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06/03/2026 Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! The latest installment in our May 2026 Print, Paint, and Play series has arrived, and this time we’re taking the Ironmoor Troll from painted miniature to tabletop encounter. In the video, we venture deep into the Blackroot Mire, where Grukk Ironmoor and his Mirekin frogfolk followers lie in wait for unsuspecting adventurers.…

05/31/2026 Happy Sunday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! Since I was on vacation from my main job this past week, I had some extra time to spend at the crafting table working on a variety of hobby projects. While I would have liked to finish a few more things, I’m still quite happy with everything I managed to get completed. Between painting miniatures, working on terrain, and making…

05/28/2026 Happy Thursday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts. This week’s Thursday Drop-In sends players into the dangerous cliffs and winding roads of Briarthorn Pass, where trade has nearly collapsed under the shadow of a terrifying manticore. Wagons return broken, travelers vanish without a trace, and survivors whisper of a winged beast with a disturbingly human face screaming from above…

05/26/2026 Happy Tuesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts!This week is looking like it might actually be a productive one around the hobby table. I’m on vacation from my main morning job this week for my birthday — something I try to do for myself every year — which means I finally have some extra time to spend painting, printing, and working on projects that have been waiting for…

05/24/2026 Happy Sunday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! Another week has passed, and that means it’s time to take a look at what managed to make it off the painting table this week. Between finding time to paint, cleaning up details, and adding those final highlights, it’s always satisfying to see finished miniatures finally come together. First up is an Elven Ranger from Brite Minis.…

05/20/2026 Happy Wednesaday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! The votes are in, the paints are dry, and the Ironmoor Troll is finally complete! For May 2026’s Print, Paint, and Play, the community picked this massive troll miniature, and I had an absolute blast bringing it to life. From layered speed paints and metallic armor to textured fur, washes, highlights, and scenic basing, this…

05/18/2026 Happy Monday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! Over the past few weeks, I’ve been putting a lot of effort into improving the look and feel of the Tabletop Thoughts YouTube channel — especially the video thumbnails. If you’ve visited the channel recently, you’ve probably noticed things are getting a little bolder, cleaner, and a lot more eye-catching. Below is an older video…

05/15/2026 Happy Friday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! Yesterday I shared a quick comparison video showing off some Fat Dragon Games models printed on two different machines: an Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro FDM printer and an Elegoo Mars 3 resin printer. One of the coolest things about Fat Dragon Games designs is that they’re specifically made to print supportless on FDM printers. That’s a…

05/14/2026 Happy Thursday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! There was a time in tabletop RPGs when retreat wasn’t considered failure. It was survival. Old-school dungeon crawlers expected players to run away. In many cases, the smartest decision a party could make was recognizing a fight they shouldn’t win and getting out before the dice decided otherwise. Somewhere along the way,…

05/08/2026 Happy Friday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! One of the biggest conversations in tabletop RPGs is adventure structure. Players will often say they want a “sandbox,” while GMs worry about “railroading” the party. The problem is that people often use these terms interchangeably when they are very different styles of play. None of these styles is automatically bad. They simply…

05/06/2026 Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! One of the best parts of using random dungeon generators is discovering ideas you never would have come up with on your own. That’s exactly what happened when I used the DELVE dungeon generator to create this starter dungeon for Shadowdark. I wanted: a Level 1–2 dungeon something easy to place on a hex map a memorable…

05/03/2026 Happy Sunday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts!This week felt especially productive on the hobby front. I managed to move a couple of miniatures off the painting table and into the “finished” column, which is always a satisfying milestone. Even better, the process didn’t just stay at the desk—we were able to capture it and turn it into a couple of YouTube videos as well. It’s…

04/30/2026 Happy Thursday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! Sometimes the biggest barrier to getting minis on the table isn’t cost, or even time—it’s perfection. In this latest video, we get a great reminder that you don’t need to be a display painter to have a great-looking table, as in about 15–40 minutes, we go from bare plastic to a fully table-ready wizard (and even a bonus guard)…

04/28/2026 Happy Tuesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! I just released a new YouTube video, and it’s the start of something I’ve been really excited to share. There’s something special about taking a miniature from raw print to a fully realized tabletop encounter—and even more so when the community helps guide every step. That’s the idea behind Print, Paint, and Play, a new three-part…

04/26/2026 Happy Sunday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! It’s been a couple of weeks since my last Hobby Update—life has been keeping me busy—but I’ve still managed to carve out some time here and there. In that span, I’ve been able to make solid progress and get a few projects across the finish line, which always feels great. The star of the show this week is the Scuteback Drake from…

04/23/2026 Happy Thursday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! This week’s Thursday Drop-In leans into something a little more unsettling than outright horror—because sometimes the scariest threats aren’t cruel, violent, or even deceptive. Sometimes… they’re helpful. The Kindness of Old Marda is a grim, low-level (1–3) encounter centered around a quiet village that has, by all appearances,…

04/21/2026 Happy Tuesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts! Bringing new players into tabletop RPGs is one of the best ways to grow the hobby—but it’s also where things can go sideways fast. What feels obvious to experienced players can be confusing, overwhelming, or even intimidating to someone brand new. The goal isn’t to teach them everything. The goal is to get them rolling dice,…