D&D and RPG Accessory Items you HATE!

[SAVeira]

I think that people should keep in mind that some accessories are very ususal to some individuals due personal limitations. For example, I have a friend has mobility problems with their hands and finds that using a dice tower makes rolling much easier for them. Similarly, due to vision difficults, I have using large then standard dice and would use an electronic roller in a heart beat if I could find one.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Electronics character sheets. Even I use D&D Beyond as backup but i prefer people using actual pen and paper character sheets.

I have character sheets that are 20 years old, even a few that are 40. The chances of a cloud-based electronic character sheet still being around in that time are very low.

--- unreadable dice

Same. A guy I used to play with was very fond of those; big surprise, it turned out he was a giant cheater.

Why?

View attachment 441244

Beard Sorcery's beard oils are of good quality. But in my experience, a lot of their scents are too strong to be putting right below your nose. I do like their overnight beard conditioner, though.

 

[abazaba]

If you make dice guns illegal, only criminals will have dice guns.

If you make dice guns illegal, only criminals law enforcement will have dice guns.

 

[the Jester]

I don't hate it, but one of my players gave me a shirt with a d20 that's come up a 1. It says... something?... on it, I don't remember what, exactly. But I'm kind of superstitious about it. If it said something like, "Fumble," or "Crap," or something, I'd wear it, but the phrase is more of a positive. I just can't bring myself to wear it. IT'S A ONE, FOR GOD'S SAKE, ARE YOU TRYING TO JINX ME??

Given that I'm usually the dm, the answer may be Yes, but I never put on a cursed item on purpose!

 

[Deset Gled]

The Dragonbone die roller. Great idea until you had to roll more than 1 die.

I have using large then standard dice and would use an electronic roller in a heart beat if I could find one.

Fun bit of history that never happened: I once seriously considered trying to make a small startup to re-release an electronic die roller like the Dragonbone. It was back around 2007-2008. I worked as an engineer at an electronics manufacturer at the time, so I had access to an supply chain that would have been useful. I had identified a small FPGA that could be programmed properly, as well as an appropriate LCD screen that could display the state (die being rolled, number of dice) an the results. I had a BOM for all the parts (a couple of buttons, battery holder, screen, FPGA, low pressure plastic injection molded casing, etc.). I don't have the exact numbers anymore, but IIRC the calculation was basically that I would need to sell ~1000 units at a $20 price point to cover startup expenses, and after that could be selling at a reasonable profit at $20 apiece, or slightly less if needed. Also, keep in mind that at the time it was non-trivial (but not impossible) to start a webstore, so I was also trying to figure out how to crack the problem of actually selling the thing.

Anyone paying attention to the year will probably see the immediate problem. 2007 was when the first iPhone was released. I will admit I didn't see it right away (who knew this smart phone thing was more than a fad as a next gen iPod when it first came out?). But it became obvious that the market for such a device at $20 a pop would essentially evaporate once someone released an app that could do the same thing for $1. So the idea and details now rest on one of my old backup drives with a few other hairbrained startup ideas.

Another tangent that will show the age of this idea: one alternative I seriously considered was trying to release a dice roller as a Nintendo DS cartridge. Unfortunately, the number of units you had to buy up front for that was ridiculously high. It really was a different time.

I would assume by now someone has built one with a Raspberry Pi and a 3d printed case.

 

[Sossij]

I would assume by now someone has built one with a Raspberry Pi and a 3d printed case.

I have frequently been tempted by this LCD watch with die roller. I can't imagine actually having a use for one (I mean aside from telling the time) but I would wear it anyways.

Products

Digital watches to charm an innkeep or slay a dragon.

timestoptech.com

 

[Sacrosanct]

Beard Sorcery's beard oils are of good quality. But in my experience, a lot of their scents are too strong to be putting right below your nose. I do like their overnight beard conditioner, though.

I don't have anything against beard oils per se, but D&D specific brands? That seems weird to me. Why? It would be like D&D toothpaste, or D&D bottled water. Not everything has to be branded

 

[abazaba]

I don't have anything against beard oils per se, but D&D specific brands? That seems weird to me. Why? It would be like D&D toothpaste, or D&D bottled water. Not everything has to be branded

On the other hand, D&D bottled holy water might make a decent RPG accessory for a Cleric ?

 

[orangefruitbat]

Dice cups and dice trays are useful for specific circumstances:

*Dice cups are great when 1) the open table space available for dice rolling changes during play (e.g., lots of miniatures on the table), or 2) when you need to assemble dice pools with lots of dice or different kinds of dice. I rarely use dice cups for RPGs (I use them mostly for miniature games and Blood Bowl), but if I was playing Hero, Shadowrun or Mutant Year Zero, it would be handy.

*Dice traps are especially useful when 1) the table is crowded or small, 2) there are lots of things on the table that could easily get bumped, or 3) it's not convenient to retrieve dice from the floor (think con games where multiple games are all running in close proximity). I use a dice tray all the time when board gaming (especially old-school cardboard chit war-games), but I like them when DMing RPGs - I put my dice tray on the outside of my screen so everyone can see. I also like to roll attacks from multiple NPCs at once so it's easy to roll 4-8 d20s at a time into a dice tray.

Now dice towers are always useless for RPGs (and almost always useless for boardgames as well unless you are playing Wallenstein).

 

[Deset Gled]

I have frequently been tempted by this LCD watch with die roller. I can't imagine actually having a use for one (I mean aside from telling the time) but I would wear it anyways.

Products

Digital watches to charm an innkeep or slay a dragon.

timestoptech.com

Wow. Just wow. I would have expected an iWatch app or some knockoff touchscreen watch monstrosity with that, but not a real watch.

After seeing the video of it being used, I can't decide if I want to shake their hands for doing as good of a job as they did or kick them in the groin for attempting it. Like, the interface is terrible, but much better than many other 4-button interfaces I've seen. The watch has no stopwatch or timer functions, which is fine as long as you have a smartphone to take over those jobs - but why would you use the watch as a die roller if you have a smartphone? This is pure cognitive dissonance for me. All the emojis at once.