On the brighter side, this is a shorter holiday week, and hopefully your boss is giving you this Friday off in recognition of the upcoming Fourth of July weekend. That means you guys should have some time to 3D-print today’s two featured miniatures and get some paint on ’em in time for a three-day weekend of glorious gaming!

So, we’ve really been going out of our way in 2026 to make it the year of the NPC to ensure DM Ben has all the tools he needs to:

• Add passengers to our Hovertrains and ships.
• Meet new quirky characters in taverns and towns.
• Slip in new villains or arch-rivals.
• Hand out new side missions or help in revealing new clues.
• Liven up an otherwise basic encounter cut scene.

If you have a nice box of DnD miniatures and corresponding personas to reach for during a TTRPG sesh, your prep stress level really takes a dip. And if you’re a player, why not make all sorts of potential minis for future character-building sessions?

So, let’s start with this jittery lil’ fella by Loot Studios. Their talented team dubbed him Lewis Hamston, and he’s from their Planet of the Beasts set. During slicing, we just upped his default size to fill a full d20 square, because we prefer our table miniatures as large as possible rather than categorical racial sizes.

Sunrise Sven was chief colorist on both our miniatures today, and we loved his approach here. He kept the paint bottle selection simple and really nailed all the subtle details that come with this fun STL. Can’t you practically hear him just going to town on that oversized nut?!

Our second featured mini comes to the tireless STL Miniatures team. Several moons back, they released a wild Beekeepers Set and our first inclination was, how do we integrate these freakin’ amazing sculpts into our game? Well, the easiest way is to start by making some fresh NPCs and then circle back on the applicable scatter when you know an encounter is truly looming. We always like to get the miniatures done first, though, so we can at least drop the NPC itself down on the table.

Sunrise Sven certainly didn’t disappoint here either, and his shading techniques were on full display. He also did some killer blending and edging to help bring this hungry bear traveler to life! We often ogle at this mini in our display case, and it just warms our souls every time we see him.

Here’s a quick shot of the back of each of our new NPCs just so you can see all the cool details. The Hamster’s attire is such a hoot. We also love all those creases in our bear’s big cloak!

Alrighty, all that’s left to do is create a little backstory for each of these guys.

• Colorful Name: Barry Honeymane
• Character Race: Bear
• Class: Black Market Dealer
• Possible Scenario: Hop rides on various modes of transportation to sell banned wares.
• Painted Miniature: STL Miniatures
• Potential Stats: try MonsterShuffler.com

• Colorful Name: Chips
• Character Race: Hamster
• Class: Rogue partner
• Possible Scenario: He sneaks the illegal wares past security checkpoints.
• Painted Miniature: Loot Studios
• Potential Stats: try MonsterShuffler.com

So, DM Ben plans to slip these in during one of the party’s next public transportation scenarios to inject a little fun and mystery into an otherwise ho-hum event. Someone in the group might notice these two guys doing a very discreet transaction and wonder what on earth is going on. This is when Chips & Bear will introduce themselves and their smuggling services.

Bear Honeymane will joke, “The guards rarely check all my honey jars, so if you need something smuggled in or out, we’re just the duo to do it!”

Until next time!

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Today’s picks stem from a recent DnD Office Campaign sesh where the players, inexplicably, decided (on their own) to go to a local library in Waterdeep to see if they could dig up more dirt on Lord Galobax DuGalle after successfully rescuing his niece from the evil Night Hag. DM Ben had to improvise on the spot, and it turned out to be a darn fun encounter. While they were there, they also looked for any skinny on the witch.

So, now that we’ve had a little time between game sessions, DM decided to create a small NPC library scene to reward the players’ sleuthing skills and make any future library stops into a hair-raising one-shot.

Regular 3DRPGers will remember that DM Ben adores setting up a new NPC encounter, as he firmly believes taking the extra effort to 3D print a miniature and a few scatter pieces helps to fully engage in the scene. So, we’ll start with a couple of STLs from Cast n Play and their epic Terrain Essentials Vol II Kickstarter.

We pulled these two fun pieces from their Library Stretch goal. They’re perfect for setting our new city scene. Once again, colored by the fabulous Kimmy Utah, these two scatter pieces scream whisper depository. DM Ben doesn’t need to overdo our archival setting, but a classic, old-school book wheel, with some hastily stacked books and scrolls, says it all.

From there, DM Ben reached into his DnD collection and found this handmade bookshelf from a brilliant eBay artisan. Back in the day, there were no 3D printers, so he turned to various creators on the auction site to satisfy his TTRPG terrain itch. With newer sites like Temu & AliExpress, you could get these sorta subtle touches to build your own pieces or further augment your 3D prints. The sky is the limit these days. We’ll share some recent “dollhouse” style pieces we ordered on Temu and explain what we mean here in a future post.

Now all we needed was an actual librarian for our detectives to interact with and help steer them towards some new, critical clues. For that key NPC miniature pick, we tapped Loot Studios and their amazing Loxwort Academy set. This Smartmouse Familiar mini is perfect in every way.

Our newest NPC is going to have a bit of a story-integration twist. Since DM Ben had no frickin’ idea his players were going to pull such a logical move in Waterdeep, he had to do theater of the mind for the entire encounter. He created a snarky Elf who hated his job and wasn’t very interested in helping the players. Kimmy Utah painted this little fella too, who we nudge in size to take up a full d20 square.

So, now, when the group returns to the library, they will find a new worker at the encounter. This epic mouse is actually a Night Hag spy, keeping tabs on the adventuring party. The group could also mistake this one for an employee of Lord DuGalle, who doesn’t want anyone looking into his sketchy past or his shifty business affairs.

DM Ben likes the Night Hag spy angle, as when the group initially found some text on her during their first visit, the ink suddenly melted off the page, and the party wizard discovered there was a ward on the book (so the witch would know if anyone was trying to learn more about her).

Certainly, the players will find it extremely odd that the previous librarian has been let go suddenly. Like, who fires librarians? DM Ben is going to do a fun skill challenge with some Insight and Investigation checks (or whatever other skill they try to pass off) to see if the party can blow his cover and even overtake him to learn more about who hired him.

This would be an awesome chance to use the Pathfinder Chase Cards and have the group try to catch him once he realizes the gig is up!

Until next time!

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Let’s all take a gleeful exhale because we’ve just survived another workweek, and now a fab hobby weekend awaits, with plenty of time to do some 3D printing and painting! We’ve got some simple yet impactful scatter terrain pieces that we think can help elevate your TTRPG encounters and further immerse your players in the game. Remember, it’s often the little things that separate a good gameboard from a great one.

Disclaimer: As usual with this series, we do our best to identify the maker of each 3D print, but some are pretty generic. We often 3D print things and don’t get to paint them for 12-18+ months. That sorta delay between hobby steps just makes it tough at times.

Let’s start with an STL creator that just gets us. Their ingenuity and attention to detail always warm our souls. This Armor Rack from their Crimson Sand Arena set is a prime example of Loot Studios’ marvelous vision. Like, how can you not love this one?!

Just look how well this 3D print took to paint. We love, love when STLs have all sorts of texture, as the model always comes out so darn good. This particular set of armor has such a Gladiator movie vibe to it, right?! We also adore the Army Painter line of metallics, and we’re gaining a lot of confidence with them.

DM Ben’s paint selections included:

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop.
• Leather: ASP Hardened Leather.
• Metals: FAN Heavy Metal and Plate Mail Metal.
• Accent: FAN Greedy Gold
• Wood: GSW Skeleton Brown.
• Wash: Soft Tone.

We can use this one in so many scenarios, and that sorta re-playability is always a big hit for a DM.

Next up is this imposing Female Sphinx from Brite Minis, which gave us a lot of statue feels. We probably could have saved these first two 3D prints for our ongoing Tomb Thursday series, but DM Ben plans to utilize them in a variety of DnD encounters.

DM Ben has been trying to come up with some stone paint scheme variants, but he just hasn’t fallen in love with any particular one for statues quite yet. For this one, he just kept poking at it. Starting with a slapchop base, then doing some light grey, black, and tan drybrushing, before finishing it off with a Strong Tone wash to get ‘er nice and grimey. We’re digging this one.

Now, we did just get our mitts on Green Stuff World’s line of water-soluble patina bottles (which we first saw in action by beloved YouTuber Miniature Hobbyist). However, we’re just too intimidated by this new product, so we’ll need to muster more courage first.

Next up is this subtle yet immersive miner’s setup. Too generic here for us to recall or search for its creator, but nearly all the major STL players make this type of scatter terrain piece. Still, you gotta love this one, right? There’s plenty of intrigue associated with this piece. What’s in the crate and what are they mining for? Every Dungeon Master should have something like this one in their scatter box.

Lastly, we have a TTRPG 3D print that is just dripping with character. Even better, DM Ben is super comfortable painting this kind of piece. He’s really gotten the hang of water effects and especially fishy sorta stuff. Be sure to pick up a jar of AK Interactive Wet Effects to really elevate your water-ish STLs. If we had to guess, our hunch is this one is by Cast n Play. So fun!

Until next time!

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We’ve really taken a terrain approach of less is not more, and a significant number of starting desert terrain options is imperative to ensure we don’t stifle DM Ben’s gameboard creativity. Hence, we continue to target 3D prints that can be used in a variety of scenarios and have a long track life.

Tomb entrances, in particular, are quite important, as there will be numerous mysterious resting places to explore (rather than one huge underground lair). Pharaohs not only had a place for their royal family, but there were smaller pyramids for their closest advisors, spiritual leaders, and even their builders. So today’s featured prints will be quite useful.

Let’s start with this TTRPG ruins scatter terrain piece by Loot Studios. This mysterious stack of stonecold bricks is from their amazing Buried Tomb set (one of our favs). We love all the tiny details here, including the hieroglyphs, torches, spider webs, and sandy base.

DM Ben messed around with this stack of stones and really went back and forth on which of our sandy paint schemes to use. He landed on the lighter interior-tile version, as he felt this DnD STL felt more like transition terrain than any sort of grand entrance. He used ASP Holy White for the cobwebs and then decided to put down a little sand flock to give it more of that ruins look.

From that very same Buried Tomb set, we also 3D-printed this hieroglyphic tablet. This is another subtle yet very useful scatter terrain piece because, of course, there are going to be several stone tablets in our tombs! Loot Studios did more of those charming spider webs and gave this one a nice sandy-style base, too!

DM Ben painted this one at lightning speed! He’s really grown attached to that Green Stuff World Tropical Turquoise color. We gave that bottle a go while making those tomb torches earlier, and that soothing teal has really stuck with us. He was also keen to make this one look rather weathered since some spiders are hanging out on it.

Lastly, we’re sneaking one more 3D print here, but this one was a little too generic to find the source. Still, we like including this one in our Egyptian pile because it bucks the traditional desert sand statue trend. DM Ben loves to drop something in an encounter that doesn’t normally belong. Like, who is this mystery woman, and why was she idolized like so? Juicy questions to say the least.

Until next time.

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Whether some mighty monster bones are on display in a fancy Waterdeep museum or in a wealthy hunter’s private home, we all love a good for-the-thrill-of-a-hunt story, right?! DM Ben loves this one-shot encounter angle because our two pieces of featured scatter terrain give him a slew of storytelling options. Just remember – look but don’t touch.

Loot Studios is always thinking of fun, unique scatter terrain, and god bless ’em, because we instantly gravitate to these kinds of ingenious DnD 3D Prints. We happily sliced up their Jawbone and Skull Displays from the aptly-named Cursed Collector’s Curiosities set.

These TTRPG 3D prints are nice and bulky for painting. The Jaw Display is a 1×2 d20 in size, and the Skull Display takes up a 2×2 d20 set of squares. DM Ben rushed into action to color these up this past weekend, and he kept it simple.

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Wood Tables: ASP Ruddy Fur.
• Wood: GSW Skeleton Brown.
• Skull/Bones: Same skeleton paint scheme used previously.
• Teeth: Army Painter Blanche Ivory White + FAN Soft Tone Wash.
• Nails: ASP Echanted Steel.

DM Ben always felt that ASP Ruddy Fur was a great wood color choice for fancier timber. That deep red reminds him of cherry wood (which we loved in an earlier Potion Cart). It’s the kind of wood you always see in those grand, old historic homes, ya know?

These were literally finished late last night, so they’re not exactly perfect. DM Ben needs to circle back and touch up the wood tabletops and add a little color to the two skulls underneath the table. Also, our Skull Display lost one of its legs during support removal, so it’s a smidge uneven. However, that quirk amuses DM Ben…like the skull is so big and heavy that it broke the table.

Now, we just need to pick out a couple of nasty, bigger beasts that the players can fight that resemble a few of these mighty bones. The creatures definitely need to be at least 3×3 d20 squares in size. This could be a nice way to bring a few dinosaur-style miniatures into the game, so we’ll keep brainstorming some ideas as we build out this future one-shot DnD encounter.

Until next time!

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