Red, White, & Bubinga (Dicing in Style)

I have to confess that I'm kind of a dice freak. I don't know how many dice I actually have, but I know it's a lot. I have some of every polyhedron type available: D20s, D12s, D10, D8s, D6s, D4s. I may even have a D100 somewhere. I've got them in all colors and sizes, too, from wee little 5mm dice to bigger dice the size of your fist. (The value of either escapes me just now.)

Because they're relatively cheap, I tend to buy a set of dice for almost every game I play—or just because I find a set that looks cool and I want it. I often try to match dice to the era or armies I'm gaming with. For example, I have green speckled dice (like camouflage) to use for playing Bolt Action with my Marines. I have Red dice to use for Soviets, etc. I also have my beloved "ancient dice" that hate Romans.

I can't say that using a custom set of dice really helps (I tend to roll deplorably regardless of the dice I use), but it lends to the feel of the game.

Custom dice

I have two Wars of the Roses board games that use D6 for combat resolution, Richard III: The Wars of the Roses by Columbia Games and Sun of York by GMT Games. While browsing the photos for these games on BoardGameGeek, I noticed a set of custom D6 that had Roses in place of the 1's. They looked very cool. As I browsed through the comments I saw that the person who had the custom dice made provided a GIF file for the rose pattern and the color patterns of the dice. For $1.00 per die, I had Chessex make a matching custom set for me: 12 dice in Lancastrian red and 12 in Yorkist white.

Yahtzee!

Getting custom Yorkist and Lancastrian dice has me thinking about some other custom sets. I can see getting a speckled green set with the USMC globe and anchor for my Marines in Bolt Action and red dice with an Imperial chrysanthemum for the Japanese.

Dice trays

I've supported a couple of Kickstarter projects, so I'm on the mailing list and I get notices of other projects starting up. One of the recent projects was from Wyrmwood Gaming, who are coming out with a new product called a dice vault. It's a very nice box made of exotic wood that you can store a dice set in. I passed on the dice vault, but I visited the Wyrmwood Gaming site and found that they make some very nice dice trays.

I've been a dice tray guy for several years since I found a couple of octagonal trays at the now-defunct Phoenix Games in Redmond, WA. It's nice to have a clear flat place to throw dice where you don't need to worry about getting a cocked die or having a die roll off the table to who knows where. The dice trays I have are very nice, but I was smitten with the Wyrmwood Gaming trays as soon as I saw them online.

They come in two levels, the Affinity and the Lotus. The Affinity are made of common hardwoods like Oak, Cherry, Fir, and Walnut. The Lotus are made with more exotic woods. The rolling surface comes in leather or suede. I immediately ordered a tray made from bubinga wood (straight from equatorial Africa) with a black suede rolling surface.

Harmonizing well with my cherry table

The Wyrmwood trays are rectangular and come with a separate section to hold dice that aren't being rolled, so they don't clutter the table top.

Spacious storage room

Each Wyrmwood tray is handmade on order, so it takes a few weeks to get it. I ordered mine on October 5 and it arrived on the 24th. My only buyer's remorse on opening the package was that I didn't order two. They're that nice.

The price was good at $35.00 for the Lotus ($25.00 for the Affinity). Looking at the Wyrmwood Gaming site just now, I see that the prices have increased since I viewed them yesterday. The Lotus is now $45.00 and the Affinity $30.00. Now I'm really sorry I didn't order two.