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Review of e-Raptor Chtulhu's Ocean Dice Tower
Blurb from the publisher: 'Cthulhu's Ocean Dice Tower is a tower with moving parts. It is the perfect decoration for your gaming night.'
What you get: Your EUR 45 or equivalent will buy you the e-Raptor Cthulhu's Ocean Dice Tower, a dice tower for use with any game with a strong nautical theme or links to the most known of the Great Old Ones. The tower is made up of eighteen pieces of high quality plywood and when assembled (no tools or gluing needed) has dimensions of 24 cm (height), 11,10 cm (width) and 18,8 cm (length). In a rather original approach, one does not throw the dice in the upper side of the tower. He either forcefully throws them at the front, in a movement parallel to the ground, or lays them to rest in the platform that can be found there. He then slides the platform towards the tower. The platform can hold up to seven standard-sized twenty-siders. From the moment the dice fall into the tower to the moment they hit the ground and rest, they will have touched five different platforms arranged like a staircase.
The tower is a full-print, meaning that all its components are drawn upon. The hues are mostly blue, with touches of white and black. The tower depicts the angry sea, with the face of Chtulhu himself hanging from the frontal platform. There are images of splashing waves, tentacles rising from the depths, as well as another apparition of the ominous Old One himself.
The strong points: Now that's what I call a threatening dice tower. All the waves, the tentacles and Cthulhu himself rising from its top in five different layers are a very good idea when it comes to aesthetics. This tower is different to anything you have ever seen up to now. Wide platforms wouldn't have been thematically accurate, so the designers opted for a staircase. This feels as if my dice are falling in the ocean straight out of R'lyeh! The colours are nice, the designs are well-done, and the tower strongly exudes a cold, uncaring feeling. The sea is not your friend; it's the enemy.
The gimmick with the platform is there to be used. This is so prominent that it actually turns into a weak point; keep on reading. The platform however is well-made. The tower will save space on your table since it has a rather medium-sized footprint. Its yard has a size of 11 x 9,5 cm, which in theory could have accommodated high numbers of dice. It can't, but for other reasons. Again, keep on reading.
When it comes to engineering, Cthulhu's Ocean relies on e-Raptor's concept of not using force in order to put its components in place. Most of the interlocking pieces use the wooden locks that e-Raptor inserts in almost all its products. This makes assembly easier. Disassembling the tower is an equally easy affair, even though I prefer having mine permanently assembled.
Cthulhu's Ocean earns extra points because it has a solid wooden base instead of a simple frame. This means that even if its resting area is slightly uneven, the dice will always rest in a clear and unambiguous way. Why aren't all dice towers like this?
E-Raptor has done a great job when it comes to packaging the tower. Recognizing that the coloured wooden panels could get stuck upon one another, a thin films separates one from another inside the box. That's what I call thoughtful.
The weak points: Putting the dice's entry point at the front instead of the back or the top of the tower is a bad idea. The designers were clearly thinking that its users would use the platform every single time, yet let's be honest. Moving parts are a gimmick, no matter how pretty they are. More often than not we want to get on with the game. This tower's engineering practically obliges you to use the gimmick. The fact that the platform can take only seven twenty-siders (potentially a few more dice with less sides) is already a failure; there are many games that use more dice than that. Second, is one really supposed to take his time to arrange his dice there, make sure they don't fall off, and pull the rather small switch (or move Cthulhu's head) every single time? Nobody does that. People want to game, to let loose their dice so that they fall wherever they may.
Yet, on this tower, gravity does not help you; it works against you. If you don't use the gimmick, you have to throw your dice horizontally, since otherwise they will not even enter the tower. Alternatively, you can contort your wrist in weird angles, so that the dice pass from the tower's mouth, an opening of 7 x 3 cm at best (the mouth is uneven for aesthetics). This is by far the smallest dice tower opening I have encountered up to now. Practically speaking, it is impossible to throw, without using the platform, a pool of dice in this tower, unless you actually make a focused effort. Yet, that's failed engineering. Dice towers are supposed to help me when I roll my dice; not force me to think what to throw and how, in order for the dice to fall neatly inside them.
Visibility is not ideal when the dice end their movement on the tower's yard. The fence is not high; it is actually less high than that of e-Raptor FullPrint Blue Castle Dice Tower. Yet, that tower there has a longer yard. The farther dice roll from the tower, the more easy they are for one to see. In this tower, by definition the dice will be close to the tower, limiting the players' line of sight. It's rather simple, really: the shorter the yard, the less high a tower's fence should be. These fences should have had 2/3rds the height that they have.
This tower doesn't feel as sturdy as I would have wanted it to. It is not terribly wobbly, some of its pieces however (like the fence's frontal panel) could have been better secured. If you want a truly solid tower, in this one you will have to use glue. I did not.
The instruction manual could have been better done. I recommend watching the video in order to better understand how to assemble the tower, which piece goes where, and how to balance the pieces when crucial components are inserted. It took me some 15 minutes to assemble this tower. That's too long.
I can't but think that every time I roll my dice on this tower, I am effectively destroying its platforms and yard. Roll after roll, the full print of the platforms is getting dozens of micro scratches, of bumps, of scrapes and minor injuries. The more time passes, the more the effect will be exacerbated, until it resembles a worn-out football field where nobody tends the grass. It's a very weird feeling, seeing a gaming accessory getting damaged so insidiously just because one is using it normally. If I were e-Raptor, I would have immediately started selling the platforms and the base as spare parts. I am sure that some of us would like to have their tower look always brand new.
This might be a freak occurrence, yet Cthulhu's head on the copy I received was not laser-cut fully. I had to use a hobby knife extensively in order to release him from his initial panel, and even then he had to suffer a bit of damage. This might or might not be the case in your copy.
One can always say that dice towers distract from their game if their theme is not relevant. I do not feel that way; they are tools to use on the gaming table. If one however is a purist and does not wish to see neither Chtulhu nor the waves on his hard sci-fi table, then this tower will be an oddity.
Conclusion: The aesthetics of the Cthulhu's Ocean Dice Tower are a hit, yet the design needed further elaboration. When the novelty of the moving platform wears off, the tower becomes a nuisance and not an aid. Designers need to think of that stuff. Form can take you places, yet you need the substance to back it.
To find out more about e-Raptor and its Cthulhu's Ocean Dice Tower take a look at http://e-raptor.pl.
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