I worked on this for days. Little sleep, rushed deadlines, late night staining party with Costco pizzas… the whole 9 yards, or, well — in this case, four and a half feet of maple.
I’ve been buried in the hustle and bustle of preparing for one of the biggest shows I’ve ever had the chance to attend: PAX East. And not big in the size sense (though it is), but in the significance. Let me tell you why.
I’m not at liberty to say why or how, but I can say I was impressed with what was on offer from the TTRPG community, even all the way back in 2011. My friends in attendance with me at PAX East 2011 were shocked because they were in Game Design and Development Majors in college — but somehow it was me, the woodworker, who walked away with a job offer from a company at a show in their industry.
After that I steeped myself in Fantasy, Mythology, and Folklore. I soaked up what I began to call “Pulp Culture” and got involved where and however I could with creators and those doing what I wanted to do most.
Eventually I started streaming, specifically charity streaming, and had a content creator get involved last year for a charity I care a lot about: the Jimmy Fund, the PR and fundraising arm of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. They saved a good friend, and I remember the day I got fed up with not having an outlet to direct my emotions towards, when I decided to do my best to get better at streaming.
The third year of consistently doing charity streams, I managed to recruit Diana of the Rose, a TTRPG influencer and AP podcaster. Diana really stepped up to help with my efforts for raising money for the Jimmy Fund. My team that year broke records for the amounts we’d raised in years past, EASILY, all in two nights thanks to Diana’s stream.
Something had to be done. Something amazing. A Heroic Reward for a Heroic Effort and outstanding good deed.
I started thinking about how to do something really nice for Diana, like truly and honestly amazing. And then I saw her viral video on Tiktok about a screen she had made years ago, and thought back to prior DM screens I’d done for other AP podcasts and charitable efforts…
… Bingo.
But First, Disney’s Hercules… Yes, It’s Relevant
Constantly throughout this project, I thought to myself of the scene in Disney’s Hercules where the title hero holds up a small doll of himself and desperately exclaims“I’m an action figure!!” to the statue of Zeus. Squeezing it as he says it and staring at the statue, searching Zeus’ face for fatherly approval.
“A true hero isn’t measured by the size of their strength, but by the strength of their heart.”
— Disney’s Hercules, Zeus (rephrased to be inclusive)
I’ve always loved that movie. I’ve always loved Herc. He was my exemplar in what a good Hero is. But something threw alarm bells at me. I needed to keep in mind, that doing this for my own glory was not what I wanted.
Pride is OK, but doing something solely for the benefit of glory and fame is not. After seeing others build platforms and careers focused around giving back, I’ve always wrestled with not just making amazing things in collaboration with other artists and creatives, but also answering the question:
“How do I use this to do tangible good in the world?”
I was doing this because I wanted it to inspire others to do glorious deeds, not because I wanted people to throw money at me for a DM screen. (In full honesty that’s nice, but it’s not the foundational reason I do what I do.)
I told Diana:
“This is because you’ve done something, whether you know it or not, that is heroic in its own right, and you’ve made your platform so others will see you doing these deeds and be inspired by them, so I want to encourage you to encourage others.”
With that in mind, I took to making this screen everything I felt Diana’s branding was.
Woodworking in progress…
Phew! All done in the wood shop at Maker Works. Now, that’s all well and good — however, I needed a fantastic artist to work on the vision I had for this screen, and not one but two good artist friends stepped up to assist.
The Bulletproofturtleman (BPTM), though he was more hands-off in creating the layout, was invaluable in his advice and guidance towards the style and language I needed to communicate with the wonderful artist who did step up.
The next step was finding an artist to execute on BPTM’s layout, and that would take a phenomenal talent, in the form of a Bee-Tuber with a Fantasy Webcomic.
Honey Potts Art was instrumental in creating the colored sketches and laser files, and — as someone who was experienced with laser engraving — knew EXACTLY what was needed from the files for the desired end results.
Over the course of a few months, they created stunning illustrations that ended up informing the build.
Potts was one of the teammates that ended up being remote, as they couldn’t just swing by the shop, and VTubers, you know they love their privacy. The updates I got from Potts, however, were stunning drawings showing an enthusiasm and grasp of the project like none I had seen. They remixed BPTM’s layout ever so slightly and used the real estate gained to pay homage to his initial sketches and concepts.
I’m lucky to count both as friends, and with this project I’d take all the help I could get. It was a Herculean task after all.
… And, Wait, How is This Thing Going to Move?
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