Check out this game accessory dice tray from Easy Roller Dice.Using a dice tray is a new experience for me. While I previously inherited a small ‘craps’ tray during the 1970s (Viva Las Vegas!), it never occurred to me to use it with role playing games. Now I know better.
Presentation
This is an octagon shaped wooden box, covered with black leather and lined with red velvet – including the Easy Roller Dice logo. The red velvet has a nice feeling to it and looks nice. During play, I noticed a few players touching the red velvet.
The actual product packaging isn’t really a part of the product and offers no additional value in itself. 4/4
Shipped inside a Mylar wrap, the red velvet was pristine when I opened the box.
Quality
This tray made me wish that it came with some sort of slipcase or cover to preserve that nice, new appearance – something that should be easy enough to do if its left on the same table most of the time, but possibly a risk if you want to carry the tray to different places to game.
The actual tray portion is made of wood and then wrapped in black leather (faux leather, but good quality). I would have preferred slightly thicker wood but that would have increased the weight – as it is, the tray ‘stays put’ but is quite light in your hand. 4/4
Utility
I used the tray a total of four times (four different game sessions) in two different locations for this review. One was at a home with a very low glass table where I run my Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign, and the other in a friend’s spacious garage, where he runs Lamentations of the Flame Princess. The game in the garage has a high table, such as you might use for war gaming. Two of the game sessions, I used a standard set of Easy Roller Dice black marbled polyhedral dice, and at the other the significantly heavier Easy Roller Dice Gun Metal polyhedral dice. I will review the dice sets separately, but noted here for specific reasons.
Two friends playing in the DCC campaign also used their DCC zocchi dice within the tray on the low, glass table. Another friend at the high table tried out both sets of dice in the tray. All commented on how effectively the sound of the rolling dice were muted, as well as the pleasant texture of the velvet. 4/4
Functionality
The first thing we all noticed was that the dice tray significantly mutes the sound of rolling dice. The interior is soft leather and velvet after all. Dice rolling on a wooden table can be quite loud, and dice rolling on a glass table extremely loud. We all viewed the muting effect as both unexpected and positive.
The second thing we all noticed is that the tray does an excellent job of keeping rolling dice from rolling away. On the low, glass table, many rolls send dice rolling right off the table – not with this roller tray. And we also agreed that there was no way to really roll the metal dice on the glass table without causing potential damage to the glass. 5/5
Value to Price
I have seen price ranging from $15.95 to $17.95, which seems about right. If Easy Roller Dice Co. added a cloth slipcover (with button or Velcro) and made it slightly sturdier (slightly heavier wood) I would expect a reasonable price to be around $20-$25, but an even greater value to price. 4/5
Conclusion
One of the reasons I felt very positive about this product was watching our youngest player repeatedly roll dice off the low, glass table. That just doesn’t happen if you have a nice, soft, walled surface. This definitely solves a gaming problem and, considering how much gaming accessories can cost, it is definitely worth the reasonable price.
You can find this product on the Easy Roller Dice, Co website.
Disclosures
I received this product at no cost. There is no expectation or promise of review, positive or negative, between myself and the manufacturer.
The photos were taken on my trusty Casio camera in RAW format, then modestly color corrected using the excellent SILKYPIX DS Pro7 photography software (suck it Adobe, no subscriptions!).