A few months ago, I posted about these poker chip Soldier Tokens I made for Kingsburg. While working on a big box customization project for a bunch of my card games, I decided to do the same thing for Jaipur. I always felt the scoring tokens in Jaipur would be awesome as poker chips, and after building a custom box for Splendor and seeing how the design worked, I just couldn’t resist finishing the project. Take a look!
After posting about my Kingsburg poker chip Soldier Tokens and my poker chip tokens for Jaipur, there’s a lot of interest in how to make these chips. The process is actually pretty easy, so I spent this morning tossing together a short tutorial. Here’s the materials you’ll need:
Blank Poker Chips (Links below)
Color Photo Printer (or any color printer, depending on quality)
First, you’ll need to acquire some blank poker chips. When I first started this project, I was actually searching for the same chips used in Splendor, but it turns out they’re rather hard to get and kind of expensive, at least for the average consumer. So, the two chips I recommend using are either these 5 Spot blank chips (which I used for Kingsburg) or these 8 Stripe blank chips (which I used for Jaipur). Both types of chips have a 1.25” sticker well, so whichever one you choose is just an aesthetic choice. The links above are for Discount Casino Gear, but you can also get the chips on Amazon. The caveat being that you have to order them in much larger quantities on Amazon – 25-50 chips per color – which is way more than you’ll need.
Printing
For my money, the best looking chips are printed on a photo printer that can print at very high resolution. You can print these stickers on nearly any color inkjet or laser printer, though, so feel free to do whatever is most convenient for you. This demonstration will be using photo paper. You can also buy round labels specifically designed for poker chips, like these. I tend not to use labels like these because I can’t print on them at high enough resolution to make them look good. Plus, designing the actual print file to line up with the stickers is kind of a bitch, so I just use photo paper and spray adhesive. I will eventually upload image files for the Jaipur scoring tokens to BGG, but right now when I try the uploader crashes, so I’m unable to. I’ll update here if that changes.
Cutting
Alright. Once you’ve acquired your chips and printed your stickers, you’ll need to punch them out. This is where the circle punch comes in. The first step is to cut up the printed sticker sheet. The punch won’t be able to reach the stickers in the center of the sheet, so you’ll need to cut it into two-sticker wide strips. You could also do one-sticker-wide strips, but I think two give you a little more paper to grip while you’re punching them out. This is what my circle punch looks like. EK Tools circle punches are designed for use with craft paper for scrapbooking. Usually, you’ll set them flat on a desk, insert paper, and punch blindly to make colored circles. That’s not what we’re going to do here. Flip the circle punch over so you can see the opening on the bottom. This will allow you to line up your stickers with the hole on the bottom to ensure you’re punching them out properly. There’s also a secondary benefit: Because of the shape of their “blade”, most circle punches tend to leave marks on the front side of the paper they punch. Flipping the punch over ensures those marks are on the back of the stickers, and not visible on the final chips. Simply insert the sticker sheet and line up your sticker… …then squeeze to punch it out.
Applying Spray Adhesive
Once all your stickers are punched out, you’re going to apply spray adhesive to the backs. This is as simple as laying out the stickers face down and spraying them with adhesive, but I have three specific bits of advice: First, add a slight bend to each of your stickers before putting them down, like this. The reason for this bend is to make the stickers easier to pick up off the paper where you sprayed them. If they’re lying perfectly flat, they’re almost impossible to pick up once sprayed… …and you’ll end up pushing them around in the adhesive and making a big mess. The bend allows you to pick them up by their edge without having to touch any of the actual adhesive. Second, use tweezers to manipulate them, like this. Using your fingers will be clunky and unwieldy, and you’ll eventually end up with adhesive all over your fingers. Which is generally bad, because you need to press the stickers into the chips, and you’ll just smear glue all over the face of the chips when you’re doing it. Lastly, don’t spray more than about ten chips worth of stickers (twenty stickers) at once. If you do more than that, in the time it takes you to sticker a bunch of chips, the adhesive on the backs of the remaining stickers will dry out and become useless.
Applying the Stickers
Once you’ve grabbed the sticker with tweezers, it’s as simple as lining up the sticker on the face of the chip and laying it down. I tend to use the spots/stripes on the edge of the chip as a guide for placing the stickers. Once the sticker is laid down, just give it a quick press with your thumbs to set it. Then, flip the chip over and apply the back. Just be sure to orient the chip correctly so the back and front match up. With Jaipur, specifically, be sure to pay close attention to the values of the back you’re applying, so they properly match up. And that’s it! It really is a pretty straightforward process. Actually, the most time-intensive part of the process is just creating the images for the stickers, which – at least for Jaipur and Kingsburg - I’ve already done for you (I'll get them posted to BGG as soon as I can.) Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I’d love to see the results of your chips, if you decide to make some. Happy gaming!
12 Cutie Marks with "+1 Power" text (for Cutie Marking and/or other +1 Power counters)
6 other images with "+1 Power until end of turn" text (for temporary power, so it is easy to remember which are permanent power counters vs. temporary) - perhaps these should just say "+1 Power until..." so they apply more places such as "until end of phase", "until this card moves away from this problem/crittefriend", etc.
6 other images with no text (for other misc uses, including Action Tokens).
And you don't need that many of each version really, since you can just make a stack of many chips with the top one labeling the stack. Here's a preview of my first set I'll be printing up this week: http://imgur.com/5G1rzY1. I'll probably print a spare set or 2 to trade/sell at EFNW. They will be on six colors of poker chips (blue, orange, red, yellow, white, and black since we don't have purple). Here are the blank templates if anyone wants to use them: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/25ihb1yflcbak8e/AADDBJSxH_6lGwh40RQHAaz1a?dl=0 And here are all the tokens I've made so far: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sstiasim4nuqkwo/AADOQFPp4CDQMbIJ211BlR2Ra?dl=0 So, what do you think? Any suggestions for improvement/usability? Any requests for specific ones for me to bring to EFNW? **Update 11-May-2016: First completed set of the "mix 'n' match" set is done: http://imgur.com/a/XlZa0 Things to change before I print more:
I like the token friend top label, but all the rest of the text labels will be increased in size by double to make them easier to read;
I'm creating a normal pony-only set instead of this mix 'n' match;
all the chips will have a labeled purpose (side A 24 token friends; side b 12 +1 Power and 12 +1 Power until...), you can use other things for AT;
and I need to have the image go all the way to the border on every spot, since the printer isn't perfect at printing on the paper centered.
**Update 12-May-2016: made changes and printed this new set, will have spares at EFNW if anyone wants http://imgur.com/a/fRAT0 Also will have some blank chips and unprinted sticker sheets if anyone wants to print it themselves (with or without my help creating the images). Color prints at your local FedEx Office aren't very expensive.
Like a lot of you, gaming has been a part of my life since I was a kid. I remember going camping with my great grandparents and playing Yahtzee and poker in their RV. Then came the Pokemon TCG, Risk, Catan, Munchkins, and Dominion which is what made me a collector once I graduated college. Now I play most of these games with my partner or when family visits.
Favorite Games in the Cupboard
That is so hard to say because this little space is full of so many great games. If you had a gun to my head, I’d say at this point in time these are some that rise above the rest for me:
Watergate – The sheen still hasn’t worn off and we’ve played maybe 10 times. Now that we have the cards memorized the tension and suspense feel even stronger.
Pixel Tactics – This one is just a charming little tactical game. There is luck, but the decision space is interesting, it plays quickly, and there are so many characters and abilities to explore.
Akrotiri – I actually have two copies in the single box so that it can be played at 4 players. It’s a pretty simple pick-up-and-deliver game that also utilizes one of my favorite mechanics, tile laying. You feel like you are exploring the Greek isles!
Innovation – This certainly is more abstracted than most civilization games but it still feels so thematic to me, as I let my imagination create a world where I’m utilizing each technology as I play. The melding mechanic is also super fun and unique.
Cockroach Poker – My family can sit around playing this and laughing for hours, laughing the entire time, getting very descriptive with the type of animal just to be silly. “THIS…. is a big fat rat.” What a riot.
Shelf of Shame
I LOVE Carl Chudyk designs and I finally got my grail game in Glory to Rome, and still haven’t played it. It almost feels like I am not worthy. I know, I know. I need to get it to the table. I also just picked up Omen: Reign of War and I have pretty high expectations for that one as well.
What makes my collection unique?
Well, I am obsessive compulsive about taking games I love and creating my “best version” of the game and I also am keen to downsize unnecessarily large boxes. I have created custom foam inserts when useful for many of these games and if coins are involved, I have likely upgraded to metal. Here are some other modifications I’ve made:
My copy of The Grizzled has the expansion and I got the miniatures from the Armistice Edition to fit in the original box. They’re so nice.
I saw the artwork in the Japanese version of High Society and ordered a copy from Japan immediately. The game is language independent and that art just made the game feel more like you are playing as a high roller in more modern times.
I have started adopting the strategy of putting games with very small footprints in baggies and grouping those games in plastic index card boxes. Getting a cloth map for Condottiere I was able to fit three great games in one, and the other containers can each fit at least one or two more games.
Not yet, but I am in the process of creating the poker chips for Jaipur that you see on BGG here.
Thanks for checking out my small-box collection. If I counted it up correctly, this little space holds 39 games! My larger games are a mess in the basement but once I cull a bit and organize things I will share those games too. If you have favorites from my collection you’d like to chat about or have recommendations for me to try, please let me know!
How to make weighted tokens, like poker chips but smaller?
One thing I considered was using coins. By using two Danish 50 øre coins stuck together, the price per coin would be 1 DKK = 0.16 USD. (the diameter of the coin is 21mm) I could also cast my own using a tin and lead mixture. But lead is kind of unhealthy, and it's also a lot of bother.
Hi!! I'm a longtime GM for several other systems (notably several editions of D&D as well as Pathfinder and PTU) and I'm planning on running a Shadowrun 6E campaign over Discord. I was wondering if anyone had any advice for keeping track of Edge in a way that both me and my players can easily see it, as the poker chip/token method doesn't really work. Is it even necessary for me to be able to see it, or should I just let players keep track of it? Any advice would be awesome, thanks!
I'm going to be running a campaign in the near future that will involve a mat and map. Since the group is comprised of broke college students, we've historically used dice to represent ourselves and our characters. But that's caused a problem in that we occasionally can't tell if we're looking at a die that someone rolled and forgot to pick up or if that d8 is supposed to represent someone. So, I'm turning to you guys. Considered poker chips, but can't really pack those things together all that well on a board. Do you guys have any suggestions for other ways we can represent our characters? Edit: thanks for the advice on stuff to represent the PCs. I'll definitely point my players at the comment section of this post. But that leaves the enemies that I would be throwing at them. I'd probably want something cheap and that doesn't lock me into one character by making it. Making those paper minis would probably mean a lot of time and effort preparing for an orc encounter that would get thrown out the window if my players get hung up on some other group of enemies. Edit part 2: I looked up the average diameter of poker chips/tokens. Those things are about 1.5 inches in diameter, I'm using a 1-inch grid. Those would be okay until I got a bottleneck or tight spaces to work around. So I've got pros and cons with those things. I could probably buy a hundred or so of them for ten bucks and have enough colors for five different factions/groups represented on the board along with my PCs. But, as soon as the characters are getting next to each other, the game is going to get messy.
Metal Coins for Board Games, A Compulsion - Part II
Part II: In this half of this article, I discuss generic metal coin manufacturers and other options for adding metal currency to your games. Check outPart Ifor more info about games that include metal coins and coins designed with a specific game in mind. Edit: I've fixed the image link for the "new"Terraforming Marscubes. Thanks to u/halfisglassfull for pointing out the error. Back in 2016, I posted an article under my other username (u/Luke_Matthews) about my obsession with adding metal coins to board games, which you can read here: Board Games and Metal Coins, An Obsession What started as a diversion became an obsession, and since that article bloomed into a full-on compulsion. I’ve upgraded over 60 games with unique metal coins and currency, and I’d like to share the current state of this compulsion and what I’ve learned along the way. It’s such a strange thing, because metal coinage is a purely aesthetic upgrade. They don’t change game mechanics or offer any extension to the gameplay experience. Even so, deluxe editions have proven there’s a market for aesthetic upgrades, and metal coins have grown into one of the most popular. I have fallen down the rabbit hole of adding unique, thematic coins for each individual game. This approach is not for everyone. If, instead, you’re interested in adding generic coins you can keep aside and use for multiple games, I’ll talk about what sets I think are the best for that purpose at the end of this article. For now, let’s get on with the show! GAME TITLES ARE LINKS TO PHOTOS. For a more user-friendly image browsing experience, view this post on my website or on BoardGameGeek. NOTE:There is no way this will be an exhaustive list of all the metal coins available. I’ll talk about coins I have direct personal experience with, as well as make notes of other coins I don’t have and why I don’t have them. There will likely be a lot of coins not included here, and I encourage you to add your own experiences and pictures in the comments.
Fantasy Coin is one of the first companies I encountered making a range of different coin styles specifically for gaming applications, without tying them to specific games. Of all the coin manufacturers out there, Fantasy Coin are definitely my favorite. Their coins are thick and heavy with fantastic finishes and colors, and come in a wide array of fantasy and sci-fi themes. Getting ahold of Fantasy Coin’s products can be a bit fraught, though, as their primary source of income tends to be Kickstarter. Their website frequently sells out, and as their stocks dwindle, they’ll run another Kickstarter to replenish. Once one of their Kickstarters ends and ships, they’ll typically have stock which can be ordered directly from their website, but be warned you might have to do a little research to find out when more are available. They’ve had some logistical problems with a couple of their Kickstarter campaigns, but for the most part they’re really good at fulfilling them. Their latest campaign was really well handled, and I think they’ve done a great job of addressing their past issues. Some previous backers, IMO, go a little overboard blaming them for mistakes, but forgiveness is not a typical trait of spurned backers. Don’t listen to the haters. Fantasy Coin’s products are genuinely amazing and come at a great price, especially if you get them in bulk from Kickstarter.
I spent a long time trying to decide what coins I’d get for Alchemists. Since it only really requires one denomination, I had a ton of options (the Charterstone coins are a phenomenal choice, FYI). I decided on these coins from FC’s “Magic” set.
Caverna’s one of the first games I upgraded with FC coins, and I have WAY too many coins for the game. They’re real nice, though, all from FC’s “Dwarven” set.
Originally, these coins resided in my copy of Lords of Xidit. They’re a great, generic fantasy theme, so can go in many games. Once I picked up the Roll Player coins, though, I thought those were a better fit for LoX, so I moved these over to Clank. And they’re a perfect fit!
This is probably one of my favorite upgrades using FC coins. I couldn’t find any really good, affordable Arabic- or Middle East-themed coins (at the time, there are some now), so I decided to lean into the fantasy side for Five Tribes. The silver coins are from FC’s “Serpent” set, and the golds are from their “Air Elemental” set. I think both work really well as representations of djinn. Some people complain, when using coins like this for Five Tribes, you can’t hide their denominations. If it’s important to you to do so, I suggest getting either pouches or player screens to keep the coins hidden. However, I’ve never once found open money to have a significant impact on the game, so we just don’t bother.
I was originally planning on putting the old Brass coins into my copy of Lancaster, but when FC launched their latest Kickstarter and I saw their “Nottingham” set, I just couldn’t resists such a perfect thematic match.
Lunarchitects doesn’t actually have currency in-game, but one of the other great uses for metal coins is as victory point chits. Lunarchitects has a LOT of VP chits, and I definitely went overboard here, but it’s such a great game and I love these “Sci-Fi” coins from FC.
There are actually several different options for Japanese themed coins, including the Yokohama metal coins and Artana’s Japanese set (which you’ll see in the next section). I chose to go with Fantasy Coin’s “Feudal Japan” coins for Nippon, because I just love the way they look.
Here’s another couple of games without currency, but for which I’ve replaced the VP chits with metal coins. In this instance, I don’t think I went overboard at all, and these “Credits” coins from FC are just an amazing aesthetic upgrade for two classic games.
Yedo is one of my wife’s all-time favorite games, and ranks high in the worker placement genre for me. So, naturally, I bought the same “Feudal Japan” coins I used for Nippon for my copy of Yedo.
While Fantasy Coin is the company you’d turn to for fantastical and sci-fi-themed coins, Artana’s where you go when you’re looking for something with a more historical bent. While they don’t mimic specific real-world coinage, their designs evoke real-world cultures and time periods, which make them a fantastic choice for your average Eurogame. They tend to be lighter and thinner than Fantasy Coin, but not in a bad way. They also have 5 different sizes and finishes, from “Tiny” – which live up to their name – to “Jumbo” which are larger than a US half-dollar. Artana’s coins used to only be available via Kickstarter, but they’ve since shifted their model to selling through game-bling websites like The Broken Token and Top Shelf Gamer. Since many coin manufacturers still rely on periodic crowd-funding to release new products, Artana’s consistent availability makes them unique. I have just as many Artana coins as Fantasy Coin, and for good reason: they’re awesome. I’m primarily a Eurogame player so their coins are a thematic match for a lot of games I own. Their price-point is roughly the same as Fantasy Coin – on the lower end of the spectrum, overall – although because they have five different sizes and styles in every coin set, the price point varies depending on what specific coins you buy.
I’m still genuinely surprised at how perfect Artana’s “Ancient Greek” coins are for Akrotiri. The specific motif perfectly matches the designs in the game, and I couldn’t ask for more.
For Archipelago I wanted coins fitting a 1700’s nautical aesthetic. These are from Artana’s “Pirate Ships” theme. The other coins in the set were a little too “skull and crossbones” for what I wanted (although colonizers ARE just another form of pirate), but I thought these two coins fit the theme really well.
I mean, these “Early English Kings” coins aren’t technically thematically appropriate. But I had them and figured I’d toss them in with a game set in 1800’s Bavaria because… well because the game needed some coins.
Artana’s “Middle Ages” theme is great for a game set… in the middle ages. They’re a little more Anglo-Saxon than Frank or Norman, but no one’s ever really going to notice. Ystari games once made coins for Caylus which were a perfect thematic match for Troyes; alas, they are no longer available.
Really, any of the Japanese-themed metal coins I’ve seen or owned – from the Tokaido coins to Fantasy Coin’s “Feudal Japan” theme – would work well in Yamatai. But as beautiful as this game is, I wanted something with a bit more variety. Artana’s “Japanese” theme fit the bill perfectly.
I’m a little torn on the Giochix Historical Coins. On the one hand, they’re nice sizes and weights, and they feel and sound great. On the other hand, they’re not really filling any sort of necessary niche. Artana has the “historical” space covered pretty well, and Fantasy Coin’s selection of SFF themes is pretty universal. If they were going to create specifically thematic coins, I wish they’d have filled some of the holes in this tiny industry, or just gone completely generic, which actually would’ve fit their physicality a little better. All that said, Giochix did manage to create a couple of themes I found useful, specifically their “Pre-Colombian” theme, which is an area of the world other companies have neglected. It is, however, pretty niche, and I understand why they chose to make more applicable themes for Eurogames. I only have two minor gripes: First, the shiny finish – while not necessarily bad in and of itself – does make the denominations a little hard to tell apart at a distance. Second, the relief on the faces of the coins is very shallow, looking much more like modern Euros than anything fantastical or historical. The problem this leads to is making it very difficult to differentiate coins from different themes, but if they’re assigned to a specific game this shouldn’t really be an issue. (It’s only an issue for nutty people like me who have this many different coin sets.) They’re a good price, coming in at about 24¢ (US) per coin, which is on the low end of the scale. Their affordability goes a long way to ameliorate the complaints I have. Now, it’s just a matter of figuring out their availability outside Kickstarter.
There aren’t many coins out there with a South/Central American theme, so when Giochix made their “Pre-Colombian” set, I knew I had to put some in my copy of Altiplano.
Okay, so it’s a bit of a stretch to have Giochix’s “Spanish Colonial” set representing Heaven & Ale, a game about beer-brewing monks more likely set in Germany or Belgium, but there were Benedictine monasteries on the Iberian peninsula, so I’m just gonna run with it.
“Celtic Apogee”. Can’t be a better fit. As a side note, the metal coins for Clans of Caledonia would also be a great match for Isle of Skye, but I wanted to differentiate the two.
Since I got these sets in bulk from Giochix’s Kickstarter, I ended up also getting their “Ancient Rome” set. But I have no game to put it in. I would be suitable for Concordia or Trajan or any game set in Ancient Rome, but I already have coins in Concordia, and no other game with a Roman setting at the moment. Here’s a picture anyway.
REAL CURRENCY
Sometimes, fake coins either aren’t the answer or aren’t available. If you can’t find fake coins for your games, the best option might be actual currency, either historical or current. I’ve used real currency in 5 games, so far. The real problem with acquiring real currency, especially if it’s historical or foreign (I’m in the US), is availability and price. Most of the time you’re not going to find it any cheaper than fake coinage, and getting enough coins in large enough lots to use for board games can sometimes be a chore. If you’re willing to do the extra legwork, though, you can get ahold of some really nice coins.
Ukrainian Kopiyka/Hryvna
When I published the original version of this article, I saw people shortly after talking about Ukrainian coinage for games. I followed through on picking some up, because they are INSANELY cheap in this context, running about 8¢ per coin. Which, incidentally, is massively higher than the exchange rate for some of them, but still massively cheaper than fake coinage. The design is pretty, and is the same across all the kopiykas, and they come in all the standard European denominations. There’s a problem, though. The 1s and 10s are extremely small, thin, and light. Smaller and thinner than a dime, and significantly lighter. For me, this is a massive issue, for a number of reasons. They’re so small and thin I actually have trouble picking them up, which makes them frustrating to use. But more importantly, they’re not really an aesthetic upgrade from punchboard coins. Every time I used them, I found myself disappointed and just wanting to go back to the cardboard ones. There is one MASSIVE exception here: the Ukrainian 1 Hryvna coins, which I’ll detail below under “Village”.
The unlike the kopiykas, the 1 Hryvna coins are actually pretty fantastic. They’re a little bigger than a quarter, and they’re really beautiful. You’ll have to cope with a very, very Orthodox design, and they’re obviously only good for games with a single denomination. But all those features make them really perfect for Village, a game with a small number of single denomination coins and a church as a major part of the theme!
I couldn’t find good, fake coins for Le Havre, so I just bought real ones! These are WWII-era aluminum “Emergency Coins” from France, and they’re absolutely fantastic. They’re a little light, being made from aluminum, but they’re beautiful and thematic, even if the time period is a little off. Beware, though: There are two different kinds of these coins. Some are from the French Republic, occupied in WWII by the Germans but still opposed to them, and some are from Vichy France, a French state who became collaborationists with the Germans. You can tell them apart (both physically and in ideology) by their mottos: The Republic coins say “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”), where the Vichy coins say “Travail, Famille, Patrie” (or “Work, Family, Fatherland”. YEAH). Don’t get the Nazi-adjacent coins.
Good Austrian coins for games are hard to find at a good price. The thematic ones – especially for a game like Grand Austria Hotel – are prohibitively expensive. Granted, it’s not entirely necessary to replace the money tracks in GAH, but I wanted to anyway. I ended up picking up a bunch of semi-modern Austrian Groschen. They’re a little small, and they might be too modern for the theme, but they’re Austrian and that’s enough for me.
I absolutely can’t take credit for this particular idea. I saw a reply on BGG from user TRONOFOTHEDEAD with the idea of using Indian Head Pennies and Buffalo Nickels for Great Western Trail, and I followed suit. I gotta say, I *love* these coins for this game, especially the 2-cent coin as the round marker. This is a rather expensive upgrade. The bulk of the coins aren’t too bad. The Buffalo Nickels are actually only about 7¢ per coin, but the Indian Head Pennies run about 60¢ each. The two, together, average about 37¢ per coin, which is on the high end, but not terrible. It’s the 2-cent coin which really breaks things, though. I paid $14 for the 2-cent coin alone, the common price range is for coins in not great shape. To be fair, when shopping for coins like these, you’re rarely going to get coins in decent shape at these prices. This is the cost for what are called “culls”, or coins collectors have separated out as junk and are selling in bulk because they’re not collectible. But they’re perfect for board games! As a side note, the metal coins for Montana: Heritage Edition are a near-perfect thematic match for Great Western Trail, if Big Kid Games decides to sell them at retail.
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect upgrade than these. The included coins are clearly modeled after rubles, so real rubles are a great replacement. This set was comparatively expensive, costing me about $18 for 20 coins, but since I only needed those 20 and they were so thematically perfect, I bit the bullet. The problem, now, is 90’s era rubles are pretty difficult to find. I tried searching for them on eBay (where I got these) and couldn’t find a decent lot.
OTHER GENERIC COINS
These are a couple of examples of other fake coins not specifically designed for board games, but which work well under certain circumstances.
Pachinko Tokens
Pachinko tokens are an absolutely fantastic option for generic coins, especially if you want something vaguely U.S.A. themed. I originally bought a large lot of them for a planned LARP which never materialized, and have since repurposed them for several different games. Almost all pachinko/pachislo tokens are about the same size and weight as a US quarter, and most of them will come with Japanese, vaguely American, or casino/gambling designs. Mine are mostly U.S.A. themed, so I use them in games with a modern Western theme.
No Thanks doesn’t actually have currency, per se, but it does have a set of tokens used for gameplay. My generic gold pachinko tokens fit the bill very well.
Again, modern Western setting, and nearly thematic coins to go with it. A great addition to Suburbia. At least right up until I get my copy of the Collector’s Edition, which includes bespoke metal coins!
Pirate Dubloons
“Pirate Dubloon” is probably the most ubiquitous theme in fake coinage, both metal and plastic. I got these particular coins on Amazon, for really cheap. They’re about he same size as a US quarter and come in 4 different finishes. Note: these are the same coins Eagle & Gryphon Games sells for Empires: Age of Discovery, but they’re MUCH cheaper on Amazon and can be obtained in larger quantities.
I don’t have a hell of a lot of pirate-themed games in my collection, so I found the one game they work really well with.
CUSTOM POKER CHIPS
Some games just scream for custom poker chips instead of metal coins, and I can’t help but oblige. I’ve made custom chips both for currency and tokens for games, but I’ve only included pictures of the currency here. Making custom poker chips is actually fairly easy with a set of relatively inexpensive tools. I’ve created a tutorial on how to do it, which you can find HERE. That tutorial also has links for artwork which can be used for printing your own stickers for the games I detail here.
The square wood “coins” included with Capital Lux, frankly, baffle me. They neither look like gold coins nor match the theme of the game, and for a card game as beautiful as Capital Lux, with stunning art from the always amazing Kwanchai Moriya, they actually detract. So it was a no-brainer for me to design chips for the game.
There’s a chance I may replace these with full-size custom poker chips some day, but for right now I love using these mini poker chips in Lord$ of Vega$. These particular chips aren’t available anymore, as far as I know, which is a shame. They’re the only mini poker chips I’ve found modeled after regular chips instead of the plastic, ridged ones, which I viscerally dislike.
Okay, there are a couple of different sites offering a metal cube upgrade for Terraforming Mars, to replace the metallic plastic cubes included with the game. The upgrade is phenomenal, and it was one of the first things I ordered after getting the game. Here’s a pic of that set. But it’s always bothered me that the “gold” cubes in the set are the gold bars from the Stonemaier Treasure Chest instead of actual cubes. I know it’s a piddling thing, but it just seemed a little off. A friend of mine, Eric, is the biggest Terraforming Mars fanatic I know. My gaming group plays the game a lot, and Eric plays it even more, with multiple groups he joins to play. So it only makes sense he’d be the one crazy enough to actually requisition a new set of metal cubes for Terraforming Mars, ones better matching the style of the game by a) actually having CUBES for the gold, and b) all being different sizes. Here’s a pic of these new, awesome cubes. This set is better, IMO, than the ones you can get from The Broken Token**. Eric** plans to make them available via an Etsy page soon, and I’ll update this article with a link as soon as it’s up and running.
DISHONORABLE MENTION
I know I already mentioned the coins for Tokaido’s Collector’s Edition, but before I bought the CE I had these coins for my retail edition. They’re unmitigated garbage. They’re thin and flimsy and tiny and they don’t sound great or feel particularly good and they’re really not any better than the carboard coins and they’re Chinese and not Japanese and they’re trash. A pic of these awful coins I paid $2.47 for 40 coins, shipped, and I got ripped off, honestly.
COINS I DON’T OWN AND WHY
Obviously I’m not going to go into detail here about games I don’t own which include metal coins. I mentioned several sets in the Bespoke section above. But here are some details on some metal coins made by other companies and why I haven’t added them to any of my games. The main reason I don’t own any of these is price. I was willing to spend the extra bucks for game-specific coins for LoW and 7 Wonders, and maybe my set of Russian Rubles, because the theming made it (sort of) worth the extra cost (I’ll be honest: I own and love those coins, but probably wouldn’t pay the price again. Maybe. I think?). Most of the coins below cost nearly the same (75₵-$1 per coin), but aren’t specifically themed for a board game. In a lot of cases, getting enough coins for a board game involves multiple “sets” – as the manufacturers define them – so you don’t run short during play. With these manufacturers, multiple sets just end up being too damned spendy. That being said, the coins they make do look fantastic. The designs are really good, but they’ll need to come down in price before I’d be willing to buy some.
The designs here are really great. I contemplated getting a set of their Arabic theme for Five Tribes, but I couldn’t justify the cost. Even in bulk, at their cheapest offering, they’re still 70₵ per coin. Most games, in my experience, require 50-60 coins to ensure you don’t run out at higher player counts, which rounds out to about $35-$48 for a set (depending on how you acquire them). That’s a little above my top end; half-again to double what I paid for the coins from Fantasy Coin and Artana.
Campaign Coins are really beautiful, and have the most “high fantasy” feel of any I’ve found. I actually considered getting sets from them for Lords of Xidit, simply because they match better thematically. However, at their cheapest, they’re about identical in price to the Legendary coins, so just out of my range.
Minion Games doesn’t have a wide variety, with only two different themes: “Metal Dragon Coins” and “Futuristic Metal Coins” (the coins for Hegemonic), and they range in price from 70₵ to 90₵ per coin. Which is, frankly, absurd. They’re cool looking coins, but they’re absolutely not worth the price.
The only reason I don’t have experience with Moedas’s coins is because I just haven’t ordered any yet. They have some very awesome bespoke coins for specific games, including the giants like Terra Mystica, Great Western Trail, Lisboa, and more. Their prices are right in line with companies like Artana and Fantasy Coin, and their coins look genuinely great. They’re a Brazilian company and their website doesn’t handle currency conversion, so to place an order in North America you have to e-mail them directly, which does add a layer of difficulty. It’s not something I’m at all averse to doing – the owner replies occasionally on BGG and other users have posted positively about their products and service – I just haven’t done it yet.
Again, gorgeous, but expensive. Not quite as expensive as some of the others here, but still just outside what I would consider affordable. And, honestly, I haven’t seen any recent information about this company, so they may not be making coins anymore.
Shirepost’s coins aren’t really viable for this kind of application. They primarily do licensed coins (Lord of the Rings, Kingkiller Chronicle, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc.), and they’re not built for bulk orders. They’re designed to be a novelty, and are wildly expensive, coming in at well in excess of $1 per coin. So, they’re cool, but not really worth it for board gaming.
Rare Elements Foundry is one of the first companies I ever encountered making metal fantasy coins. Unfortunately, they are ungodly expensive for the most part. Their coins run around $22-$25 for a set of 10, pushing them up to and even beyond Shirepost’s prices. Their coins are very beautiful, but not feasible in quantity.
BEST GENERIC COINS
Here’s the thing: I love upgrading the coins in my games, and I think metal coins add a genuinely massive aesthetic boost. They’re absolutely my favorite type of upgrade. BUT, I also understand buying separate, thematic coin sets for a ton of different games isn’t for everyone. You might want metal coins, but would rather just have one or two generic sets you can use across multiple games whenever you play. So here are my opinions on the best coins for that purpose: Honorable Mention – Poker Chips Poker chips, either generic or custom, are a great option. They’re frequently cheaper than metal coins, and you can get them in a bajillion different styles with or without denominations. But they’re not metal, and that’s an issue. They’re a fantastic option, though. Honorable Mention – Pachinko Tokens Granted, pachinko tokens have a weird “theme” and they look more modern than thematic, but honestly they’re great coins and you just can’t find a better deal. They come so cheap and in such large quantities I have to mention them here as an option for the budget-conscious. Honorable Mention – Scythe Coins The Scythe coins are absolutely fantastic quality and, as I mentioned before, are almost so thematic they’re themeless. If you want a set of coins with a little extra flair and don’t think their odd theming will clash with your games, you absolutely can’t go wrong here.
BEST SINGLE-DENOMINATION COINS – CHARTERSTONE COINS
Stonemaier does it again with their Charterstone metal coins. You absolutely cannot get a better set of coins for games with a single denomination. Some examples of games these coins would work great in are Lancaster, Russian Railroads, Villages of Valeria, Alchemists, and Village. But, basically any game where you only need 1s, get yourself a set of these. Charterstone Coins
BEST OVERALL GENERIC COINS – SEAFALL COINS
The clear winner here are the Seafall coins from Plaid Hat Games. They may be rather generic, but their design is beautiful, and they’d make a fantastic addition to any game you’d want to use them with. They’re a tiny bit expensive at about 40¢ per coin, but there’s over 100 coins in the set and if you’re only buying them once, it’s an absolute no-brainer. They’re a great size and weight, and the colors and finishes are unmatched. I really like how distinguishable the colors are on these coins, and I absolutely love the satin finish because it keeps glare low and amps up the color variance, making the coins easy to tell apart from across the table.
I acquire new coins as I get new games, and sometimes coins change homes when a game leaves my collection. To track and show these changes, I’ve started THIS GEEKLIST on BGG. Do you have metal coins in your collection? Do you want to show them off? Please add your own pics and descriptions to that GeekList! I know my collection is not comprehensive, and the more pictures and suggestions for coins and they games they work with would be incredible! Thanks for spending the time to peruse my compulsion for metal coins in board games! I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures and commentary. If you have metal coins of your own and would like to show them off, I’d love to see them added to the GeekList, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you want to talk about metal coins, or DIY upgrades, or board games in general, you can always find me on Twitter @PixelartMeeple, on Instagram @pixelartmeeple, on BGG at PixelartMeeple, and on my website www.pixelartmeeple.com! You can also hear my (much more succinct) thoughts on games on The Five By podcast. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming!
My family shares a love for Survivor so this past week my dad has been building games and immunity idols for a Quarantine Survivor. Fire tokens (poker chips) and all to keep up with season 40!
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It's been at least a week or two since someone posted a homemade Ethnos retheme. Allow me to fix that by presenting my own, Fashion Icon. I'm a huge fashion fan in real life and it's woefully underrepresented in board gaming (I only know of one other game that takes it seriously, Pret-a-Porter). I thought this would be a far more palatable theme for one of my favorite games from one of my favorite designers. No rules have been changed - you form "collections" of "looks" and select one of them to be a "leading look." The game is played over three in-game years with the goal of having the most fame of any player. So far, it's been a much easier sell to friends and family. The cards were printed on http://makeplayingcards.com/ and everything else was through http://printplaygames.com/ The poker chip tokens are based upon Luke Matthews' Ethnos "upgrade" on BGG. If anyone else follows that guide though, read ahead to the part where he talks about how hard it is to print / punch 1.125" stickers since he first wrote it! I had to redesign everything from scratch as a result. Album of pictures -https://imgur.com/a/GGZYFBM
About four months ago, I posted this instructional article about building custom graphics-wrapped chipboard boxes for card games. Since then, I’ve been putting my own knowledge to good use, replacing the boxes for 27 of my own card games. I thought you guys might like to see the results. My customGuillotinebox was the first box I ever created using this method. I’ve re-built it - as well as the Fluxx box from the tutorial above - for this new set because I slightly altered, and standardized, the form factor across all the new boxes. If you aren’t interested in the nitty-gritty details, feel free to just scroll through these pretty pictures. Otherwise, read on for more details. (Note: There are some extra detail pictures in the individual descriptions of the more complicated builds below.) The impetus behind making these boxes was entirely form-factor. One of the things that annoys me about the board game industry is the utter lack of box-size standardization. For larger games, most companies at least try to keep to only a few variations, but even among those they’re not entirely standardized, so boxes vary a lot. It’s even worse with card games and smaller games. I’ve been thankful that companies like Z-Man, Kosmos, and Mayfair have the same size for a lot of their smaller games (Trambahn, Targi, and Patchwork are all in the same size box, for example), but so many other games are just crammed into whatever box they can find. So, I created a standard footprint for the face of these card game boxes, regardless of the number of cards or components. The boxes all vary in length, but they’re all the same dimensions for height and width, so they look really nice on the shelf together. The first set I created were for any card games I owned that only included cards and a rulebook. The exceptions (technically) being Innovation and Innovation: Echoes of the Past, where I had to create custom player “boards” the same size as a standard card, which I just sleeved and tossed in with the cards. Here’s the gallery. You'll notice that many of these games have different sized cards, yet the boxes are all the same footprint. The basic design is centered on standard American TCG-sized cards (like Star Realms). I added spacers into the riser inside the boxes to accommodate thinner cards. Two spacers (one on each side) are added for Euro Board Game sized cards (like Targi), and four spacers are added for American Board Game sized cards (like Fluxx). This way, the cards don't rattle around in the box, but the box stays the same size across all the card games. I feel I have to comment on the one part of this project that might set some people’s teeth to grinding: rulebooks. Most standard rulebooks won’t fit in these boxes as designed. In almost all cases, I’ve simply folded up the rulebook to fit in with the cards. I know some will see that as “destroying” the rulebooks, but that doesn’t really bother me in the grand scheme of things. In some cases, such as Lanterns: The Harvest Festival and Honor of the Samurai, I’ll have to create custom rulebooks, because they’re just too big even to fold up. Once I’d finished all the basic games, I started work on card games that also came with other components like tokens or player boards. In some cases, I was able to simply create a bit-box to hold the components. For others – like Splendor and Celestia - I had to get more creative, as you’ll see below. MOTTAINAI DELUXE Mottainai required the from-scratch creation of a new player board, which I designed to be an accordion-fold board that would fit right in with the cards. I’m not 100% happy with the boards just yet, but they’re pretty and mostly functional. The box itself is simply divided into sections, one for each deck and one in the middle for the custom player boards. CITADELS Citadels was pretty straightforward, just requiring a bit-box for the money, chits, and first player marker. Creating the bit boxes is identical to creating the card boxes, just on a smaller scale, and designed to fit inside each card box. TARGI Another simple bit box. This is actually a re-creation of one of my prototype card boxes, which I posted about back in November of last year. The original Targi box was my second custom box, and the first one to implement a bit box. CASTLES OF BURGUNDY: THE CARD GAME This was my first attempt at a box that maintained the same form factor as my other boxes, but was designed for smaller cards. I built a platform inside the box to raise the cards up to appropriate height, and turned them sideways to fit two rows of cards in a much smaller space. That insert that allowed for the smaller cards was my test case, leading to different implementations in some of the boxes you’ll see later. THE GRIZZLED This one was pretty easy. Just a bit box in the middle, and a separate space specifically for the first player marker. HONOR OF THE SAMURAI This was my first box incorporating a dice well. I built a platform for the dice to sit on, then carved a sized well out of foamcore to hold them in place. BIBLIOS Rather than create a new board for Biblios, I just took the original board that came with the game and cut it, turning it into a dual-fold board. It worked out way better than I thought it would. As a backup, I printed the board face on the top of the box. I used the same method for the dice well here that I used for Honor of the Samurai. LANTERNS: THE HARVEST FESTIVAL All the work I’d done earlier on accommodating smaller cards helped here for both the cards and the tiles. A bit box, of course, and a custom shaped well for the boat token. Foamcore would’ve been too thick for this particular custom part, so I cut the well for the boat out of chipboard. SAN JUAN For something so conceptually simple, the tile well in this box was a bitch to assemble. It turned out well, though. JAIPUR I could’ve just made a bit-box to hold the Jaipur tokens and made a much smaller box, but I decided to go all-out and create poker-chip tokens for the game, just like I did for the Soldier Tokens inKingsburg. So, by extension, I had to make a bigger box. SPLENDOR This is probably my favorite box for functionality as well as aesthetics. The retail Splendor box is ridiculous, so compacting everything down for this one was a treat. I’m not 100% fond of how the chip rack turned out aesthetically, but it’s functional and that’s really what matters. I’ll probably tinker with a way to improve it going forward. CELESTIA This is, by a wide margin, the longest of the boxes I created. I was frustrated with how everything sort of crammed back into the Celestia box, especially after sleeving the cards. So, I dreamed this up and built it off-the-cuff. It’s probably my funkiest design by necessity, but I love the way it turned out.
WHY DO IT?
Well, first off, I did it for fun. I really enjoy building custom stuff for my games, be it foamcore inserts or new boxes. But really, it’s all about the aesthetics. These boxes, in some cases, are technically larger than their original counterparts, so it’s not always technically efficient to make them. But with the wide variety of box sizes for small games, I like the way the games look better on the shelf in the new boxes. For example, Here’s what twelve of the game boxes looked like before… …and here’s what those same twelve games look like now. The boxes stack very nicely, and the shelves just look cleaner and less cluttered now. I can even stack them alongside the boxes for the Ascension Year One and Year Two boxes, as well as Paperback (which, incidentally, was the inspiration for this box design). Here’s two shelves of custom boxes. And here’s the final result Jaipur, Star Realms, and Targi sit among our 2-player specific games. The rest take up two full shelves, and are spilling onto a third. I’m sure, over time, I’ll manage to fill up that third shelf with custom boxes. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed looking through my custom work. If anyone out there has created any boxes using my tutorial, I’d love to see your final results. Thanks, and happy gaming!
I've been working on and getting better at making poker chip tokens. I'm putting the finishing touches on a new stress token and I need a little help with the background color for my image. I have it narrowed down to plain white, light yellow, or blue. Link for the Tokens I'd appreciate your opinions on which color looks best. Thanks a ton!
This weekend I tried Lovecraft Letter which has poker chip tokens to denote your victories and I kinda got hooked on the feeling of poker chips. I instantly got the urge to buy poker chips to replace cardboard money on some of my games like Istanbul or Concordia. I'm completely ignorant on the matter there seems to be a lot of discussion on material (ceramic vs clay), weight, quality... I couldn't tell apart a quality chip from a chinese knockoff. Another thing is that many poker chips don't have denominations or they don't aren't appropriate for the boardgames that I own, which is a bummer. I'm aware there's currently a kickstarter for GameChips but I live in Portugal and they only ship to USA, it seems. Kind of a bummer because that's exactly what I am looking for though a bit pricey. If you could provide some information regarding poker chips I'd really appreciate! Thanks
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