Salt, Leather and Mead with Salty Stormtrooper Dice Designer
For more incredible photos, check out @_dam_art Instagram.
Episode Summary
Kicking off his career in dice design with the Revell Broker Productions, David is making out of this world dice that show us that dice don't need to be constrained to the same boring 7 shapes! Ex-Marine and life-long artist, David has dabbled in a host of artistic pursuits from digital design, painting, drawing, leather-working and even mead making.
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[00:00:15] Speaker A: G'day, everyone, and welcome to the Talking Dice podcast. Whether you're a dice maker collector or just a tabletop rpg lover, we've got you covered. I'm Aaron, the host of the show and author of the Crypt Maker Guide to Dice Craft, now available on critmaker.com.
running a podcast in 2024 is expensive business. If you like Talking Dice, please consider a one time donation at Ko Fi. And if you love it, please consider joining our Patreon with tiers from just a couple of dollars per month. We've also got a new community discord up for fans of the podcast and the Crit Maker Guide to Dicecraft. For sponsor details and links to the discord, check out our website, Talkingdice co. And on today's episode, we're chatting to David, the Salty Stormtrooper, dice designer, artist, leather worker, RPG Twitch Gamer, and ex Marine. David, it's awesome having you on the show today.
So this wouldn't be a talking dice episode without chatting about role playing games. Now, what's your favorite rpg today? Now, we've had a few different answers to that recently.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Obviously, dungeons and dragons is at the top of that list and pretty much the only thing I've played over the past five or so years. But I am up to playing any custom system, you know, as long as I'm role playing, it's fun.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: What sort of classes do you like playing?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: I. I. Really. Well, what do you think? Just from what you know of me, what kind of class do you think that I would play?
[00:01:38] Speaker A: I don't know. I feel like you're probably somewhere between a fighter and a rogue, maybe pretty close.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: It's always a coin toss between a paladin and a rogue pallion.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Okay. Yep.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Complete opposites. That's how I like to play it. Uh, but, yeah, right now, I'm. My most recent character is a paladin that I'm playing with. Uh, my group. I'll shout them out for twitch, the dungeon mechanics, which, by the way, they're all active duty or veterans.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Yep.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: It's a little group that we have, but, yeah, I'm playing a paladin with them. Dalen Eastbridd is his name. A very himbo type character, which wasn't supposed to be that way, but that's how he turned out, I was gonna say.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: I mean, what about a paladin rogue? You know, that could be like, it's, you know, like there's his life in the spotlight and then his. His private life where he's actually a. You know, a conniving thief.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Strangely enough, I've never combined the two. But now we're gonna have to think about that.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. I mean, if anyone's done that, I reckon it would be. It would be a fascinating combo. Right? Like you.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: So does that mean I could combine a sneak attack with smite?
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Oh, that would be epic, wouldn't it? That would be.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: I'm gonna have to explore this further and get back to you.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: But I just. I just think it would be a fascinating combo because. Well, I mean, not that. I mean the. The paladin thief. Because if you were that really kind of holier than thou type paladin, and you'd have to be super good and shining and bright and all of that stuff of stuff, but, you know, like, come night time, you'd kind of disappear from the party, be like, all right, everyone, I'm going to bed. And then you'd kind of get into your other outfit. I reckon it would just be, you know, that.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: That sounds like some. Some deep, deep inner turmoil role playing. That would be a lot of fun.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: That's the best kind, isn't it?
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Like, I have to uphold this image for everyone, but at the same time, like, I gotta do these dark, terrible things to take care, you know? You know, whatever it is.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: I could just imagine, you know, like, in the poor dm, you'd be like, you'd almost have to have two character sheets. And you'd be like, hang on, wait. Let me go and get my friend who can help us deal with this. And then you kind of do the superhero, you know, quick change, and you've got, like, a little mask on or something, and so no one actually knows it's you. Apart from, you know, you're one.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: We know it's you, Dave. No, it's not.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Apart from that, you look exactly the same, but you're wearing a mask, so no one can tell. But everyone, you know, pretends they don't know. It would be absolutely hilarious, I think.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: See your armor under your cloak.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: And so the twitch group you're playing with, how often do you. How often do you guys meet up? How often do you play?
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Well, we've basically been on sabbatical for a few months due to scheduling, but typically it's the guy who runs. It runs a few different shows throughout the week. So it's about three or four days a week there's a show going. And our specifically would be every other week.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Okay.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: And they're all his own. Homebrew worlds. So it's a lot of fun to play in someone else's world, but I think that's pretty typical for Twitch. D d is homebrew worlds and I.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Think that can be the most fun too. Just really getting to explore someone's creation and you know, get into their psyche and their story a bit more.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Well, now that you say that, before we started this campaign, or like it was kind of simultaneously like we were playing our characters and we would switch scenes and he had us role playing as deities, creating his new world. It was so fun.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: He like gave us a list of things to take home and be like, come up with a creature, a race, and I like come up with all this stuff and why it would relate to you as the God that you chose to be and how we're going to put it into the world. It was a lot of fun.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Not only is that amazing, but it's also incredibly awesome. Lazy dming yeah, I think it's like, it's like, oh, could I be bothered making this own? Well, actually, let's turn it into a game then I don't have to bother. And everyone thinks it's amazing. Yeah, that's incredible. Tm.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Wait a minute, I didn't get paid for that either. But it is on Twitch dungeon mechanics, if y'all want to go watch it.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm gonna have to check it out.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: It's pretty wild.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: I've only just started listening to, you know, kind of some of those game. Well, not necessarily twitch, but definitely online gaming. I mean like there's critical role and all of that, but you know, that's.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: A bit, who's that? Just kidding.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Never heard of them.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Yeah, no idea what you're talking about.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: You know, there's just some great, some great content creators out there and some great campaigns. I haven't even thought about Twitch. I normally just go to that for like Minecraft videos and things.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Right.
I had never watched a twitch D and D show in my life until I was doing one.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: So yeah, even critical role I, to this day I've never watched a full episode of it. So. Not that I don't want to, it's just, it's a commitment.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: How is it playing on twitch though? Is it like, is it a bit nerve wracking? Like, I mean, I guess if there's no one watching then it's fine, but if you suddenly got, you know, like a thousand people kind of, you know, waiting on your every word, it's nerve.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Wracking the first time, especially because I like to do voices and so, like, not knowing who's listening or really all of the people that I'm playing with, like, they're going to think I'm so weird.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Because they can watch my face, do these voices. Yeah, I can't. Like, they can see me right now, but eventually you just. You're just playing D and D and you don't care about it.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: No, I'd love to give that a go. I've had a couple of dice makers that I've interviewed saying, you know, wouldn't it be kind of cool if we did, like, a whole bunch of dice makers get together and, you know, play some one shot adventures or something like that? So, yeah, that could be a bit of fun as well.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Everyone can bring their own dice and we can see, you know, the merit of their handmade dice.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Yeah. I also thought about bringing their own DM's, so, you know, like, maybe we kind of, you know, go around the group and everyone brings their. Brings their DM just to.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Hi, guys. This is my DM.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like, bring your DM to school day. And I was chatting to my friend who's our DM, and he's like, oh, yeah, that'd actually be kind of fun.
It would be just getting to. Getting to run a party with a whole group of people he's never met with, you know, someone in common, you know?
So tell me, Dave. Dave, salty stormtrooper, Salty's place. Damn. Art salty Dave, what's the story, mate? Who are you? What should we call you?
[00:08:51] Speaker B: All of that is me.
Well, everyone calls me Salty because I made that my handle. So that's all they know me by.
It's. I was in. I'm huge Star wars fan, big avid Star wars fan. And I loved the stormtroopers, bless their hearts. Um, I was also in the Marine corps, so I just smushed my two things together. Salty foot soldier, having a rough day. Now I'm a salty stormtrooper having a rough day.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: And, uh, have you. Have you considered joining the 501st or anything like that?
[00:09:27] Speaker B: I would absolutely love to. And that may be in the cards. If I ever get around to getting a filament printer that can do big enough pieces, because. Which we may talk about. I don't. If I think that I have a chance at making it, I want to do that before spending money on it.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Which is kind of why I'm, you know, here making dice.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: I've met quite a few of the 501st different conventions and stuff like that. And I'm sure they're. They're fairly similar world around, you know, like, it's. It's quite a large. A large group there. But I. The costumes are absolutely spectacularly made. Amazing.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: And, you know, the certification process they have to go through to, you know, to even be able to wear them under the 501st is just absolutely incredible.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Can't just make any armor. They have to.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: They do so much charitable work and, you know, hospitals and all of that kind of stuff, so. Yeah, absolutely fantastic organization. And.
And I think they've got chapters pretty much all over the world. Right?
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it's crazy.
Absolutely crazy.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: Now, I talked to a lot of dice makers on this show, but never actually spoken to someone who is a dedicated dice designer. Now, how did you get into that?
[00:10:51] Speaker B: As I said, I like to attempt to make things before dumping money on it. It's just how my brain works. So I. I consider myself a serial hobbyist.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Aren't we all?
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I've met many of me in this new dice community, but the original urge came from the D and D group that I mentioned. I wanted to make a dice with the group's logo on it. So I was doing research on how to get a pretty picture on the 20 face of a D 20.
And, boy, did that open up a world.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: It does.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Of information that I didn't know, I needed to know, but I didn't really. I didn't want to just make your typical shapes because, I mean, after looking up homie handmade dice on Instagram, there's just so much out there. A lot of it's similar. Not that that's a bad thing. The original die shapes are what they are. They're priceless. Everyone loves them. They're nostalgic. But I just. I like to try new things. So that research led to the rebel broker productions, and one of their tier options lets you have access to, like, hundreds of blank shapes, different kinds of shapes. And if I'm just being honest, my goal was to join that tier. Yeah, download what I needed and get out of there.
To my surprise, joining that community, that discord, they taught me so much on how to design that I eventually stayed and made great friends. A reliable rogue, Michelle. A good friendship with her from that. And eventually my designs were catching the eye of rebel broker, and they hired me on to do their design work. I've been doing that for a bit, and I've just kind of started branching out, doing commissions. But the beginning goal was to cast dice with a pretty logo on it, but that's so quickly switched to just wait a minute. I can make some crazy stuff if I think about this a little bit longer. But honestly, it's been so much more fulfilling seeing wonderful makers cast my designs and sell them way better than I could do right now. I mean, maybe if I spend a year or so casting, I could come up with some good stuff myself. But I get that instant gratification, I guess, of, like, I deserve that. And they're making some beautiful stuff from it. It's. I like it a lot. It's fun.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Look, I'm 100% the same. I love the idea of people, you know, using my creations or, you know, reading my book and then creating their own amazing artwork and stuff like that. Like, I get a real kick out of that. So I completely get where you're coming from. But I've also noticed, too, chatting. Chatting to a lot of people at conventions, and you said about traditional dice shapes and all of that sort of stuff. I think it kind of feels like there's a bit of a 50 50 mix there. Like, at conventions, some people ask for traditional dice shapes. Other people lose their freaking mind when you show them a rhombic d twelve. And, I mean, I guess I've stared at these things for too long, probably like a lot of dice makers, and it's just amazing how few people outside of the dice industry have kind of seen any different shape dice.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: I know. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, I get it because there's some things I can be traditionalist about, but, you know, people want their d 20 to be the typical d 20, where it just doesn't feel right to them, which I get. But, yep, I'll do designs for you on classic dice. Sure. But if you really want me to get into it, let me go crazy with it.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: What sort of shapes do you like doing? Like, are they more organic? Are they. Tell me. I mean, again, this is not a visual medium here. So, I mean, I'm kind of interested in understanding what sort of shapes, you know, are really interesting to you versus, say, you know, our traditional, mathematically balanced.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, balance is still the goal, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It still needs to function properly. So that's unfortunately very important.
Unfortunately, that hasn't.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Well, I mean, let me just for a second there. That hasn't always been the case. Now, you know, looking back at history, they used to believe that, you know, the gods or the hand of fate controlled the dice, and so there was never a particular interest in them being.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Balanced because, yeah, I mean, knuckle bones probably weren't like, even on all sides, you know?
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Exactly. And those knuckle bones, you know, like your life could hang in the balance there. And it was entirely up to the, you know, whichever deity you believed in casting lights for my wellbeing, I think we need more of that. And I think, you know, a lot of people are a little bit too concerned about balance, but.
Sorry, I kind of cut you off there. But.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: No, no, it's good. So revel broker has a lot of the, like, sphere shapes which credit due to them. They made a full set where it's spheres on both sides, the orb dice, as they call them. I love working with those because those domes, if, if you don't want them completely clear, you can put so much artwork on the top of those domes because you don't. There's no numbers that need to go there, anything. So I really love working with those. And creating crazy d four s is a lot of fun, too, because you can make them into bigger d four s and d six s. You can get bigger die face space, so you can get crazy with designs on that. So that's a lot of fun. Trying to scroll through some of the things I made here to even, like, describe what I've created. So I've made some stick dice. You may or may not have seen them floating around.
Uh, d, you know, they still follow the, like, um, shape where, you know, they're opposite of each other. So the, the d eight still follows that, but, you know, it's just stretched out. And I domed the top off so it's kind of like a sphere. And the d six and the d four are just sticks, but they kind of like, taper off on the end. So they kind of have like a wobble to them. And that was just me trying to recreate historical dice, like looking up pictures of old dice and like, trying to come up with ideas. Those have been a lot of fun coming up with new ways to make. Still use your standard cube for a pip dice, but coming up new ways to show, to show off what the pip is. So, like, full art on the face and whatever the art is will show off how many pips it is, stuff like that. Just try to think of different ways to have fun with the shapes and the designs.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: You know, I've kind of been pondering the idea of making a d 20, that it's even harder to get a crit on. You know, if you think about it, like, a d 20 has, what, a 5% chance of getting a perfect 20. But you know, what if it was like a 20 sided dice, but the chances were a lot more challenging, like, physically hard. You know, it's like the perfect lightning strike. The enemy's tripped over and fallen over their spear, or, you know, you've gone to. You've gone to hit someone. You've gone to hit someone with your sword and the pommel's fallen off or something like that. Like, you know, how do you deal with kind of that lightning strike type of scenario in a dice?
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yes, I love that so much. Rebel broker made a shape. I think it was like, it's either 1416 or 18 face. I can't remember, but it has, like, a little corner triangle that's so tiny, but every now and then it does land on it. And I just. I love that. Like, I haven't made anything with it yet, but I'd love to, like, put some, like, either severe consequences on those for, like, you know, DM dice. Like rolling. Rolling something on there.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: That would be a lot of fun to make.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Say I'm playing a character that has some kind of disadvantage.
You know, maybe it's a rather clumsy rogue, you know, I love the idea of my dice having more chance of me screwing up than succeeding, you know, and I know we kind of do that with modifiers, but there's just something about the role or whatever that's like.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: Maybe, maybe, maybe it's got.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: It's like curse to down to an intrinsic part of their being versus just numbers.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: I think there's a lot to explore in that, to be honest. And. And I think. I think too many people are very stuck on the traditional ideals and, you know, and then using numeric modifiers and things like that to do that.
I just feel like there's a lot that could be done with that and a few extra.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Few extra one faces on that day, maybe.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, literally blessed and cursed dice.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Like, you don't have to roll with disadvantage. You just roll disadvantage.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: This is the disadvantaged.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: So tell me, if you were going to design something like that, what would your process look like?
[00:19:52] Speaker B: I mean, with that, with the actual shape designing of that, it would come down to, like, just, you know, putting together shapes, cutting pieces off to make it look. To make other sides heavier than the other. Or just a simpler way would be to pick a standard shape and change the number faces, which is not as fun, but, yeah, as far as that, I think that's all I would do for that, is just kind of put pieces together, group them, cut them up, see if I can come up with something interesting, see how they look laying flat, how the numbers would read, you know, stuff like that.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And so in terms of software you're using, you know, 3d design software, I.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Typically, right now I'm just using Tinkercad because it just. It's so simple to make shapes in Tinkercad. I mean, that's what it's for. It's for making shapes, albeit it's not meant for organic shapes. So good segue to. I'm. I'm teaching myself blender right now so that I can eventually start making some more organic looking dice. And sorry for the general population of the dice community, but some really weird dice.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no, bring it on. I tell you, the other. The other tool which I've been really interested in, well, I mean, I've used in the past, but would probably be interested in looking at for dice designers, zbrush. Zbrush, or whatever you want to call it.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: I mean, blend is a good free alternative, but the zbrush interface and everything is absolutely spectacular.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: So amazing.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Particularly for organic shape modeling where you've got a, you know, you've got a, um, a basic primitive or whatever, and then you really just want to sketch shapes onto the dice. Yeah, I kind of want to pick up and have a bit more of a play with that.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: I got to play with Zbrush in college for an art class for a little bit, and, oh, it was amazing. But I can't justify the means to buy it yet.
I will suffer through my blender training until I'm like, you know what?
[00:22:00] Speaker A: I'm.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: I deserve zbrush.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's not just zbrush then. You've got, you know, ideally a wacom tablet or something like that.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I've got a tablet that. That I could use it probably. I probably could go for updating it, but it's a pretty old version.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: And so once you've got kind of the design in Tinkercad, I'm guessing you're, you know, you're designing the number faces and things like that in, like, illustrator or some other vector program or.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah, well, truthfully, because what, your medium, your canvas that you're working on is so small, you don't need a lot of horsepower or, you know, tools to make crazy art. So I have lots of things, but honestly, I just use. I'm not an Apple user, so I can't use procreate, but I use infinite painter.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: It's just in our app for the. The Samsung.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: And I've kind of got it down. Like, my process is I'll take a screenshot of the face of the die with the grid on it so that when I'm drawing on my phone, I make sure the widths are how I like. But it's. It's really an easy process. I'm even afraid to tell the world how easy it is because everyone will start doing it. But, you know, I'm fine with that.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: Well, I mean, if everyone can start doing it, then everyone would be doing it.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's fair.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: That's. That's the. That's the point of art, right?
I mean, if that was the case, then dice makers, you know, as they are now, wouldn't exist, because, hey, everyone just picks up a copy of my book and they're doing it.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Right.
Okay, fair, fair.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: You in that one poor, poor Nichelle at the reliable rogue just, you know.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Like, exactly like, just would cease to.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Exist because everyone can do it. No, it's. It's not like that at all. I think, you know, even. Even saying I use this tool, this tool and this tool, like, yeah, putting it all together is another thing entirely. Right.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: You know, I say that, though. But if anyone DM'd me and was like, hey, can you show me how to do this? I'd be like, heck yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'll show you my whole process. Because that's. That's how I learned. Someone was like, here's my process. But, yeah, it's fun. I am traditionally an artist, so my favorite part is doing the art design.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: So tell us a little bit about your history and artistic endeavors. You can go right back to crayons if you want.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: I picked up my first black crayon.
My life was changed since, um. No, I hate crayons, actually. Um, I've been doodling my whole life and eventually decided to switch to the art path in college. Um, so I have a degree in painting and drawing, actually. Um, yeah. So naturally, right after getting an art degree, I joined the military. That's obvious.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: Next month, obviously. Yep, yep.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: No, I am traditionally trained in painting and drawing, and from there, I've just diverged into so many different paths of different types of art and crafting and stuff like that.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: What sort of. What sort of paintings and drawings do you. Do you like to do as opposed to, you know, are you good at.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: I love characters, people designing, painting. I love portrait painting. I love illustrating. So you give me a novel or a scene or something like that. I love drawing people's d and D characters, especially if they give me a good scene. So if anyone's interested in some d and d art or character art, I do that too. It just takes a lot longer. But people is what I like to do. I'm nothing so great with landscapes and stuff like that.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: And looking at your instagram, it seems you're quite into leather working as well, right?
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Yes. That is. I'm sure many can relate. One of the COVID things that I picked up that has just really stuck. I've enjoyed it so much, I guess. Very similarly to dice, I wanted to make my own armor for a ren faire, a renaissance festival. Went to go buy some, realized that's very expensive.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: It is, yeah.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: Let me just google or look on Amazon and see how much supplies would cost. Shellshock. Significantly cheaper to buy the materials, cheaper.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: Just to buy a cow. Right? Like, and start from.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Basically. Yeah.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Apologies to any vegans listening. Um, but yeah.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Yes, um, I would say no animals were harmed in the making of my leather products. But moving on.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Pleather. We use pleather.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I, uh. Yeah, I. That's one thing that I picked up today. Really enjoy. Which it also channels into my artistic side. I get to draw the designs that I put on the pieces and it's a lot of fun. I just made a belt for swole initiative. He's big in the D and D community. I don't know if you've ever heard of him, but he has a twitch channel to swole initiative network. I was happy to get to make a belt for him. That was one of my most recent things I did.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: And I mean, like any art, there's a whole huge scope to leather working. You know, you've got belts and wallets and armor and accessories. So what other sort of things do you enjoy making?
[00:27:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really overwhelming. And unfortunately, the stuff I want to make isn't really going to make me a lot of money.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: Out of the gate.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: What's. What's the point of a hobby, right? Apart from making you broke.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: I know that's the other side to that coin. Armor is so fun to make just because you look awesome when you wear it. What else is there?
Um, but I am a D and D nerd. Ttrpg nerd. And so I've designed a, what I'm calling the navigate navigator scroll. And it's a, um, a leather dice tray that rolls up, um, has a connected pouch to it and a little leather cup that, like, sits on the end of it, it kind of looks like a map case when it. When it's on there, but it all unrolls into a tray. That's something that I spent a couple of months on designing and finally did a giveaway with my first completion of it, which I'm very excited to make more of.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: And I know you said you picked it up during the whole Covid-19 lockdown type scenario there, and I think a lot of people were in the same boat picking up hobbies.
I just find that really, really fascinating. How many people just really wanted to get back to doing something basic like that through that period of time there, whether it was, you know, pottery or dice making or leather working or whatever it happens to be.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: I know exactly what you're talking about. I mean, that's kind of what I went through, too, but it's. I think it's just, you know, being trapped inside with what before you would be like, I can't wait to get off work so I can mindlessly do these things. Now I'm here with it all the time. Twenty four seven. And you slowly realize how necessary it is for your brain to interact on a yemenite more troubleshooting level or to get the body moving in new and different ways just to. I don't want to say just to feel something, but, you know, contributing in some small way to something else.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: And, look, I think that time was absolutely huge for the growth of the dice making community as well. And, you know, although some may say that there's probably too many competitors now, you know, I'm definitely a believer in the fact that, you know, competition brings ingenuity and brings new excitement and all of that sort of stuff as well. Right?
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Yeah, sometimes it's a twofold problem. Like, you know, I love seeing what the community's doing, what's out there. But at the same time, if I'm sitting on an idea in my brain and just brewing on it and I see something out there that's, like, remotely like it, I'm like, well, I'm just gonna scrap that, because.
So sometimes it's hard because you're like, I. You know, if I'm really in love with the idea, I'm gonna shy away from Instagram for a while until, like, flesh it out, because, you know, it's tough.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Speaking of Nichelle, before the reliable rogue, I've been following her foray into potion, dice making, and to be honest, I think she's been doing an absolutely smashing job of it, even though other people have done potion, dice. So, yeah, I would kind of say, based on what you just said there, like, pursue those ideas. Like, there's always room, you know?
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Yeah, she's killing it with those potion, dice. I've seen so many, but none have made me drool like those.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's so many designers and artists out there doing potion, dice, but to kind of go, yeah, I'm just going to tackle that anyway. Kind of shows that, you know, that a little bit of tenacity, even in the face of competition, can still really. Well. Right.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: That being said, I have a full. A full alchemy set that I've designed. It looks like an alchemy set, but each piece is a. Is a. Is a piece of the dice set. Each one is an individual dice that I'm working on. And when I saw Michelle's dice, I asked her, she would just, you know, mold them and make them for me, but she was like, I don't know.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: Yes, she's.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: She's had issues trying to mold some of my designs in the past, so.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Right, yeah. Yeah.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: I'm not. I'm not always, you know, maker friendly with my design.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Well, I mean, that's. That's what comes from. From trying to push the envelope and.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Do things a bit differently, take notes where needed.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: So you've also mentioned to me that you've been doing some commissions lately. What sort of things are you doing in that regard?
[00:31:28] Speaker B: A lot have been holiday themed. You know, I think, yeah. All of them have been standard dice shapes just wanting specific art, but a lot of them have to revolve around a holiday or a theme, like New Year's theme, one I'm doing right now, which I'm really excited about. I won't go too much into detail about what I'm doing it for, but it's, um. I. I'm excited for because it's just a d 20, all the faces covered in art, and it kind of tells a story. I'm very excited about it because they've given me a lot of freedom as far as, like, artistic design and placement and stuff like that. So I'm excited about that one.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And so I'm guessing that's something you'd like to do a lot more of.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: Absolutely. I don't. Listen, folks, I don't care if you just want a logo on a dice. I'm here to help. I want to get my reps in, you know?
[00:32:14] Speaker A: And I think that's when I reached out to you. Like, this is the sort of thing that not a lot of people do. I've had a really tough time finding someone who says, I kind of specialize in designing dice. You know, you've definitely got some makers out there like myself. You know, I'm happy to throw some fonts on a. On a dice. I'm even happy to create some interesting mathematical shapes, but it's from a very engineering perspective, they're mathematically perfect. Hey, that's important, but don't expect that. It is important, but, you know, don't expect anything overly artistic, you know? And, you know, I think the other thing, too, is people don't always understand the constraints that, you know, kind of put on based on what printers being used and all of that sort of stuff as well. And, you know, having someone that kind of understands that based on, you know, some fairly major printers, I think, is also probably gonna save a whole lot of trial and error.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I was gonna say, I always know when I'm pushing my limits with the art. Yeah. Like, ooh, I don't know if I want to print that, because as soon as they sand it, it's breaking right off.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: And what sort of resin printer are you using at home?
[00:33:23] Speaker B: I mean, I bought my printer specifically to print off all of my designs and other dice. I have the anycubic mono 4k. Yep. Just your basic. I think it was, like, the cheapest one I could find that wasn't the double is actually, like, a real brand, you know? And, um, I love it. I've. I've pushed its limits many times, failed lots. But we've. We've had a lot of good, um, outcomes. Um, but, yeah, all of. All of my printed dice, I sand and polish and paint and use, because to me, they're. They're beautiful just like that.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: On the socials. Now you're getting a little more active.
I'm seeing you posting a few more of your dice, and I'm pretty sure after this episode, we're going to be seeing a lot more of your dice going up on socials.
Who should we be following? Who should we be looking for? Are there any other. Any other interesting, you know, dice makers? Any other, you know, people that you kind of really get excited when you see them pop up on instagram?
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Well, I first have to say rebel broker productions, you should follow them. They. I mean, they're the whole reason I'm doing what I'm doing. They always have great dice, very friendly and very helpful if you want to get into dice making. So if that's you, I definitely would say give them a follow. I mean, we've talked about her far too much tonight. Nichelle is reliable rogue.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: She's worth it. She.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely wonderful dice. I'm always amazed at everything she posts. And I wish that I were a very wealthy man so that I could buy all of her dice.
[00:35:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: And not even use them, just stare at them two or three times a day, which I may or may not do with a set of hers that I own already. So. And I will get my hands on those potion dice too. It will happen. Anyways, what were we talking about, Michelle?
Some other makers. I enjoy watching Navy's oddities. She does a lot of ren faire traveling, but her dice are always so brightly colored and such unique, like, color matching. Like, just very eye pleasing, aesthetically pleasing dice. And shifty charlatan. Charlatan. Shifty charlatan. She's got some wonderful dice as well that I enjoy looking at. Again. If I had more money, I'd be buying all these dice. Um, what else, what else? What else? I have a good friend, Helios. Helios dice. They make some fun dice as well. And they also like to, um, experiment with some of my designs. So there. If you want to see some fun shapes come out every now and then. That's. That's someone you can follow.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: Yeah. What about outside of dice?
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Outside of dice?
Oh, no. Oh, no.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Just. Just to put you on the spot. What about some nerdy leather workers or something?
[00:36:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Prince Armory. They make beautiful sets of armor. And they also sell patterns so that you can make your own sets of armor. I've made a few other things there if you're into leather or want to get into leather. Prince Armory.
Diesel punk row, I think is his name. He has some good leather patterns, obviously very steampunk designs if you're into that sort of thing. What else?
[00:37:03] Speaker A: I was just going to check your instagram and see who you're following. But you're following nearly 3000 people.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: I've followed far too many people.
I need to fix that.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: Yep. Sorry. To anyone who's on the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: I need to do some cleaning up. It's bad. If anybody wants to ask me any more questions, dm me. I'm friendly and so.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say instagram's the best place to reach out to you.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. It's probably the only place I'll notice you talking to me.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: Do you have a website yet?
[00:37:31] Speaker B: I use Ko fi. I'm gonna call it coffee.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: Yeah, you're kind of looking at me there. But no one ever knows how to pronounce that.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: I call it coffee ko fi. Ko fi because their logo is a coffee cup. So I'm gonna call it cop.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: But you can't kind of say, go to. Go to coffee.com, and, you know, expect to get a coffee bought for you.
[00:37:51] Speaker B: But there's. This is where things get confusing with me. I have my Instagram Danmart, my coffee page Danmart. But I am crazy and have a split personality.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: Okay. Like that rogue palette we're talking about.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Exactly. I have another Instagram called Salty's place. It's my new shop that I'm setting up. It's gonna be all ttrpg related items. Dice will eventually be there. Right now, it's where I'll post a lot of leather designs. The goal is mostly stuff that you can use at your standard session just to flare it up a little bit. And there's a coffee page for that as well. Salty sky emporium. So I have a split personality there. If you get confused, is just pick one of the two and dm me. We'll work it out.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Now, just having a look at your coffee page, you've also got some awesome clothing. You got some nerdywear. It's pretty cool.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Nerdy underwear.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: You got some nerdy bikinis. This is. This is some pretty cool stuff.
[00:38:50] Speaker B: So I also like to use my art to just make. Honestly, I don't. I don't really make things for other people. I know that sounds weird. I make a design that I want. All right.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Not at all.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: And slap it on some clothes, and then I buy it, which I'm wearing right now. And hopefully someone somewhere else in the world will want it too, and they can buy it.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: And just to clarify to the listeners, we're talking about his t shirt, not bikini. And David, I think that's about all we've got time for today.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: You sure? Know any more rabbit holes we can go down?
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Well, I was going to say, any other. Any other strange hobbies you've got apart from leatherworking, dice making? Dice designing?
[00:39:27] Speaker B: I make meaddez. Yeah.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Mead, right. That's awesome. Like, traditional viking style.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: I bought a book called how to make mead like a viking, and now I do it, and I love it.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: And so there's probably going to be another Instagram page, then. It's salty's mead, right? Is that.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: Uh. No, I think that was just gonna be for me. And if you happen to be in close proximity to me, you might get some. But I'm not. I'm not ready to dive into, you know, licensing. And, um, there's a.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: There's a guy on YouTube that I. I keep. It keeps popping up and he makes all these different meads and he was making a mountain dew. Yeah. And like, he, like, he did, he did, like a doctor pepper one. And interesting point here is Doctor Pepper is not a thing in Australia.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Oh, I'm so sorry.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: You'll find it. You'll find it in some odd stores. But, you know, generally speaking, don't. I don't think it's a taste that Australians really understand.
[00:40:19] Speaker B: Glad to see you can still smile. I didn't say that.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: All right. And that's all we've got time for today. Thank you so much for listening to talking dice. And thank you so much, David, salty Stormtrooper, for joining us today. Yeah, and if you're hearing this message, you've listened to the entire episode of Talking Dice, and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please give us a big thumbs up and leave a review. And don't forget to check out patreon.com talkingdice if you'd love to help us in the best way possible. And we'll catch you in the next episode of Talking Dice.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Goodbye.
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