While I’ve mostly been designing digitally due to regrettably current events, I much prefer physical prototypes. I try and make them when I can, whether to test or to think things out. I will try and get an in-person group together some time soon, but I haven’t quite figured out when it’ll be safe to do so. But I’m getting off-topic. What I want to talk about today is what physical pieces I have that I actually, regularly use.

Cards

Blank poker-sized cards are very nice to have. I’ve found that more is more in this case: 50 may seem like a lot, but two games could easily burn through them, and for me, I need to have extra or else I get worried about running out halfway through. However, you don’t need specifically blank cards if you don’t have them. Having any sort of excess of cards (in my and many other people’s cases, Magic the Gathering cards) can work. It just requires another thing to slide into the sleeve: half-sized index cards. You can occasionally find actual half-sized cards, but you can also just cut them in half or even tear them. Basically, since an index card is 3 inches by 5 inches, but a poker card is 2.5 by 3.5, then you can cut an index card in half and it’ll only be off by half an inch vertically.

While on the topic, sleeves are also great! Different color sleeves can easily make different types of decks, which is something normally hard to do when you can’t make indentical card backs very easily. It also allows you to swap out cards easily without losing track of them. You’ll know if you’ve forgotten a card because you’ll have a blank sleeve.

Boards

Boards are tough to do. I occasionally use posterboard, but it tends to warp a little too easily. Some craft stores have very tiny tri-fold boards, which I’ve bought but haven’t had a use for. Honestly, you might just be best off getting them printed at a print shop.

Speaking of print shop, I’ll mention it might be a good idea to get a guillotine or paper cutter. I picked up a cheap one that wore out quick, but the one I really enjoy that I have now is a rotary cutter. It’s still pretty small compared to one of those giant guillotine cutters with the big knife, but I’ve learned that those are way more expensive than they’re worth unless you’re going to be using it a LOT, like for full-scale production.

Tokens and Tiles

I have so much trouble finding appropriate tokens that I’ve basically decided to give up. Just use cubes! Cubes of so many different colors, but at least 10. I’ve also found that quantity is more important than variety. It’s better to have 20 of 5 types than 5 of 20 types. Even then, it’s common for me to need a few of one type, then have not enough left over to use it for anything else. Alternatively, if you have a few types of resources you tend to use a lot, like wood or stone, then you could get fancy with those (or maybe just get a bunch of brown and gray cubes).

If, however, you need tiles or tokens that have to be marked, then there’s a single thing I’ve found fits the bill every time: Creatology brand squares / circles. They’re at Michael’s, and I have yet to find anything else close to my needs. Hence why it’s the only time I’m going to give a brand name. They are cheap, the bag comes with three different sizes that are all useful, and they are pretty uniform.

Dice

I’m going to round it out talking about dice. The short answer is: get them wherever you can. Keep an eye out for games at thrift stores that have tons of dice. For non-D6 dice, I, personally, enjoy getting the big bag o’ dice from places like chessex, but the fact that they don’t look nice or can be unpredictable I know throws people off. Weirdly, I can sometimes find full dice sets at the dollar store? Don’t know if they’re weighted properly, but it’s just for prototypes so it’s probably fine. I also like using spindown dice (commonly put with Magic products), which are d20s that are in order, which makes it great for tracking things. I’ve used them for tracking health, action points, and occasionally even resource counts.

Conclusion

This has been a bit different than my usual articles, but I’ve seen some people asking about it elsewhere. I really wanted to talk specifically about what I’ve found useful or not.