3D Printing

Finally, finally, FINALLY! All the work Tom and I have been doing in printing and painting miniatures and dungeon parts paid off last night as we finally sat down to play the first two scenarios in Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Now available at your local Target. Jaws of the Lion is an introductory campaign to the Gloomhaven universe, where you and up to three friends take on the roles of a renowned mercenary company, the “Jaws of the Lion”, who have taken a job to look for a missing blacksmith and stumble onto a body snatching plot leading to some evil end. ...

When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When you have duct tape, every problem looks like “not enough duct tape. Add more.” And, when you have a 3D printer, every problem looks like it could be solved with a few days design work, twelve hours in failed print attempts, and eight hours for a successful one. Like the original Gloomhaven game, its beginner-friendly side story expansion Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion stores its character decks and player boards in slim little fold-top cardboard envelopes. These are just barely large enough to hold everything without sleeves. With sleeves, they are just entirely inadequate. They can’t be fit. ...

I’m printing all the scenarios in Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, in collaboration with my boyfriend, on a filament and a resin 3D printer. After the printing comes the painting. I know nothing about painting terrain or miniatures, but what better time to learn? This is all to make the best Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion and Frosthaven playing experience we can create. Every time we play, it will be epic. ...

We’re working as hard as we can to be able to play Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion the way we want to play it – by making a quick, easy to set up and play game an exercise in overcompensation. We play a lot of board games. One thing common to all the most popular games is how well they lend themselves to being modded. The pieces that come in the game are just the starting point. ...

The huge, 20 pound box that Gloomhaven comes in can be more than a little intimidating, but that’s nothing compared to all the boxes, cards, tiles and popout tokens inside the game box. Gloomhaven is more than just a campaign-style adventure. It’s a system that supports the construction and play of millions of custom scenarios. But, it doesn’t lend itself to casual play. The floor tiles have to be found and arranged, the monster AIs need to be set up, their cards found and standees stood up. It could take half an hour to set up a session before I started working on organizing the stuff. ...

I want to point out at the start that I did not buy a 3D printer to print miniatures. I bought it to print terrain and other parts for board games, and whatever other fun stuff I think of. My *boyfriend *is buying a 3D printer to print miniatures. He’s a chemist. He can safely use one of those resin printers with smelly chemicals and stuff. Super high resolution, and the minis will look fantastic. ...

The 3D printed characters should look a lot like this. Hero Forge sent today the receipt for yesterday’s order for the printed Octopath Traveler minatures. The lighting is a lot flatter than it is in the modeler, and I expect this will look more like the printed result than the modeler. Kind of that grainy feel I’ve seen in sintered pieces I’ve ordered from Shapeways before. They’ll be done in June sometime…