Elder Wood Academy Write Up

One of the most important part of a gamer’s identity is their unique style.  From the clothes they wear to the game, to the color of the dice, to their choice of miniatures, gamers express themselves in myriad unique ways, and the more different they can be from everyone else, the better.  I recently found a company that caters to the quirkiest and most individualistic desires of the gamer culture.

Elder Wood Boxes is an artisanal shop that caters to the discriminating gamer with two key products.  They offer the Hex Chest dice box, and the Spell Book gaming box.  The Hex Chest is smaller, with two primary formats and a myriad of available options.  The Spell Book gaming box takes the customization possibilities of the Hex Chest and ratchets it up to an 11. 

Hex Chest Storage Box

The Hex Chest is a hexagonal shaped box (hence the name) designed to carry a player’s set of dice in safety and swanky coolness.  The chest has two primary configurations, a beehive and an open format.  The beehive is designed to carry seven dice (or dice shaped objects) in individual chambers.  The open format lacks the internal chambers of the beehive and consequently carries more dice.  The beehive is designed for dice that are 21 mm or smaller, and anything larger doesn’t fit correctly and could adversely affect the wooden structure of the box.

Photo Courtesy of Elder Wood Academy

The Hex Chest itself is an elegant little wooden box, and anyone who appreciates woodworking will appreciate the craftsmanship.  Each box comes with a velvet bag for easy carrying, and a foam insert to keep the dice from rattling around during travel.  The draw I see for a gamer is the customization potential for the Hex Chest. 

With a choice of 11 different woods for the base material, the Hex Chests can hit multiple price ranges (aromatic cedar and red oak are the lowest price points at $29, ranging up to Bocote and Bloodwood at $110) depending on how much you are willing to spend.  Crafty gamers are about to hit their happy place, because the basic material is the starting point for an infinitely customizable exemplar of “gamerness”. 

Once the basic material is selected, there are two primary options for further customization.  The savvy purchaser can add an artistic engraving to the top of the box.  These range from character exemplars for fighters and bards to several different types of borders.  So between the 11 different wood sources available and 31 different options for top art, the possibilities for individualization are wide open.  The price point for top art is $7, regardless of the image you select from the choices offered.

The second option for customization is side art.  The side art has 5 choices, one of three emblems, or the gamer in question can have up to 15 characters added as side art (either English or Elvish, as you like).  The option to add specific text to the Hex Chest gives an astonishing range of personalization, and is what I think makes this product truly unique.  The side art option adds $3 to the price of the Hex Chest. 

The last customization option is the velvet bag to carry your Hex Chest in.  Four color choices are provided, ruby, onyx, sapphire and jade.  Extra velvet bags can be added for $3, to either replace a lost one or just for the fun of it. 

Built by gamers for gamers, these Hex Chests give the gamer an extraordinarily wide range of options for customization and personalization.  Unless you and your friends get together and order the exact same Hex Chest, the odds of you coming across one just like yours is astronomical.  You also have the choice to spend in a price range you feel comfortable with while still creating a product that represents your taste as a gamer. 

Spell Book Gaming Box

For starters this project is currently on kickstarter, so I won’t be able to give you a price breakdown like the Hex Chest, but I will endeavor to put you in the right ball park for how much these are going to cost when they enter full production.   This also means that some options may be available later that aren’t mentioned here, or some options that were initially offered were for the kickstarter.

This product has boundless potential for customization and personalization.  Like the Hex Chest, they are a storage box but the expanded size gives them a wider array of options for both external awesomeness in terms of customization and expressiveness, and internally can be arranged to do several different tasks. 

The two basic functions of the Spell Book are either the deck box or the rolling tray.   The Deck box is designed to store in safety and comfort a single deck of sleeved cards (ostensibly designed for Magic the Gathering, but it has potential for other games where each player has their own deck of cards).  The standard configuration holds 80 sleeved cards with storage areas for dice and pens/pencils/other writing implements as you like.  Elder Wood makes a deeper model that will store 100 sleeved cards for the discerning Commander player.

The other standard configuration for the Spell Book is the rolling tray.  The rolling tray is a flat, open surface inside the storage box perfect for rolling your dice without fearing them fly off the table or mixing with other dice.  The rolling tray format is designed for inserted foam trays that store dice, pens, miniatures, tokens and even options for you to design your own trays. 

From these two distinct configurations, we add a plethora (I’ve wanted to use that for years, but I think I’ve finally found an appropriate term to use plethora as an adjective for) of options to make your Spell Book your own.  Let’s take a closer look at the product.

Photo Courtesy of Elder Wood

This is the Deck box configuration at its standard depth, not the internal compartments for dice and writing instruments, as well as the open “thumb” area to easily extricate your cards from the deck box. 

Photo Courtesy of Elder Wood

This is the rolling tray configuration with insert.  As you can see, this tray carries three miniatures, two different writing implements, ten dice, and has slots for tokens.  The foam insert is removable, and can be taken out if you want to use it to roll some dice.

This product adds a new feature, the reflecting pool.  The reflecting pool is a metal plate that functions as a dry erase board for tracking temporary information like hit points while playing dungeons and dragons, or your ever-changing life total in a game of Magic.  The reflecting pool comes in a variety of metal types depending on your pledge level, with the more exotic metals (like titanium) coming in at the higher pledge levels. 

Customization

The options available to the gamer who’s building this Spell Book are staggering, and honestly, they should be.  This is multi-purpose storage tool for the discerning gamer who wants to showcase their uniqueness.  This product contains a variety of options for wood, leathers, felt, and metals, as I’ll discuss below. 

Woods

There are two separate components made of wood on this gaming box, the structure itself, and the trim surrounding the reflecting pool and the interior lining of the box.  There are currently eight choices scattered across multiple pledge levels, ranging from traditional looking mahogany and cherry, to truly exotic lacewood and redheart.  Your initial pledge level will determine what your Spell Book is made out of, but trim options are available of six different types (No lacewood or Wenge) at any funding level. 

Leather

The exterior of the Spell Book is wrapped in a leather sheath, simulating the cover of a traditionally bound old style book.  There are currently nine different options for the leather binding, ranging from Black Cherry to Winter Wheat (my personal favorite is probably the chocolate). 

In addition to the leather itself, higher pledge levels give you the option of adding inking to letter the spine and create a cover graphic.  Again, pledge levels affect your level of customization, ranging from a blank leather volume, all the way up to the option of having them apply your signature piece of art (assuming it can be translated into the transfer medium).  A variety of ink colors gives an added layer of personalization. 

Metal

The Reflecting Pool that forms the front inner face of the book is a neat idea to a gamer.  Having a small dry erase board that’s attached to what traditionally holds my dice and other gaming needs gives me an extra workspace that I might have otherwise not been able to take advantage of.  Pledge levels affect the materials available for your Spell Book, though I think all of the options are pleasant. 

Felt

The rolling tray style boxes have the option for a felt lining in one of six colors for the surface of the rolling tray.  It adds another customization choice, and felt can save on the wear and tear of your Spell Book, and it reduces the noise of dice clattering on wood.  Unlike the other options, this one is unaffected by pledge level. 

Internal Design

The internal foam trays come in several different styles, with more options to be added as the kickstarter campaign continues.  They also sell additional variations for $2 during the KS campaign.   The trays themselves are approximately 5 by 7 inches, and some variations have pull out foam options that allow you to truly customize your internal layout.  The other factor that I like about these trays is that you can easily remove one tray and slide in another, depending on your situational needs at the time.  This gives the Spell Book a wider range of applications for the gamer. 

Add Ons

These are mostly kickstarter related, but at least one is a feature that expands the Spell Book as a product. 

For $2, you can get additional foam trays.

For $10, you can get the deeper box designed to hold 100 sleeved cards instead of 80.  At this level, you can also get a set of French style cuff links in a variety of gaming related themes. 

For $15 you can add tokens from two different product groupings, either 10 Steampunk themed coin/tokens, or Dwarven metalwork coin/tokens.

For $35 you can get a set of 7 polyhedral dice (either chainmail silver or dead man’s gold)

Finally, for $90 you can get a set of 7 lapis lazuli polyhedral dice. 

Pledge Levels

These are the best way to gauge how the prices are going to work when these are offered for regular production instead of their kickstarter pledges. 

Conjurer: $70 

This is a maple Spellbook with a choice of accent trim and either a brass or aluminum reflecting pool

Warlock: $85

This is a maple, cherry, or mahogany Spellbook with a choice of accent trim.  It includes either the brass or aluminum reflecting pool and has the choice of signature art for the leather cover.

Sorcerer: $105

This is a maple, cherry, mahogany, purpleheart or walnut Spellbook.  It comes with your choice of accent trim, a copper, brass or aluminum reflecting pool and premium personalized art. 

Acquisitions Incorporated Employee Manual Vol. 1: $125

This is a special issue Spellbook for fans of the Acquisitions Incorporated play group and includes extra dice and cards that fit along their theme.  It is Onyx leather, Mahogany wood with walnut trim and a steel reflecting pool. 

Royal Wizard: $140

This Spellbook has the full range of wood choices available for both the body and the trim.  It has either a copper, brass, or aluminum reflecting pool and premium personalized art. 

Archmage: $200 (Note, this pledge level has all ready sold out twice)

This spellbook has the full range of all available options including fully customized artwork on all sides, all wood material choices, and all reflecting pool choices (including sterling silver, titanium, and nugold). 

Grand Vizier: $400

This pledge level allows the customer to have a profile carved into the interior wood of the Spell Book and incorporates all previous options available at the Archmage level. 

An interesting option that Elder Wood is doing for the duration of their kickstarter campaign (and one that I certainly hope they carry on for the lifespan of the product) is the gift option.  When you pledge money to the kickstarter campaign, you have the option to declare it a gift, and that gives you a very neat option for shopping for a picky person. 

Elder Wood will send you a checklist of the options you have available to you in a gift envelope.  Provide this envelope to the person receiving the gift, and they can select their options at their leisure.  They merely need to send the enclosed paperwork back in the enclosed postage, and wait for their personally chosen spellbook to arrive. 

Addendum:

After consulting with the fine folks at Elder Wood, I have discovered that you can order the deeper Spell Book tray for both design options, and the deeper rolling tray can accommodate two trays if you’re careful with what you plan on storing in them.