A dice tower is a useful tool for keeping your dice from ruining your game (physically, that is).
Can anyone point to:
- Good dice towers, and possibly places to acquire them.
or
- Resources of information on how to build one yourself.
The primary goals of a dice tower being
There are several good designs, however, the basic principle to check for: it should have at least 3 slanted faces, and all the slanted faces should be covered in felt or corduroy. Friction is your friend, here.
The shape is almost always an L. Let's compare it to a cowboy boot...
There is another design for a dice tower I've seen used: spiral staircase. Each stair was angled 30° down, and it went clockwise with 1/4" drops off each stair. Being bare wood, it was rather noisy, but it also was very random.
The plans at http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-a-Formboard-Dice-Tower/ are decent enough; it's a short 2 deflector boot-style.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/13307/dicebox-pdf Plans for a 2 deflector tower. Annotated.
http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/games/articles/HirstDiceTower/HirstDiceTower.html Building with plaster molded "stones".
http://webspace.webring.com/people/xc/crosstowngames/crosstowngamesdicetowerplans.pdf Another set of plans for a square boot.
http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/games/articles/DiceTower.html A square castle design, using 3 deflectors.
http://www.geeknews.net/2008/01/02/very-cool-diy-dice-tower Spiral path in square tower; wood core with polycarbonate sides.
http://www.chessex.com/dice%20accessories/Dice_Accessories.htm
I have one of these! It's noisy as a monkey house. But it's good and random, tho' it lacks side-to-side deflectors. the toe plate is a little short, however. Also, it's friction fit, so it can be taken down and stored flat. This is great for the GM on the go... unless you space where you shelved it!
http://boardgamegeek.com/image/625539/gruumsh
the same clear boot after adding some felt to the deflectors...
http://www.bluepantherllc.com/BP3_DT.htm Kits to construct both small and large dice towers... just need "... glue, rubber bands and about 10 minutes..." The mini is a "land in drawer" mode, and the larger ones are a variation on the boot.
http://www.uniquedicetowers.com
Assembled dice towers started on Kickstarter.
The dice tray: a dice tray of some kind (we've often used the box lid) controls the dice, but doesn't add much to the randomization unless requiring a bounce off the back wall.
Dice Cups: all the material issues for towers apply to dice cups. Plus, as dice stacking displays show, it's possible for the skilled to manipulate them pretty well, tho' it's still MUCH harder than in a tray or tower. It does, however, take some practice to shake-flip-slam so that the dice don't roll across the table. Again, good ones are felt or corduroy lined (my good one is). An inepensive one can be made by taking a soup can (not a poptop, tho), carefully filing the edge smooth (steal your sister's emery boards!). Then line with felt or corduroy, gluing it to the inside. Use some more, or some inexpensive leather, to cover the outside. This gets you a lunch and a dice cup for under $15...
Building one is probably your best bet, as they're pretty easy to make.
The design is basically a tower with a hole out front that spills dice into a little pan. The tower has projections on the inside to scramble dice around so that you get random rolls. I would do this using an arrangement of parallel pins that cross the inside of the tower semi-randomly. The tower also needs a slanted bottom so that dice roll into the pan after falling down.
If you're feeling ambitious and you have a saw hanging around then you can make one out of wood. Balsa wood is probably best because it is both light and easy to cut, albeit expensive.
If you want an less involved project then get some card stock and print a dice tower design on it (example), or cut your own with an X-acto knife. Fold, add a little bit of glue, and voila!
If you want to save money and you've got some Lego sitting around there's a great post showing off some dice towers here.
Dice Towers are great devices, and used to be hard to come by. There are now a lot of sellers online that you can buy one from. I'll list some here.
I've used several dice towers over the years, but now I use a dice tray:
It has the main advantages of a tower
While avoiding many problems that I have with Dice Towers
Plus, I just love rolling the dice from my own hands!
There is a nice instructable about making one from foamcore:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-a-Formboard-Dice-Tower/
And here's a papercraft GM screen with 2 dice towers:
Plan for DIY:
http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/games/articles/DiceTower.html
Link was broken, here's an archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20110605140833/http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/games/articles/DiceTower.html
There's a good - if slightly tentacle-heavy - dice tower available in papercraft print-and-fold PDF from Worldworks Games