session, the home team knocked out the following encounters!

• Picked up the Blacksmith’s son rescue mission.
• Met the “Pumpkins that ain’t pumpkins” farmer.
• Captured some Wooly Mangalitza pigs for the Kinda Sorta Portal quest.
• Traveled back over Terry’s Troll Bridge.
• And even fulfilled all their Waterdeep shopping needs.

DM Ben has to be laser-focused in his prep and usually survives each session with just one encounter left in the tank!

So, what’s next? Welp, it’s time for our fearless adventurers to solve the mystery of Waterdeep’s missing persons. This larger homebrewed scenario is directly linked to the missing boy of local blacksmith Krufer Promentory, but the group has learned he’s not the only one! Their only lead is a spooky old woman held up deep in The High Forest, and she’s hard to pin down. A large search party was sent in to find her, and none returned.

Thankfully, we have a marvelous Wyrmwood game table at the house, so DM Ben was able to utilize his Dwarven Forge Wilderness terrain to build an elaborate forest map that will house numerous encounters, summarized below.

First things, first. The players will be exiting Waterdeep and will once again be required to pay Terry the Troll’s toll to cross. They’ve crossed this single city entry and exit point a couple of times now, so there won’t be a need to drop down an elaborate gameboard this time. Still, they have to pay the “fee,” or there’ll be heavy consequences.

Even getting to The High Forest will require as much as three days’ travel, depending on their mode of travel. You might recall a recent post where we explained how obsessed we are with 3D-printing wonderful wagons of all kinds. So the group can do any of the following:

• Walk it | longest but free.
• Get a few mounts | 5 gp a day | 20 gp deposit.
• Get a horse and cart | 8-10 gp a day (if driver is needed) | 30 gp deposit.
• Hop a ride | skill check and let the dice decide.

The mode of travel is so important. It costs money, affects travel speed, potential routes, ability to stealth, etc.

The agreed-upon mode of travel will dictate how many wandering monster rolls there will be. DM Ben will assume at least three rolls, and the percentile chance again depends on how they get there. We’ll naturally utilize our own free d20 Wilderness Trek Table. DM Ben rolls ahead of time so he doesn’t have to dig for the appropriate minis in the event they do encounter something.

And here’s what he rolled off the table:

• #5, Rat Swarm
• #16, Harpies 
• #4, Stampede

The default chance of a travel or long rest interruption is either 20% on percentile dice. That benchmark can go up or down depending on their speed, stealth checks, climate (on our weather dice), on-road vs. off-road, and so on.

There will also be planned homebrewed scenarios as the players get closer to the Night Hag’s HQ.

• I Scry a Witch
• Venus Print Traps
• Stone Cold Trouble
• Witch Way Did She Go?
• The End is Near
• The Scarecrow Knows

There’s a rhyme and reason to every one of these upcoming encounters. The scrying stone tips off the players that the old woman is watching. The attacking plants show off her powerful magic. The discovered stone statues indicate the first rescue party was stopped dead in its tracks. A second trap trigger conveys that the group is very close. The crazy old man is a final dire warning. And the Scarecrow introduces our next fun NPC.

Once the party gets through all these encounters, they’ll have their first chance at capturing their own Bastion and assigning their Kinda Sorta Portal to their new home base!

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Dec 2025, Home Edition) appeared first on 3DRPG.

After numerous attempts to schedule our beloved Office campaign in October, the stars just couldn’t align. Player commitment during the last three holiday months is the dark side of TTRPG, but such is life, right?! At least we finally got everyone to commit this week! Our coping advice is just to take some deep breaths and let the gold pieces fall where they may. If you miss a sesh or two, it will just make the next one even more enjoyable.

Last we left off, the players were making their way back through the underground cavern beneath their newfound Bastion. Things were really looking up for the group after a series of tough battles to clear out any remaining enemies. Just one small hitch – the group had to recross the shallow cavernous waters in order to get back up to the first level of their hideout. Not easy but certainly doable, right?!

Wellllll…have you ever had one of those DnD games where you thought the team would breeze through the first encounter of the night, only to see it take up nearly the entire session? Welp, that’s exactly what happened for our party of six rumbling and stumbling adventurers. The players were extremely concerned about an underwater ambush and took their time trying to cross the shallow waters stealthily. We played for 4.5 hours, and they’re not even fully through it! Wow…just wow.

So, our previous Game Day recap is largely intact! Like, they barely did anything DM Ben queued up last time. Sometimes a Dungeon Master relishes being well ahead in his prep. At the same time, he/she frets about not making a better encounter. Gotta shake it off, man. We had plenty of laughs, and the players should kick it in gear here tonight! Focus on the good and stay on target!

Once the gang finishes swimming with da fishes, DM Ben has five total encounters ready to roll!

• Spot Jack Shaw in new garb, continually searching for his Soul Bag.
• Day 1 Travel: Wandering Monster Roll 1, Mercenaries (dice roll, 8)
• The Forgotten Rails: Encounter 1 – In the Zone.
• Day 2 Travel: Wandering Monster Roll 2, Leapin’ Lizzards (dice roll, 18)
• Day 3 Travel: Wandering Monster Roll 3, Side Guide (dice roll, 17)

To save time with packing and transporting, DM Ben likes to preroll from our free Wilderness Trek Wandering Monster d20 Table.

Now, that’s more than enough DnD content goodness to get us through the night, but DM Ben couldn’t help but craft up one more potential encounter. Meet the Porcupo by the sensational Schlossbauer. This spikey lil’ fella is a free download and is sure to keep your game group on its toes.

Sunrise Sven stepped up and painted this mysterious, unlikely harmless creature. He went with two complementary colors: good ol’ purple and some bright pink. We’re fans of the paint scheme here as DM Ben wants to keep the group guessing when freaky thing comes sauntering out from some bushes.

This 3D print came out so well that we’ll definitely do a few more of ’em…even mixing up the paint jobs. Meaning, getting poked with a pink quill will have a different effect than getting pricked by a white quill. We’ll model its DnD 5e stats off a traditional porcupine and then sprinkle in a few homebrewed traits of our own.

A failed Constitution saving throw (DC 12) from a needle hit will invoke instant Paralysis (like, picture someone being hit with a police taser) #timber. The Porcupo is very territorial and fiercely protects its nesting grounds. It will fire a couple of warning shot quills. If the players engage and take one of these creatures out, the quills on its back explode like a fireball, and they’ll rain down on anyone within a 20-foot radius.

Every Porcupo is different in terms of the number of quills on its back. The older the creature, the greater the number of needles. When the creature falls to 0 HP, DM Ben will ask one player to roll a d20+5 to determine its age. The probability of hitting is low (+1), the damage is a mere 1d4-1, but the potential for paralysis is the true concern.

DM Ben will tease this creature throughout the night with some random player perception checks. That will get the paranoia going until he finds just the right spot for the group to “say hello to my little friend.”

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Nov 2025) appeared first on 3DRPG.

Let’s start with what we know. The 3DRPG Studios adventurers have successfully explored the caverns below the Night Hag’s cabin in the woods and fully claimed it as their new Bastion. At the end of the last session, they successfully defeated the Rock Mimics guarding her Alchemy Room. Their next move is to travel back to Waterdeep to continue their journey to fortune and fame, but it won’t be a walk in the park to get back to the capital city!

Last time they left off, the players had just successfully cleared the Alchemy Room. It will yield several treasures, including a piece of the mysterious Corederite mineral. They’ll probably start off by attempting to harvest the now deceased Rock Mimics using the fab Nord Games’ Foraging, Harvesting & Natural Discovery 5e supplement book. DM Ben will also allow the party’s Wizard to snatch up the Alchemy Room materials (via an Alchemy Kit card) so he can set up a lab of his own in a more secure location. But, where do we go from here?!

First off, we have a freshly prepped encounter from just the other day that requires the party to carefully retrace their cavernous steps and avoid rustling the water inhabitants throughout the natural passages back to the surface. DM Ben has a hunch they’re about to waterwalk into a heap of trouble.

The party will have to traverse back through the shallow-watered cavern tunnels from which they came. This will be a group skill challenge focusing on two key aspects of their previous exploration. Part one involves remembering exactly how to get back, as they’re deep below ground, and all the different underground passages get confusing in a hurry. The group made no callouts on their way in, so it’s time to potentially suffer the consequences.

This navigational challenge will be a DC 15 skill check with any of the following skills: Investigation, Perception, or Survival. All it takes is just one failure to attract some unwelcomed scaly company. Anyone wearing armor takes the roll at disadvantage. This time, the water will be a bit deeper, which will reduce everyone’s speed by half, and all the players’ attack rolls will be at disadvantage. We’ll be using the Zombie Fish 5e DnD monster stats here, but with some small stat tweaks: AC 13, HP 40, +6 to hit (one bite, one tail attack).

After successfully getting back to the surface, now what? Welp, we start by clearing off the office conference room table, yet being smart about packing those rooms up, so we can re-run those Cabin Cavern Crawl scenarios in our home game. Since our adventurers have a lot of traveling to do, our base “layer” on the table will be forest-themed in nature (pun intended).

Some Dungeon Masters thrive when they see a clean slate, but DM Ben gets a little apprehensive, and sadly, he freezes up a tad. One way he counters this unproductive vibe is to start slow-writing out our next Game Day DnD blog post and just start dropping ideas “down on paper.” Selfishly, DM Ben really leans on our lil’ ol’ DnD blog to keep him focused and producing a great game month in and month out.

Once they cross that shallow water choke point, our exhausted explorers are in the clear and finally can take a long rest. The next morning will bring several incomplete tasks, including:

• Return young Adrik to Krufer Promentory | collect reward.
• Return young Shamus to Ewan McHook | offers to build them something.
• Return the mysterious human girl, Deliilah, | Lord Gallobax DuGalle
• Meet Omin Dran to collect Night Hag monetary reward (600 gp per character).
• Get the Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose franchise quest.
• Pick up the first Forgotten Rails Hovertrain escort mission to Phandalin. | Shady Tree Sabotage
• Encounter an underderess lizardfolk alchemist named Thetsis on their way to the hideout | P1, P2.
• Do one random encounter roll on the module’s Traveling to Phandalin table.
• Begin the Tresendor Manor Dungeon Crawl.

First things first, they have to get to actually travel back through The High Forest to the capital city of Waterdeep.

Consequently, DM Ben has crafted several DnD one-shot encounters to ensure their three-day travel is filled with excitement and new curiosities.

• Spot Jack Shaw in new garb, continually searching for his Soul Bag.
• The Forgotten Rails: Encounter 1 – In the Zone.
• Day 1 Travel: Wandering Monster Roll 1
• Day 2 Travel: Wandering Monster Roll 2
• Day 3 Travel: Wandering Monster Roll 3
• Recross the Troll Bridge | Monster Battle in Progress

That’s a solid list of encounters for three days’ worth of travel, but that list depends mightily on how the players roll for wandering monsters.

A player suggested DM Ben revise his Wilderness Trek Wandering Monster d20 Table roll rules. Initially, we had everyone at the table roll a d6, and if any player got a six, that meant a Wandering Monster encounter. Instead, we’re going to try a single percentile roll with a range of 10-30% based on the situational parameters at the time of their rest. For example, on the first day of travel, the party will be 10 to 20% as they haven’t had a chance to make their presence known, but by day three, they’ll probably be “pretty loud,” and a 30-50% chance makes more sense.

DM Ben likes to pre-roll the results on the table in case the party triggers a wandering monster on their rolls during actual gameplay. This way, he doesn’t have to pack up every single possibility and lug all that extra stuff to the office. So, the three he rolled were: #8 Mercenaries, #17 Side Guide, and #18 Leapin’ Lizzards.

So, if the group somehow avoids all their Wandering Monster rolls, they will still do our very first Forgotten Rails official encounter and re-cross the Troll Bridge (by giving Terry a helping hand against a nasty monster).  All of these encounters are in a woodland setting, so we grabbed a couple of Dwarven Forge’s Forest Patchy Ground Battleboards. Also, by including a few of their forest edging pieces, this lush wilderness playspace area gets a little more depth.

Lastly, to keep each encounter on this natural playspace unique, DM Ben will swap out a variety of outdoor scatter terrain. This helps with fresh combat tactics and decreases the amount of time for gameboard scene changes. Plus, how can we not give some of our favorite 3D prints some extra lovin’?

And there you have it! We’re all prepped for nearly all these encounters. It will be rather interesting to see how far the players get tonight.

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Sept 2025) appeared first on 3DRPG.

We tend to have longer sessions while playing our home game, making it a delightful day of soothing dice rolls. Hence, this game group knocks out many more encounters in a single sitting versus our office campaign. So, let’s see what’s on deck for our adventuring crew!

The biggest accomplishment from our previous sesh was that the players successfully exited the mysterious Fissure inside D&D Beyond’s Acquisitions Incorporated free 5e module. That cavern crawl victory let the group level up (from two to three). Even better, they cashed in their first sizable reward from Omin Dran. So, with all those new gold coins burning a hole in their pockets, they explored the numerous homebrewed shops and engaged with colorful new NPCs in the vast city of Waterdeep. But what’s next?!

After speaking with local blacksmith Krufer Promentory, the players did indeed receive a new DnD one-shot mission. His dear son has gone missing (as have several other Waterdeep children), and he’s asked the players to locate his lil’ Dwarven boy and return him safely. This mission is taking us into a large home-brewed story arc that should ultimately lead to the players’ first Bastion. So, they’re leaving the confines of Waterdeep with a firm plan in hand.

Even better, they got several new side missions to complete after roaming the Waterdeep streets and stores in search of new payouts. The local magic components proprietor, Rishardo Montalwand. His shop, Castco, is in desperate need of some valuable topsoil harvested by a kooky local Gnome farmer named Huckle Riverstone. Rishardo is willing to trade some super handy restoration potions in exchange for a small bag of that dirty goodness.

Alas, one hand washes the other, so in order to get Huckle’s precious topsoil, he demands the players go forth and harvest some rare seeds from some “Pumpkins that ain’t pumpkins.”

And if those side missions weren’t enough, the players can chat with resident Gnome Tinkerer, Tink Urbelle, at her Gadgets and Gizmos clock shop. She needs the players to acquire a particular kind of grease from endangered Wooly Mangalitza pigs. In exchange, she will give them a one-of-a-kind pocketwatch that she’s dubbed the Kinda Sorta Portal.

With those solid missions in hand, they can embark on their woodland journey to The High Forest, where these events will unfold along the way:

• Rescue the Blacksmith’s son (and any other missing town children).
• Encounter the secretive local farmer and acquire his priceless topsoil.
• Retrieve some rare seeds from those “pumpkins that ain’t pumpkins.”
• Secure some unique fungi for Keanu Leaves.
• Locate the rare Wooly Mangalitza pigs and return them to the local clockmaker.
• Which will lead to the key acquisition of the Kinda Sorta Portal.

DM Ben even has NPC face cards and mission cards to help the group remember and track all these homebrewed quests.

Now, to even reach The High Forest, the party has to cross the Troll Bridge successfully. Waterdeep’s main entry and exit point is guarded by local hero, Terry the Troll. This homebrewed area has two encounters: interrupting an in-progress fight between our buffed Troll and some pesky Great Squigs, and then properly paying the toll to Terry to cross the bridge safely.

Since our work campaign already completed this encounter, DM Ben had an opportunity to learn from it and revise the troll bridge gameboard. It’s not that our original bridge setup was bad by any means, but more dungeon master time always leads to a better terrain setup.

Once the players successfully pay the toll and cross the Troll Bridge, they’ll come to Huckle Riverstone’s fantastic farm. From a distance, the players will see a wild Pumpkin House on a hill that overlooks a vast farm. Our whimsical harvester will explain how sick and tired of intruders trying to swipe his award-winning topsoil. He’s heard stories of some “pumpkins that ain’t pumpkins” and wants the adventurers to defeat them and steal their seeds so he can grow some for himself and protect his majestic estate.

So, DM Ben set up a showdown encounter map where the group will need to use their skills to prevent a surprise attack before engaging and hopefully defeating these pumpkin mimics so they can harvest those precious seeds.

From there, the group will keep moving towards The High Forest in search of those rare Wooly Mangalitza swines. Eventually, they will hear their squeals from a distance and come upon several of them stuck in a large mud patch. Alas, rescuing these sows won’t be so easy, as several mud elementals will emerge to keep the players from nabbing the prized pigs.

Last but not least, since this outdoor journey requires at least three days of travel on foot, DM Ben will utilize our free Wilderness Trek Wandering Monster Table. Our system is simple: everyone at the table rolls a d6. If anyone rolls a six, then the DM rolls on our table for the appropriate encounter. It only takes one six to trigger an unexpected event, but the more sixes, the more monsters or the tougher the opponent gets. Intermixing those potential fights with the other events above should cover a full day of pizza, dice, and nonstop laughter.

If the players somehow get through all that, then the group will go through five more homebrewed encounters on our fancy Dwarven Forge forest gameboard, which lead up to the big showdown with the Night Hag!

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Aug 2025 Home Edition) appeared first on 3DRPG.

The 3DRPG office adventuring team continues to clear out the underground caverns below their newfound Bastion. They’re making progress, although at a surprisingly slower pace than expected. However, the group seems committed to clearing out all the unexplored passages before heading back to Waterdeep to cash in on their quest rewards.

Here’s the complete home-brewed dungeon crawl we built for this portion of the campaign. DM Ben looks at this full map pic a lot.

And here’s what’s left to do:

• Corederite Glass/Alchemy Room | Unexplored
• Eerie Eggs | Unexplored
• Which-way Water | Unexplored
• Bat Problems | Unencountered
• Rust Monster Munchies | Unexplored
• Sacred-to-Go Scarecrow | Unexplored

Our last session was a barn burner as the group successfully rescued a scared kitty and negotiated a truce with the Go-away Golem. The Roper battle was epic and a fantastic monster pick for our fifth-level adventuring party of six. DM Ben highly encourages you to get that monster into your own game. He was so fun to play!

DM Ben also handed out NPC character creation duties to several players. They’ve been built in D&D Beyond, and DM Ben is looking forward to their stat shares tonight for TK421 (an Artificer build) and the Whiteglove twins (with dealer’s choice details). This is how we’re going to open tonight’s game with a brief little “Get to Know Me” NPC game.

Each of these characters is going to be level 3 (half the level of the main characters). When our main players level up, so will their assigned Bastion NPCs. This lets the gang now play and level two characters – twice the fun!

The Golem will be the fourth NPC character in the Bastion. DM Ben thinks utilizing the DnD 5e Flesh Golem stats works for now. So, that means we need two more NPCs so that everyone at the table has a corresponding NPC to play whenever there is a “cut scene” back at their Bastion. It’ll be fun home-brewing those remaining two NPCs up at some point.

Once the group has secured their home base, DM Ben will keep a second ongoing gameboard in his office. It will be a smaller representation of the core rooms. Residing indentured servant Henndi Jimricks has already granted them one new addition, and the players have selected a barracks, ensuring they have dedicated sleeping quarters. We’re just not going to start setting that up until this main gameboard above is cleared out entirely.

DM expects a pretty linear exploration path tonight. The group will first encounter the Bats’ roost and learn about the fragile truce they had formed with the Night Hag. From there, they’ll discover their water supply. With any time left, the next cavern tunnel will take them to the Errie Eggs encounter.

We’re looking forward to gaming tonight and sharing all the hijinks with you guys in follow-up posts. DM Ben is sure there will be all sorts of things that didn’t go as planned, as well as new things he had to spin up on the fly.

Until next time!

The post Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (June 2025) appeared first on 3DRPG.