Seattle 18XX Board Game Bank (3 Viewers)

[physics squirrel]

I'm designing a bank for my board game group in Seattle to upgrade my Milanos.

We play a lot of economic games that require frequent monetary exchanges ranging from $1 - $200. (Imagine a much more complicated version of Monopoly)

It is an absolute requirement that these have clearly denominated inlays, but I don't have a design for the inlays yet, and I'm worrying about just the edge spots and colors at the moment.

The denominations are as follows:

1 - White
2 - Pink
5 - Red
10 - Blue
20 - Grey
50 - Cyan
100 - Black
500 - Lavender

Right now, I'm experimenting with a yellow motif for the low value chips to make them easier to overlook as a whole in favor of the more interesting higher value chips when eyeing a dirty stack. (You'll never have fat stacks of 1's and 2's; they're just change) I might ditch this idea but it seems promising.

Requirements:

ALL denominations are distinguishable from one another in a dirty stack from across the table.

Higher denominations stick out compared to lower denominations.

 

[stocky]

Early suggestions. Pink and red chips both with yellow spots may have issues. I think @spikeithard had some issues with these two base colors?

Grey and light blue have similar hues and may be problematic but with the edge spots chosen it might be ok.

 

[physics squirrel]

@stocky Thanks for the feedback!

Would the Dayglo Pink provide better constrast with the red? Do you know why CPC doesn't recommend the Dayglo colors as a base?

If pink and red just aren't going to work, perhaps I'll change the $2 to a yellow base and rethink the edge spots.

If grey and light blue would be too similar, do you think that Charcoal would be an adequate replacement for Grey, or would it clash with the other darker bases?

 

[stocky]

@stocky Thanks for the feedback!

Would the Dayglo Pink provide better constrast with the red? Do you know why CPC doesn't recommend the Dayglo colors as a base?

If pink and red just aren't going to work, perhaps I'll change the $2 to a yellow base and rethink the edge spots.

If grey and light blue would be too similar, do you think that Charcoal would be an adequate replacement for Grey, or would it clash with the other darker bases?

I cant remember why but I had no issues using dayglo colors as a base color.

You could always use green for the $2. It's used quite a bit in casinos.

Charcoal would probably clash more with the black chip. But with the right spots anything is possible. Yellow is also used as a $20 often and could try that.

Personally I'd try and make each chip unique but if yellow is your thing go for it. Or try something like this, all chips use a yellowish color (Orange is close to yellow )

 

[physics squirrel]

Nah, I'm not too attached to yellow. I'm starting to think it will be too limiting actually. I'll toy with some other patterns for the $1-$10 chips.

I like the green for the $2, but my group seems to have the permanent association of any shade of green being $25, and I want the set to have a $20 instead, so hence the lack of a green base.

Thanks again!

 

[Psypher1000]

Experienced gamer here. What games do you envision using this for?

"Well, any games that need it."

Right. Which ones see the most play, though? Also, are you intending to use this for poker as well, or just for board games?

Also also...have you considered ceramics? Not saying you should or shouldn't go that route necessarily...they're simply cheaper and offer some different design options.

 

[physics squirrel]

The game we play the most is 1817.

It is an 18XX game in which, at a given time, there are 4-6 players and 8-16 companies, each with their own treasury that will have a stack of chips. Companies pay out to players and it can be helpful to have enough chips so that all of the payouts can be done without having to chip up.

We play other 18XX games, but 1817 is probably the most chip hungry. I probably don't want to try to make the set useful for Poker. My understanding is that for an 18XX bank, I want roughly 40-60 of every denomination through $1-$100 whereas in Poker you want lots of low denoms and a few high denoms. Of course, in order to make only 40-60 of each denomination, I would need to find someone to split the job with, but I'll worry about that problem after I'm sure what distribution I want.


I had not considered ceramics. I suppose it's worth getting some samples to see if it's a worthwhile cost trade-off. My primary impetus in thinking about this set though is that had the opportunity at a board game convention to play 18XX with custom inlaid ASMs, and I liked them so much that when I discovered that their manufacturer still was doing custom jobs, I was compelled to look into it.

 

[physics squirrel]

What are the best places to get custom ceramics? Is CPC still the place to start?

 

[Poker Zombie]

Old West Poker Supplies is a solid play for ceramics.

 

[spikeithard]

Early suggestions. Pink and red chips both with yellow spots may have issues. I think @spikeithard had some issues with these two base colors?

Grey and light blue have similar hues and may be problematic but with the edge spots chosen it might be ok.

Yea, try to stay away from any pink and red in the same pot for base colors. They blend too much and in the end made me get another base color for the .25 chip

 

[Richard D]

I have a set of ceramics that I use for board games. But out of a desire to use something that feels nicer I've bought some Majestics, and I'm currently relabelling some to better fit my ideal set.

FWIW, I've gone with 1, 2, 5, 20, 50, 100 and 500. Although I initially had some 10s, we found that we just weren't using them, as players tended to prefer either the 20s or a bunch of 5s. But maybe that was as much a function of the games we've been playing -chiefly Food Chain Magnate.

 

[physics squirrel]

I have a set of ceramics that I use for board games. But out of a desire to use something that feels nicer I've bought some Majestics, and I'm currently relabelling some to better fit my ideal set.

FWIW, I've gone with 1, 2, 5, 20, 50, 100 and 500. Although I initially had some 10s, we found that we just weren't using them, as players tended to prefer either the 20s or a bunch of 5s. But maybe that was as much a function of the games we've been playing -chiefly Food Chain Magnate.

What color scheme are you planning to use for the custom labeled Majestics?

 

[Richard D]

1 - blue
2 - green
5 - red
20 - yellow
50 - orange
100 - black
500 - lilac
1000 - White

Currently I have the 1s in White, but I'm planning on relabelling those first. I've stuck with the stock labels as far as possible (so my 50s are actually 50c - but the players haven't even noticed), though I've also been hooked up with the denominations I was missing via Gear here on PCF.

I'm going to order more chips and labels shortly, when Apache have the right colours back in stock.