Nothing says love like losing your sanity! Valentine’s Day is on Monday and you’re still looking for a gift idea for your geek sweetie? Yikes! Let us give you a hand, but be forewarned, you may be paying some extra shipping to get it there in time.

Crochet Cthulhu from CthulhuChick

Elder gods know how to love! Check out CthulhuChick’s Etsy store, where she has tons of adorable little handmade Cthulhus, just waiting for homes.

There’s even a Cylon-thulhu and a Chef-thulhu. And a bonus: You can buy a gift certificate for a Custom Cthulhu and let your sweetie pick out the colors and style they like best.

CthulhuChick’s Etsy store

Marsbarn Dice Bags

Another great crafter for the geek community, Marsbarn sews up the sturdiest reversible dice bags you’ll ever see. I’ve had mine for several years now and it still looks good as new.

Again, custom orders are possible! If the geek that stole your heart is in need of a new dice bag, get a gift certificate and let them choose their own fabric to make a totally unique and awesome dice bag.

Marsbarn dice bags on Etsy

ThinkGeek

I was a customer (and drooler-over-things) long before I became their copywriter… and for good reason. We have fun stuff.

New this year is the 8-Bit Bouquet. If your sweetie hates flowers because they die so quickly, get these! No water, no death. All awesome.

Got a girl who is into jewelry? The Circuit Sweetheart Necklace or Anatomical Heart Necklace might be right up her alley.

…and finally, even though Darya of SummerTomato called it her BS of the Week, check out Le Whif, the inhalable chocolate. All the taste with barely any calories. Screw the heart-shaped Whitman’s box – get your chocoholic this instead.

Valentine’s Stuff at ThinkGeek

Amazon Wishlist

Don’t underestimate this one!  Folks will usually beef up their wishlist just before the Winter holidays and promptly forget about it until the next year. Why not snag them something that Santa forgot? You know they still want it.

For example, if’n you wanted to buy me a Valentine’s Day present (and possibly incur a raised eyebrow from DaveTheGame), my wishlist is right here.

Good luck with your last minute shopping, geek friends!

Mini Dice Bag

Wouldn’t you hate it if one of your friends went on and on about the most awesome new anime, but never offered to lend you the DVDs? It does no good for someone to ramble on to her fellow geeks about something incredible, but then keep it all to herself. So, over the next few months, I’m going to share some wonderfully geeky craft projects with you all, so everyone can partake in the crafty goodness. These are all projects I’ve created myself, and are the sort of things I make for my friends and family, as well as to sell at cons.

Now, as much as I would love to sit down with each and every one of you and teach you how to crochet, embroider, or sew, I can only prepare so many teleportation spells each day, and there is that miss chance if I’ve never actually been to your house before. And while crafts can be taught over the internet, GDG is not a craft website.

So I’m writing this article (and will write all future craft project posts) as if you already know the basics of the craft. I know that’s likely not the case, so I will also provide some links with good tutorials and info which will hopefully be enough to get you started even if you’ve never set foot in a craft store before. And please, feel free to e-mail me with any questions you might have. I’ll be glad to help!

Enough with the introductions – let’s get started, shall we? Behold, adventurers! The geeky craft project you are tasked with conquering this week is a mini dice bag.

Mini Dice Bag, CR 1, 400 XP

To a gamer, a good dice storage system is nearly as important as the dice themselves. You need a way to get them to and fro, and keep them safe and warm (What? Don’t dice deserve to be warm?). Having a dice bag as personalized as your dice would be awesome, wouldn’t it? But it’s hard to find the perfect bag in the perfect color. Well, it won’t be so hard anymore – I’m going to show you how to crochet one yourself!

This mini-bag easily holds 3 or 4 full sets of polyhedral dice, making it the perfect size for your traveling dice (the ones you take to a friend’s house or to a con). The finished size will vary slightly based on your tension and the yarn and hook used, but it should stand about 4 inches tall and have a diameter of about 2 ½ inches.

Equipment List (Supplies Needed)

Supplies you need to gather for this project.

Yarn: Stick to a simple worsted weight yarn. I prefer acrylic for its easy care, but if you want cotton or wool, have at it. You don’t need much for this little bag.

A little bit of yarn in a contrasting color, some ribbon, or some cording: For making the drawstrings.

Crochet Hook: If you’re already an experienced crocheter, use a hook one size smaller than you would normally use with worsted weight yarn. You want the bag to stand up on its own and be tightly woven, but not so tight that it loses its softness. If you’re new, use the hook size recommended on the yarn label. I make my dice bags using a size I (5.5mm) hook.

Yarn Needle: For weaving in the ends when you’re all done.

Stitch Marker: To keep track of the first stitch of each round. If you don’t have stitch markers, a bobby pin or French wire or lever-back earring will work too!

Scissors: For cutting.

Measuring Tape: While size doesn’t matter too much on this project (if your bag turns out a little smaller or bigger than intended, your dice won’t mind), it’s nice to know if you’re in the ballpark.

Optional: Two large-hole beads for decorating the ends of the drawstrings.

Prerequisites (Skills Needed)

You need to know how to start your yarn on the hook with a slip knot, chain stitch (ch), slip stitch (sl st), single crochet (sc), triple crochet (trc), and join rounds.

If you’re new to crochet, or just need a refresher, here are some great sites to help you get going:

Lion Brand Yarn’s collection of illustrated instructions and videos

More instructional videos by a talented and generous crocheter named Teresa

Prefer a book? My favorite instructional crochet book is Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting by Kim Werker and Cecily Keim.

Roll For Initiative And Let The Battle Commence! (What To Do)

Once you have your slip knot on the hook, we’re ready to roll! The bag starts at the bottom, which is a flat circle (and is why it stands up so nicely!), then works up the sides.

Here is the pattern:

Ch 3, connect with sl st to form a ring.

Rd 1: Ch 1, 6 sc into ch ring (mark the first sc of each round with your stitch marker so it’s easy to find). Join with sl st in 1^st sc.

This is what you should have after completing round 1.

Rd 2: Ch 1, 2 sc in each sc, join with sl st in 1^st sc (12 sc total for the round).

Rd 3: Ch 1, 2 sc in 1^st sc, 1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, repeat around, join with sl st in 1^st sc (18 sc).

Rd 4: Ch 1, 2 sc in 1^st sc, 1 sc in next 2 sts, 2 sc in next st, repeat around, join with sl st in 1^st sc (24 sc).

Rd 5: Ch 1, 2 sc in 1^st sc, 1 sc in next 3 sts, 2 sc in next st, repeat around, join with sl st in 1^st sc (30 sc).

Round 5 completed - the bottom of the bag is done!

Rd 6: Ch 1, sc in blo (back loop only) of each st around, join with sl st in 1^st sc. (This is what creates the edge so you start working up the side of the bag.)

A few stitches into round 6 - by going into the back loop only, it turns an edge and you start working "up" the side of the bag.

Rds 7-20: Ch 1, sc in each st around, join with sl st in 1^st sc. (You should have 30 sc in each round. Count a round every so often to make sure you aren’t adding in or missing a stitch.)

Rd 21: Ch 3, trc in next sc, ch 1, skip next st, trc in next 2 sts, repeat around, join with sl st in 3^rd ch at beginning of rd.

Round 21 - you're making the spaces for weaving in the drawstrings.

Rd 22-23: Ch 1, sc in each st around, join with sl st in 1^st sc. Finish off at end of rd 23 and weave in the ends.

Now the bag is done and you need drawstrings. If you have some ribbon, ric-rac, or cording lying around your craft room, feel free to use some! Just cut two pieces about 30 inches long, and weave them through the spaces you created in round 21 in opposite directions. Knot the ends of each piece together and you’re done.

Or, you can take a contrasting color of yarn and make the drawstrings yourself. Chain 75, fasten off (make sure to leave about 6 inches of yarn tail at each end), and repeat to make the second drawstring. Weave them through as described before. You can also add a cool bead to the ends of the strings, but it’s not necessary. I do suggest tying a small knot in each tail of the yarn to prevent fraying.

Beads at the ends of the drawstrings are a nice touch!

And that’s it! You’ve just made a way-cool dice bag!

(You are more than welcome to print out this pattern for your own use, but please don’t print it out for others. If you want a friend to see this pattern, send them a link to this post. Copying and pasting just isn’t cool, yo.)

I Want Your Feedback!

Craft project patterns are a new thing at GDG, and it’s a new thing for me to try to write them for other people (my own notes make perfect sense to me…). I need to know what you thought of this post. Were the instructions clear enough? Too many pictures, or not enough? Let me know!

In the mean time, the book’s premise got me thinking about my own dice-related idiosyncrasies, as well as those of my buddies at the game table. Everyone has their own tics when it comes to their dice, after all. Maybe this exercise will give me a little insight to the book before I even get my hands on a copy!

Me And My Dice

I am a dice whore. A trip to the game store means standing in front of the dice display and drooling over the myriad colors and sparkles. More often than not, I end up caving in and buying some. Currently I own eleven sets of polyhedral dice, a set of ten d10s, a large assortment of d6s, and a few random other dice that I’ve picked up along the way (and that’s just me – let’s not talk about how many my husband owns). You can see some of my collection in the picture accompanying this post (plus a dice bag I made). Most of my dice are Chessex brand (that’s what my FLGS carries), but I have a few by Crystal Caste as well, including a set of hematite Dwarven Stones and a set of their way-cool crystal-shaped dice. Really, I don’t care who makes ‘em, so long as they look good and call to me.

With so many dice, it must be hard to choose which ones to use on game night, right? Oh my, no. Here I reveal one of my dice superstitions: each character has a dedicated set of dice, from which I do not waver. If the dice are rolling poorly, where many gamers would put that set away and use another, I stick to it – my character is just having a bad day.

My only exceptions to this rule are White Wolf games (I use that same set of ten d10s for every character) and Star Wars D6 rules (that’s where the assortment of d6s get to shine). I don’t idly roll my dice while sitting at the table, because it would pain me too much to roll a 20 and not have a use for it. I will sometimes use a rolling tray, but more often than not I just roll them on the table.

I’m also a stickler for using a matched set of dice. Star Wars D6 is again my exception, but I am thinking of getting a dedicated set for the upcoming game I’ll be in. I don’t like to recycle dice for a new character, either, until the character those dice used to belong to is on indefinite hiatus, and even then it sometimes bothers me. For example, I had a set that were for my gladiator in a wild anime-inspired Pathfinder game that is now on hiatus (it’s become the game we’ll whip out and play when between other games, or on nights when a number of people can’t come to the club). When we started our latest Mutants & Masterminds campaign, I realized that I hadn’t packed my lone d20 (M&M uses a d20 only), so I had no choice but to use the d20 from the only set in my bag not being used for an active character, and that was Pansy the Powerful’s d20. It’s still bothering me a bit to be using that one for Adanya, but I’ve been using it long enough now that I’m afraid to switch it out for her!

Speaking of dice bags, all my “traveling” dice – the ones that go with me to the game club and to cons – live in a purple bag I crocheted. My “home” dice – for my games at home – just kinda hang out on the table. They really want their own cozy warm bag to live in, so I’ll be making one soon.

My Friends And Their Dice

Looking around my gaming table, I see lots of differences in dice treatment and superstitions. My hubby Robert has a lot of the same dice quirks that I do, though he’s big on using a rolling tray (and even a dice tower at home!). We also each have a big d20 that we use as a counter. C (another C, not me!) has a huge storage container with all his dice in their original boxes – he’ll pick one set out to use, and if it’s not rolling well, he puts the whole set away and selects another one. D has his eclectic collection of dice in a big bag I made, and tends to keep them in there until he needs them, and puts them back in after he’s rolled them. He doesn’t seem to have a particular affinity to any of them – they’re just dice. P also has cool mis-mash of dice, and she likes to take them out the bag and set them on the table highest number up. CJ has three sets of dice – red, white, and green – in a Crown Royal bag. (As an aside, does anyone know how the Crown Royal bag became the standard? I’d love to know how that started!) He also likes to have them all sitting highest number up, and always rolls them in a tray. He uses different colors at different times, but I haven’t quite figured out his system for when to use which dice.

M has another varied collection, which he dumps out on the table at the beginning of the night. He fusses with his dice a lot, and usually drops a fair number of them on the floor as the game progresses. A brings one matched set to the table – still in the Chessex box – and sticks with that set all night. B has his own dice, but rarely brings them, and uses dice out of the game club’s jug o’ dice. If a die is rolling crappy, he throws it back in the jar and gets out another one. S has a couple sets of the heavy metal dice and uses them both throughout the game, and has been known to put a poor performer back in the bag for “time out”, which usually straightens it out. K has a couple of sets of ten-siders for White Wolf games, and a handful of d20s for M&M (I’ve yet to play Pathfinder or D&D with him), and he yells at them when they betray him.

Considering the wide variance in dice habits in our relatively small gaming group, I’m not at all surprised that there were enough different stories to make up a 250-page book!

Why Are Dice So Important, Anyway?

Unless you’re playing the Amber RPG, dice are a necessary part of the gaming experience. Obviously, they help you determine success and failure for your character, and make things more realistic and objective. Let’s face it – if it was up to us, our characters would never miss a shot with their bow, or inadvertently say the wrong thing to the ship’s captain. A bad die roll is just as important as a good one.

I’ve always felt that dice are more than just a tool for the game, though. They’re an extension of your character, and take on part of the character’s personality. It’s no coincidence that I use a set of fiery orange dice for my cleric of the fire god, or that my half-drow ranger has dice that match the silvery-white of her hair. Dice hold and trigger memories of the game, both good and bad (“Remember when I rolled two 20s in a row to hit the dragon, then on the next roll fumbled my reflex save to get away from its fire breath?”). And there’s just something so soothing about the sound of dice rolling against the table. No matter how bad a day I’ve had, the first time the dice fall from my hand at the table, I’m instantly in the zone, and spirited away to that fantasy world, where no one wants me to fit them for shoes or let them in a fitting room.

Dice have some powerful mojo, and our emotions toward them are valid. Treat your dice well, and they’ll pay it back to you in kind.

What are your dice superstitions? How many dice do you own?

Granted, my reasons for loving these dice are more personal than anything.  They were a gift from roleplaying family members more than ten years ago.  They’re made of rose quartz, which is my longtime favorite, and they’re teeny tiny – I don’t think one of them measures longer than a centimeter.  The whole lot fits into a little pouch on a necklace ( I’m a big fan of miniatures – when I hang out with my nieces and nephews, I’m sometimes guilty of enjoying their toys more than they do!).  More than anything, they’re gorgeous – more like jewelry than something you’d use.

Because my family members are into that aspect of gaming, I’ve seen some crazy dice – ones made from weird textures and materials, ones printed with aliens, tiny ones and giant ones.  What I want to know is, do you have any crazy or beautiful dice?  Or, are they merely utilitarian for you?

Wondering why you should drop $20-$40 on a dice tray when your table rolls dice just fine?  Read the details below to make an informed decision!

I’ll Start With The Downside

Handmade dice trays take a long time to make.  If you’re impatient, you may want to either get some patience or not get a dice tray.  Wait time is a minimum of two weeks, sometimes more if they’re backlogged.  The good thing is that the dwarves will let you know where your tray is in its creation process and about when you can expect it to arrive.

Good Things… Lots of Them!

Lots of Choices

You choose the type of wood, the number of sides, and the shape of the wood.  I chose the tapered model, which starts thicker at the bottom and thins out at the top.

There’s also a ton of choices for the color felt to go inside the tray.  Mine is a rose pink colored interior with swirls that are a bit like big fingerprints.  Very spiffy.

Quality Craftsmanship

I am very impressed with the tray.   There’s not a blemish or crooked bit on it!  The dwarves really care about making these trays sturdy, beautiful, and ready to take the abuse of years of dice rolling.

Rollin’ Good Times!

Sure, I still roll a critical miss once in a while, but on the whole, the tray has treated me very well.  (The good news is with the Pound O’Dice, I can “fire” poorly performing dice.)

Go On And Get One!

Just like Marsbarn’s Dice Bags, these are good gamer swag at a great price.

Dwarven Sweatshoppe: Email dwarvensweatshoppe AT gmail DOT com.

But with the advent of Mielka on Monday, something new TBA on Wednesday, and Phighter on Saturdays, I’m finding that I’m using almost all of the flavors of dice, which makes for one overcrowded penguin.

That’s when I read the review that Martin over at Gnome Stew wrote about Marsbarn’s dice bags.  It was such a glowing review that I just had to go over there and buy one for myself.

I scanned through the offerings and fell in love with two of the fabrics – the green celtic fabric (I have blindingly white skin and dark hair – kiss me, I’m Irish!) and the black monster eyes fabric.

The problem?

There was not a bag for sale that involved the two fabrics together.  I emailed the seller to ask if it was a possibility.  To my glee, Heather wrote back and said that it was and if I went to the site right at that very moment, I’d see an item with my name on it.  Sweet!

My dice bag arrived in less than a week, even with the custom order.  Because I have yet to find the cord that connects my camera to my laptop and my phone’s camera would not do the bag justice, I have yoinked some pictures from Heather’s Etsy page to show what my bag looks like.  I’m sure she won’t mind since she’s getting free publicity!

Celtic side:

Monsters side:

Inside (monsters in!):

What’s Awesome About This Bag:

• Size:  It’s huge.  4″x4″ on the bottom and 5″ tall.  I had to go buy two more sets of dice so it would look more full.  The green set is rolling very well!
• Crafts-woman-ship:  It’s sewn together very well.  Having made several feeble attempts at sewing, I can tell you that this bag is well made by someone who knows what she’s doing!
• Drawstring & Toggle:  Not only does the bag close tight, you can slide up the toggle to lock it shut.  The ends of the drawstring are sealed so they won’t fray – a nice touch.
• Fully Reversible:  If I’m in an Irish mood, I can have the green side out.  If I’m in a Monsters, RAWR! mood, I can have the monsters out.
• Square Bottom:  The bag has a square bottom, which means it stands up on its own.  I can fold down the sides and have a nice view of all the dice.  On Saturday I was able to shuffle all the dice around so they were vaguely grouped by type.  Very handy.
• Price:  $12 & $3 shipping – A steal for such a well-made and totally awesome bag of dice holding.

Go Get One, Geek Friends!

What are you waiting for?  Go to Marsbarn at Etsy to order yours today!  Because really, don’t you want to have something in common with people as awesome as Martin Ralya and me?  (Was I gutsy enough to group myself in with the god of the gnomes?  Yes, yes I was.)  Seriously, tho, this bag is the best one you’ll find anywhere on the web.  Buy one so you can be like the cool kids.

I present to you – THE DICE PENGUIN.

It started out as a regular penguin candy dispenser that I got for Christmas one year:

You put the candy in his body and when you press his head, the candy is expelled out of his anus. Quite charming, no?

I bought new dice today because in my last session I managed to roll every single digit number possible on my d20. Twice. I figured new dice might teach my old dice how to behave. Then I thought, well gee, I need something to put these dice in…. I wonder if….

Ta-da! Who wouldn’t want their dice transported around in the body of an adorable penguin? It’s too bad the dice are too big for him to poop them out because that, my friends, would be hilarious beyond all description.