Dice Towers, Anyone?
I predict after I return from an upcoming business trip, I'm going to be in the mood to make additional dice towers. I've now completed towers for Rob, Jon, and Simon, and if other members of SABG are interested, I can make some more. My design for the towers has evolved over the past few months, through a series of pretty ugly failures, though thankfully no serious wounds. I'm now feeling confident enough in the reproducibility of the current design that I can make a fair number of these without a ridiculous amount of effort. I really do enjoy working with wood, though I'm truly not very good at it. Perhaps with this practice, the towers will be even better as production continues. The main point of this is that the folks within SABG have been great pals over the past year, and I'd like to give something back to the club.First, Kendahl and Patrick. You guys are in the hall of fame for welcoming me into the group, so if you want a dice tower, just let me know. I'll mail it to you.
Oh, also... unless you really, really don't think you're capable of doing it, I'm going to ask that dice tower recipients apply the stain/polyurethane to the wood themselves. This final step is messy, chemical intensive, and (at least to me) the least fun of the process, plus I'm sure everyone would like to have total control over what color you paint your tower. The job will cost you around $5 for the stain and take approximately 2-3 coats over a day or so.
So, the $10-$15 for materials plus the time to do the cutting, sanding, and assembly will be my gift to you, dear reader. However, to make this perhaps a bit more fun and interesting, to qualify for a tower you'll need to accomplish a suitably magnificent feat of skill and/or craftiness. Please remember this is all meant to be in fun, and I'm sure everyone who wants a tower will get one eventually. So if any of this seems silly or ridiculous, you're probably correct. I've been brainstorming a few qualifying challenges, and the initial list is:
- Win a game of Twilight Imperium 3 in which I participate
- Defeat me in a card driven wargame
- Serve as the "DM" in a game of Descent where I can play as one of the characters
- Organize and run a board game tournament of some kind within SABG
- Defeat me in a game of War of the Ring (with Expansion); your choice of sides
- Without any use of Google (honor system, please; watching the show is perfectly fine) tell me what the name of the recurring German corporal was in Hogan's Heroes (hint: not Schultz... the other guy)
- Recruit a bona fide new member to SABG, previously unknown to us
- Sing me the Notre Dame fight song at an SABG game session at DL
- Be the first to beat me at Tide of Iron when its released
Okay, that's probably enough to get a few dice towers out there for those that want them... Oh, one tower per customer, please.
Labels: Contest
posted by Ben @ 2:32 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
A very nice offer, thanks Ben!
Ben, your generosity is known throughout the galaxy. I would be more interested in helping (or just watching) you make one (or two). I was planning to help my son's cub scout den make them for a craft. I know about as much about wood working as I do about winning TI3.
I'm already getting one, so no Salsa dancing to the Notre Dame song at DL from me.
Colonel Klink. Thanks to The Simpsons if that is right.
Uh oh...maybe not...i just saw it was supposed to be a corporal. Maybe they were parodying a different show. If its wrong I can handle the Notre Dame fight song I'm sure.
Klink (played by holocaust survivor Werner Klemperer) was the camp commandant and thus a Colonel. Nice try though!
I have a ND fight song ringtone on my cell phone for accompanyment.
Carlos, sounds great. Give me a week or two, and I'll clear out an afternoon. We can make your tower together in my garage.
I watched a lot of Hogans Heroes, but cannot recall another German semi-regular. A few things that I do recall about the show:
Col. Klink was a bumbler, but the one thing he did well always had everyone mezmerized. He played the violin.
Schultz, as it turned was the owner of a famous toy factory in Germany. In one episide when Hogan and his men convinced the Germans that the war had ended we see the German officers all budding up to Schultz in the hope that he will offer them a post-war job. This was really funny. I think that John Banner was also a holocaust survivor.
As of a few weeks ago, Hogans Heroes reruns were still being showed at midnight on channel 26 (I don't have cable TV).
Wow, that's cool! Ben, dice tower or no, I'd be interested in playing Tide of Iron with you when you get it.
Hogan's Heroes: The corporal actually appears in about 25% of the episodes, but doesn't get many lines. Its an obscure reference to be sure, perhaps too tough. Almost all the actors playing Germans in the show were Jewish Holocaust survivors. The actor playing Lebeau was a concentration camp survivor as well. I'm just full of Hogan's Heroes trivia because my wife gave me the first three seasons on DVD for Christmas.
AAargh! No Tide of Iron until at least early April '07... I think I jinxed things on Monday by placing my pre-order.
Anyway, since this method of tower qualification is pretty moot for the time being, here's another:
- Play me either Star Wars Trilogy Risk or Axis and Allies: Bulge -- two games that positively cry out for a dice tower!
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