Wednesday, August 28, 2024

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 28 - Great Repurposed Gamer Items

Day 28 of #RPGaDay2024 and I continue to deviate from the prompts intent... at least I think I am. 

"Great Game Gadget"

I am not one for the RPG version of the SlapChop.   The last two great gamer gadgets I looked into were the Hackmaster Combat Wheel (which I used once) and the Gamescience Dragonbones Electronic Dice Roller, which I didn't buy, but were always in the ads for Dragon Magazine in the early 90s.  

Rather, let's look at my two biggest repurposed items for gaming.

Of course, the greatest repurposed item in all of gamerdom is the Crown Royal bag.  Just about everyone of a certain age quested to obtain one of the bags for their oversized travelling collection of dice.  Nowadays, with the wide arrangement of colors... you kids don't know how good you have it nowadays. 

For me, the next greatest item repurposed for gaming are empty cigar boxes. 


For years, my dice collection resided in a early 20th century cigar box my Great Aunt.  Delicate hinges and a simple clasp did not make it the best thing to transport to games, and it was only my last move in 2022 that the box finally took enough wear and tear, and I had to replace it.  

My mother is one of two people I know that still smoke, and at 75 everything but her heart and lungs seem to be giving out first .  But that does mean she ventures into the local tobacco shop every week or so.  When she saw the empty boxes for sales for a dollar or two, it wasn't a call to see if I could use them, it was "Hey I already grabbed three, how many more do you want me to grab.

I give my mom a hard time about things, but she's always trying, and these particular boxes fit my needs perfectly. 

Promoting my preferred box, not the vice.

It's pretty decent pressboard.  The top slides forward, and upon researching this post, I realized the lid isn't as useless when opened, as a I thought. For display purposes in the store, there are notches to insert it almost vertical into the box.   It's a place to stow your lid, tape some reference material to, or just a backboard for tossing your dice back into the box.  

I've got three of these in use (one for dice, one for Pulp Alley, and one for Fistful of Lead) and two more in reserve.  They were great for packing up things for Historicon.  

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