64oz Games are crowdfunding their 3D printed dice stamped with Braille and Roman numerals, specially made for tabletop roleplaying games.

Richard and Emily Gibbs are a husband and wife team working to improve Braille accessibility in popular board games, and in particular tabletop roleplaying games.

Their company 64oz Games is based near Houston, Texas. Their campaign on Kickstarter has one goal, to purchase a high resolution 3D printer so they can make a top quality polyhedral die set (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20 & Percentile) stamped with Braille and Roman numerals.

This isn’t their first rodeo on Kickstarter. In 2014, 64oz Games ran a successful campaign to create accessibility kits for popular board games. They were 250% overfunded, but still managed to deliver all rewards 3 months ahead of schedule.

However, they’ve experienced problems with the MakerBot Replicator they bought after that initial campaign. As they explain:

We’ve used that printer extensively and continue to use it but we really are seeking to improve the quality and consistency of our prints. Printing technology has gotten a lot better since our initial Kickstarter campaign and we are confident that the upgrade to the dice quality is substantial.

Their standards are exacting, and it’s easy to understand why. With a Braille product, the tiniest flaw in production could make it illegible to a blind person. You can see in the video diary below the troubles they had when experimenting with manufacturing molded dice in the traditional manner.

We could just start selling the dice right now with our current printer but honestly the quality isn’t up to our standards. Additionally if as those who have been following us closely know our printer has been down for repairs most of the summer. The new printer is much more reliable by all accounts and is less likely to need repairs.

64oz Games have plans for Settlers of Catan, too

If any of you have ever tried, you’ll know that there’s more to 3D printing dice then just adding a set of Braille glyphs — they also have to remain balanced to avoid complaints of foul play!

The pledges are $10 for a single die, whilst $50 gets you a whole set. The rewards include Braille dice earrings, for that special lady (or gentleman) who likes to display their passion on their earlobes.

But there’s another project that caught our attention; the tantalising prospect of a 3D printed replacement board — in Braille — for The Settlers of Catan. Visually-impaired board game geeks could soon experience that special pleasure that comes with trading wood for sheep.

Richard and Emily Gibbs work out of their home in their spare time. He is a board game designer and enthusiast, and she is a teacher of the visually impaired.

The duo have already hit their target, so 64oz Games will be able to continue to produce high quality Braille teaching materials and help improve Braille literacy around the world. But go ahead and back them anyway, they surely deserve your support to continue their good work.