Excellent Dice Tray SYSTEM!

UPDATED with a short video plus actual photos of the Triangle Dice Tray system in use!

NOTE: I was sent a free copy of the dice tray system to test. I think this might be the only “free” thing that I have received in this ISS Vanguard universe (I paid over $500 for my copy of ISS Vanguard and Awaken Realms did NOT send me anything free nor pay me anything)

Finally one of the reviewers actually mentioned an issue with PLAYING the game … getting dice from one section mixed up with a different section! (see it here=> 5min review). It is critically important to NOT mix dice from one Section with another! The rulebook DOES point this out, but in real life (and in most video reviews and play throughs) the dice from “assisting” Sections ARE mixed in with the current player (and then taken back out after figuring out what to do with the full roll pool). The 5 minute review points out the draw back in doing this … what if you forget which dice go back to which Section?

While playing games with Prototype 2 I tried to keep things straight by using a two player dice tower (see it here=> 2 player dice tower). Which kind of worked (but I still had to remember which side went with which Section and it only worked with ONE Section assisting and you can have all three Sections assisting.

Now it seems like I have discovered an even better SYSTEM for dice rolling! The “tower” isn’t actually required, but keeping the dice for Sections that are “assisting” with the roll IS required.

I stumbled upon a dice tray SYSTEM that seemed ideal for ISS Vanguard and had several messages and emails back and forth with the designer. And now it seems that he has completed a design that fits the game perfectly. There are FOUR Sections, so each section has a smaller “side dice tray” that they use whenever “assisting” the current player. The current player has a larger triangle dice tray to roll all their dice. While they are rolling their dice in the larger triangle tray, other “assisting” players roll their die (or sometimes dice) in their own side tray. Then the side trays are “attached” via magnets to the side(s) of the main triangle tray. This lets the player look at the full roll pool (all of the dice) without mixing the “assisting” dice in with their own.

IMPORTANT NOTE: there are magnets on the sides of the main triangle tray and all four side trays. This may sound like a minor insignificant thing … but actually it is VERY USEFUL. It lets you actually attach side trays for crewmembers assisting you AND then actually lift up the main tray with ALL side trays staying firmly attached to pass it to another player to look at. Fantastic! Here is a very short video showing how easy it picks up with all attached side trays:

I don’t have the final game yet (soon … SOON I HOPE). But I tested how that dice tray system might work with one or two players taking all four Sections on a mission using a standard sized card table … the first photo shows how it might look with ALL three other sections assisting Engineering (placing the yellow Engineering side tray inside the triangle as a reminder that all the dice inside the triangle are Engineering Section dice:

Another shot (after moving a couple dice around … ha ha … this is not from a game in progress since it is using my Prototype 2 components). This time it shows how the side trays can be right with each of the four Section Crew Boards ready and waiting in case a die might be rolled to assist:

Playing all sections SOLO would work fine. Each Section has their own side tray just under the left of their crew board. The main triangle tray fits nicely in the center bottom of the table with room for one or two side trays to attach on its top sides. If all three other Sections “assist”, the main triangle tray would just slide up a bit to fit the last side tray along the bottom of the triangle. With two players, it works equally well, with the 2nd player sitting on crew board side of the table. With three or players sitting around the table there will need to be some adjusting of how the game is laid out on the table (it **IS** a pretty huge game). And, of course, this is just one type of table … I am guessing many of you will be using a long rectangle table (I hope to use my 3×5 foot game table).

Summary: The designer came up with a great dice tray system just for ISS Vanguard, and even got the proper colors for each of the four Sections (so that they would always get their same tray back again). He designed it using magnets so that the side trays actually *DO* attach to the main triangle tray! Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the game yet, so his example dice in his photos are not from ISS Vanguard, but are the same size.

Note: During gameplay you NEVER will be using FOUR side trays at the same time because the “fourth” player is using the main triangle tray! With storage in mind, he designed the whole system so that three of the side trays would fit inside the main triangle for storage (yeah, four trays and a triangle don’t match in the real world):

When storing it, that fourth tray would need to be stacked or something.

He is sending me a copy to test for him to see how it works with game flow. Once I try it I will be able to either update this article are present a new article about how the system works.

As a designer, he also is working on a modular card tray system that could be used by each of the four Sections. I’ve asked him to keep me posted if he gets it figured out just right for ISS Vanguard.

But, for now, you can get the dice tray system from his Etsy listing here:

=> Modular Dice Tray (ISS Vanguard Edition)