{"id":320,"date":"2022-12-19T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T10:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/engineering\/2022\/12\/19\/fowler-engineering-helps-students-bring-advanced-manufacturing-to-tabletop-gaming\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T06:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T06:09:12","slug":"fowler-engineering-helps-students-bring-advanced-manufacturing-to-tabletop-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/2022\/12\/19\/fowler-engineering-helps-students-bring-advanced-manufacturing-to-tabletop-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Fowler Engineering Helps Students Bring Advanced Manufacturing to Tabletop Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Brian Kirsch (\u201823, Theater) first heard about <\/span>Fowler School of Engineering\u2019s<\/span><\/a> (FSE) 3D Printing and Design course, he signed up hoping for a fun elective to fill a gap in his schedule. Throughout the semester, Kirsch\u2019s classwork has enabled him to combine two distinct and vibrant worlds: fabrication and tabletop gaming.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"3D
A game piece from Brian Kirsch’s final project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kirsch, who has played the tabletop roleplaying game <\/span>Dungeons & Dragons <\/span><\/i>for nine years, cited this course as a meaningful opportunity for learning to create customizable, 3D-printed tabletop pieces anyone could physically play with. He expressed appreciation for how these custom props make his games more immersive and visual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see your character surrounded by zombies, or when the dragon figure is ten times larger than your own, it adds a lot more drama to it,\u201d Kirsch said. \u201cYou can actually see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kirsch\u2019s final project involves applying technology used in the classroom to develop modular, interlocking terrain plates for <\/span>Dungeons & Dragons<\/span><\/i> games. The design consists of square base plates that lock together to form the desired grid structure. Once these 3D-printed plates are linked up, players can use them as a customizable game board: they can place miniature figurines (colloquially known as minifigs) of characters, monsters, and objects on top of them, transforming the game into a more tangible experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to have the idea, \u2018I want to make terrain,\u2019 and now I\u2019m holding it in my hand,\u201d Kirsch stated. \u201cIt\u2019s tangible, 3D, and something I created myself in this class.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kirsch is not the only student whose clever use of FSE technology has helped personalize tabletop gaming. For Chloe Leis (\u201824, Film Production), her custom-designed tabletop pieces have allowed her to enhance the gaming experience even before it begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of Leis\u2019 decade-long fabrication experience has focused around creating a variety of useful pieces for the strategy board game <\/span>Gloomhaven<\/span><\/i>. One of her most ambitious projects involved fabricating custom wood trays to hold the game\u2019s numerous small parts. After an extensive process of laser cutting each piece, incorporating a dark wood stain, and engraving them with labels in a thematic medieval font, Leis admired her finished product: a series of unique tabletop organizers to call her own.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Tabletop
Chloe Leis’ final project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen I bring out that game, I\u2019m not just bringing out a game that I bought\u2014it\u2019s something more,\u201d Leis shared. \u201cThis is <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> game now, it adds a personal touch to the experience. When I have people over, I can bring out this special version of the game that they\u2019ve never played before.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To Leis, the secret to personalizing games like <\/span>Gloomhaven<\/span><\/i> lies within the finishing process. The act of customizing tabletop pieces through painting, staining, or sanding can individualize the game to suit each player. Fortunately for the FSE and Chapman community, this much and more can be achieved through technology available in the makerspace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere at Chapman, we have the Stratasys J850\u2014our full color printer, an incredible piece of machinery to have access to as a student,\u201d Leis explained. \u201cUsing it for coloring minifigs, for example, is incredible because they\u2019re so tiny; learning how to hand-paint minifigs is tough, so being able to just make a digital texture and have that be on your finished product when it comes out of the printer is mind-blowing and game-changing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Leis, Computer Science major Jackson Goldberg (\u201823) also saw tabletop gaming potential within the invaluable resources available to Chapman students. When his professor used makerspace technology to 3D-print a knight piece based on one of the oldest chess sets ever documented, Goldberg was inspired by the printer\u2019s ability to achieve the same texture and coloring as the real-life chess pawn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking of how to use this printer, and I had made my own chess board and wanted to make my own pieces for the set,\u201d Goldberg said. \u201cSince I work in the tech shop, I got the idea to scan my coworkers\u2019 faces and superimpose them onto chess pieces.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Having played chess his entire life, Goldberg embraced the challenge of combining this interest with his more recent love of 3D printing. Though still in the early stages of development and troubleshooting, his process for designing custom chess pieces would begin by scanning fellow FSE students\u2019 faces, placing them in a three-dimensional, virtual space. Then, Goldberg would use digital editing software to blend their faces with traditional chess model pieces. The final result would then be printed using the Stratasys J850.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Goldberg shared his excitement about seeing what FSE\u2019s makerspace technology could accomplish. \u201cWith the quality of our scanner and printer, the level of precision is going to be really high throughout the entire process. With the old, hand-carved pieces, there\u2019s only so much detail you can get, but this printer will be able to pick up on the crevices of the face, the textures of their skin. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing that level of detail.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I love about 3D printing,\u201d said Goldberg. \u201cThis technology can make anything you can imagine\u2014the literal only limit is your own creativity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Brian Kirsch (\u201823, Theater) first heard about Fowler School of Engineering\u2019s (FSE) 3D Printing and Design course, he signed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4385,"featured_media":326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[14,65,63,66,18,19,15],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-students","tag-engineering","tag-fabrication","tag-makerspace","tag-projects","tag-research","tag-students","tag-tech-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}