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Your Move: 3D Printing and Games

xyzworkshop.com

Aside from gaming, one of my biggest hobbies is 3D printing. I think 3D printers are pretty amazing - you can take a roll of plastic and turn it into virtually anything. You don’t even need to know how to do any 3D modeling yourself - there are websites that host thousands of models ready to be printed. And, sometimes, when I’m wondering what to print, I’ll download and print a whole board game.

One of the first things I ever printed was a chess set. Now, there are a lot of cool chess sets available to be printed online, but I think my favorite is one where every piece is a little planter. That way you can have a little cactus as your King, and little tufts of grass for your pawns.

There are also some games that are only available if you have access to a 3D printer. A man named Jimmy Wilhelmson designed a board game based off of the old Atari video game Archon. The original game was supposed to be a board game that couldn’t be done in real life, but Wilhelmson modified the rules so that it could be played on a tabletop. All the pieces are faithful to the original, which isn’t exactly high-resolution, but they are of a style you don’t often see outside of Atari games.

You can also use a 3D printer to enhance the games you already have. You can print new colors of trains for Ticket to Ride so more people can play, you can print deck holders for Cards Against Humanity, and a Dungeons and Dragons player named Miguel Zavala modeled every single enemy in that game’s Monster Manual, from A to Z. You can download and print all of those models, so your characters can fight the actual monsters in your game.

If you don’t have a 3D printer, there are several places you can use one. Websites like Shapeways will print for you in a variety of materials. WSU’s library now has a 3D printer. And Wichita’s local makerspace, MakeICT, has three different printers for you to use if you’re a member. 3D printing is more accessible than ever, and that helps make gaming more accessible, too.

Samuel McConnell is a games enthusiast who has been playing games in one form or another since 1991. He was born in northern Maine but quickly transplanted to Wichita.