So here's another area where I feel like these were created entirely to suck the change out of the pockets of hardcore tabletop gamers... but... I can see how they are nice too. It has the potential to reduce wear and tear on your dice and keep them on the table (and more importantly to reduce the "well, I think I'll have to re-roll that one" excuses).
So in another effort to create my own, on the cheap, I went out and bought a pre-made wooden hobby 'cigar box' (about $5 at walmart). After covering the metal bits with painter's tape, I spray painted it a few light coats with my Rustoleum paint (the generic kind you can also use for plastics, of course this is wood). When that dried, I sprayed on a few coats of bullseye shellac to give it a nice smooth, somewhat glossy finish. On the inside I covered both "trays" with craft felt. Presto! The only thing was I got a little impatient with the paint drying on the inside and had to touch it up a little on the "lip" of the box.
In using two different colors I figured: one tray for Zargon, one for the Heroes. I realize now that MB/GWS probably intended the players just to use those cardboard boxes that came with the game to roll your dice (then again those little wooden dice on the board itself is fine too.. that's how most games go). Still, I'd rather have something like this to stop the dice from knocking over the board setup (especially when rolling large numbers of bigger plastic dice!), falling off the table, etc. The feedback of the dice tumbling on the wood (but with the sound muffled by the felt) is pretty satisfying overall.
Now in practice I also found that you have to "pass the trays" when doing turns, unless you're sitting closer on two sides, so I'm making a second box already. But overall, I think its slightly cheaper than getting one of those felt lined pre-made ones. It's a lot closer than the
DIY dice cups I made though. Makes a handy place to store your dice, character cards/sheets and some mechanical pencils too!
They do sell felt table-clothes you can put over your card table for poker night or whatever, or even just a roll of craft felt for the purpose.
Now then, those of you who have your own pool table... put some bar stools around that thing, stuff up the pockets with something, and you've got an even better solution (like your own craps table!), but this will do for me!
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