Some time ago, I mentioned hat I wanted to make a dice tower. Well, since then, I’ve been working on it. The thing that took the most time was not the construction but waiting for the glue to dry. Pieces get glued together, then you have to wait for the glue to dry before continuing on. This is a project that requires some patience to complete.
I bought the Fat Dragon Games Ultimate Dice Tower quite a long time ago but I never got around to making it. I figured it was high time I did. I opened the PDF and looked it over. Nothing to complex.
First I gathered up some tools and supplies.
There are only a few things you need to build the tower – a cutting mat, scissors, an X-acto Knife, and a ruler. It turns out you will also need a small bottle of glue. I used a glue stick because I printed the parts on regular paper, then glued them to cardboard boxes using the glue stick. It was surprisingly fun using the glue stick. (I’ve never actually used one before this). I should have printed the pieces on thin cardstock instead but I think the way I did it worked out just as well overall. Just an extra step. The only drawback is the glue stick didn’t always stick the edges properly. Sometimes while making the tower I’d find the paper didn’t stick to the cardboard, usually on the tabs. Once I applied more glue stick to the surface it stuck just fine.
The first part made is the chute that the dice start their journey down through the tower. Other than making an error and scoring the wrong side of the pieces I managed to get it put together and taped for extra reinforcement, as per the instructions.
Scoring is when you make a light cut on the surface of the paper, so it makes it easier to fold and bend. It is important to get the scoring on the right side, especially for things like the tabs that are used to glue pieces together. You want them to bend in the right direction so you can attach the parts properly.
Once the chute was finished it was on to the tower itself.
The tower folds into a four-sided box with an opening for the dice to come out of the chute.
Next comes the ejection chute. I rather like this bit of design. The dice come out of the tower, then roll through the ejection chute. The dice can come out either side, depending on how the hit the peak of the part inside. I could see making a rule that if the dice comes out the right or left side of the tower there is an advantage / disadvantage for the player. That might be overcomplicating things but you could do it if you wanted.
This little peak sits inside the ejection chute and determines if the die comes out the right or left side depending on how the die hits it.
Once the tower and ejection chute are assembled together, they get attached to the base.
The top of the tower looks a little lacking so the next step was putting on the top.
The top guard rail gets folded and glued, and is ready to go on top of the tower. There is another part that is a little tricky. It cover the top, so it doesn’t look horrible, and you have to make sure the hole where the dice drop in is aligned with the opening in the top of the tower.
Next come the slopes the dice roll down once they come out of the ejection chute. These were a little tricky getting put together. They have ‘steps’ going down, and each one must be glued, then left to dry, before moving to the next one. Also, getting the pieces to stay in place while drying was troublesome. I ended up holding the pieces in place with my fingers for fifteen minutes or so until the glue dried enough to hold, then I let the pieces dry completely.
The slopes get attached to the side of the tower.
The last step is to get the fence around the bottom put together. You don’t want the dice rolling away and off the edge of the table.
The parts of the retaining wall get glued into one long strip. I messed up some of the scoring on this part too. Much like the slopes, you glue part of it to the base, let it dry completely, then move on to the next part.
With the retaining wall in place the tower was finished! It could probably look better, but I’m more of a function over form kind of guy anyway. It looks good enough for me and it works. Here’s the final result.
After all this work, the only question is – does it work?
A virgin die tower requires a virgin die. A friend of mine gave me a set of dice for my birthday last year and I’ve not had occassin to use them – until now! I pulled out the d20 and dropped it into the chute.
After rolling through the tower and coming out at the bottom I get
A natural 20! I swear I didn’t fudge this.
With that, I now have a dice tower. And it has rolled extremely well for its first roll. I hope it continues to do that.
Now I just need a game to use it with.
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Note: The link above to purchase the Fat Dragon Games Ultimate Dice Tower is an affiliate link. You don’t pay any more for buying using my link and I get a small commission from the sale. It helps keep this blog going so it is appreciated.
When I read “dice tower”, silly me thought it’d be a tower made of dice… *facepalm*