Hardcore Dungeon & Dragons enthusiast Miguel Zavala has taken it upon himself to use his hobby of 3D design and printing to make the world a better place. How? By creating a library of every monster from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual as 3D-printable miniature patterns. The library includes the entire monster manual, plus all the miscellaneous creatures from Appendix A and the NPCs from Appendix B. That’s nearly 300 figures that you can print for your own games.
Appendix B NPCs – Image Credit: Miguel Zavala
The project took Zavala about a year and a half to complete. But what makes Zavala deserving of sainthood, by Geek & Sundry standards, is that he made all of them available to the public for free.
Image credit: Buena Vista Pictures
Miniatures are not required for playing tabletop RPGs, but some players really like them to help visualize distances. Skills, movement, and spells have range limits. By using 1-inch grid maps and miniatures, players can measure out how close they can get to a location or accurately line up an area-of-effect spell to do the most damage. You can see this done on Critical Role. It’s especially handy with large group combat so everyone can tell where everyone else is since each player visualizes the environment differently.
Brass Dragon – Image credit: Miguel Zavala
The creations can be printed with PLA using Printbot simple metal. Zavala recommends using 0.05 to 0.1 layer resolution, 100% infill, and supports. You can download all of the designs via Shapeways through this link. Don’t be deterred by the “Not For Sale” labels. Just go into the individual items and you will find links to the patterns.
Besides, would wouldn’t want their very own zombie beholder?
Would you invest in 3D printed models for your Dungeons & Dragons game? Which models would you want? Let us know in the comments!
Featured image credit: Matt Mercer