A lot of subscription boxes are hit or miss. I’ve actually never kept a subscription for one longer then a few months. But I was really excited to hear about RPG Crate– a subscription box that aligned with one of my greatest passions. RPG Crate advertises that it has “Fantastic Tabletop Roleplaying loot delivered right to your castle steps! Subscribers will receive a monthly RPG Crate which may include up to a dozen different products; full modules, maps, dice, miniatures, exclusive adventure settings, and other tabletop role-playing game treasures.” I subscribed to get my hands on the first box and was super excited to have it arrive this month.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened it up, but I got one thing I love, dice! There are two sets of dice, each with their own bag and they come in the colors of RPG Crate. Each one contains a full polyhedral set, as well as three more d6s. Sadly, these are pretty standard dice. I was hoping for something with more sparkles, or a cool effect. But I can never say no to dice, especially Chessex dice!
The other two props were pretty cool as well. One is a dragonborn elemental miniature from Effincool Miniatures, which unfortunately for me is unpainted. I’ll have to work on finding a way to get it painted before I use it. The other is a set of cool gold props for a dungeon from Etch Master. I love the pile of coins, and there’s also weapons, shields, a plate and silverware, and a banner. I’m going to have to wait until I can build a dungeon to make use of them, but it’s a pretty cool idea.
Also included where three short adventures from RPG Crate’s Tales from the Bloody Bucket for D&D. I think these are really nice, compact adventures. The front of each sheet has the basic outline of the adventure and stats for the monsters encountered, and the back has the map or dungeon. These would be easy to insert as a side adventure in a campaign and have a lot of room to flesh them out for your party. There is an adventure for AD&D called A Forgotten Evil from Mischief, Inc. It looks interesting, and I’ve never played AD&D so it’s great to have a place to start.
I was less enthusiastic about the magazines from 1980. I think it’s because I’m not nostalgic toward that era, but if you are, these would probably be a pretty neat edition to your collection. They are genuine magazines, found in collection, so they are pretty rare and unique. Just not for me. And I never feel more like my interest is wanted less in RPGs then when a woman is lounging about scantily clad for no reason other then to gawk at her. These are going to just languish on my RPG shelf I’m afraid.
It’s harder to take a picture of are the digital rewards. I also got a copy of an audio book and ebook by Brian Rathbone. It’s the first book in a trilogy, and the rest of the series is supposed to be showing up in later boxes. I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but I really like that they provided an audiobook, as that’s a lot easier for me to read on my commute. There’s also some BattleBards downloads, which is great because I love their stuff and how adding music can really effect the ambiance of a game. The crate also had Pick and Pluck foam, which you usually see when transporting miniatures that is there for me to use for my own stuff. I already have a plan to put it in Aser’s future dice box to protect his braille dice.
Overall, I’m not sure RPG Crate is the tabletop subscription box for me. The only thing I’m super enthusiastic about is the props from Etch-Master, but I can’t really use them at this time. And I just don’t have enough nostalgia towards old school D&D, especially since I haven’t played anything older then 3.5e and D&D isn’t really a system I love. However, it’s something I might be interested in checking out in the future, especially if the box has a theme I find more interesting.
RPG Crate is $29.89 + shipping for a one month subscription. The theme for next month is the Undead!
I’ve also reviewed Dungeon Crate!
Update (7/12/17): I ordered the June Box from RPG Crate because of the theme, Cthulhu! Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with the contents. There was a shirt for Kraken Pale Ale, a beer that shows up in the three Tales from the Bloody Bucket adventures included. I wasn’t super impressed with the quality of the screenprinting. It seems the shirt is now the main reward included in the crate, the other rewards I received were a set of Innsmouth coins from Norse Foundry, a miniature from Effin Cool miniatures, the single page Tales from the Bloody Bucket adventures, and a 5e adventure from Frog God Games. The coins and miniature are really nice, and I’ll definitely find something to do with the coins. The miniature is a cultist with an octopus head, which will be amazing when I get the chance to paint it. The adventure was 5e adapted to be like an OSR game, which once again, isn’t really for me. But it doesn’t involve any mythos creatures, just some cultists. Plus the only drawing of a woman in the whole book is in eye-rollingly revealing clothing. Overall, I don’t think the box was worth $40 for me in terms of value or content.
