Image: Dispel Dice and Wyrmwood Gaming
Two of tabletop gaming’s biggest success stories are teaming up for an exclusive new line of products. Wyrmwood Gaming, makers of specialty tables and other accessories, is coming together with Dispel Dice, whose unique, sharp-edged dice turned heads in 2019. The Dice By Wyrmwood and Dispel Kickstarter campaign will offer three unique dice vaults and 18 dice styles including, according to a recent YouTube video, dice with real flowers embedded inside.
But the campaign also underscores just how challenging the world of boutique gaming accessories can be.
The Wyrmwood story starts in 2013, when the Massachusetts-based company raised more than $84,000 to produce a series of hand-made wooden dice vaults slim, dovetailed trays with magnets to secure the lid in place. The company went on to run 11 more Kickstarter campaigns through 2019, averaging more than $250,000 each. It also ran a respectable online storefront and enjoyed a healthy conve
TAUNTON There are some interesting businesses located in the old Reed & Barton complex flying under the radar. One of them is Wyrmwood Gaming a high-end tabletop gaming accessories company that focuses on woodworking.
While COVID-19 restrictions on businesses have spelled death and destruction for so many small businesses, this 5-year-old start-up defied the odds and had their best year yet. We kind of expected that tabletop gaming was going to be dead for who knows how long because people couldn t get together, said co-founder Ed Maranville. Most other companies sales were going down. Ours actually went up, said co-founder Ian Costello. We actually could not keep up with demand.
One of the reasons that tabletop games have become so popular over the last two decades is that they bring people together. The ongoing pandemic made in-person gatherings nearly impossible throughout 2020, and this time apart from our friends and neighbors will have repercussions for the board game and role-playing game industries for years to come.
But the coronavirus wasn’t the only hurdle that the industry encountered last year. Labor issues and the Black Lives Matter movement forced many to confront the racism and inequities in a hobby they love. The resulting cultural reckoning put some of the industry’s biggest names in the hot seat.