The Quest for a Dice Tower....
Some games have a lot of dice. Or a few dice that are rolled over and over again. To keep the dice from scattering, rolling off the table, and to give them a good tumble, a dice tower comes in handy. I first made some out of acrylic. They have slight differences in the tower and landing are sizes.
They work well. And I used them quite often. But lately I wondered if I could improve on them. Something a little warmer and a little less harsh on the ears. Perhaps wood. So I started working on some concepts. The first attempt was to add some parts trays, so bit and pieces like energy cubes in King of Tokyo, or arrows in Bang the dice game could be passed around with the dice tower. But this design was getting to bulky quickly, so I dropped the trays and finished the tower alone. And ended up with something that looked pretty much like the plastic versions. The wood was nicer, but still not an outstanding result.
Round two. I'm going for something a little more stylish than a box on box look. I'd still like parts trays, but not to the point the tower becomes unwieldy with one hand. So the tower was shrunk to a smaller footprint. The meant it is easier to grab and leaves more room for the dice field and parts trays. But it also meant more precision when dropping the dice in is needed. So a funnel was added to the top. Dice can now be thrown in with little care. And it's a nice departure from the other dice trays.
There are a few modifications to make on the next prototype... utilizing the lost space behind the tower, and increasing the field size.