Getting Hammered part 4

Today I wanted to focus on a few of the many ways a Hammered Game Tables table, and the GM caddy can be personalized.

Dan Fisher, the big kahuna at Hammered Game Tables, enjoys doing some wood burning to add designs to the tables of his customers. Those designs can be just about anything, taking into account limitations of the materials, and your budget.

When I was discussing the upcoming purchase with Dan, he asked that I put together a list of things I enjoy. Among those things on the list: Original Star Trek, Babylon 5, and a myriad of other entertainments, but what really stuck out to Dan was my mention of the African Serval. Dan asked to see pictures and of course I obliged by sending him three. This is the one that became the decoration for my GM caddy.

The personalization did not end there. I was already working on a slightly dwarven themed table due to the success Dan had in locating the cast iron drawer pulls and coating them with copper leaf, so I asked if he could burn the blog name on the two short ends of the table and put copper down inside the runes.

Under the right lighting the runes seem to have a slight glow, which is no surprise when you consider how the light reflects off of the drawer pulls.

Getting back to the GM caddy. Another customer of Hammered Game Tables had the great idea for putting crenelations or battlements along the table side of the GM caddy. Having gotten a look at it, I was intrigued. Not intrigued enough to add a dice tower as well, but enough to break down and request my caddy look that nifty too. While the majority of my table and accessories are made from Alder wood, the battlements are actually Oak. Take a look at the more open grain, makes for a nice contrast to the tighter grain of the Alder wood.

Before you write the battlements off as mere decoration, this add-on can serve to hold up all sorts of pictures using some 3M poster stickies, including the wanted posters all DMs want to issue for their adventuring party. Let's see, adventurers wanted signs, missing persons notices, rumors of treasure, the list goes on. What player can resist reading the stuff the DM leaves hanging right in front of their noses? "This morning I memorized Explosive Runes!"

As mentioned before, it is easy to configure the inner workings of the GM caddy to suit your needs.

All along the ramparts at the top of the caddy are places to keep pencils, glass beads, etc.

And of course you can stage some miniatures up there to intimidate your players.

Next up . . . another look at the dice trays, snack caddies, and cup holders.

Getting Hammered part 3

Let's get into some of the accessories and options available from Hammered Game Tables, and specifically what I chose.

The first ones I want to tackle are the $130 option for Under-Lip Lighting, and the included player stations.

Under-Lip Lighting consists of strings of bright LED lights that lend themselves perfectly to lighting the player stations allowing easy reading and writing.

 The six 2' wide player stations can open much further than shown above. The lighting shines down on the stations providing an amazing amount of light.

You can see just how much room there is within the player station. Quite a few of the standard D&D sized game books can easily be stored within, along with dice bags, pencils, character sheets, etc, and cats if you so desire. (No cats were harmed in the making of this article.)

One suggestion I am going to make to Hammered Game Tables now that it is obvious to me, is to include a raised strip of wood just inside the drawer with a depression for holding pencils so they do not roll around when opening and closing the drawer.

There is of course, another advantage to the under-lip lighting . . . mood. If you want to run a session of a horror game or your adventure takes place in a very dark location, this lighting does wonders.

The LEDs are bright enough to be the only source of light in the room and are positioned to throw the light down and off the floor which will give those seated around the table an eerie light from below.

The lights are not just along the two long sides. There is also a strip attached to the GM caddy ensuring that the ref isn't flying blind. Oh, and if you want to be a real rat bastard, you control which lights strips are on or off from switches placed somewhere around the GM caddy.

I imagine Dan could provide different colors of LEDs, but I didn't ask, and now that I think about it, that might be a pretty cool idea. While Hammered Game Tables says the under-lip lighting option is 1-per table, there appears to be enough room that if you really wanted a different extra colored LED strip it could probably be done.

Even with the room lights on, the LEDs are still bright and useful for the players.

Next post I'll be talking about the GM caddy and the Dwarven Runes I opted to have added to the table.

Getting Hammered part 2

The game room is what would be the living room of my house. It just happens to be the only room with the right dimensions to handle a 4' by 8' table and be very comfortable for the persons gathered around it to play. With the DM caddy attached, the table becomes 9' 9" long. If you opt to put a snack caddy or two on the opposite end it can reach another 6". The space is approximately 14' wide by 15.5' long.

When I first moved in I was considering getting a pool table and also using it to game. While it meets a fair amount of my criteria, and allows for playing pool, it failed the most important requirements of being able to leave things set up, undisturbed. (Also, have you ever spent the amount of time it takes to de-pet hair felt?).

The accessories that come with the base Phoenix are very useful. It includes the DM caddy, dice trays, cup holder attachments, anodized aluminum drop in cup holders, and two snack caddies. You can see some of the accessories in these pictures.

In he DM caddy above you can see at the bottom some dividers and layered bases for books. The configuration is changeable. The pieces can be reconfigured to suit your preference for where your books, dice, pencils, etc sit within the caddy. The images burned into the back of the caddy are part of the personalization aspect to make each table unique. More on my choice later.

Above you can see down inside the table spread out are the dice trays, cup holders, and snack caddies. See those dwarven runes on the lip of the table . . . we'll get to those later as well.

Displayed in this picture are a dice tray, two cup holders showing two different drop in aluminum cup holders, one gold, one blue, and one of the player station drawers open. The aluminum cup holders can come in a number of colors and I had a hard time deciding.

Take note of the copper drawer pull. These are something unique that Dan went out of his way to acquire for my table. I was determined that I wanted copper hardware to go with the dark walnut stain. Dan searched antique shops and discovered cast iron drawer pulls from an antique piece of furniture that he then coated with copper leafing to get the look I was after. Along with those pulls was the piece that became the lift for the top of the table.

There will be more about the drawer pulls, the under-lip lighting, the interior of the table and the DM caddy in later posts.

It is entirely possible to customize your table to your tastes. For instance the cup holder inserts - I originally wanted those in beaten copper, however to date, neither Hammered Games nor I have been able to locate the items and likely this will be something to be completed at a later date and at a higher expense. During our searches we came close, but aren't there yet, and that lead to choosing aluminum inserts.

I could not decide between the gold and the blue so I ordered both and can change them out to fit the mood I want to encourage for a game session or let players decide.

It's Here! Time to Get Hammered!

It is finally time to start revealing the item commissioned for myself and my game group.

Since my earliest war-gaming days I have wanted something like this to allow unfinished games to be preserved for continuation at another time. It would eliminate the need of extensive documentation of piece positions and conditions, and the loss of time taking the games down and setting them up again. It also keeps pets and people off of the game board while allowing the item to remain useful for other purposes.

When considering purchasing such an item there were many options to consider. I could put in the time and effort to produce a functional, yet unappealing version on my own, or I could look around and see who out there was already producing quality work.

 My search involved seeking out other gaming enthusiasts with the skills and desire to make a truly useful product that met my objectives. I found two manufacturers that met my criteria: Geek Chic and Hammered Game Tables. You can find both on Facebook as well.

Since the last time I posted about these two companies the tables offered by both have continued to evolve. New styles have become available to meet various needs, and new options for accessories and enhancements can be included. The biggest difference between them is the price and their respective target audiences.

Geek Chic's top of the line table is a work of art, beautiful, and very costly. The Sultan now has an average price range from over $14,000 to $20,000, and can go higher depending on your choices and budget.

Hammered Game Tables' top of the line table is also beautiful, and comes in well below many of Geek Chic's styles. The Phoenix has a base price of $2800, and also can go higher depending on options.

Both tables listed above are 4' by 8', a perfect size for my room and for the large groups I enjoy hosting.

Not having a budget that could absorb the price required of a Sultan, I decided to go with a Phoenix from Hammered Game Tables. I got in contact with the owner, Dan Fisher, and over the course of many months discussed options, ideas, his philosophy of design, and of course the most important aspect, games.

Early in December I gave Dan the go-ahead to begin gathering materials for building my table. I decided to go with Alder wood because of the amazing grain and other factors including sturdiness, and it being slightly lighter than Poplar wood, the current wood used in the base version of the Phoenix table.

Other options for my table included the under-lip lighting, dark walnut stain (which with the Alder wood really brings out the incredible grain), crenelations along the top of the GM caddy (an idea another customer had initiated), and some additional custom work to be detailed in a later post.

With the holiday season in full swing it was both obvious and perfectly fine with me that the table would require a longer period to complete. Since I am as much in love with the process as I am with the finished product, this provided plenty of time to enjoy the building of the Phoenix.

Here is a picture of the table and two of the amazing wood grain. More pictures will be coming in later posts and will include some from the development process.

Gygax Magazine issue 5 follow-up

I received my copy of the magazine a few days ago and have read a couple of the articles, though the full magazine deserves to be read.

Of note:

The One Page Dungeon by Will Doyle (with great illustrations) is something you can have a lot of fun with. Think of it as a modern take on the old Isle of Dread, simpler to implement, and a lot more interesting to tinker with.

Steve Kenson has a good, if too short for my tastes, article on gods for superhero games. I would love to have seen more takes on deities for use in games along with a few brief plot hooks.

If you enjoy the Godlike WWII superhero game there is a scenario included in the issue that is brief and ready to play.

Much more yet to go, and skimming through, the other articles also appear promising.

Thanks to the staff of the magazine for their hard work.

My Kingdom for a Stone Bucket

Ever have one of those game sessions where you wish you'd thought to bring that single most indispensable item - the stone bucket?

So Sunday's game (no, not that one) was an exercise in near futility.

The party went to the caves indicated on the map which are what remains of a gold mine where things went very, very wrong. The atmosphere within the mines became tainted, bringing upon those venturing within, a mighty sickness.

Yes, they did simply walk in, after slaying the contingent of slime dominated goblins guarding the entrance. Keeping one alive at the request of the Dwarf cleric so he could test a curative spell, which worked, and for questioning, the party learned that the BBEG was named Mordian and that this goon was bringing people to the caves for forced conversions to the service of Juiblex the mucus gawd. Keeping this cured goblin with them, inward went the party.

They party and their goblin guide were protected from the illness inducing miasma of the mine by some dwarven "sick stones", crystals that have a property counter to the slimy atmosphere within.

Inside the mines we encountered lots of slime (who couldn't guess that?) and plenty of obstacles. We nearly lost our guide when a section of the ground gave way over a pit filled with green slime.

We located the evil slime idol, a pit of black tar, a polluted river, and a large pool of olive green sline with a narrow stone bridge crossing it. (Torul remarked to Royson that this just goes to show the problems with unregulated industry).

It was while having our guide go have a look across the bridge that we got attacked by humanoid shaped slime creatures, and one round later were minus one goblin guide.

The party was forced to retreat while slowly whittling away at the mucus mercenaries. It was during this retreat we discovered quite by accident, that the two types of green slime do not play well with each other. Put one into the other and it has somewhat explosive results with the greener of the two slimes surviving and the olive being vanquished.

NEW PLAN! If we had a bucket that wouldn't corrode away to nothing, we could pour this greener slime on the idol/altar and make the BBEG cry uncle. Sadly the best we could do was take the iron kettle the goblins had been using to cook with, and grab some slime in hopes it would last till we could get back to the evil altar.

No new plan survives contact with the BBEG. On our way back to the altar, who should show up between us and it, but the BBEG and some acolytes.

And that is where things left off for the evening.

The party is now 1,000 points shy of 7th level (except the dwarf who hit 7th) and our wizard still lacks third level spells. Magic Missile - still the best combat spell in 5E.

A Wicked Cool Journey

Idle, grumbling, waiting
Growling, lurching into motion
With a rising roar, away through
The precipitous, cold weather
Precious cargo upon its back,
Enshrouded from the elements
Closer, slowly closer to home,
Wicked, it brings
To awe those gathered
Warmly sharing laughter and fun
Shining, a phoenix
Further brightening joyful play
Soon at the doorstep
Soon through the portal
Soon, the clatter of dice