Editing 3DPrinting (section)

== Impact ==
While covered in more detail over at the [[Casting]] page, suffice it to say that for traditional tabletop gaming, the level of disruption is shaping out to be MASSIVE indeed.

Let's start with the relatively innocuous example. You can now design your own custom character for games like DnD and simply print them out, no more need for proxies or drawn cardboard cutouts, and there are even online companies like HeroForge that allow you to make free digital models that you can then buy the STL file for (STL being the digital blueprint you chuck into the printer to make the magic happen).

However, this pales in comparison to the implications this tech has for tabletop gaming involving grand strategy like 40k. What was once plastic crack now becomes plastic tobacco that you grow in your own backyard. Provided that you find the right STLs or just take the time to make your own models, you can have virtually whatever army you could possibly want, from whatever era and with whatever units that were discontinued or shunted. Hell, you can even make proxies that merely resemble the official factions if your heart bleeds so much for faceless corporations that had no compunction against fleecing you via artificial scarcity.

Needles to say, GeeDubs was actually aware of what 3D printing would do to their business and promptly started shitting boulders. A general ban on using printed minis for official tournaments was issued but since most of the games are done in stores or garages, it made little impact. Additionally, GW had begun the process of getting into alternative media such as video games and animation, and while the former has had success (Total War Warhammer being the flagship franchise), the animation side was much more...wanting.

Interestingly enough, 3D printing may have come in the nick of time to offer a viable alternative to the all-digital iterations using Vassal and the like. Since 3D printing is much cheaper after the initial cost of getting the printer and you can print stuff for your friends who are interested in the hobby plus your local community, it is now much easier and viable to have a true flash-and-plastic matches at your local store (or garage/basement/attic) and thus there is not so much need for going on the internet to search for buddies to play with. This of course does not apply to everybody but should help to propagate the hobby far more than was previously possible, or imaginable.