Many groups use miniatures in their campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons, which they often paint themselves. A game master wanted to create a very special miniature for his friends as a small Easter egg, but in the process, he created a creature that is so “grotesque” that the players immediately had to fall in love with it.
What kind of “grotesque” did the game master create? The game master and miniature artist of the mentioned figure wanted to create a very special Myconid to surprise his D&D group. Myconids are a rather peaceful race of sentient mushroom beings from the Underdark, which you can also encounter in Baldur’s Gate 3.
In his Myconid, the DM Totally_Sprued wanted to base it on an already existing mushroom man and used as a reference the only other Myconid he knows: Toad from the Mario franchise.
The only “problem” with the finished project on Reddit (if you want to call it that): Toad and the Myconids from Dungeons & Dragons have a slightly different stature, which is why Totally_Sprued’s miniature looks a bit “dehydrated,” as Careful_Repair_5 tries to explain lightly.
Others, like bamacpl4442, are not so restrained in their opinions: “Holy shit, this is awful. Just grotesque. Well done!”
In the trailer for the fourth campaign of Critical Role, you can also see some miniatures of the heroines and heroes:
Miniatures don’t need to look “perfect” to be effective
Why does the community love this miniature so much? Even though the Toad miniature looks like it’s screaming for redemption from within, this very perversion of the squeaky little guy from the Mushroom Kingdom is, in the eyes of the community, an absolute masterpiece.
It not only looks like a horror variant of the well-known character, transforming him into a morbid reflection of himself. For this reason, it is also suitable for use in various scenarios, whether in a fantasy setting or eldritch horror:
“This is the most versatile miniature of all time,” acknowledges Suh-Shy, “Mario Homebrew? Check. D&D? Check. Cthulhu: Death May Die? Check.”
“I’m cracking up,” writes Typical-Spot-6674, “please bring this character into a serious game and film the reactions.”
What do other miniature artists say about the poor Toad? The vision of this nightmarish Toad-Myconid also inspires another fan of the miniature hobby (TheVoidListens on Reddit) who immediately fell in love with the game master’s creation. And he knows exactly how to make Toad EVEN more hideous and better.
With some clear glue, he could add a kind of slime. If he mixes in some color, it could either look like blood or like corrosive slime. TheVoidListens has already applied this himself and caused disgusted reactions, which for the artist was the best compliment ever.
The creator of the Toad miniature did not expect such enthusiasm from the community. In a further post, he thanks for the friendly comments and reveals that he actually created Toad to provide a silly Easter egg to get a few laughs from his D&D friends.
Through the post, he was able to bring much more joy than he probably expected when painting Toad. It remains to be seen whether more grotesqueries will follow.
If, as the game master intended, “ugly” results are produced, it can lead to great fun. It is much more frustrating when that happens more inadvertently. A miniature newbie was already on the verge of quitting the hobby due to disappointing results, but the community was able to turn him around just in time: A miniature newbie wants to quit the hobby due to “ugly” results, but the community knows the words that really help at the start
