At this lovely holiday time of year, we wanted to showcase some of our favorite companies in the D&D world to add to consideration for your gift-giving lists! Today, we feature Elderwood Academy.
Our friends Gwenyth and Austin of Me, My Spouse, and a Die were the first to introduce us to Elderwood Academy, and the couple we’re playing through Waterdeep: Dragon Heist with also love them! You’ll see their Spellbook RPG Gaming Boxes later in the post!
Elderwood Academy did a gorgeous kickstarter a couple months ago with Mini Spellbook Dice Boxes, which I absolutely love! They’re available for pre-order now!
Above, you’ll see the emerald exterior of the Mini Spellbook Dice box with the lotus in gold and a bronze adventurer border. The interior is pictured below. The cherry wood was so pretty in the sun! If you’re interested in the dice pictured, check out our post on Level Up Dice.
One of the things I love most about Elderwood Academy, besides the high level of quality, craftsmanship, and attention to detail, is the wide variety of designs available. The biggest problem you’ll run into, I’ve found, is trying to decide between the different gorgeous options!
Holiday Timing: We love supporting small businesses in the RPG community, but it is important to remember to place orders early so your custom-made pieces can be sure to arrive in time for Christmas or whatever wintery holiday you celebrate. For Elderwood Academy, international orders need to be placed by December 1st, and US domestic orders by December 7th.
What it is
Elderwood Academy makes custom wooden accessories, as well as a few other goodies, for your D&D tabletop. They’re based out of Michigan, and they’ve been making RPG goodies for the past five years.
Their first project was the Hex Chest dice box, and they’ve grown from there to include Spellbook Gaming Boxes, gemstone dice, dice trays and towers, and more!
As you’ll often hear from me with companies we love, Elderwood Academy has amazing customer service!
I reached out to them with a product detail question, and they got back to me really quickly and were happy to continue the conversation from there! They also make custom pieces if there’s a unique pieces of art or design you’d like to see added in foil or engraved.
What it does
Elderwood Academy’s accessories provide lots of different customization options for the D&D table which, as someone who loves detail, I find absolutely thrilling!
Customization options
Let’s look at some of the hex chest dice boxes so you can see what I mean. The classic hex chests come in 10 different wood varieties and 35 different engraving options. You can also choose to have them open, so the dice would mix together, or in a honeycomb, so the seven dice would be separated.
Now, really quickly, in case you don’t like to have lots of options, or in case you’re shopping for the D&D fan in your life and don’t know what to get them, I’d say stick with the classics, like red oak and walnut, and then choose the engraving for the class they play most often or most relate to. There’s even a storyteller option if they’re a perma-DM! Then I’d go with the honeycomb interior. There’s no difference in cost, but I think it looks more polished. However, at the end of the day, go with your instincts!
In one of our earlier posts, we talked about Wyrmwood, who also make high-quality wooden D&D accessories. We’re really happy with our pieces from them, but I do think the personalization options from Elderwood Academy help them to stand out here if you’re trying to decide between the two.
But back to Hex Chests.
Other Hex Chest Options
You can have your classic hex chest engraved on the sides with either a pattern or a message if you’d like further customization. I love to have really significant moments in-game, or really funny ones, engraved to preserve them for future games.
In addition to the classic hex chest, you can also get mini hex chests, which we have pictured below. They’re available with a key ring or without, but I love the D&D-readiness of always having a tiny set of dice with you just in case!
If you’re feeling extra fancy, then I’d suggest the Hex Chests Remastered or the Hex Chests Elite.
The Hex Chests Remastered have a leather-lined top and maple-inlaid interior. They’re gorgeous!
Crafted in a beautiful set of woods, each Hex Chests Remastered features deep-engraved art, maple-inlaid interiors, a classy leather lined top, and hidden magnetic closures.
Elderwood Academy, Hex Chests Remastered
If you’re feeling even fancier, then the Hex Chests Elite are for you! They’re inlaid on the top with maple. The artistry of this is amazing, and the effect is beautiful.
Like Hex Chest Remastered, they are crafted in luxurious woods, have maple-inlaid interiors, are lined in natural leather, and seal smoothly shut with hidden magnets. The Elite edition is augmented with your choice of hand-placed maple inlay top art to make your gaming nights spectacular. Hex Chest Elites are our most eye-catching dice storage solution, combining art and function into a singular package.
Elderwood Academy, Hex Chests Elite
Why We love it
As we’ve said earlier in the post, Elderwood Academy has incredible customer service and so many personalization options which add a special touch to the gaming experience.
We love supporting small businesses and high craftsmanship, and we think that their gaming accessories would make for incredible gifts for either yourself or your duet partner.
So you can see more of the options available, we cover a few more products at the end of this post, but we also highly suggest heading over to their site and having a look around. They have special items for fans of Vampire: The Masquerade, a Police box Spellbook, and a whole line of Acquisitions Incorporated accessories!
They also make customizable deck boxes for Magic: The Gathering or other special card-based games.
Spellbook Game Boxes
Here’s an example of one of their Spellbook Gaming Boxes, which were the first pieces of theirs we encountered. (Thanks Eric and Gia!) This is the lapis cover with Yggdrasil in silver.
They have customizable interiors with different foam inserts. This one has space for pencils, two sets of dice, and minis with enough room for magic item and spell cards as well!
Their other Spellbook Game Box has the crimson leather cover and the spellcircle in holographic foil.
Each of these books fit our friends really well and are incredibly convenient for keeping up with all their accessories when they come over to play! The inserts on the left allow you to keep track of your stats during the game and can be dry-erased afterward.
Dice Catapult
When I spoke to Elderwood Academy about doing this post, they asked if they could send us a few pieces so we could check them out in person, which was really exciting. They sent us the lovely birdseye maple mini hex chest and mini spellbook dice box that you’ve seen in this post.
In addition, they sent us two really fun accessories: dice catapults!
We took before and after pictures for you as we assembled them but, apologies, we couldn’t find the wood glue, so a few pieces aren’t exactly where they’re supposed to be.
Closing Thoughts
I hope you’re enjoying these gift posts and that they’re helpful! We have a few more companies and ideas to feature for you this holiday season that we’ll post in the next few days along with a special duet holiday adventure!
Some of our other favorite companies include:
Level Up Dice for beautiful gemstone and luxury dice
Cantrip Candles for intricate and immersive candles
Inkarnate for custom map making
Syrinscape for easy-to-navigate and immersive in-game soundtracks based on monsters, locations, or official campaigns (review coming soon)
And Deven Rue, for immersive props and gorgeous hand-drawn maps (scroll just a bit in the Autumn Gifts post and you’ll find some of Deven’s pieces)
Picking out perfect presents is one of my favorite ways to express care. But, in the year when Jonathan was playing D&D before I’d started, I wanted to get him something special, but I wasn’t sure where to start as there are so many options. I hope this series of posts can help others avoid that indecision.
Also, we’d love to know your D&D gift-giving plans in the comments below!
If you like what you’re reading, please consider supporting the blog by purchasing our adventures and supplements in our shop or sponsoring us on Patreon. We appreciate you so much! Thank you for joining us on this adventure! – Beth and Jonathan
We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions!