Dog Might’s Kickstarter campaign for their Traveler Dice Tower ends in four days. They’ve sent me one.

I don’t have much to say except it’s pretty cool.

You like well-made wooden dice towers? Yes? Then you should get one of these. Thanks for reading.

Bye.

Oh. You’re still here.

Fine.

Let’s talk about Dog Might. They make wooden things: dice trays, storage cases, dice towers, and other awesome wood things for gaming. They say they make “Kick Ass Gaming Gear”, and that’s pretty much accurate. A friend of mine purchased an Adventure Case from them at PAX Unplugged, and we all just ooo’ed and aaah’ed over it. Sturdy. Heavy. Pretty. It was a gorgeous piece of gaming goodness for storage of stuff that doubled as a dice tray and tripled as a GM screen.

This thing they sent me, they didn’t send for review. But I’m reviewing it anyway because I’ve had a chance to chat with some of the people at the company and they’re great people making nice products. Also, the Traveler Dice Tower is really cool.

See, this thing is only six inches tall by three and a half inches wide (and less than two inches thick when closed). It comes in three parts attached by those strong rare earth neodymium magnets they use on most of their products, with an optional two on the side of the bottom tray unit so you can add this to their component collector product (see right). With these magnets, you get a fit that won’t jostle the dice tower around when rolling dice. Flip the small ends around and you’ve got a travel storage solution for your dice. (I was able to get sixteen 16mm Fate dice in the unit.)

While I don’t prefer to use dice towers — I love dice trays — this is one I might consider using because of two — no, make that three — factors.

It’s really portable. The entire thing snaps up into a unit that doesn’t take up much space nor does it weigh too much. I could throw this into my messenger bag and run right out to game night. Most other dice towers I’ve seen are large and bulky. While small, it does the job, randomizing dice rolls.

Did I mention it’s small? It takes up as much space on the gaming table as a square coaster for a drink. At six inches in height, when assembled, it’s about the height of a pint glass, or slightly taller than a 12 ounce soda can. It doesn’t clutter a table and doesn’t get in the way.

And they look good. Dog Might uses real wood and have a large selection of woods and finishes and decorations to add to it. Look, here’s the one they sent me.

I don’t mean they sent me that wood type for the dice tower, they sent me that one. That’s Kentucky Coffeetree, with the Laurels engraving on front and the Stag sculpted design on back, which is a design you can get for $55. You can get a simple, plain Whitewood dice tower for $45 — and even without a design, this is a neat looking tower. At $60, the wood type upgrades to African Mahogany, $5 more gets you to the stained colored Flame Birch series, and then for a few dollars more you can upgrade to Cherry, Maple, Red Oak, Benge (featured in the first image), and on and on until you’ve dropped $135 on a tower carved out of Bolivian Rosewood which is absolutely stunning. (And if you are the type of person that can afford to spend $135 on a dice tower, this is the one to drop it on.)

So, should you get it? Well, do you like well-made wooden dice towers? Yes? Then you should get one of these.

A Kentucky Coffeetree Traveler Dice Tower wasn’t provided for review by Dog Might, but we decided to review it anyway.

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The Cthulhu-head dice tower looks amazing but I won’t be held responsible for what happens should you actually bring it to the table or, worse yet, feed it dice.

Lone Shark’s The Apocrypha Adventure Card Game has a modern horror theme but is built off the system that Mike Selinker developed for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Also differentiating it from its predecessor is character development. Rather than with check-boxes, players add cards to their character decks as they reveal their character’s repressed memories.

Requiem Vampire Knight is a game for which I published a detailed preview when it originally sought funding on Indiegogo 2 years ago. Now on Kickstarter, the game I’m told plays pretty much the same, though with a thoroughly-edited rule book and an upgrade to plastic miniatures. As a I said then, the game does have some interesting mechanics but it’s the dark theme and artwork that’s particularly striking.

On a lighter, cuter note there’s JunKing, a card game about scavenger imps who hoard garbage. Pulling the “Crown” from the junkpile (a.k.a., the draw pile) ends the game and is a major point boost, but holding the “Perfectly Good Sandwich” (“Someone threw this away?”) is a strong consolation prize.

BattleBards is a background-audio system for tabletop games. Audio tracks and a soundboard from the same company already exist for PC and MAC. This project is for creating a web-based soundboard, producing additional audio, and recording a series of voice-overs covering standard fantasy adventure encounters (such as the barmaid in the tavern that the PCs always visit).

From the creators of Driking Quest comes Haiku Warrior, a card-based roleplaying game told via haiku. “Fight monsters, find souls, eat fruit.” I think maybe they played with their first product a little too much.

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Seen at almost every tabletop booth at PAX East were Wyrmwood Gaming wooden accessories. Be it dice trays, towers, vaults, or deck boxes, you couldn’t escape Wyrmwood’s presence. Their actual booth was a marvel with all sorts of beautiful wooden items, including a custom Crokinole board.

After a few email exchanges I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a dice tower, dice tray, and dice vault to review here. Each of the three pieces was crafted from Purpleheart wood, which I had never really heard about until now. The pictures online looked beautiful, but they’re nothing compared to how the wood looks and feels in person.

Everything arrived wrapped in brown paper bearing the Wyrmwood logo. Once upwrapped I found all the pieces neatly tucked into the dice tray and secured with a leather strap. Here’s the really cool part. The dice tower is flat-packed and snaps together using magnets. This allows for quick and easy disassembly to store right back in the tray. All the pieces fit in perfectly with room for the dice tray.

It’s pretty amazing how solid the dice tower is once it’s put together. It fits neatly up against the tray so that dice spill from the tower into the leather-line tray with a satisfying sound and tumble. I have to admit I’ve been using the tower for any game we’ve played with dice in it since the set arrived…even if the game only has 1 or 2 dice.

The dice vault they sent is just as durable and well-crafted. The lid snaps on with magnets, and there’s a stiff foam inside to keep your dice safe. I’ve got my original set of polyhedrals from when I was 8 in there currently.

I couldn’t be more happy with the entire set. They’re amazing pieces of craftsmanship, and I feel lucky to own them. These are items built to the highest standard, and meant to stand the test of time. The best part? Wyrmwood has a Craftsman’s Promise:

“There is only one acceptable outcome for our Craftsmen: a product that they can take personal pride in and an -absolutely- satisfied client. If you are unsatisfied with your product for -any- reason at all, we will fully refund or replace the item free of charge. We always guarantee our products, and we will always pay for shipping.”

I was told that this guarantee is unconditional, not time-sensitive, and applies to everything they make.

“While we feel the price is fair given the quality of our items, we also like to point out that these pieces are an investment, and you’re buying not just the item, but the assurance that it will live up to expectations, as well as our pledge to address it if it doesn’t. We’re very serious about that, both because we believe strongly in making sure our customers are absolutely satisfied and because we only want top notch products out there with our name on them.”

I can’t recommend Wyrmwood’s products highly enough, and with a guarantee like that you can feel safe knowing your investment is well made.

A dice tower, tray, and vault were provided free for review by Wyrmwood Gaming.

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