Trask Reviews DragonFire Lasercrafts Role-Playing Accessories

Greetings!

Occasionally, when the mood strikes me, I review gaming related items. I try to stay away from reviewing the latest “Wizards of the Coast” book releases, since they are reviewed to death on other sites. I like to find unusual items of interest to gamers and raise their profile a bit. That is the case with today’s post regarding DragonFire Lasercrafts .

Full Disclosure Interlude: Two of the products below were provided by Dragonfire for this review without charge. I purchased the table tent at full retail price.

I hate reviews that make you read the entire article to find out whether the product or service gets a positive review. Here is my three line summary of my post, for gamers with busy lives.

The products are very cool for gamers.

Customer service is excellent.

Trask recommends DragonFire Lasercrafts.

Should you like to read a more in-depth review, then read on.

Dragonfire first appeared on my radar a couple of years ago. I often play at conventions and to facilitate playing with strangers, I put up a table tent. Be in awe of my artistic skill.

Yes, that is actually my handwriting. Now you know why I type. One of my fellow “Living Arcanis” players, perhaps out of pity, directed me toward DragonFire Lasercrafts and showed me one of their products. I checked out the site and promptly upgraded to this table tent .

Dragonfire uses a computer controlled laser cutting machine to actually “burn” the wood. Everything on the sign above is cut into the wood, not printed or painted. The wood is 1/8 inch thick birch plywood. The material is quite stiff and durable, since the example above rode around in my gaming box for two years and still looks great. The wood has a veneer with grain, so it does not look like plywood.

You can put whatever text you like on the tent during the ordering process. I am not sure if there is an upper limit on the amount of text, but I got quite a bit on there and the font is still readable. Dragonfire has a library of licensed logos from “White Wolf” and “Living Arcanis” and has a customization option for your own creation. It is clearly a step up from the “scrawl” sign I was using. This item cost $20.00 as reviewed. Doing a double-sided table tent is $35.00.

Initially, I thought to just review the table tent. While doing research on Dragonfire, I noticed they produce a variety of gaming accessories. I contacted Dragonfire and expressed an interest in reviewing their products. Lucas, the owner, kindly sent me the samples below.

Lucas provided a complete set of “RPTiles” and a set of “Spell Tents.” I will cover the RPTiles first. Both of these items are $15.00 each.

Here are the contents splayed out for your viewing pleasure. Note the medium-size “Dungeons and Dragons” mini for scale.

The set contains 33 tokens, each etched with a design useful for gaming. They nicely fit in the standard squares on my battle map. This is the “Treasure Tile” set, so the items include statues, urns, desks and other “set dressing” for a room. Made from the same birch plywood as the table tent, the detail on the laser cuts is impressive. Here is an extreme close-up of the desk and bed tokens.

The open book and ruler on the desk are nice touches. This level of detail is visible on many of the tokens. Used as designed, they can make a room or encounter much more “real.” Additionally, since they are flat, miniatures can actually stand on them. A little creativity can extend their usefulness. The backs are blank, so I am considering adding numbers as NPC markers when I run out of miniatures during a large combat. “Large” tokens are handy to mark a creature as “enlarged.” I liked the raw wood look, but the tokens can be painted if you desire.

The second item was a set of “Spell Tents.”

I was a bit confused about what they did until I opened the bag and set them up. “Spell Tents” are alerts to any ongoing, table-wide spell effects. A brief summary of the spell effects is helpfully printed on each tent. This saves rules hunting in the middle of battle.

I did notice a black spot on the “Haste” sign that is actually a small “knot hole” in the wood. It is also the only defect I could find on any of the items I reviewed. Personally, I thought it made the sign look more “organic,” but it is noticeable. Here is all of them set up with a mini for scale.

Here is a side view that shows the included stands. The stands are stable enough to resist inevitable “table bump-quakes” during the heat of battle.

While not the multi-tasker that the RPTiles are, these certainly have a place on a gaming table. Ongoing effects often get lost in the gaming shuffle. I actually got poisoned for two rounds before I realized I had eaten a “Hero’s Feast” earlier in the day. One of these sitting in front of the caster can prevent such tragedies. This set contains 3.5 spells, but Dragonfire can put just about any text or image on its products. I have no doubt 4th edition versions are on the horizon. These are also blank on the back.

Overall, I was very impressed with the quality and design of all three products. I recommend these products to any gamer looking to put a little elegance on their game table.

Before closing, I must mention the excellent customer service I received from Dragonfire. On my table tent, there is a brain with two crossed swords logo on the right-hand side. I gave them a description of what I wanted and they were more than happy to help me with my custom order. Considering my miserable skill with art, I applaud them for turning my poorly described design into a nice logo for my table tent.

For the gamer who has some artistic skill, you can send in your own art for etching (at least 300 DPI images are preferred.) Contact Dragonfire directly for more information on this option.

Update: I requested some additional information from Dragonfire regarding custom work and available materials.

I quote from their email:

1.  We can work with wood, metal, glass, acrylic, stone, plastic, paper, cardboard and leather.  Some we can cut, others we can engrave and some we can do both.

2.  I would prefer TIFF or PDF in 300 DPI or better and larger than the image will be in final production.  We can take most image types and work with them.  We may have to charge for the work, and that is usually at $15-25 fee if it is hard to work with.  We also can do some work in house.

3.  Our laser can fit 18″x24″ pieces.

I hope you found this review helpful and informative. Further information on all of these products can be found at Dragonfire Lasercrafts.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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Tags: accessories • review