Most hobbyists will be happy to know most 3d printers are becoming more and more affordable. You can be off to the races with an excellent machine for 200-300 dollars.

I personally started with a classic FDM or (filament printer) this uses a hot end to extrude plastic onto a print be 1 layer at a time building from the bottom up. These generally have a larger build volume than resin printers but you will have layer lines to contend with if you don't care for that look.

Resin Printers or (SLA) do stuff just the opposite, they use a resin vat that sits on top of an lcd screen that builds the object 1 layer at a time curing resin via UV light patterns on the screen below and it attaches to a build plate that dips down into the vat from above and lifts after each cured layer. These printers can do far higher detail and are definitly the way to go for small intricate miniatures like dungeons and dragons.

There are so many resources to get into 3d printing. If you just want to print things with either Resin or Filament I can recommend a few websites that are full or free STL or OBJ files, these are two of the most common file types for 3d models.

Thingiverse (everything on this site is free, there is usually rights agreements but generally you can print most stuff free for personal use)

Cults3d - great place for files that you can purchase and also free files

Yeggi - another great source for free stls, sometimes a lot of these websites share the same files but every once and awhile you can find certain things on one that the other doesn't have.

My Mini Factory- geared more toward those that want to do resin printing of small miniature figures or highly detailed digital sculpts. Lots of good stuff on here.

CG Trader- Not just 3d models designed for 3d printing so beware of that and make sure the file you find here is optimized for 3d printing. But this website is full of amazing 3d models made by professionals. They also focus a lot on models that can be used in video games or entertainment.

STL Finder - This one is neat because it kind of searches multiple websites across the web for 3d models.

You will first need a slicer software program which are free and can be downloaded.

Slicer Software basically take the 3d model you have downloaded and converts it into a file type that your specific printer can read and print.

FDM (filament) or SLA (resin) both generally use different slicer software. My go to for filament printing is called Ultimaker Cura and my go to for Resin Printing is called Lychee Slicer

You can download the most current version of these slicers on their websites and then you will need to set up a printer profile for your specific printer.

Ultimaker Cura (my favorite for FDM /filament printing)

Lychee Slicer (my favorite for SLA / resin printing) I find this software highly effective for finding islands and making sure adequate supports are installed on a print (try the Magic button) It does a good job of finding a good orientation and adding the proper amount of supports for the model.

So if your printer came with a thumbdrive remember just putting a .stl or .obj file on there will not work and you will need to slice the file first into .gcode for filament printers and .ctb for most resin printers

CAD(computer aided design) programs are great for making stuff with complex dimensions, hard surface modeling, mechanical designs, a graphic /SVG(scaleable vector graphic) can be extruded into 3 dimensions with these software.

TINKERCAD - The most intuitive CAD program I've ever used, does not require a download, can be used in your web browser after making an account. Great for combining or subtracting basic geometric shapes from each other. This is probably as easy as it gets, and you can export as a .STL that can be printed on your 3d printer after you slice the file.

FUSION 360 - A little more advanced CAD program, but also free and has a lot of great youtube videos explaining how to use it. They no longer have the full free version, I believe they now have a trial you can do for 30 days.

ZBRUSH - The industry standard for 3d Sculpting would be this. It is a fairly expensive software and has a bit of a learning curve to it. MAC OR WINDOWS Although you can use a mouse, you will more than likely want a sculpting tablet via usb that can plug in to give you pressure sensitivity with sculpting. WACOM makes good ones and Huijon makes good budget usb tablets.

BLENDER- Beyond powerful tool for not only 3d modeling but also cinema type effects, rigging and character animation. This program is the basically the free version of ZBRUSH and has a bit of a learning curve but you can doing some amazing stuff with this program.

MESHMIXER- A super powerful free program that is great for combining 3d meshes together or slicing into separate parts, you can also sculpt, make sure your 3d models are solid and ready for printing with the Analysis>Inspector tool. Its available for both MAC and WINDOWS Mac Version has been discountinued but we found one at this website Softonic

TABLET SCULPTING

FORGER- The original affordable app; designed to be a good on the go alternative to zbrush. This program was recently bought out by Maxon so hopefully we see some really amazing updates to the program. Fairly easy to learn also.

NOMAD SCULPT- My personal favorite sculpting software is Ipad Pro (with apple pencil) or other tablets. This is an very affordable app that it a lot more intuitive to learn and with a few youtube videos you could be digital sculpting your first character.