Treasure Chest Resource Selection Poll – Stonemaier Games

Treasure Chest Resource Selection Poll

As we recently announced in our monthly e-newsletter, we are working on a a special resource pack that can be used in any number of games. We’ve come to really value the tangible element of board games, and we want to enhance that experience with unique resources that look and feel like the real thing. We’re calling it the Treasure Chest.

If the Treasure Chest goes over well (most likely on Kickstarter in early summer), we might offer future versions with different resources. But for now the resources we’re focusing on are: gold (not shown below), clay/brick, stone (no vote needed), wood, gems, and iron/metal. Most will be painted resin, and some will be painted metal. The wood could be resin or actual wood.

Before we could start sculpting samples, we needed to create mockups of the various resources. So I commissioned artist Katy Grierson to sketch some samples, and I’d like your help in choosing the best version of each for sculpting.

resources for poll

Let me know which versions you like best in the polls below!

55 Comments on “Treasure Chest Resource Selection Poll

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  1. […] week I posted a poll regarding some realistic resource tokens we’re looking to produce and package in a “Treasure Chest” for use in a number of […]

  2. I like the distinction of raw/refined. The only one that I think is quite game-specific if thee isn’t two options is the wood. In my opinion it feels like a very context dependent choice.

  3. The raw/refined distinction is an interesting one. My take on all the resources with those distinctions considered..
    Raw Materials:
    Clay – No Holes, Lighter Brown, Semi-Gloss Perhaps, Rough Edges.
    Wood – Tree Trunk, Resin is fine if it makes for a good shape, but wood would be better.
    Gems – Various Colours as has been suggested. Unrefined appearance.
    Iron Ingots – Shaped as either in the art above, metal, dark in colour.

    Refined Materials:
    Brick – Holed, Reddish-Brown, Matte, More Precise Edges.
    Wood – Board/Planks, made from wood. Unpainted.
    Gems – More ‘cut’ look, coloured glass if possible.
    Steel – I Beam shaped metal, shiny.

  4. Hey everyone, thanks for your suggestions! I just wanted to let you know that I am reading all of these comments and taking them into consideration.

    1. Lots of great suggestions (and of split votes :P) in this post – I’m rather curious as to what the final decision will be. :)

  5. I like the ‘raw’ and ‘refined’ distinction, which means that stone could be a marble slab, and there definitely should be an I-beam. Gems might not be that great an idea to include on the refined level, as there are so many plastic gems made out there already. They would have to be really epic, like being made out of real semi-precious stone like quartz.

    I don’t like either of the metal tokens as are right now.

  6. The gems look like quartz, so I voted purple to have, in the future, a chance for precious gems (red-ruby, green-emerald, blue-sapphire and so on).
    About bricks, solid is related to antiquity or to the middle ages and the holes are “moderns”. In this case, I don’t see a distinction between “raw” and “refined”.

  7. Looks like it’s going to be really tight across the board. Everything looks great at this concept stage.

  8. I think its great, adding coins, gold bars, all sorts of thing will be great. It may be a little more expensive but it will work for so many things. If they are as good as the stuff we got in the deluxe version of Euphoria, it will be great.

  9. In some games you need wood and board, also iron and steel. And I would like to have coal! Is this possible?

  10. Sean: Actually, I think I will put coins in the Treasure Chest. I just don’t have samples yet. There will be metal coins in one of the versions of Tuscany, and I think i’ll put about half of them in the treasure chest.

    It would be difficult to sell all of those pieces individually. I hear what you’re saying, but I think the logistics of making and shipping a bunch of different resources individually won’t work with the logistics I have set up.

  11. Thanks Greg! The gold will be very similar to the gold in Euphoria, except without the word “Euphoria.”

  12. I like the I beam idea too. Any thoughts on doing coins? A lot of games use coins and have ones that are made out of cheap cardboard.

    Also, any chance of selling each resource individually instead of as a package? It would be nice to be able to customize them exactly to the game I want to use them in and not have a bunch of etra cool looking materials but no game to use them in.

  13. Jamey,

    Thanks for the quick reply. The components of the retail version of Euphoria look great, however, the ones from the deluxe version are just so awesome that’s why I was hoping to get my hands on them. FWIW, it was the ‘Radho Runs Through’ video where I first saw the fancy components and had to have them (those gold bars are awesome). I just ordered Euphoria and look forward to this campaign. Keep up the good work!

    Cheers,

    Greg

  14. Oh and I really like the I-beam idea as well. Would love to see of sketch of that next to the other option.

  15. I just ran a poll for some designs on one of my games but I used SurveyMonkey.com. I love the idea of having the poll embedded straight into your website! I’ll have to figure how to do this :-)

  16. I think the ‘raw’ vs ‘refined’ distinction made above is an important one. There are games where it wouldn’t matter but some where it would. Stone Age springs to mind immediately. Only the ‘raw’ tokens would really work in that setting.

    But on another note, am I the only one who looked at the gems and went: Ruby, Amethyst, Emerald … where’s Sapphire (blue)? ;-)

    However, knowing what the Euphoria tokens are like I’m sure anything you choose to produce will be fantastic.

  17. I love the I-beam idea! This is going to be amazing, and I’ll probably back this even though I have the Kickstarter Euphoria. I’m especially looking forward to seeing what you come up with for future treasure chests.

    Thank you for branching out, Jamey. You are going to make so many games even more enjoyable than they already are!

  18. Things that stack and are less likely to roll off the table are better. Cylinders == bad for resources (even close to cylinders like small and slightly longer hex or octagonal pieces).

    Also, you either need to be unique or more awesome than a lot of token sets out there already. If you didn’t know, Mayday games has a bazillion token sets – https://www.boardsandbits.com/index.php?publishers_id=100000193

    IMO, you need to have EASILY identifiable shapes (think color blind), preferably stackable, and in different shapes than I can get now in wood.

    If they are going to be molded (resin like you are talking about) and you are considering only a single paint color for each thing, you also might consider selling batches of them unpainted to let the minis guys paint them themselves.

  19. I’d second the option that it really should be down to a choice between “Raw” or “Refined” resources.

    Seems like most people are looking for the refined resources now, so you could do the raw version as the sequel.

  20. Thanks Dave! I think I have seen really cool sheep and cows made out of clay somewhere. They were amazing.

  21. Brian–I’ll add a few votes to the multicolor gems–I included it about 5 minutes after the polls started. Also, these polls will be used to guide our decision for the final product, not make the decision for us (so it’s not super official or anything).

  22. I haven’t seen any made out of resin. I’m picturing little “Shaun the sheep” flocks at this point. Considering its past midnight here I think I’ll put tat thought to good use! Can’t wait to see the outcome! Much like you other projects, you’ve got my pledge already.

  23. Seems like the short / wide metal bits could be made by just chopping the threaded bit off of a bolt, and polished down, possibly etched with a logo.

    I wonder: would repurposing existing / possibly 2nd hand parts for game bits be more or less cost prohibitive?

  24. Ha ha…I was wondering what that meant! :)

    We could consider wheat for future editions. There are lots of livestock meeples already out there, but perhaps not any that are sculpted in resin?

  25. I second the motion, (or is it third now?) an I beam would be great. Any chance for “wheat” and some sort of livestock (heroines anyone?). I’m not saying it is for any particular game but it would certainly increase sales. Especially based on the quality of pieces in viticulture and euphoria!

  26. I second the steel beam for metal. That would be cool! Assuming they didn’t roll… Hm, maybe no steel beam.

  27. Hi Jamey,

    A quick question. I missed out on the kickstarter for Euphoria but read in a forum on BGG that you would be having a separate kickstarter for the fancy tokens/resources that came with the deluxe edition of Euphoria. Is this what this is or was there to be a separate Kickstarter program for them?

    Thanks for your time,

    Cheers,

    Greg

    1. Greg: Thanks for your question. The Treasure Chest will contain resources that you can add to your copy of Euphoria, but we won’t be producing the original line of Euphoria resources again. These resources will be just as high quality as the original Euphoria resources, though.

  28. only other thought would be to do a lump of coal down the road, Iron/medal reminds me of the pieces from Keyflower

  29. I like purple most for the gems, as it’s the most distinctive color and least likely to show up with some other resource. The red is kind of similar to clay, and there are plenty of things in the future that might be green.

  30. I think it’s important to consider theme when choosing. Some of the resources clearly wouldn’t match if paired together. Here’s what I mean:
    The solid block of clay and the tree trunk are “raw” materials. Right out of the ground.
    But the brick with holes in it, and the wooden board are clearly fashioned by people. So my opinion is really that you want to choose to offer either a set of Raw materials, or a set or Refined materials. Raw would be the solid clay brick, tree trunk, and gems still in rock (I’d also vote for metallic chunks like pyrite to represent ore). The Refined set would be the brick with holes, plank of wood, gems cut in jewel shapes, and the I-beam for metal that others have mentioned.

    So I think the real poll should be: Do people prefer a set of Raw resources or Refined goods. :)

  31. My vote has been cast.

    A few thoughts…..

    What about iron being the shape of an “i” beam. This can be made to stand on end fir smaller spaces on some game boards.

    Going with the same theme for smaller footprint it would be great to see all resources hold a similar footprint regardless of design.

    Lastly I would live to see multi color gems as well. Preferably as separate pieces but you could integrate two or three different gem colors into one design (including the design presented above).

    Thanks..

  32. Aww, it’s a shame that the brick has solid in the lead, I think it would look a lot more unique/non-generic to have holes in! I think they’ll all look great in the end though =-)

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