After a game of Mice and Mystics where none of our dice rolls were any good I decided that we needed a dice tower. After all with a dice tower all rolls would be exactly what we want – that’s what they’re for right?
I had spotted a dice tower earlier that really took my fancy. I thought GrooveDachschund’s “Another Dice Tower V2” was inspired. I especially liked the use of a 1.5L PET bottle for the shell.
Because I can never print someone else’s design without fiddling with it, I modified GrooveDachschund’s design. Well, in truth it was completely rebuilt from scratch and not a single polygon exists from the original design.
The two things I wanted in my design were a solid core of some non-printed material (in this case some 6mm diameter dowel), and each step in the staircase to be a separate item. The reason for the latter was that I am not a great fan of long prints because the longer the print the greater the likely hood of Murphy taking an interest and spoiling the print in the last few minutes of the print. The individual steps don’t take long to print, interlock quite firmly (no glue required) and as a bonus, if you want to make a short or really tall dice tower, it is easy – you just print a few more steps.
One things I should add, I feel I made the battlements a little thin so if you print this, just be aware they are a little fragile if you’re getting carried away with the dry-brushing.
The only extra things you will require are the clear plastic bottle, and the 6mm diameter dowel of a length to suit your desired stair height + a bit extra to insert into the base and top deck.
When I first tested it I was a little aghast to roll five fours one after another, followed by three fives, and a couple of sixes. Luckily, trying to replicate the effect failed. So, I think it has proved itself to be properly random. Unless of course I have used up all the fours for a while …… hmmmm.
Now it is finished I look forward to more table top game sessions where my rolls don’t totally suck.
Update: If you are having trouble finding 6mm dowel (for instance you live in a country that seems to insist on using horribly outdated measures like inchs, feet, and miles), I have produced an imperial version of this dice tower which is designed to take a 1/4 inch dowel. You an find it here: Yet Another Dice Tower - Imperial Version.
Also also: if you get sick of chasing dice when they fire out of the bottom of the dice tower at high speed and scatter over the edge of the table, I would suggest you head over to domino6713's dice tower courtyard model which will help you corral those wayward dice.
Update - 13 Jan 2019: I have included two extra tops for the dice tower. These are DiceTowerTopv2A.stl and DiceTowerTopv2B.stl. These were created because the fragility of the turrets in the original design was concerning me. These optional alternatives have thicker turrets and so are less likely to get damaged during painting and general handling. Also DiceTowerTopv2B.stl has skulls on it so it must be way cooler right? I haven't printed these myself (because I only need one dice tower), so if you choose to use them it would be great to see some makes. Also if they prove troublesome to print please let me know - although I expect them to be trouble-free.
To see an actual print of the skull style top, have a look at Jelzic's build.
