Building belonging, one roll at a time
What do you get when you combine Dungeons & Dragons, 3D printers and avid-gamer library professionals? A thriving gamer community for students!
This popular program has built a welcoming community for students eager to learn the role-playing game and connect with other players. Designed to foster belonging, our 3D&D Adventures bring together the Libraries’ 3D printing services and game night through a collaboration with librarians Brad Dennis and Kate Langan and emerging technology specialist Alex Teal.
In this reflection, Dennis walks through how this program got started and the impact it’s had on the students attending.
Our 3D&D Adventures started as an experiment after I shared with my colleague, Kate Langan, that my son and I were attending Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) gaming events at the Kalamazoo Public Library. We imagined it could be a great way to engage students, get them into the library and showcase our 3D printers. Our 3D&D Adventures have become incredibly popular with Western students.
During the event, we teach students about the game and how to create their characters and give tours of the Tech Lab. We also provide free 3D-printed miniature figures and supplies for painting them. Students shared that they liked learning game mechanics, meeting new people, collecting minis and just playing D&D.
The first sessions were very well received. In fact, we underestimated how popular this would be on campus. Dungeons & Dragons gained popularity during the pandemic—it is an older game with a new life for new generations. The game also played a large role in the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” It is way more relevant to our students than I expected.
As a result, we have continuously added more Dungeon Masters (DMs) to keep up with attendance. This program involves many brilliant student employees who share their experience as Game Masters (GMs) or DMs to run game tables during events. Without our GMs and DMs, we could not run our events.
We also have engaged registered student organizations in our sessions, including the WMU Gamers Guild. They helped us with the games, and we gave them time during the session to promote the Gamers Guild. We worked with the Bronco Makers Club to present a “How to Use AutoCAD” workshop, which was well attended and received.
This program has been a great way to build community with students and promote library spaces and collections. It demonstrates that the library is not just a great resource for their academic research but also a great place to relax and have fun with friends.