Product Review - Dungeons & Dragons Masterworks Dice Tower

(Updated October 1, 2025)

[Note - I bought this with my own cash. This is not a paid review. I did include affiliate links if you want to help a brother out.]

I really don't need a dice tower, but I couldn't resist getting one of these cool D&D Masterworks Dice Towers.  They're put out by FanRoll. (If you're interested, use my promo code for a 10% discount: DAD-10).

I went for the classic piece of Larry Elmore art from the 1983 Basic Edition (i.e., the Red Box).  I'm very pleased. It's simple but quite nice. 

It does not come with a dice tray, although there are matching ones you get get separately, I believe.

Things I Like:

• The exterior is faux leather and it feels and looks nice. I prefer that over a hunch of plastic.

• It folds down for easy transport. As I'm typically a "road DM," this works well. I have to admit, I felt a little dense trying to figure out how to set it up, but this video made it clear: link. It's not hard - I'm just not too swift.

Front

Back

Little stand thing that attaches to the back for stability.

• It's quiet. The interior is lined with felt the rolls are nice and quiet (apart from the clanking on the table, ha).

Dice Roll Test:

In the video below, you can see me testing metallic dice, acrylic dice, and 4d6. It worked fine. You have to pay attention when putting the tower together. As long as you do that, you're good to go. More on that below.

Tips on Use:

• You have to pay attention to how you set up the ramps.  If you do it wrong, dice will get stuck.  It's not hard to get right, but something to pay attention to.  Make sure the magnetic supports are folded below the ramps, not above it.

Other Info:

I was tempted by the other two, particularly the Erol Otus one, which is from the 1981 Basic Set, but the Red Box art was too iconic to pass up. 

I really like Jeff Easley's art, but I wasn't familiar with the source used for this dice tower.

My Dungeon Master Tool Kit - My Dungeon Master Binder: Part 4 - Encounters

Slowing continuing onward with my Dungeon Master binder, next up: Encounters!

The Encounters section is not for the "core" module/adventure, but rather sandbox resources. These are random tables and other tools to help me figure out what happens to the party when they're traveling on the road or wilderness.

As always, a cover page with some inspirational art.  For this one, it's "Flight" by Jeff Fairbourn (heads up - some of his stuff is NSFW/weird).

I'm running a Haunted Highlands campaign, so I have a printout of its own random encounters section.

I have a few things from James Mishler Games. He has shifted his focus to ShadowDark completely, so these Castles & Crusades ones are no longer available.  That's a shame, because they're useful.

100 Exciting Encounters - 1st Level Encounters

I also have a few official ones by Troll Lord Games, which are also unfortunately unavailable.  

Castles & Crusades - Encounters: Bands of Orcs

Castles & Crusades - Encounters: Unusual Roadside Encounters

Although it's not in my binder because it's not a random table, it's worth mentioning Castles & Crusades Classic Monsters Encounters. It's a nice collection of "side treks" and lairs.

And then last, but not least a few gems by Azukail Games. This fellow cranks out a ton of reasonably priced and useful random tables. They give a bit of detail to get your Dungeon Master mind following. He makes things for just about every system you can think of and, if that isn't enough, many are system agnostic.

100 Random Encounters for on the Road or in the Wilderness

100 Encounters for the Borderland Regions

100 Encounters in a Fey Forest

100 Things a Wandering Monster is Doing

Next up - Treasure!

My Dungeon Master Tool Kit - My Dungeon Master Binder: Part 3 - NPCs

Alrighty, getting back to it - here is the next part in my Dungeon Master binder. NPCs!

Counter intuitively, the one key thing I do not have in my NPC section is a list of ready-to-go names. Why? Because:

1. I have names from the C&C Castle Keeper Screen in the Combat Section, and
2. I use Knave 2e for a ton of random tables (Knave 2e is an excellent toolbox for any D&D-ish game).

Another useful NPC source: Castles & Crusades NPC Almanac Sketches. While I didn't print it out for my binder (it's freaking large), this is a great resource worth having. Like most C&C material, it's easily usable with any D&D-related game (particularly those in the OSR).

Okay, so what do I actually have in the binder?  

Well, a touch of art of course. This one is by the ever-reliable Vigil Finlay.

First off, I have some homemade sheets detailing key players from Dirty Bowbe's Roadhouse in my Haunted Highlands campaign.

I have a few key pages from the The Miscellaneum of Cinder by Jeff Reints of Jeff's Gameblog fame. (I posted a link to the Scribd site version because the free copy at that Jeff posted on Lulu is now a dead link.)

• Namely, the Six Sages and...

• ... People to Meet.

Then I have two items by the ever-great DM Samuel (aka Iron Neuron Enterprises):

• Cults, Cultists, and Priests to Populate the Temples in Your C&C Game, and

• Thugs, Bandits, and Town Guards: Common Low-Level Human Opponents for Your C&C Game. 

These could just as easily be placed in the Encounters section of my binder, but I have them in the NPCs section for the time being.

While DM Samuel is typically a C&C gamemaster, these could easily be used in most D&D-style games.

And then last, but not least a few gems by Azukail Games. This fellow cranks out a ton of reasonably priced and useful random tables. These aren't bare bones tables. They give a bit of detail to get your Dungeon Master mind following. He makes things for just about every system you can think of and, if that isn't enough, many are system agnostic.

In my binder, I have:

• 100 NPCs To Meet On The Road Or In The Wilderness 

Here is an example:

• 100 Helpful Hirelings

Here is an example:

• 100 NPCs You Might Meet At The Tavern

Here is an example:

In the next post, I'll have more Azukail Games resources (and others).

Next up - Encounters!

My Dungeon Master Tool Kit - My Dungeon Master Binder: Part 2 - COMBAT

Continuing my posts about my Dungeon Master binder, I'll start with the first section: "Combat." The section could just as easily be labeled "Rules," but, for me, it's the combat stuff I need to have at the ready.

Let's take a tour of my Combat section...

Page 1: Badass Conan art by Travis Charest 

Page 2: One of my favorite D&D art pics - Thor by Jim Rosolof from the 1e AD&D Deities & Demigods.

Next, I have my critical hit and miss tables, namely “Great Hits & Terrible Misses” from Crusader Journal #7 by Jeffrey P. Talanian (who now has his own excellent RPG, Hyperborea). While made for C&C, they would work fine with any D&D-style system.

Then I have my cheat sheets. This includes homemade sheets that I made using Marq (Canva would also work well). Obviously, good ol' Word or Google Docs would probably be fine, but Marq made it easier to rearrange tables, etc. 

I also have the official Castles & Crusades table sheets that came with the Reforged Kickstarter.

Then, to cap it off, I have pages from the Castles & Crusades Castle Keeper Screen. Most systems have printable versions of their GM screens on DriveThruRPG, so those are a great source of pages like this. 

Next post, I'll go over my NPC section.  Stay tuned!

My Dungeon Master Tool Kit - My Dungeon Master Binder: Part 1

It's been a while. Time to come back out of the shadows for a it. 

Let's chat about a quintessential part of the DM's toolbox - the Dungeon Master binder. For other DM kit stuff, see my other posts about my Dungeon Tool Kit. I said that Part 6 was the final... but I lied.

If you don't get this reference, we can't be friends.

Now, if you're one of my eight fans out there, you might be saying, "Wait, Double D, didn't you already write about a DM notebook (Rocketbook)?"  And I would say, "Nay, my dear plebeian. That notebook serves a different function: namely prep notes and in-game notes." A DM binder is a storehouse of useful materials meant for use at the table.

I can't believe I found an image that explains that there are different types of tables.

After a lot of trial and error, I've whittled my binder's contents down to four key sections.

1. Combat:  Handy rule reference sheets, mainly for combat.
2. NPCs:  NPC resources, such as summaries of frequently encountered NPCs and tables for working up NPCs on the fly.
3. Encounters:  Random encounter tables, short encounter write-ups, and ready to go monster stats.
4. Treasure - Treasure tables for cool loot and such. These are things you don't find in your Game Master guide of choice.

I will detail what I have in each of these sections in upcoming posts. To start, I'm going to focus on the actual physical binder that I use.

So let's get into it.

My current binder of choice is this expandable binder. I'm assuming that a lot of my fellow gamers are office supply nerds like me (and if I'm wrong, don't shatter my dreams). As such, you'll appreciate this.

Here is the pre-nerdified Amazon photo.

Here is the post nerdified version in action.

Quick note: I found the cool "Hack n' Slash" graphic from Reddit and it was made by CastleGrief. This dude needs to start making shirts and stickers.

Okay. So why this binder? Well, because it's expandable. I apparently have a thing for things that grow in size. It isn't overly bulky like a traditional hardback binder, but isn't limp like a soft binder (insert joke about DD liking it hard here).

Other things that I find useful:

Clear sheet protectors.

• Print out all the good stuff you have from DriveThruRPG and put it in your binder.

Tabs/Page Markers

• Get to your good stuff fast.  Also handy for your hardcopy RPG books.

Binder Hole Reinforcers

• Sounds like something dirty.
• Not a big fan of plastic? Use these for your printouts.

Cheap 3-Hole Puncher

• Punch them holes, bitch.

More to come!

Resources for Converting D&D to Castles & Crusades (Repost)

 

Convert or else!

UPDATED on March 2, 2025 to fix the links! (Updated from the 4/12/2012 post)

I've noticed that people come across my blog a lot while searching for help for converting Dungeons & Dragons to Castles & Crusades. Here are a few great resources for converting D&D to C&C (whether it's Basic, 1e, 2e, 3e, 3.53, and not sure about 4e).

Troll Lord Games, the makers of C&C, have an official guide for converting from 5e: 

• Slaying the Dragon: A Conversion Guide

The Other Side blog has a few posts about it:

• Converting D&D 5 to Castles & Crusades: Character Conversion

Duke Omote's Advanced Castles & Crusades Page - This page has all kind of rules expansions that incorporate rules from various D&D editions into C&C.  For example, Omote has rules for Skills and Talents (a.k.a. Feats) that might make converting PCs easier. If you are looking to convert older D&D to C&C, he has rules for Racial Classes and more.

The Crusader's Companion -  Peter J. Schroeder compiled a ton of great gamer-created C&C rules into this impressive tome and it is just awesome. It includes a lot of d20 SRD monsters, items, spells, etc. that aren't in the C&C core rules. Also, the Castle Keepering chapter has a Conversion section that provides tables and charts to help you convert D&D materials from other editions into C&C (as well as Pathfinder).

The Castle Keepers Guide - While it doesn't deal with conversion specifically, it does include rules for Skills and Advantages (aka Feats) that might make converting 3.0 or 3.5 D&D to C&C easier.

Great Free D&D Resource - d12 Monthly Magazine

Just a quick and dirty post here. Here is a great free resource for D&Ders (particularly for OSR fans, but useful for all):  

d12 Monthly by YUMDM

Each issue focuses on a particular topic (e.g., dungeon exploration, city exploration, undead, hills & mountain encounters, etc.).

The older issues are 100% free. For the newer issues, if you pay or join his Patreon, you get more articles per issue. You can get the paid ones at DriveThruRPG, too, if that works better.  Even still, it is a LOT of free content.

Me? Sticking with the free ones 'cause I'm cheap.

The Redcaps Podcast has a good episode with the creator, Russ: YUMDM & d12 Monthly.

The Dungeon Bastard on my DMing Style

I wasn't able to attend GenCon this year, but two of my friends, Hans and John made it, and they met the one and only Bill Cavalier - Dungeon Bastard!

They told them how, after a year of play, they are only 3rd level in my campaign.  This was his reaction.

It reads, "DAN - QUIT BEING A DICK."

Close up.

REJECTED from The Badass Dungeon Crushers Association!