D&D Projector Mount for table-top

[u/AggravatingAward8519]

Figured I'd post this here since the I printed this on my A1 using Bambu filament, and I posted my model on makerworld along with a B.O.M. and instructions.

I made a projector mount that supports a cheap sub-$40 projector over my table for playing D&D with Foundry locally. Add in craft/maker supplies I had on hand, and another ~$40 worth of parts. All in I would have spent under $100 if I hadn't bought the wrong thing a few times along the way.

Gives me a ~49" 16:9 play surface and the ability to stream to it over my network, plug in an HDMI, or display static images.

Not selling anything. No affiliate links. Licensed free to all (non-commercial). Hope somebody can get some use out of it.

I put the full B.O.M., build instructions, and the models for the all the 3d printed parts (which I designed) on makerworld. https://makerworld.com/en/models/3246473-tabletop-system-for-magcubic-sy300pro-projector#profileId-3678717

Happy to answer questions if anybody has any.

To get content to it, I'm running FoundryVTT from my home server, and I'm using another docker image called 'Games on Whales Wolf' to run a headless firefox instance that connects to my Foundry server.

Then I've got Monk's Common Display and use a laptop as my DM screen.

I also found that if I make a token with a white background in Tokenizer 2 and place in the same spot as the minis, it acts like a little spotlight for each mini.

EDIT: Fixed a typo.

[u/fredl0bster]

Well. This is my next project!

Thank you for your time and effort, looking forward to giving it a try.

Also, How’s the projector in bright ish rooms?

[u/work_work-work → u/fredl0bster]

That was the first thing I was thinking of! Which projector do you use?

I'm using a projector instead of a TV at home, and it's barely able to deal with light coming in through the windows on the shadow side of the house. I have to close the curtains in order to be able to see details.

For the pocket protectors you're able to fit in this, contrast is significantly worse, so you wouldn't be able to see anything at all unless you sit in a pitch black room.

I love the idea of this, I just don't think it's very feasible with the specs of protectors today.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/work_work-work]

The specific projector I used is this one - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DP2D2238?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

I picked it up a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale for $38

You're mistaken about needing to sit in a pitch black room. Pocket projectors like this are terrible for watching a movie up on the wall or a big screen, but they're perfectly fine for throwing an image this size. It comes in right around 49" diagonal. The shorter the throw and smaller the image, the brighter and better the contrast is. Where people go wrong is thinking they can get a pocket projector and watch a movie in the backyard with it.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/fredl0bster]

I mean, "bright ish" is hard to evaluate against. The photo shows it pretty well. The direct overhead lights are off, but there's plenty of ambient light coming from the other side of the room, and the shades are down about half way behind it, and the image looks great.

If you were playing with all the lights turned on and a big open window with bright sun right outside, it would probably be "technically useable but look like crap".

The sweet spot for us is pretty much what you see. Dimmed a bit, but still plenty of light to read character sheets.

[u/OkParticular4983]

The witchlight map

https://giphy.com/gifs/Y3MKJTYanjtehXPuYz

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/OkParticular4983]

If you like the witchlight map, you'll probably appreciate hearing that's what I'm current playing with my 10 year old daughter. It's her first D&D campaign. We're playing it as a duet most of the time. I gave her a sidekick character, and her 6 year old brother runs that when he decides he wants to play with us.

She still thinks the carnival is the whole game and hasn't figured out that the carnival is just chapter 1 of 5.

[u/OkParticular4983 → u/AggravatingAward8519]

Doing it with 6 crazy rp heavy group, amazing :)

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/OkParticular4983]

It's definitely an RP heavy campaign. I figured it was good to start her off with something that was more about imagination and thinking than "murder-hobo".

It's been amazing to watch her come up with things. When we sat down to make her character, I briefly explained that he character lived in a small village in a fantasy world, that a magical carnival would be arriving soon, and just asked her to tell me what her character looked like.

Within minutes she had (without ever having been told what the options were) come up with a 16 year old, male, red dragonborn (she didn't know the term dragonborn, but she described his appearance). He's got blue scales instead of red (I allowed it) and everyone makes fun of him for being blue. He's an orphan, his parents were murdered by a naga when he was 3, before being adopted by the local blacksmith who taught him smithing and hunting. He has a pet that was found with him when the blacksmith found him after the whole parent-murder thing, which is a comodo dragon with bird wings (had to homebrew that one, and it's her sidekick character).

No prompting. Literally just open-ended questions about how she imagined her character.

[u/OkParticular4983 → u/AggravatingAward8519]

Dnd fan for life it seems :)

[u/rcapina]

Nice. I think I have a similar projector, the HY300. Thankfully in a previous life I was a photographer so I had a boom arm gathering dust but this is much more elegant.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/rcapina]

Same here actually, but we're limited on space, and hanging it from a light stand with a boom arm over the table felt sketchy.

[u/Garfieldealswarlock]

looks sick

[u/MaelstromSeawing]

Do you find playing with a projector to be vastly different than, say, a screen table (where the display lights up from underneath)?

I imagine this is more accessible overall.

[u/Substantial-Cat0910 → u/MaelstromSeawing]

The screen table will always be better than a projector. The luminosity alone makes all the difference already. Then you have better resolution, likely a better sound output as well, plus no shadows.

If you wanna get fancy, touch screen as well.

No contest really

[u/ccarlson71 → u/Substantial-Cat0910]

On the other hand, with a projector the image is on the surface itself, while a screen invariably has a gap between the image and the surface (either the thickness of the display material or the plexiglass you put on top to protect the delicate LCD surface).

Shadows have never really been a problem at my table.

[u/pyro487 → u/Substantial-Cat0910]

Screen table advantages over this projector immediately came to mind, but then I considered how conveniently portable this could be. Even if you didn’t actually take this setup anywhere else you can at least roll it up and store it when not in use. A screen table on the other hand, will just always be there.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/pyro487]

Packed size is 16x9x4". Roughly shoebox size.

I never seriously considered the table-screen option because I don't have the money to buy or build a dedicated table with a hidden screen inside it that could still work as our dining table, or the space to have a separate dedicated gaming table.

[u/Dreadino → u/Substantial-Cat0910]

With the projector you can use white boxes, to add 3D terrain, which are then colored by the projector. Not perfect, but a non-flat surface is usually a great addition to a miniature table.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/Dreadino]

I was already doing something similar using Tokenizer 2 in foundry to make tokens with white backgrounds that serve as 'spotlights' for player minis. Never thought about doing the same thing with drawing tools to light 3D terrain. That's an awesome suggestion, which I'll be taking.

[u/Dreadino → u/AggravatingAward8519]

Post pictures please!

[u/MaelstromSeawing → u/Substantial-Cat0910]

Genuine question, is it a common feature for these ttrpg table screens to have sound? I just expect the sound to come from people's imaginations (or mouths) in any typical ttrpg game.

I guess the biggest issue I foresee from the overhead projector is the shadows from hands being annoying

[u/Substantial-Cat0910 → u/MaelstromSeawing]

They're just tv screens most of the time, they might have audio output. Those cheap projectors have it too but it's crap.

I'd use audio if you want some background battle music

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/MaelstromSeawing]

This one doesn't have sound, but I'm using FoundryVTT to put the image on it, which means I'm using my laptop as my DM screen. The laptop handles the sound output.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/MaelstromSeawing]

Oh, and shadows from hands haven't really been an issue. I find that people don't really have their hands over the map that much so it's really just not an issue.

Shadows from minis, 3d terrain, etc can be an issue, but if you're using something like FoundryVTT instead of static maps, there are good ways to deal with that.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/Substantial-Cat0910]

I think it depends on what your goals are.

If we're talking about image quality, then of course. You are 100% correct and I agree completely. If image quality is your top priority then a TV is better. Period.

That doesn't mean a TV is always better.

With this, if somebody spills their drink I can just throw the canvas in the washing machine, and a lot of maps look amazing when projected on a piece of canvas.

There are also a lot of practical down-sides to using a TV. You need a lot of money and a lot of space that I don't have. I would have easily spent twice as much money on just a making a cheap TV usable on my dining table, and I don't have the money or space for a separate dedicated table, so I would have had to figure out what to do with a spare TV between sessions.

[u/Substantial-Cat0910 → u/AggravatingAward8519]

Ah don't get me wrong, I love this print and you're going to be the cause of me buying a P2S or something similar lol

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/Substantial-Cat0910]

Well, far be it for me to stop you from buying a better printer, but I actually printed this on an A1.

It was a pretty complicated model to design (if you're as bad at modeling as I am, which is pretty bad), but it's a pretty easy print. I think with a bit of care you could make one that would even fit the A1mini, although this one won't as it is.

[u/Substantial-Cat0910 → u/AggravatingAward8519]

I have an A1 mini, it's time for me to graduate to something bigger

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/MaelstromSeawing]

Being "more accessible" was really the point.

Playing on a TV means you:

1. Need a spare TV (around $100-$150 for the cheapest you can get, and more than I spent on this whole project), plus a way to stabilize and level it laying on its back.
2. Adding several inches of height, which isn't great for some people.
3. Need a dedicated table (expensive), somewhere to store a spare TV (not gonna happen), or a dedicated table that the TV stays on (definitely not gonna happen).

This takes about 2 minutes to set up or tear down, and packs away to 16x9x4"

That said, there are some aesthetic differences. With the TV of course you can have every light in the room all the way up and don't need to worry about ambient light at all. At the same time, doing it this way with the image projected down from above, you can do things like use Tokenizer 2 in Foundry to create tokens with white background that you place in the same spot as the minis, which act like tiny spotlights.

[u/withoutpeer]

I need to print some friends so I can play 🤣😭

[u/Downtown_Suspect821]

this is genius!

[u/bigblu2u]

Looks cool. Everyone I’ve ever played DND with, including myself, have been so clumsy we would knock that over multiple times a session.

[u/AggravatingAward8519 → u/bigblu2u]

I mean, if you're clumsy enough it's possible I guess, but the way it's set up, it's really stable.

The white feet are semi-permanently attached to the canvas, so the poles are deeply socketed top and bottom, and angled so they're flexed when set up.

Basically, you can't knock it over. You'd have to knock it enough to slide the whole thing off the table.