Dice Turret - put it on your holiday shopping list Hot

That is pretty ingenious. I hope they make a killing.

It's just one guy. He had a brain storm while playing in his Strat-o-matic Baseball league. He folded up some cardboard and took it to a local place that produces cardboard stuff and asked if they could make it. They said sure. Drafted it up and stamped out an order. Brian brought them to his league, for them to use. That would have been the end of the story, except people wanted more - word of mouth etc.

Funny thing is, Brian knows nothing about any other games other than Strat-o-matic Baseball. I get the impression that he was initially surprised at the response he got, and by the requests for "themed" turrets. But he got an artist, and is just now starting production on castle and two military versions. I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually moved into special order custom work - store, game club, con logos, etc.

I think if he could get those into comic and game stores he could sell even more.

Wow, this is a really great idea for a product- cheap to produce, very reasonable retail, and it's "customizable"! He really ought to patent the idea if he can since it's easily reproducable.

Custom logos, graphics, and whatnot would be an _awesome_ idea. I would have ordered some for the store with the AGF logo, easily.

There is a big downside, and that is simply that there really isn't a "huge" market for dice towers. Most gamers at large don't really use them or even get the point. I don't think I've ever actually played a game with a dice tower. Dice tray, yes, because that adds a touch of class to any game. But yeah, thinking about it, I've never even thrown dice into a dice tower, not a single time in my life.

But nonetheless, smart business. Best of luck to him.

I've never used a dice tower either, but for $6? Yeah, I'd totally try one out. Although, the Mrs. did look at me like an idiot last night when I said it would make a great stocking stuffer.

That's true. For $6, this becomes a much more attractive accessory. I'd be inclined to get one at that price just as fun, impulse purchase.

Very cool. Blue Panther is working on a smallish wooden one as well - I'd guess from the picture it is about the same size. Both are great ideas, and I agree with the idea that a small one is much more attractive concept rather than a full sized one.

I like the look of the camo ones. I watched his little Youtube clip and one thing he said made be go 'eh ?' - he said he doesn't use the tray. Now I thought the whole idea of a dice tower was to stop dice going everywhere when you roll them - putting them down a shute takes all the fun out of rolling dice, so if you're not using the 'keep 'em in the corral tray' then why use the bloody tower ?!

The thing that sold me was the size (small foot print) and the tray. Because it's made of cardboard, the dice don't bounce much, so the tray can be shallow, which means you can see what someone has rolled.

Southernman, Strat-O-Matic Baseball has a wide open table. That is the reason for me not using the tray. The main purpose of the Tower, is the randomization of the dice rolling. So many people like to just drop the dice or slap them on the table. This eliminates that. The tray is a convenience. If anybody has any questions about them, feel free to drop me an e-mail brian@thediceturret.com.

Thanks again ubarose for setting me up on the site.

Somewhere Matt Drake's head is exploding.

The link that explains my last comment...
http://www.vixentorgames.com/subcategory.asp?category=2

As soon as the dice leave your hand they are being randomized and, unless people can see through the back of their hand, whoever is rolling shouldn't know what number is going to come up whether the dice scatter a couple of feet over the table or just roll over one side (??). Some of you guys must play with real fun-murderers/tossers if this is a real problem.

PS I still like 'em because tables over this side of the pond are a lot smaller due to the smaller houses they sit in, so keen F:ATies who like to hold dice like a hand grenade and throw them with good narrative often take out playing pieces ;D - although have to admit that our game of Fortress America last week escaped that collateral damage, but did have a few on the floor as we kept away from the board.

Somewhere Matt Drake's head is exploding.

I think that the market for $60 -$350 hand crafted dice tower, is different than the market for a $6 cardboard one. It's like the difference between the good crystal and plastic cups. If my plastic cups survive an outing, I'll bring them home and reuse them. But if they get lost, tossed or crushed, no big deal. These cardboard turrets are sturdy, but they are going to have a limited life span, particularly as I intend to use them as portables for cons, and game nights, and for playing with kids. I expect that within the year at least one will suffer destruction by suitcase, child's foot or beer.

Alastair,
that's the reason why I started doing them. I have a lot of gamer friends would love to use a tower but can't afford those prices. I would not have done this if I didn't work at a Cardboard Factory. We make Millions and millions of boxes per day. I brought my design and we created it to be mass produced. I wish my company was letting me make them for free, but it's not the case. I am an official customer.

The Towers with Graphics cost a ton to make, hence the higher price.

Brian

I love your boxes for 7" records...

I'm going to have to get together an order of these. I've used a dice tower a few times and it was handy for throwing handfuls of Heroscape dice around.

Something tells me that someone from my FLGS was at the same con, since I them in there this week.

Shaking the dice out of a wide mouth beer bottle also works,
but the caution is make sure your actually drinking your beer
from a different type bottle.;D

OD

Something tells me that someone from my FLGS was at the same con, since I them in there this week.

Yes, they had a vendor table there.

I've never owned one -- I use small dice and a pint glass. A quick shake and you have your random event, in a well-controlled area.

And that's why Grognards use them. A die that gets away from you can end Napoleon's offensive on the left side of the front pretty quickly. The tower is as much a courtesy to protect the 400 chits on the board as anything else, generally not an issue with a game like Settlers or Heroscape.

Indeed some grifters can "choke" dice and change the expected outcomes, and more than a bit. As SouthernMan said that's pretty fun-murdering for no-money-down gaming, but there are people out there that would to it.

Mr. DiceTurret man I think I'll be a customer of yours if you don't mind. I recommend making the trip to Historicon in Baltimore this coming year. A lot of dice will be rolled, or perhaps dropped if things go your way. I may bring a few to Multiman's Winter Offensive this January and give them out. Uba, what will it take to get Fortress:Ameritrash logos on these things? How many poster pens does your daughter have?

S.

Sagrilarus, I may make the trip down. I have to do some research on when and where and all. I enjoyed my first CON and am planning 3 more. TempleCON (RI), TotalCON (MA) and Havoc (MA). I have a lot of desire to go to GenCON in Aug as well but too far away.

As far as Fortress:Ameritrash logo's, it depends on how many you would like. I have the printed ones made off site unfortunately. They are about 10X the price to produce as the plan white ones. The next time I place an order, I'll get you more info if you are truly interested. I'm sure we can work something out.

Thanks,
Brian

Sag,

Just print out the attached file and glue it to your turret. ;D

I might be able to screen up a small run of like 100 or something with a one color print pretty easily and cheaply.

OK - I liked the camo ones, but if someone is going to make a cool F:AT design then I'll turn my head and have a look. And being cardboard I'm going to assume they shouldn't be too expensive to fly across the pond to us europeans.

Shipping to Europe is $11.oo. Nothing I can do about that. Sorry guys. Matt, if you guys want $100 with your logo and resell them in your store, let me know. That's something that we can do very easily. We can either have my designer work on something or you can give me an Illustrator file with a logo and I can mock it up and show it to you in about a day or two the latest.

How do they handle large sized dice of varying sides?

The tower will handle any of the "normal size" dice for d4's to d20's. It will handle SOME larger size but not too many. If I made it any bigger, than the size of the tower itself would be too large to enjoy.

Just a heads up that the Graphic Towers are now for sale on the website. Come take a look.

www.thediceturret.com

Brian