Dungeons, Dragons, and Design
The inVenTs studio on the second floor of Lee Hall always has an interesting project or two going on in the background, no matter when you’re there. When I arrived in Studio 1 at around 8pm, first-year Jack McLaughlan and a few friends were standing around the laser cutter. The laser was cutting tiny circles, about 3 inches in diameter, with hatched silhouettes of creatures and people on the surface.
The tiny circles, Jack told me, were tokens for the Dungeons and Dragons game he was running. An experienced player himself, Jack is running a game for a group of all first-time players, and he wanted to give them some low-budget figurines. The designs on these tokens are the enemies that the new players will be up against. One of the players is even designing his character as a .dwg file, so they can print a custom token.
Jack started out in the studio with laser training for his spring semester CurVinci design project, for which trainings of different studio tools are required. After receiving laser cutter training, he realized that the laser cutter was much easier and more convenient than 3D printing, his original plan for the DnD figurines. “I originally made a box,” Jack mentioned, “just to get a feel for the dimensions. I stained the wood and added hinges as well.” Jack’s project is a great example of creativity and design at work in Studio 1!
