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I currently use a Chessex Dice Boot for rolling dice at the table. It's fairly compact, very portable, and does a great job of minimizing the table area required for a good roll of the dice.

There's one slight down-side to this device however. It's noisy. The sound created by a die as it bounces between the plastic landings is significantly louder than that which is normally made by rolling it on the table. While we all do love to hear our dice roll, this can be especially disruptive in certain environments.

So, I'm seeking a way to modify the Boot so that the rolls are quieter, while hopefully preserving its portability and ease of setup/teardown. Alternatively, does anyone know of a site with instructions for Do-It-Yourself dice tower construction templates and "How-To"s that take the noise factor into account?

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    \$\begingroup\$ FYI these are called "dice towers". Where you weren't specifically meaning the Dice Boot™ I took the liberty of replacing it with "dice tower". Not out of any concern about trademarks, but for searchability. \$\endgroup\$ Oct 28, 2010 at 23:59

3 Answers 3

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I'd suggest getting some self-sticking felt and placing it on the shelves and the bottom. The felt is soft enough to minimize the clattering noise of dice, yet firm enough to allow the dice to continue rolling to the lower levels.

EDIT: as mentioned in the comments below, here is a place to find the self-sticking felt. Thanks to Stephen Furlani!

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Felt is what the casinos use - and you KNOW that noise is a big issue there. :-) \$\endgroup\$ Oct 29, 2010 at 6:12
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I made one based on the one I found at instructibles.com, my favorite do-it-yourself site.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-a-Formboard-Dice-Tower/

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Nice. Do they have any designs for a more portable tower, that could easily be assembled/disassembled between uses? \$\endgroup\$
    – Iszi
    Oct 28, 2010 at 19:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ I've always wanted to build one out of PVC plumbing. I'm sure that these could be assembled into a kick-ass dice loop and that coating the interior with a rubber compound could both reduce the noise and increase the randomness of the rolling. \$\endgroup\$
    – JUST MY correct OPINION
    Oct 29, 2010 at 6:35
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If you are not strictly insisting on actual dice, you may be interested in the as-silent-as-you-can-shuffle Dicecards from Ian Millington. It's a set of 54 cards containing many different randomizers, among others the typical polyhedral dice. So instead of throwing dice you (have someone) shuffle the cards and draw one (or multiple1) Here's what a card looks like:

Dicecard by Ian Millington

1 Note that in order to maintain probabilities you either need to use multiple decks or put the drawn card back and re-shuffle for every "throw". For a d6 the chance of drawing the same number again without putting it back decreases from 9/54 = 1/6 ~ 16.7% to 8/53 ~ 15.1% while all other numbers' probabilities merely increase to 9/53 ~ 17.0%

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    \$\begingroup\$ I love this concept, but how do they cope with the fact that not every number represented divides evenly into 54? The d4, d8, d12, dreidel, suit, and dominoes are the obvious culprits. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ryno
    Jun 5, 2013 at 18:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ This doesn't answer the question about doing a DIY hack of an existing dice tower, and the question takes it as given that the dice tower is specifically wanted. It should probably be a comment instead. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 5, 2013 at 19:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Ryno They don't show up on all cards in that case, so you may have to draw again. E.g. a d4 is on 52 of the 54 cards only \$\endgroup\$ Jun 5, 2013 at 22:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ Except that in this case, they already have and like the dice tower, they just want it to be quieter. (Consider that most searches for this are going to be by people specifically looking to mod their dice towers to be quieter.) Now if the question was alternatives to noisy dice towers, that would be a good answer. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 5, 2013 at 22:44
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    \$\begingroup\$ That's not my concern, no. I mentioned my misgivings, and you've replied with a considered reason it might fit here, and that's plenty to see that it's an answer in good faith. :) \$\endgroup\$ Jun 6, 2013 at 5:13

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