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 folks at Dog Might sent us their newest wood thing to check out. The Component Collector is a set of eight wooden holders-of-things, each 3.25″ square, with magnets to arrange them on your game table. These are stored in a dice tray that’s about 4.5″ by 6.25″, secured with a strap. Ours was a Crimson-level backer pledge — yes, it’s on Kickstarter right now — with three Square token tiles, one Deck tile, one Double tile (for a few standing cards and two rounded wells for tokens or coins), a Quad tile (with four rounded wells for smaller tokens), a Bowl, and a Counter (with a dial numbered from 0-9).

As you may have guessed, these are for you to hold board game components in. For some games, these will hold everything — we tried this with our latest game of Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 and it worked pretty well (although we kept the disease cubes in petri dishes). For other games, you can use these to hold your player-specific bits. “Using this at a complex game like Scythe, you feel like you have your own little command center,” said Michael Konas, Dog Might co-founder.

For the project, you choose the eight tiles included in your product. In addition to variety of different-shaped wells for tokens, they also offer tiles with a first player marker that you can pass around to other players, an angled deck holder, and one that is designed to act as a coaster for a can or bottle at the game table. (Not that I suspect the type of person to buy a high-end game upgrade like this would chance having a drink that could spill on the same playing space as a board game.)

Most of the games I have that could use a product like The Component Collector really feature small plastic or wooden tokens. For my games, the curved bowl were easier to use than the square. We didn’t try this with a game that required a deck of cards for the Deck tile to really be useful — most games we have with cards actually have multiple decks of cards (and we only had the one Deck tile) or there were dedicated spaces on the game board for decks. I could see us using the Slots tile (with four slots for standing cards) or the Card tile (one slot, plus a large rounded well for tokens.

I really like the dice tray the tiles are contained in. It’s a small component that’s there to keep the tiles contained and works great as a dice tray. Plus, like the tiles, the tray has rare earth neodymium magnets on the short sides (the tiles have them on all four sides), allowing for them to connect up to the rest of your command center.

Based on all that, should you get a set? These are cool, but you’d have to really look over your game collection and decide which combination of tiles will suit your game play best. For my collection, that’s probably one Slots (four standing cards), one Card (one standing slot + large token well), one Dual (two coin-like holders), three or four Bowls (rounded, for tokens), and maybe two or one Squares (square, flattened token well). And while they’re cool…I’d really be happy if I had just one set for common components, like the research stations and disease cubes in Pandemic, or a selection of them in multiple colors (which Dog Might offers) so everyone at the table can have their own set. It’s a cool-looking add-on, that’s for certain.

Currently on Kickstarter (ending in 6 days!), a base Component Collector (in Whitewood with a standard set of tiles) is available at $44. Five dollars more gets you a set in Kentucky Coffetree wood with a choice of tiles. There’s a large selection of other woods in the $54 to $64, and even more at higher price points made from luxurious wood types. Combo packs, extra large Collectors (with 12 tiles and larger dice tray), and more are offered.

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According to the website, Dog Might makes Kick Ass Gaming Gear, and that’s pretty much accurate. They make wood things: dice trays and towers, carrying cases for miniatures and dice, deck boxes, and more. Almost everything comes with options for sculpted wood decoration with other products having options for brass or aluminum symbols attached to the wood.

The Dragon Sheath is a wooden box about 8 1/2″ long by 2 1/4″ wide and 2″ tall. These cases are small enough for a personal collection of dice, a miniature or two, stacks for coins, and/or a pen, pencil, or marker, depending on the interior layout. Fourteen interior options are available: this one has a honeycombed interior for a standard set of seven polyhedral dice and a foam-protected miniature holder. Options include sets with a storage area large enough for two dozen dice, a set with two miniatures and one set of polyhedral dice, and a set with dedicated space for seven dice and a pen.

There are over sixty exterior sculpt options, along with “none” for a flat side. Ours had the Hammers sculpt on one side and the Ancient sculpt on the other. The exterior is coated in a double or triple layer of varnish for protection.

While the Dragon Sheath is light, it feels durable. The varnished hardwood resists basic nicks and scratches. When placed on the Hammers side down, the sheath sits flat; when sitting on the Ancient side, it wobbles a bit. That particular design has curved raised elements which causes the slight wobble. These are all custom-made and some sculpts seem to have flatter or more uniform elements such as the Police Box, Arcane Circle, and Flail, which can be used as a more solid base. If there is just one design you really want for the top, the bottom can always be ordered as a blank solid piece. The two halves of the sheath have rare earth neodymium magnets in the corners, holding the sheath rather firmly closed.

Ours was a Premium Dragon Sheath, meaning two types of wood were used, cherry with bubinga. Solid white ash wood sheaths are $69.95, with four stain options. Solid flame birch sheaths with colorful stains (seven options) are $84.95. Premium wood options with a complimentary band (walnut, cherry, leopardwood, benge, are among the eight combinations) are $99.95. The Mythic line features three hardwood combinations made of rarer woods (chechen/wenge, wenge/African mahogany, and Bolivian rosewood/wenge) for $139.95. If you like the colored wood stains, I’d look at the $84.95 range. If you love the look of natural wood, the chechen/wenge combination from the Mythic line would be my top pick.

A Premium Dragon Sheath was provided free for review by Dog Might.

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