Happy Anniversary, Dragon Chow Dice Bags! CONTEST!
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on February 1, 2011
*** This contest has ended. Thank you for entering and congratulations to our winners! ***
It has almost been a year here at Dragon Chow Dice Bags. On February 13, I will be celebrating a year of shopping for geeky fabric and having the most excellent, nerdy customers on the entire internet. I would like you to all feel as great about this occasion as I do, and I’m going to bribe you into doing it! I’m having a giveaway with three possible prizes.
Prize 1: A Limited Edition, Currently Only one in Existence Dragon Chow Dice Bags +5 Vorpal Pen… and $5 Gift Certificate!
It really is Vorpal, don’t ask me how I know.
Prize 2: A Teeny Tiny Dice Bag and a Polyhedral Dice Set of your choice!
Prize 3: A Standard Dice Bag and Polyhedral Dice Set of your choice!
How can you enter such an amazing contest, you ask? Well. You can get up to three entries in this contest.
1 Entry Each:
Leave a comment on the blog with a link to one of your favourite products in the shop or a photo of your very own Dragon Chow Dice Bag in the wild! Make sure you include a way for me to contact you if you win!
Send out a Tweet containing #dragonchow with a link to a favourite product or a photo of your very own dragon chow dice bag in the wild. If you have a very ugly or depressing dice bag, tweet a photo of it with the hasntag #dragonchow and tell us which great Dragon Chow Dice Bag you’d like to have instead!
All purchases made at Dragon Chow Dice Bags between now and February 13 will enter you in the giveaway as well.
You can have a maximum of three entries. Try not to make the tweets boring. Nobody likes boring or annoying tweets! All of the prizes will be drawn on February 13, 2011 (via random number selection on random.org) because that’s Dragon Chow’s anniversary! Best of luck.
A new DM and learning to play with maps at the table
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on January 2, 2011
I’ve perhaps been a sheltered player for most of my RPG playing life. Until this year when I joined twitter, I was aware that Dragon magazine existed, and I knew it was community based. That was roughly the extent of my knowledge about a D&D community.
Thus, I assumed people played D&D the way I learned.
I started playing D&D right when 3.5 came out. I had no time to be comfortable with 3.0. I know that my group was debating the switch, and when I joined and offered to buy the books we all went over to 3.5. My first character was a cleric. We gamed at a kitchen table covered in books and papers and dice and drawings and notes that had been passed in-character, but had no map or miniatures. We lived in a tiny town in Saskatchewan, where the closest thing resembling a gaming store was an hour away and mostly sold comic books. I didn’t know people played with maps!
For the past 10 years, that’s been my game. I gamed in living rooms, kitchens, basements and on my university campus. Always imagining my world, my movements and my actions. If fights got serious, everyone chipped in a d4 to represent themselves. Enemies were coins. We moved them around if needed, but even that was rare. This is how I’ve played D&D until this year.
I’ve joined a new D&D group. For the first time, I’m playing alongside my husband in an extended campaign rather than having him DM. And our new DM? So creative. He’s new to D&D, and he brings the craziest influences to his game. He makes up alchemy and cooking recipes reminiscient of Harvest Moon, and we play with a map. When I first saw the map, I was pretty weirded out. I’d already met the D&D twitter community, so I knew that people used them. I just never expected to find myself seated in front of one, maybe. The first session, I found the map distracting. A few sessions in and I’m more comfortable with the map. Combat goes faster because it’s easier to see. Creativity in combat is also easier because I don’t have to spend time visualizing my surroundings. As a frequent bard player, creative combat is one of my favourite things.
I do have misgivings where the map is concerned. When we enter a city, the map is alrady set up. The merchants are set out. We don’t have to explore the city because it’s already in front of us, and I find that means we don’t grasp opportunities to get tidbits of information; for instance, we don’t have to ask a random townsfolk where to find an alchemist, only to see fear wash across their face before mumbling that they have no idea who does alchemy in the city. The tiny clues that give me a sense of incrementally moving the story forward are harder for me to get becaue the rest of the party rushes us along to the alchemist’s shop. When we do get there, because we were missing that gather information opportunity we are often beaten over the head with the information. When a DM bludgeons me with information, I feel like I’ve failed their game. I think, though, that this is just a trait of this particular DM and his playing style. I know I shouldn’t compare it to previous experience but old habits die hard.
This is a small misgiving, but we are only a fourth level party. I am curious to see how it impacts higher-level play or if we will drift away from it at higher levels. I only joined this game in November, so I am not accustomed enough to the map and its relative benefits and detriments to decide which of these playing styles I prefer.
The second half of 2010 taught me a lot about D&D and what I was missing. I met very cool community members and they’ve changed how I act as a player at the table, as well as my attitude about the game and what I’m trying to accomplish. I think this has made me more open-minded to change at the table. By the end of this year, I hope that will accompany a shift from player to DM. For now, I’d like to document my experiences as a player and what I notice about DMs and DMing from the player’s side of the table.
Convention Tables are a Learning Process!
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on October 9, 2010
And I love collaboration and feedback. So I’m asking for help! In one week, Dragon Chow Dice Bags will hit its first real convention table! And I’m the one running it, of course! So I am thinking about how to go about having a table.
If you are in Calgary, come see the table in person at the Red & White Comic and Toy Expo Oct 17!
The first thing I wanted to make sure I had was levels. I don’t like FLAT tables. I like craft show tables that elevate product. So I have elevated my dice bags in 3 places.
The entire table. Dice bags are sitting on D&D rulebooks as well as a cupcake stand. Yes a cupcake stand! Cupcakes are awesome okay!
The right hand set of books. Four books are stacked and staggered, with a dice bag on each.
Dice bags on the cupcake stand! And more D&D rulebook dice bags.
Business Cards. The dragon is just for fun.
I will be sitting behind the centre business card/dragon spot, writing out thank you notes the same way I send them to my customers. I also plan on having more tall and skinny dice bags to put on the far end of the table.Also more tiny dice bags. My entire stock is NOT displayed on that table!
I have two small glass dishes full of d20s. These are the d20s that will be going home with every dice bag that sells – once more, just like when a customer orders online. I don’t want online or convention customers to feel like they’re getting an unequal experience!
I am missing two elements: pricing and contact information. I plan to have a standing frame with my online info (including the twitter SMS command) and I will also have smaller frames with my pricing.
Is there anything I am missing? Is there anything you really like? Is there anything you would do differently?
And We Have a Winner!
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on August 27, 2010
After tallying all of your multiple entries – 65 entries total, a great turnout for my first ever contest – random.org has declared the winner! @kenotaphion has won a Dragon Chow Dice Bag and a set of Q-Workshop Dragon Dice! Let’s all cheer for @kenotaphion!
Also, extra bonus: The contest closed with 42 entries. Good show! Didn’t win? Still want a bag? Check out the shop!
CONTEST! Gamer Loot! Dice Bag and Q-Workshop Dice!
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on August 11, 2010
This contest is CLOSED. The winner was announced here!
That’s right! It’s a Dragon Chow Dice Bag contest. All of you gamers out there need good gaming stuff, and this prize is the perfect ‘gaming stuff’ pack! A red and black Dragon Chow Dice Bag and a set of Red Dragon Q-Workshop dice will make you the talk of the table.
WOW, what an awesome prize pack! How do you enter?
First: Comment on this post for 1 entry, only your first comment applies.
Each of these actions can be completed for one entry. Only your first extra entry applies. 6 tweets is still only 1 entry, for instance.
1. Post a photo of your own Dragon Chow Dice Bag
2. Post a link to your favourite dice bag in the shop
3. Add a testimonial to DragonChow.com
4. Tweet about this contest or about your favourite Dragon Chow Dice Bag
Be sure to notify me of your testimonial post by linking to it, and your tweets with your twitter username in your comment!
Please don’t spam and don’t be a dick!
The Contest will end sometime in the evening of August 27, 2010. I will tally the total of entries and select via random.org.
GENCON is about to start!
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on August 5, 2010
And my dice bags are there! GenCon is one of the biggest gaming conventions in North America. Thanks to G33Kmade.com, my dice bags are in Booth #2732 for sale to all the awesome gamers attending!
They’re already set up:
And now we just wait for the show to begin!
AND IT’S ON! Here are the lovely G33Kmade ladies, Lesley and Kylee!
A Taller (but no leaner) Dice Bag
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on July 30, 2010
One of the things we never have enough of at our D&D table is pencils. I’m sure you guys have run into this same problem. Sometimes there are three pencils between five people. So our friends started bringing their own, stashing pencils in their pockets or dice bags. The problem with pencils is they are long and poky, and when you arrive at your gaming table you are laden with books, paper, snacks and – of course – dice. Putting a pencil in your dice bag almost guarantees it will fall out, and I wanted some way for everyone to hold onto their pencils.
So here is the Tall, Strapping Dice Bag! It has a strap in it to hold pencils with a clip. It holds a ton of dice – it is the same width as a Standard Dice Bag, but it’s around 9″ tall. It’s flat bottomed and reversible. It is likely to tip over a bit if you put a lot of pencils and very few dice in it!
I apologize for closing comments on this post. It’s been the target of a bot and it’s driving me crazy.
New Space for Dragon Chow!
Posted by Lyndsay in Uncategorized on July 11, 2010
I’ve had this table in my kitchen for ages. It’s been nothing but a clutter magnet and I got sick of it! I dragged it upstairs to the room where I keep the printer, my dragon chow stock, my supplies and my photo space.
So in an afternoon I now have an area to do my shipping, my photos, a space to rest my laptop and keep my shipping supplies tidy. I also took a couple of minutes to print out testimonials and a customer photo. I like this new space!
