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Unleash Your Stories: Bronte Page

Fourth year Law and Arts student Bronte Page has created her own adaptation of the Settlers of Catan board game, inspired by elements from The Lord of The Rings novels.

Bronte’s story

Settlers of Catan is a board game where players are stuck on the island of Catan and assume the roles of settlers. To win the game, each player must aim to be the first to acquire a specific amount of settlements by farming resources and making strategic placements of roads and properties. As Bronte was finishing her equipment training in the Maker Space, she opened a project guide for the Founders of Hogwarts board game, which is similar to the Settlers of Catan. Bronte saw potential for the game to take roots from other fictional worlds. Coincidentally, she was currently readingThe Lord of The Rings (LOTR). An opportunity crossed her mind and thus the Settlers of Middle Earth was born.

Bronte has made progress in creating set pieces and the hexagonal playing board, complete with runes and symbols. She also received help with creating an aesthetic storage box for the board game. The container has a black and void appearance, and closures  like that of a jigsaw puzzle. The face of the box is inscribed with magical letters from the Ring itself, with one line saying “One Ring to Rule them All”; fitting for the theme of the game. The final stage of the project is to print the playing cards. Having access to all the materials in the Maker Space has been greatly helpful in making her project possible, Bronte says.

Bronte’s motivation to finish the project came from her father, who was also an avid reader of the LOTR books. She recalled how they shared their progress through the books on their Skype calls. After finishing the project, Bronte plans to send the project to her dad as a fitting gift.