Should you ever find yourself at a roleplaying game without dice, a smartphone, or internet access, you’ll thank Games 4 Geeks for the foresight that had you download, print, and carry around the company’s tables of 10,000 Random Rolls. Available for all the standard polyhedrals (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20), plus multiples (2d6, 2d4) and others (d100, d1000, time-of-day, Fudge/Fate).

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D20Entertainment recently launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign for six-sided pencil dice with pips on each side. The creators of the D6 Number 2s just launched a second campaign specifically for role-playing games.

The basic set comes with six pencils, each pencil has a different decision on each side. There are currently six different categories with four additional categories unlocked via stretch goals.

The basic set includes the Magic Questions pencil, which has such answers as yes, no, not likely It also includes the Hit Location pencil, with body locations like head, torso, or left leg. The NPC Reaction pencil includes emotions like suspicious, friendly, and uninterested. The Direction pencil features all four directions, plus up and down. The Treasure pencil lists gold, silver, weapon, magic item, and more. The Alignment pencil includes all six base alignments.

RPG pencils cost $1 to start. For $5, you’ll get the base set of six pencils. Add $5 more to get more sets. Just think. You could outfit your entire RPG group with their very own set of decision pencils for only $25. If you preorder at the $50 pledge level, you’ll get 100 pencils to share.

The RPG Pencil Dice campaign ends Mar. 10. Estimated shipping of the pencils starts in April.

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Normally when I think of The Army Painter I think about quality paint for quickly getting miniatures colored. Well now they’re getting into dice!

The 36-dice sets are made of blended, hard acrylic material in 14mm size. There are five different sets, each set containing 30 dice in one color and 6 different colored “hero/special weapon” dice.

Each set will be sold for $8.50, and should be available soon.

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There’s a gamer in your life, but you don’t know what to surprise them with as a gift. There are deck-builders, dice fests, worker-placement games, area-control games, and all sorts of different types of games (and so many!) — it’s tough to just pick that perfect game for your perfect gamer. Instead of giving a gift for them, why not give them something for their game collection?

Replacement Money and Score Counters

There’s something about the tactile experience of props in games, from the foam guns in Ca$h ‘N Gun$ to the paper money in Monopoly. Purple Pawn suggests upgrading your game collections money and scoring counters with one of these three suggestions:

Bird Bucks from Smart Play Games. For less than $7, you can replace money and score counters with a thicker thematic card deck. Featuring fifty cards numbered 0-9 with a sharply designed monetary look, these cards can be used as score keepers and as a clever tool for budding game designers.

A Poker Chip Set. Gamers who dislike paper money in their board games can use a standard set of poker chips as a replacement. When looking for a poker chip set, look for chips that are about 11.5 grams or higher for the weight and feel. Plus, they make a satisfying CLUNK when tossed onto a game table. Added bonus: poker chip sets can also be used for playing poker! Amazing!

Campaign Coins. A fantastic set of coins and counters available in many different styles and metals, these coins are absolutely luxurious to hold and use. You can create a specific collection of coins or just go for the King’s Ransom, a custom set intended for use with board games. Wonderfully designed, these coins are a delight to look at and play with. (Shopping for Christmas? Get your order in now to have a set arrive in time!)

Organizational Supplies

There are games with well-designed inserts and then there are the majority of games. Here are three items that Purple Pawn suggests to use to help manage their game collection (once they throw away that useless insert):

Hugo’s Amazing Tape. Games with cards often have the same problem: keeping them together. Enter Hugo’s Amazing Tape. This product is a transparent static wrap that sticks to itself, not your game components. It’s great for securing game boxes and keeping cards in organized stacks. Although Hugo’s Amazing Tape works well on most games, make sure to point your gamer over to this geeklist on BoardGameGeek for a list of games “safely tested” with the stuff. Looking for more colors? Try static bondage tape.

H-Shape or X-Shape Rubber Bands. To keep that overstuffed game box shut, a collection of crossing rubber bands might do the trick. Unlike regular rubber bands, these are split almost down the center, allowing one rubber band to wrap around all four sides of a game box.

Plano Stowaway Boxes. Primarily used as tackle boxes or for crafts, these transparent storage boxes can be configured to hold many differently-sized game components. For games that require multiple types of tokens (we’re talking about you, Fantasy Flight Games), Plano boxes are a great asset for organizing and storing. The boxes come in different sizes and basic configurations; most have adjustable dividers.

Other Items

And a miscellany of items that are just plain helpful (or tasty).

Edible Dice. Searching for a gift for a role-player? Gamers love dice — and Dice Candies makes them out of chocolate. A complete set of Ghirardelli, Van Lerr Callebaut, or TCHO organic chocolate polyhedrals (one each of d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20) will run you less than $10 — that’s less than some sets of non-edible dice!

Sports/Duffel Bags. Game night at a friend’s house? Heading to a convention? Your gamer will want to have something to safely and securely carry their games over. Look for a squarish-shaped duffel bag that is at least twelve inches wide — square board game boxes like Dominion are just under 12″x12″x3″. End pockets are great for holding smaller games. Note that when buying online, dimensions listed are usually the exterior size. The item linked above should carry three Dominion-sized boxes in the main compartment with room for a smaller game box.

Game Tables. With a round gaming table that’s easy to put away for storage (and to be used for other things), all players can have the game board at an equal distance, which helps with seeing those small board elements and reaching the board no matter where you sit. Have a few thousand dollars in your gift-giving budget? Consider The Portal by Geek Chic for something a bit more elegant and customizable.

Dice Trays. When rolling a handful of dice, it’s helpful to keep them all together instead of chasing them off the table or — for the gamer who wants to keep their game pristine — scuffing the board. Dice trays come in various shapes and styles, but for our tastes, you want to look for a large (but not too large) rolling surface and high walls.

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Designed by Nvenom8, this striking D3 has to be one of the best of its kinda I’ve ever seen. It’s probably the easiest to read, also. All you need to do is toss the die, and read the top “bar” to see what number you’ve rolled.

You can order the die in a bunch of different materials and finishes, with plastic being the cheapest at $11.42, and premium silver being the most expensive at $80.92.

A very cool piece, but that those prices this one is pretty much for collectors.

Here’s a video of the die in action.

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Preparing you for the gift-giving season…

Double-six dominoes set with Swarovski crystals and stored in a crocodile-leather box for $400:

Pairs of black and white dice with Swarovski crystals embedded for pips, priced at $200:

A $700 Ralph Lauren carbon fiber Dominoes set:

And a Ralph Lauren Hammond Chess set for $2,000:

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You may remember a post of mine about Indented Blank Dice a year ago. They’re awesome blank dice that have indents on each side so they’re easier to label. Well Nicholas Vitek has now released pre-cut label sheets and a downloadable Adobe InDesign template so you can easily create, print, and stick ’em onto your indented dice.

Each sheet is 8.5″ x 11″ and contains 221 0.5″ x 0.5″ labels.

You can purchase both dice and labels sheets at www.indentedblankdice.com.

UPDATE: It looks like Nicholas is having some troubles with his site. For now you can send him GeekMail on board game geek with questions and orders. You can find his userpage on BoardGameGeek here.

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