Reddit mentions: The best unfinished wood

I like to give fountain pens as gifts. They are uncommon enough to be novel, but interesting enough to show value beyond what they actually cost. Bonus if you get a vintage pen, since the associated history adds an extra bit of interest. Italic or flexible nibs are great for writing chinese characters, from what I understand. If you can find an american made vintage pen, that is even better as a cultural gift. Also, you can easily find a nice one within your budget.

One good resource for buying professionally restored vintage pens is Pen Agora. The owner, Will does great work and is super friendly and helpful.

If you want to buy ink/paper to go with it, or would rather buy a modern pen Goulet Pens is a great vendor. Excellent customer service and product selection.

Lastly, if I am giving a special gift and want to add to the presentation, sometimes I buy an inexpensive wooden box off of amazon to package it in (something like this). If you are feeling crafty, you can even stain it or finish it with supplies from a hardware store like home depot. I usually shred some brown butcher's paper as filler.

Hopefully that helps, feel free to PM me if you need advice or suggestions :)

I'm about to make a post about how I built a fully functional DM screen from scratch for about $14, but as far as original content that's it for me. However, here's some links that caught my interest or inspired me if it helps any.

Tips

ProJared: How to be a good DM

DM Support Group

Content Generation

DonJon Inn Generator

[World Gen] (http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/14706/rules-for-generating-a-game-world-as-you-go)

Map making

Podcasts

For inspiration

Adventure Zone - A real play podcast with a group of seasoned improvisational comedians. The perfect, I think, blend of fun, fantasy, and storytelling. Certainly not serious, but still has really great storytelling and roleplaying. Griffin is an amazing DM and has really inspired me to create like he does.

Hello from the Magic Tavern - Doesn't play DnD, but lots of lore inspiration...for better or worse.

Dungeon Master's Block - Lots of good idea and discussions.

Materials

[Role 4 Initiative dry erase tiles] (http://www.amazon.com/Dry-Erase-inch-Dungeon-Tiles/dp/B016H1B0RW) - My dungeon master uses these, it is SO much easier than using one giant dry erase playmat. We used to totally cheese things in dungeons because we knew the action must be in the direction of the rest of the empty squares. With the tiles, it's not obvious anymore which doors to take and which direction to go.

[Color coded ball pawns] (http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Pawns-Accessories-Assorted-Colors/dp/B00JOPU3UY?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) - I haven't gotten these in the mail yet, but I think they'll work great for marking the player characters. If I even run a longer campaign, I think it would be fun to use wooden peg dolls, painted with paint pens, as player characters, NPCs, most humanoid monsters...and other various wooden things for the bigger and weirder.

[1 inch wooden squares] (http://www.amazon.com/Package-Round-Disc-Unfinished-Cutouts/dp/B00CA1Y878?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00) - cheap way to make markers for enemies, can write on with sharpie or use a 1 inch circle cutter to use your own color. See the really good guide here.

DM cheat sheets

Ozuro

Ronny Hart

I don't think either of these are perfect; nobody else's DM screens will ever be perfect for how you run a game. I combined these two and added my own notes for my own screen.

Reddit threads I've saved

Overland travel

Sandbox play

Terrain features for encounters

Software

DM Minion - Seems like it would help a lot with organization, certainly not required for success. Can't get it to work with my PC.

I'm trying to make a large LED grid (23x10 with 4inx4in squares), and I've been experimenting with what the cheapest way to do it is. I can make one of these for around 75 cents USD. The layers are:

1. Balsa square backplane: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MM185Q2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
2. Reflective aluminum tape (helps increase the brightness a bit)
   
3. Single WS2812B RBG LED: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014QKWJDU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
4. Soldered on connectors: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EV70C78/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
5. 4x4 housing square made from gluing together 3 4x1s from home depot
   
6. Tracing paper square
   
7. Nylon Silk cloth square: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XSBDWXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
   It's pretty easy to construct (the hardest part is soldering on the connectors), but I have several complaints I'd love cheap alternatives to.
   
   

• The frame is thicker than I'd like. I think I can fix this by just sawing off some of the edges - going to play with this later.
  
• I don't know for sure the tape is helping compared to light colored wood.
  
• I'm slightly concerned about heat, but I'm testing that now.
  
• I'd love to find a cheap 3-pin connector so I don't have to solder all of these.
  
• **The main problem I'm having is sufficiently diffusing the light over the square.** The camera makes it look more pronounced than it is, but there's a definite circle in the middle where the LED is. I've tried facing it the other way (towards the reflective tape), but then you get the shadow of the LED ribbon, which looks worse. I've also tried more/different layers of diffusion material. Materials I've tried (in many combinations and at many distances) include:
  
  • Tissues
    
  • Regular paper
    
  • Card stock drawing paper
    
  • Paper towel
    
  • Toilet paper
    
  • Nylon diffusion fabric
    
  • Tracing paper
    
    The ones that work the best are the tracing and nylon, but it's still not great.
    
    Happy to talk about the project, and would love advice if anyone has done something similar!
    
    ​
    
    Edit: I just tried making the housing thicker (from 0.5in to 1.5in) and it made it a LOT better. I think I'm happy with it now as long as I can find a way to clean up the edges.

You'll want to get any plastic smell out if there is one. Mine was fine so I didn't bother, but most people say you need to do something to clean it out. I'm going to make a post that gives a full run down of my setup soon, but until then I'll tell you what I use. These trays are perfect. Don't get the small ones, only the medium and large ones. Each shelf in the 281 cooler will hold either 1 large tray or 2 medium trays. On the bottom of each tray I have a piece of Spanish cedar that comes out of cigar boxes. I stopped by my B&M and he let me take a handful that he had laying around. I also have some of these Spanish cedar pen blanks in random spots in some trays. Here is a pic of both tray sizes, with one of the cedar blanks in the middle on the left. Here is a large tray on the metal shelf.Here are 2 medium trays on a metal shelf. Here is a frontal pic of my setup. The top 3 shelves each have 2 medium trays, the bottom 3 shelves each have 1 large tray, and another large tray sitting flush on the bottom. Here is a pic of another configuration I was using before when I kept some boxes in the bottom area. Then I have 2 of these hygrometers using their magnetic discs to sit on the front of the metal shelves. I have 2 computer fans and a timer coming tomorrow that I am going to setup in the bottom shelf to aid in circulation. What's great is that the trays have slots in them already so airflow is great in all areas of the wineador, and you can configure the trays any way you want. I am completely happy with the whole thing, you will be too. And what's great is you can upgrade the setup by getting the really nice custom made drawers in the future, as cash permits. I plan on doing that later this year most likely. It's nice to have a setup that is fully functional, holds a ton of cigars, and can be upgraded over time. Win-win!

Thanks everyone for the advice everyone, I probably would have bought them had I found them yesterday, but I decided to go the DIY route. Since picking must be a very budget conscious hobby for me, I went ahead and took the plunge and bought the important tools. I figured making my own pins would be difficult and require a lot of crazy equipment, but I looked into it and realized it was a lot easier than expected. So just for anyone who's curious, here's what I got:

• $50 Kwikset rekey/pin set from eBay. 200 of each type of pins, 8 types of pins. Clips, followers, springs, and anything else needed to reassemble locks. That leaves enough pins to make absolutely every security pin that I know of, as well as any others that I find from watching people pick challenge locks. There are a good variety of these sets, so you can save some money here by getting only 50 or 100 of each pin type if you prefer. I just decided to start off big so I hopefully never have to buy another.
  
• $35 Rotary Tool. Used for a huge variety of DIY projects, including and excluding lockpicking. There are some cheaper options, but in my opinion you're better off buying at least a decent one to start so you don't have to upgrade later.
  
• $7 Needle File Set. Used in conjunction with your rotary tool as cutting/smoothing tools
  
• $25 Base Vice. Also is very useful for holding locks while picking.
  
   
  
  So in total $112 for all the components needed to make as many locks as I can imagine, many of which can be used for other projects.
  
   
  
  To add supplies for a few other DIY projects I also added:
  
  
• $6 Rotary Tool Bit Set. Used for various DIY projects.
  
• $9 Cutting Wheels for your Rotary tool.
  
• $6 Wood Plank. I'll use this along with the dremel bit set above to make a nice pinning tray.
  
• $2 12" x 0.5" x 0.023" Stainless Steel Feeler Gauge. Used to make picks, tension rods, etc. making it $2 per 2-3 tools. If the thickness you want is expensive/in short supply on amazon you can buy directly from the manufacturer here but in my experience the shipping is slower and the price is usually a ~$0.10 higher per 12" rod. If you really get into making DIY tools you can buy stainless steel feeler coils from easterngage which are 25' x 0.5" x 0.15"/0.18"/0.23"/0.25"/0.26" or any thickness you want really. For 25', depending on the thickness it'll cost you anywhere from $50.64 to $64.95. You might need the 1" wide coils for making double sided tension tools.
  
   
  
  So another $21 brings it to $133 plus $2 per 2-3 tools that you need. Add in this $6 case and a few $4-$6 practice locks around aliexpress (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th 5th, 6th, 7th), and you've got a great starter kit that sets you up to DIY anything you might need in the future. I also took advantage of Peterson's mega christmas sale (plus the 10% discount code they gave us) and got a ~$25 order of $1-$3 picks to start me off

Thanks for the feedback!

So, it feels to me (I may be wrong) like we're thinking of different types of CNC. I'm talking Flat Bed, vertical tooling, to cut a single shape, punch a hole or router out a surface to a given depth. It feels to me like you're thinking of full 3D CNC, which in this application just isn't necessary for the design I've been working on. That said, if I'm mistaken, apologies!

The reason I'm looking at CNC is because I can easily do the Toolpathing myself in Vetric or V-Carve or similar & provide a local company with that & a sheet of Ply & let them at it. Sure, I'll have to pay for that, but the cost should be fairly minimal (I'm in the UK, perhaps its different elsewhere?), but the key thing is that, despite the relatively flexible tolerancing on most CNC beds, what I get out should be sufficiently accurate to ensure that the hexes tessellate sufficiently tightly.

The Hexes mind you are potentially another kettle of fish. I'm looking at a yield per 1220x2400 board of around 2000 hexes. Which is a lot of CNC time. I can mitigate some of that by adjusting my approach to the holes (6mm for a more standard tool so it can just punch right through etc), but the shapes need to be pretty tight (could I make them myself? Sure, but... man. We invented mass production for a reason, I'm gonna use it if I can!). As you've said, there exists the possibility of buying them, but so far I've had no luck sourcing the right thing. I've got close, but the work required is significant (they're not suitable just as they are, though these guys would just about do it, if I could get a few thou...), combined with fairly high costs, makes it a bit non viable.

Alternatively, I do have a few contacts for machining the Hexes & this is something I'm also looking at, those guys love turning out a few thousand of anything!

Anyway, diversion aside, I'm talking local CNC companies here for the benefit of others who don't have the access I do, in my case, I'm going to speak very nicely to my MD & hope they're cool with me buying the materials, doing the programming & pushing the go button. Total cost to me; time + materials = not too shabby.

For others without that, obviously the CNC will cost more, but I don't think it need be prohibitive. Will let you know as I've put feelers out to a few companies I deal with regularly, just to see.

As for the dowel, my plan was always to buy existing & just cut it to length, reckon I need about 4-6 lengths based on my estimates (including saw thickness loss), I'm just not relishing cutting several thousand of the pegs! Can you tell I'm all about automation over here?

But we'll see, I'll get my quotes back from the local CNC firms & Engineering companies & make my call. As long as I can, I'll be using the tools I have access to, but if I can't, I can't!

I have the exact set of trees you listed.

Here's what you want to do. You want to get a set of these wooden circles from wherever you can find them. Next, you want to get a package of 1" washers.

You're going to need a hot glue gun and some multi-material glue like Goop, E-6000 or Gorilla Glue.

Step 1: Glue the washer to the bottom of your wooden disks and let dry. Use your multi-material glue for this.

Step 2: Once you have all your bases set up with their washers (for stability), you are going to clip off the little wire that extends from the bottom of these trees, and you are going to hot-glue the tree to the base, washer side down.

Step 3: Once the tree is on the base, you're going to notice that it's not stuck on very well. You can do this step along with Step 2. What you want to do is run hot glue from the base up to the trunk of the tree (about a half-inch), using the metal tip of the glue gun to draw it down, making it look like the natural bottom of a tree, as it's starting to turn to roots. Do this along the entire base. This will secure the tree better. I like to do 4 of these around the tree so they look like roots and don't completely cover the base. Extend your roots to the edge though so they look good.

Step 4: Get some brown paint and paint over the hot glue and the base, blending it into the trunk.

Optional Steps: If you made the glue look like roots, you'll have some of your base showing. I like to cover the parts that aren't the 'roots' with some white glue and then drop some green flocking down on it to simulate grass.

Last step: Enjoy your new trees.

To add to this, if you have some time for arts and crafts you can make some pretty legit looking tokens for ~20-30 cents per token.

I bought 1 inch wooden discs similar to these. You can find them at arts and crafts stores, but are usually a little more expensive and come in smaller packs. Either make your own or grab the sweet tokens WordUpGangster made and print them out. If you don't have a printer (like me) I just used a copy shop and printed them on either cardstock or medium thickness paper. A single sheet of paper can fit like 80 tokens and costs anywhere from 10-50 cents depending on the quality of paper.

Next, I bought a 10$ 1 hole punch to save time on cutting all the tokens out. Get some glue, almost any gluestick will do, and glue the tokens to the wooden discs. They look pretty sweet and I've made literally hundreds for ~50$ all said and done.

The only issue is making tokens for anything bigger than 1 inch can be a problem. I haven't found any wood discs that are reliably 2x2 inches (or bigger for that matter). For 2x2 creatures I've used metal washers to give them some weight, but that can go upwards of 1$ per token, and can be hard to find anything above 2x2.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

Wooden Clothespins are a great thing you can use. Super cheap, disposable, easy to mark with pens/markers. Take an afternoon to draw characters on them, monsters, important NPC's. Even if you just use a simple Minimalist style like this you can easily tell characters apart.

You can get about 100 of em for $15 or so. Its what one of my old DM's used, and they worked pretty fine. These were also in the related items, and could work just as well, though they are clearly less disposable, being almost 50% more expensive.

Honestly I would recommend buy some wooden disk and paint them black.

I am currently following this post as my inspiration and for the great roundel designs. I love the air plane fuel gauges.

I plan on using circle stickers instead of glue like the previous link.

I hope this helps.

I think my DM would prefer more theatre of the mind, but I am absolutely bollux with it and my group is very tactically minded. So we use a mat + minis the vast majority of the time.

This mat is our go-to for pretty much every encounter. It's easy to use, easy to store, and reusable by anyone in anything we're running, from one-shots to our major campaign.

If we want to work up a dungeon in advance, then there's something more like this. I've used both ways. They're both great.

Minis, you can do in several ways.

Here are 5,000 translucent round tokens that are smaller than an inch. You can use your wet erase marker from your battle map to write numbers on them. You can also use them to denote status effects. There are tons of different colors that you can get them in and in smaller batches than this one, but this will give you an idea of what to look for.

Here are 1" wooden circles. They also come in 2" and 3" varieties. That gives you Small/medium, Large, and Huge creatures.

Oh, and here's a tutorial on how to make paper circle tokens. You can print these out on cardstock, cut them out, and use a glue stick to stick them to your wooden tokens.

And! If you don't want to cut out a shit ton of little paper tokens, you can buy paper punches that will cut them for you. I have them in 1", 2" and 3" size.

I also have Paizo minis, but the circle tokens get used a lot more because they're much more versatile. And players love being able to have their own token for their character.

I have a small woodworking business on etsy and ebay as a side hustle. I buy materials as I need them. This allows me to not have to wait 5 days for free shipping and not have to stock up and store as much stuff that I might not need in the near future. Plus there are no decent woodworking shops within 300 miles of where I live. I can have replacement material delivered to my door in 2 days...

I used to get most of the materials off of ebay, but every seller has different shipping preferences and costs. Amazon and their "2-day free shipping" has made my processes run a lot better. That being said, I really only care about the "2-day free shipping." The other stuff doesn't add value to my life. I would rather just have the option to pay a lower price for the "2 day free shipping" and pay more for other stuff if I wanted to get it later...

here are some examples of things that I typically buy as I am running out...

https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Woodturning-Goncalo-Tigerwood-Wooden/dp/B078KYYQY3/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=pen+blanks&qid=1555097279&s=gateway&sr=8-11

https://www.amazon.com/Carving-Carvers-Workers-Whittle-Beautiful/dp/B07HL7V2HG/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=W75CADHHWTCU&keywords=spoon+carving+blanks&qid=1555097353&s=gateway&sprefix=spoon+carving%2Caps%2C228&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Woodturning-Cigar-Choose-Finish/dp/B07DFM6XZ3/ref=sr_1_5?crid=WOV6MXV9DJ92&keywords=pen+kits+for+wood+turning&qid=1555097379&s=gateway&sprefix=pen+kits%2Caps%2C227&sr=8-5

1- Get a bag or two of these guys.

2- Age the wood. It's cheap and easy.

3- Paint or carve different cool designs. You know the stuff. Make them look like game pieces from a board game inside dungeons and dragons. Have some distinct to any other and a couple of groupings. You can use desaturated or dark colors in the aging and colorcode creatures. Use colors that let the good grain visible for better effect.

3.2- You can have some of them color coded or personalized for your party. You can tie stuff to them: a leather stripe, wire, glue glass beads for the sorcerer, a feather for the druid. You can carve or paint symbols: a holy symbol for the cleric, something runic for the dwarf, the dragonborn's initials in draconic, whatever.

3.3- You also have different sizes for bigger or smaller creatures.

4- Profit. Now you have a varied, abstract, easy to follow, customized set of pawns for all your needs, dirt cheap and that doubles as props because they look medieval fantasy AF.

4.2- Extra points if you get a parchment battle mat. Double that if you get those dice that look like bone, gems or any other cool medieval fantasy look.

5- Send pictures to r/DnDIY

This is your fantasy. You need to sell her on it. Day one suggest that she pick a room or a task. She comes home from work, and you have obviously been working all day, dinner is on the table, you are dressed nicely. You have a pleasant dinner, talk about her day, your day etc. After dinner ask if she wants to take a bath or relax while you clear the table and do the dishes. Then you focus on her. Foot and/or back massage, snuggling, sit at her feet, going down on her, etc.

This is not a one night thing. You have 3-4 weeks to perfect this. She will figure out what she wants from you. When you get to that point, then begin to introduce the kinky stuff. I guess that part depends on you.

You mention punishment so maybe present her with a wooden paddle (https://www.amazon.com/Yonor-Painted-Wooden-Paddle-Airflow/dp/B07JN9BL39) inscribe "She Rules" on it and hang it in the living room. Then burn her dinner one night and see what happens.

The point is show her the positives first, let her get used to them, and then present your needs in a way holistic with the rest of it. Don't make it be all about you.

You can definitely consolidate; I saw something about fitting all the expansions into the Dominion "Big Box" at one point, but can't find it now.

I use these tabs as dividers: http://domtabs.sandflea.org/

and an approximation of this organizational strategy: http://www.theboardgameblog.com/2010/02/step-by-step-fit-dominion-and-its-expansions-in-one-box/

and the original box fits the base game, prosperity and seaside comfortably. Wooden artist boxes like this are also popular: https://www.amazon.com/Walnut-Hollow-Classic-Unfinished-Hobbies/dp/B004I9SLEG.

I mounted mine on a piece of wood from amazon. Mine is on a wall near a window and it does great. It doesn’t need a crazy amount of light as it’s an epiphyte. A northwest facing window is probably best because it’s pretty gentle light, assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere.

mounting board

mounting video

This is a great wooden paddle from Amazon for $10.

This crop from Amazon for about $6. Absolutely not something that will last forever, but it's been working great on my ass after a little bit of leather moisturizer (one of the things that came in my Doc Martens care kit). I've had it for 3 months, and IMO it's already paid for itself. Works just fine till I can get a "good" one. :-)

I use a wooden paddle with holes like this on myself. Great for creating more impact at an an awkward angle. I'm sure it would be even more fun with a partner.

So, I was in the same boat not long ago.I only had a small assortment of cigars and threw a boveda in a tupperdore. My readings were all over the place and I was distraught.

First things first. Calibrate your Hygrometer, MAKE SURE it is where it should be. Give this a try

Also, Get some cedar in there. Cedar is great at many things including soaking up some of that humidity and helping keep a nice steady environment. There is a reason real humidors are made of it. I used a couple of these blanks from Amazon

Now, After all this is done, GIVE IT TIME! It will take at least a week or so to settle down to a normal RH. Don't panic and just trust in the Boveda pack.

Thanks, they're just blank dice, these are the ones I used.
Also, thanks for sharing the extra pics, these looks great.

One of the better purchases I've made was round wooden tokens. I've bought two sizes, 1.5" and 1". These get used all the time for monster tokens, NPC tokens, to mark important map items, etc. Whatever we want to write on them. I also made a bunch of spell tokens so my younger players could track their spell usage easier. This has been a huge improvement.

Edit 2: The guide is available here

-----------

I made these token mini's as an alternative to buying miniatures. They're significantly cheaper and can be made in 0.5", 1", 2", 3" sizes and cost very little (1" and 2" shown).

If enough people are interested, I'd be happy to create a DIY post or video.

Edit: I created a MS Word template (link) for 1", 2", 3", and 4" tokens for anyone that doesn't want to wait until I post my guide.

• Find a picture of the creature you're interested in using and import into word.
  
• When you select the picture, the top-right should have a layout option - click on it.
  
• Select the "Behind Text" option beneath With Text Wrapping and select the radio button next to "Fix Position on Page".
  
• Resize your image using a corner handle and position it within the appropriate sized circle.
  
• Repeat for additional images.
  
• Save the pages you want to print as a PDF and have them printed on cardstock.
  
  I use wooden circles as the base - they're available on Amazon in 1", 2" and 3" sizes; /u/ScoutManDan suggested MDF discs.
  
  The tops are epoxy stickers - they're also available on Amazon in various sizes.
  
  When it comes to assembly, this is the order I use:
  
  
• Apply epoxy sticker
  
• Cut out token (I use Fiskars RazorEdge MicroTip Shears but you can also use a circular paper punch)
  
• Apply KrazyGlue to back of token and press to wooden disk

I cheated and bought them off Amazon. They have some that fit the board perfectly and are very good quality. From there I printed icons and then mod-podged them on and stained the tiles to create the various resources and types.

https://www.amazon.com/Hexagon-Cutout-Shapes-Unfinished-Mosaic/dp/B071QXYRFL/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1550466489&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=hexagon+wood+tiles&dpPl=1&dpID=51IwUQFeqTL&ref=plSrch

Grab these from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BAKWKP2/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687462&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00BNWGVDO&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0Q89N3CHZG0FFRZSZCRA

Then print your custom images on something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Avery-Sticker-Paper-Inches-53202/dp/B000XALDGM/ref=sr_1_4?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1463150290&sr=1-4&keywords=sticker+printer+paper

And you can make your own custom dice to your hearts content.

Blank dice and stickers. You're going to change things.

Here's 50 blank dice for nine bucks:

https://www.amazon.com/Nakimo-Blank-White-Board-Teaching/dp/B00BAKWKP2

Here's a thousand half-inch round stickers you can print on for six bucks:

https://www.amazon.com/Round-Circle-Labels-White-Printer/dp/B0731Q24NT/

​

Fifteen bucks and you've got perfect tools for prototyping. Bonus: use colored pencils and you can revise as you playtest.

Amazon actually has wooden boxes for sale that may be appropriate for your purposes. Good luck!

I have heard bamboo are the best. This might fit the bill for $19.95

www.amazon.com/BamPaddle-Bamboo-Spanking-Paddle-Beautiful/dp/B075WFC9MR/

Things like this are your best bet. I purchased a grab box for around $30 and I'm still carving with it all a year later.

Get some wooden disc's from Amazon or a craft store.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CSV14JE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_p-XVDbR27GSP7

Also get a circle punch of the same size: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013NESBKK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_vaYVDbEGWXAV3

You can either print out artwork on cardstock or even use common pokemon cards to punch out the art.

Take a tiny bit of Elmer's glue, wood glue or some sticky tack, and glue the art to the wooden discs. Boom. High-quality tokens.

This is a trick used in the Roleplaying community to make tokens for their characters and NPCs without breaking the bank. ~15 dollar investment gets you like 100 tokens.

I reccomend between 1 inch and 1 1/2 inch for the size. Depends on your purposes.

Have fun!

I maybe sort of purchased the first thing for my future children today? I was looking at Grimm's peg dolls the other day on Amazon because they're so cute, they remind me of these little wooden peg dolls I played with at my grandparents house as a child and it just gave me the fuzzies. Then in the recommended products thing, I saw these: https://www.amazon.com/Koalabu-Natural-Unfinished-Wooden-Bodies/dp/B0189Y8W44/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=peg+dolls+unfinished&qid=1562985142&s=gateway&sprefix=peg+do&sr=8-5 and thought they were boring until I saw how people had painted them. I haven't stopped thinking about how I wanted to do that so today I bought them. I'm going to paint them and then save them for my future kids. And maybe one day my kids will think back on them and have the fuzzies, too.

I use these. You might want to consider them as well. Inexpensive and don't take up too much room. And certainly don't smell like stale smoke :)

1" Wood discs + Black Primer = instant bases in bulk.

Use painter's tape and put it sticky side up on a cardboard mount - an easy way to do this is wrap painters tape sticky side out around an empty box so it also sticks to itself and stays on the box. Stick rows of wood discs on the tape, spray black. Let dry, flip discs, spray again, let dry. Remove discs, throw box away.

Glue Minis to bases with a couple small drops of crazy glue. Really simple, really fast, nice and neat looking.

This is a great idea!

To make it even easier:


1 inch Felt Pads

I inch printable labels

1 inch wooden disks

No cutting required.

I ordered the basswood grab box and this is what came in it pretty satisfied with it. Maybe some of you without a local wood supplier find this useful

I have full size bottles lined up on a shelf I have just for bath and body products. For samples, I get small unfinished wooden boxes (something like this) and decorate them.

...To be honest, I didn't need a storage solution as much as I needed an excuse to buy little boxes to paint. It's so much fun.

You don't even need to buy them in bulk. Most stores will have a bunch of free commons from players who are playing draft or sealed in a big box. Just grab whatever you want from there, most sets are going to have at least a few goblins, undead, and beasts.

But yeah buy a 1" hole puncher, some 1" washers from a hardware store or a 1" wooden dowel cut into smaller pieces. Or here 100 1" wooden circles. Get that, a 1 inch hole punch, and some glue.

Maybe a hardware store, or any sort of craft store. They are on Amazon too, but it’s for a pack of 50. There is even a comment about DnD in the reviews. lol

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CSV14JE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_m5HKBbGA9YAEM

VELCRO Brand - Sticky Back - 5/8" Coins, 75 Sets - Clear https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ASD850/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_k8TPBquZeKOKP

Axe Sickle 1 inches (50-pcs / 100-pcs / 200-pcs) Natural Schima superba unfinished round wood,These round wood coins The limitations are endless!(50-p https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CSV14JE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_YA9H1Csn8ANJA

I ordered some Spanish Cedar pen blanks off Amazon, they are very nice.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BYGL0F8

If what you're looking for is something to put under the character, instead of on:

I've read of people using wooden discs to stack under characters, and gluing labels like these to the disks.

While mine aren't meant for this, I'm sure with minimal changes, you could get it to work. What I would do is cut out each marker with as much extra color as possible, glue the marker to the wooden disk, and then trim the marker to the disk.

The links disks say that they are actually the same thickness as the size of my markers, so you should be good.

$10 for 50 blank dice, draw on them with Sharpie or wet-erase?

Nakimo 16MM Blank White Dice for Board Games, DIY, Fun, and Teaching, Pack of 50 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BAKWKP2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RLMXCb45Q39TJ

I use these, and print off pictures of goblins/orcs/whatever and paste them on. Its cheap and easy!

I used these and they work well but the other posted Amazon link looks a few dollars cheaper.

I didn't have a good printer so I actually ordered it online to be printed on color photo paper. I also ordered these:

https://www.amazon.com/Package-Round-Disc-Unfinished-Cutouts/dp/B00CA1Y878

I used a glue stick and scissors to put these on the discs. Though cutting circles with scissors takes a while so if you want, order a 1 inch hole puncher.

Guess you can ask your players to send you pics of what they want to look like and resize the image into these circles, I have not done this but photoshop should make this easy.

This is the one I bought. I want it to look similar. Also, does adding polyurethane change the thud/sting of it?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00N0DLX0K/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1465957331&sr=8-2&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=Texas+Paddle&dpPl=1&dpID=31gCQr75tiL&ref=plSrch

Peep these

https://www.amazon.com/Axe-Sickle-100-pcs-unfinished-limitations/dp/B01CSV14JE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1503692960&sr=8-3&keywords=wood+discs bought mine here

I do the same thing with wood tokens.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01CSV14JE/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506542121&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=wood+tokens&dpPl=1&dpID=51mEHnSvQXL&ref=plSrch

And

1 inch stickers
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01DE56YXO/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1506542189&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=1+inch+circle+stickers&dpPl=1&dpID=51o3QxXG4jL&ref=plSrch

I use a wooden disc like this for monster tokens and put letters on them so I can easily remember them in the fights. Not as much heft as a metal washer but works the same way and you can glue pictures to them for custom PCs/NPCs.

I got some wooden tokens on Amazon and then made a template in Photoshop to drop artwork into. Then I print off a full sheet on card stock, punch them out, and glue them onto the tokens. They're relatively cheap and thick enough that I can easily pick them up without them sliding around. All of the tokens also have a number on them which helps me keep track of health and when my players tell me which they're attacking.

1" Tokens here for Small/Medium Monsters

2" Tokens for Large Monsters

I haven't had my party fight anything larger yet but I like the idea of butter/yogurt tubs for the larger enemies.

Here's the box. Prime dat shit, boiiiiiii



Walnut Hollow Unfinished Wood Box, Classic

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004I9SLEG/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_pGCOub1CKYXAP

If heft is an issue, you can swap out uncut white dice for wooden cubes. I imagine you could apply the same process OP did - painting and mod-podging - and get results that feel more like a regular die.

They're cheap, too. You can get 50 blank white 16mm dice on Amazon for under $8, which works out to about sixteen cents a die.