RepRap festival: the reason Devon had to wear real pants for a change

Devon, right, got to meet one of our favorite YouTube makers, Zack Freeman from Voidstar Labs. Photo by Devon Jones

Devon attended the first Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival in Loveland, Colorado over the weekend. I missed out because of parenting obligations, but he described it as a science fair for 3D-printing nerds.

There were no fees to attend or set up at a table, making it accessible to hobbyists and businesses. Word is that the turnout was good enough that the event will move to a bigger room next year.

When you just can’t leave your printer behind. Photo by Devon Jones

3D printing is delicious. Photo by Devon Jones

ChatGPT gives every player a +4 to INT and WIS

Disclaimer: The post below contains spoilers for Starfinder’s Attack of the Swarm. You’ve been warned, so please don’t complain if this ruins your life.

I probably don’t need to explain AI-assisted writing and art at this point. Many words have been written about the latest technology to compete with human creativity. If you don’t know much about ChatGPT, you can find a good explanation at PCguide.

Now back to the gaming.

Devon is GMing Attack of the Swarm, and our PCs were tasked with saving four dinosaurs from an imminent volcanic eruption. Our brainstorming lead to some good ideas, some terrible ideas, and some weird ideas. (Imagine a sexy dino hologram.) One player consulted ChatGPT and got the results in the image below.

ChatGPT used in Starfinder campaign

We were blown away by how much we got with so little input. It’s like if your dog suddenly wrote a dissertation on black hole formation.

This will lead to some angst about the end of gaming as we know it, but we’re not getting worked up over it. It’s easy enough to keep AI from dominating gameplay with some simple house rules. GMs can ban AI outright or allow limited use with a high skill check, for example.

With selective use of AI, gameplay can become more immersive by allowing players to effectively roleplay super-high WIS and INT scores. I’m not saying players are morons, but few people are rocking an 18 INT. In our game, the dude who tapped ChatGPT was playing a high-INT Android computer specialist, so it made thematic sense.

For fun, I took it in a different direction.

One person's trash is still trash, eventually

I have a confession: I often toss my tiny scrapbook cuttings into the recycling bin or trash rather than sort and store them because I just can’t even with the mess. Frugal bloggers tell me I should save them all for future projects. Maybe I could build an origami Winnebago or something. But the human spirit can take only so many wee pieces of paper. 

Given my own failings, I’m not about to give you shit for the size of your carbon footprint. But you might be interested in a change that I hope will make our small business more sustainable – or, depending on your perspective, a bigger symbol of everything that’s wrong with “woke culture.”

There’s no getting around the fact that laser-cutting, resin art and 3D-printing create a lot of waste. We’re already recycling and reusing whatever we can. We have a large collection of failed cuts and prints that often get recycled into other projects. But MDF wood, PLA plastic and cured resin can’t be recycled in most communities. PLA is technically compostable, but few facilities are equipped to deal with it, so for practical purposes, it isn’t. Other woods are more sustainable, but no one wants to pay a premium for unicorn earrings. 

Realistically, there’s nothing we can do with the waste except dispose of it properly, but I’ve made one change. I’ve switched from MDF to acrylic in the designs where it makes sense to do so – specifically, the slime earrings and unicorn earrings – and it will be my first choice moving forward. The wood versions will be available until they run out.

I know what you’re thinking. “But acrylic isn’t any better for the planet than MDF, you colossal twat.” 

You’re wrong. I’m only a gargantuan twat according to Pathfinder rules. But beyond that, acrylic requires no sanding, minimal priming, less paint, and less sealant. With some projects, I can eliminate resin entirely and still get great results. And I don’t have to wear a respirator to make them anymore. We live in the best of all possible worlds.

As we continue to look for ways to make Masterwork Tools more sustainable, we’re happy to hear suggestions and changes you’ve made in your crafting. Share your ideas in the comments.

Get in, gamers! We're doing bug stuff!

Welcome back, gamers and makers! We’re eager to get back to showing you some of the fun things we’re doing -- and hear about how you’ve been occupying yourselves during a hard couple of years.

Our games shifted entirely online at the start of the pandemic, so creating terrain for in-person games we couldn’t play has been both sad and an exercise in hope. But we’re about to start an in-person Starfinder campaign (Attack of the Swarm) with a few friends, and we couldn’t be more excited to be playing games in meatspace again. 

Devon and a friend have been working on a dice-roller app. It’s not ready for primetime yet, so I won’t link to it, but I’ll keep you updated. It’s been useful for complicated high-level rolls, making our high-level campaign run much more smoothly online.

Devon has been maintaining his regular monthly schedule releasing 3D-printable terrain files. You can find them for free at Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory. If you like them, please consider supporting our Patreon.

If you’re playing online, what apps are you using? We’re using Miro for our tabletop and Zoom for communication. These apps allowed us to complete Skulls & Shackles, a Pathfinder campaign that ran for three years. Online gaming is better than no gaming.