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DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) - Deep Dive Research - Part 1

TL:DR
Hello, welcome to my first deep dive write up.
My name’s Mark and I’m an accountant with a passion for investing. About two years ago, I used to work as an auditor at a public accounting firm and have been behind the scenes at many different publicly traded and privately held companies in the U.S. My goal is to bring my unique perspective from that past experience, my current experience working in a new role at a large corporation, and my understanding of accounting to help break down some of the most exciting growth stocks on the market today.
I’m a long-term investor. I am focused on finding great companies and holding them for a long time. I’m willing to endure volatility, crazy price drops, and everything that comes with this approach as long as the facts that led me to originally invest and believe in that company have not changed. If you want to learn more about this approach. I recommend reading the book “100 Baggers” by Chris Mayer.
Introduction
I think it’s fitting that my first stock pick has to do with sports. Sports has been a part of my life since I could walk at the age of 2. First with baseball and soccer, and then later in my childhood with golf. I’ve always played American football and basketball for fun as well and have always been an avid fan of all the major sports in the US.
I started playing fantasy sports (mostly just fantasy football) about 6 years ago and have always enjoyed it. Traditionally, with fantasy football you draft a team at the beginning of the year and those are your players for the rest of the season. If you have a bad draft, oh well. You can try to improve your team with trades and free agent additions but it is tough. Leagues usually consist of 10-14 teams (each managed by an individual) and there’s obviously only one winner at the end of the season (about 4 months after the draft). This can lead to the managers of the lower performing teams losing interest as the season wanes on. I believe DraftKings’ (DK) founders saw this issue and saw an opportunity. Enter, daily fantasy sports. Now, with the DK platform you can draft a new team every week. Or if you want, every day. This allows fans of fantasy sports to engage at whichever point of the season they want and at varying financial stakes.
The Thesis Statement
For every stock pick I make, I want to provide a quick thesis statement that can serve as a reminder for why I’m buying and holding that stock for the long term. I’ll always aim to make it just a few sentences long so it can easily be remembered and internalized. This helps during times when the price may sporadically drop and you need to remember why you’re holding this position.
The thesis statement I have come up with for DK is as follows:
“DraftKings: The leader in allowing fans to engage financially with their favorite sports, teams, and players. Having money at stake makes the game a lot more interesting to watch. The era of daily fantasy sports games, online sports betting, and online betting (outside of sports), is just getting started and DK is as well positioned (or better positioned) than anyone to capitalize off of this trend.”
Notice how I said “allowing fans to engage financially” as the first sentence and not necessarily “allowing fans to gamble”. There’s a reason for that. According to US Federal Law, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) contests have specifically been exempted from the prohibitions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). DK has always been, and I believe will continue to be DFS contests 1st, sports betting 2nd, and other forms of gambling/entertainment 3rd. It is noteworthy that states at an individual level can still deem DFS contests illegal if they so wish, but as of this writing (11/26/20), 43 of the 50 US States allow DFS contests and DK, accordingly, is offering DFS contests in all 43 of those US States.
I’ll try to clarify the difference between DFS contests and sports betting real quick:
DFS Contest – Pay a pre-set entry fee to enter a contest. All entry fees go towards “The Pot”. “Draft” 9 players to be on your “Team” for 1 week. Enter your “Roster” into a contest with other players (could range from 1 other person to 1,000s of people, the DK user can choose). Whichever “Roster” amasses the most points for that week out of all contestants wins. The winner will get the highest payout, and depending on the nature of the contest, other top finishers will receive smaller payouts as well.
Sports Gambling – Team A is considered a 10 point favorite to defeat Team B. This means that Team A is expected, by the professional gambling line setters, to outscore Team B by 10 points. This is known as a point spread. You can bet on the underdog or the favorite. If you bet on the favorite, they have to win by more than 10 points for you to win the bet. If you bet on the underdog, you will win the bet as long as the underdog keeps the game within less than a 10 point defeat.
These are just a couple simple examples to help you see the difference. Sports Gambling (the 2nd priority of DK) is a very lucrative market just as the DFS contests are. However, in the US, Federal Laws and regulations are a lot stricter on Sports Gambling than they are on DFS. As of this writing (11/27/20), 22 states (including the District of Columbia) out of 51 possible allow sports gambling.
DK is still in the infancy stages of getting their sports gambling business going. In the 22 states where they could potentially operate, they currently have a sports gambling offering in 11 of those states. The sports gambling business model for DK can be broken into two main offerings – mobile sports betting, and retail sports betting. Mobile sports betting means you can place a sports bet online from the comfort of your own home, while retail sports betting means you must go to a casino and place a bet with the sportsbook in person. I personally believe mobile sports betting is the real potential cash cow for DK out of the two types of sports betting offerings due to the convenience and ease of access. DK is currently working on and encouraging customers to lobby their state lawmakers to legalize sports gambling in more states.
How DK makes money
At the very least, before you invest in a company, you better understand how they make money. In Chris Mayers’ excellent book, 100 Baggers, that I mentioned above, he continually references top line revenue growth as one of the main common indicators of a possible 100 Bagger. This isn’t to tell you that any stock I pick will be a 100 Bagger just because it has great top line revenue growth, but if I am looking at a growth stock to hold for the long term, revenue growth is one of the first things I look at.
For DK, their means of making money is quite simple. I already went into detail above about DFS Contests and Sports Gambling. In DK’s latest 10-Q filing with the SEC (filed 11/13/20), revenue is broken out into two main streams: Online Gaming and Gaming Software.
Online Gaming (82% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
Online gaming is the true core business of DK and includes the aforementioned DFS Contests, Sports Gambling and additional gambling (non-sports) opportunities. DK refers to their additional gambling (non-sports) as “iGaming” or “online casino”.
For the 9 months ended 9/30/20, Online Gaming revenue totaled $239M, up 30% YoY from $184M in the same prior year period. Keep in mind, that this is an increase that happened during a COVID-19 global pandemic that delayed and shortened many professional sports seasons.
Online gaming revenue is earned in a few ways that are slightly different, but very similar overall. In order to enter a DFS contest, a customer must pay an entry fee. DFS revenue is generated from these entry fees collected, net of prize payouts and customer incentives awarded to users. In order to place a sports bet (sports gambling), a customer places a wager with a DK Sportsbook. The DK Sportsbook sets odds for each wager that builds in a theoretical margin allowing DK to profit. Sports gambling revenue is generated from wagers collected from customers, net of payouts and incentives awarded to winning customers. The last form of online gaming revenue is earned in similar fashion to a land-based casino, offering online versions of casino games such as blackjack, roulette, and slot machines.
Gaming Software (18% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
While the Online Gaming revenue stream mentioned above is a Business to Consumer (B2C) model, the Gaming Software revenue stream is a Business to Business (B2B) model. The Gaming Software side of the business was born out of the acquisition of SBTech, a company from the Isle of Man (near the UK) founded in 2007 that has 12+ years of experience providing online sports betting platforms to clients all over the world. The acquisition occurred as part of the SPAC driven IPO in April of 2020 that combined “the old DK company” with SBTech so that they now are “the new DK company” listed as DKNG on the NASDAQ. SBTech is a far more important part of the story than just being 18% of today’s revenue. The reason for this is because DK will eventually (planned mid-late 2021) be migrating all of their DFS and gambling offerings onto SBTech’s online platforms. Currently, for DFS, DK uses their own proprietary platform but that will move to SBTech with the migration. Currently, for online gambling, DK uses Kambi, the same online gambling platform that services Penn Gaming (PENN), a DK rival. But that’s enough about the software migration for now, back to the Gaming Software revenue.
The Gaming Software revenue stream for DK is essentially a continuation of SBTechs’ B2B business model. DK contracts with business customers to provide sports and casino betting software solutions. DK typically enters two different type of arrangements with B2B customers when selling the gaming software:
  1. Direct Customer Contract Revenue: In this type of transaction, the software is sold directly to a business (casino for example) that wants to use the software for their own gambling operations. This revenue is generally calculated as a percentage of the wagering revenue generated by the business customer using DK’s software and is recognized in the periods in which those wagering and related activities conclude.
  2. Reseller Arrangement Revenue: In this type of transaction, DK provides distributors with the right to resell DK’s software-as-a-service offering to their clients, using their own infrastructure. In reseller arrangements, revenue is generally calculated via a fixed monthly fee and an additional monthly fee which varies based on the number of gaming operators to whom each reseller sub-licenses DK’s software.
As mentioned above, SBTech was an international company based in the Isle of Man before being acquired by DK. Thus, the majority of their business in their first 12 years of operating independently has always been international and outside of the United States. This has helped DK, which has historically been US focused, expand it’s international reach.
A perfect example of expanding this international reach occurred recently during October (technically Q4) in which DK’s B2B technology (powered by SBTech) helped enable the launch of “PalaceBet”, a new mobile and online sportsbook offering from Peermont, a South Africa based resort and casino company. The deal was headed by DK’s new Chief International Officer, Shay Berka, who previously spent 10 years working for SBTech as CFO and General Manager. Mr. Berka took on the role of DK’s Chief International Officer upon the merger in April earlier this year. I think this deal shows that DK has integrated SBTech and it’s business very well into the larger business as a whole. They are not wasting any time using their newly acquired resources to expand their reach and bring in new sources of revenue.
This is the end of my first article about DK. My goal is to drop Part 2 later this week. The focus of Part 2 will be an in depth answer of the question – “Can we 10x from here?”
Disclosure: I am/we are long DKNG. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
submitted by Historical-Comment36 to SecurityAnalysis [link] [comments]

DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) - Deep Dive Research - Part 1

TL:DR
Hello, welcome to my first deep dive write up.
My name’s Mark and I’m an accountant with a passion for investing. About two years ago, I used to work as an auditor at a public accounting firm and have been behind the scenes at many different publicly traded and privately held companies in the U.S. My goal is to bring my unique perspective from that past experience, my current experience working in a new role at a large corporation, and my understanding of accounting to help break down some of the most exciting growth stocks on the market today.
I’m a long-term investor. I am focused on finding great companies and holding them for a long time. I’m willing to endure volatility, crazy price drops, and everything that comes with this approach as long as the facts that led me to originally invest and believe in that company have not changed. If you want to learn more about this approach. I recommend reading the book “100 Baggers” by Chris Mayer.
Introduction
I think it’s fitting that my first stock pick has to do with sports. Sports has been a part of my life since I could walk at the age of 2. First with baseball and soccer, and then later in my childhood with golf. I’ve always played American football and basketball for fun as well and have always been an avid fan of all the major sports in the US.
I started playing fantasy sports (mostly just fantasy football) about 6 years ago and have always enjoyed it. Traditionally, with fantasy football you draft a team at the beginning of the year and those are your players for the rest of the season. If you have a bad draft, oh well. You can try to improve your team with trades and free agent additions but it is tough. Leagues usually consist of 10-14 teams (each managed by an individual) and there’s obviously only one winner at the end of the season (about 4 months after the draft). This can lead to the managers of the lower performing teams losing interest as the season wanes on. I believe DraftKings’ (DK) founders saw this issue and saw an opportunity. Enter, daily fantasy sports. Now, with the DK platform you can draft a new team every week. Or if you want, every day. This allows fans of fantasy sports to engage at whichever point of the season they want and at varying financial stakes.
The Thesis Statement
For every stock pick I make, I want to provide a quick thesis statement that can serve as a reminder for why I’m buying and holding that stock for the long term. I’ll always aim to make it just a few sentences long so it can easily be remembered and internalized. This helps during times when the price may sporadically drop and you need to remember why you’re holding this position.
The thesis statement I have come up with for DK is as follows:
“DraftKings: The leader in allowing fans to engage financially with their favorite sports, teams, and players. Having money at stake makes the game a lot more interesting to watch. The era of daily fantasy sports games, online sports betting, and online betting (outside of sports), is just getting started and DK is as well positioned (or better positioned) than anyone to capitalize off of this trend.”
Notice how I said “allowing fans to engage financially” as the first sentence and not necessarily “allowing fans to gamble”. There’s a reason for that. According to US Federal Law, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) contests have specifically been exempted from the prohibitions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). DK has always been, and I believe will continue to be DFS contests 1st, sports betting 2nd, and other forms of gambling/entertainment 3rd. It is noteworthy that states at an individual level can still deem DFS contests illegal if they so wish, but as of this writing (11/26/20), 43 of the 50 US States allow DFS contests and DK, accordingly, is offering DFS contests in all 43 of those US States.
I’ll try to clarify the difference between DFS contests and sports betting real quick:
DFS Contest – Pay a pre-set entry fee to enter a contest. All entry fees go towards “The Pot”. “Draft” 9 players to be on your “Team” for 1 week. Enter your “Roster” into a contest with other players (could range from 1 other person to 1,000s of people, the DK user can choose). Whichever “Roster” amasses the most points for that week out of all contestants wins. The winner will get the highest payout, and depending on the nature of the contest, other top finishers will receive smaller payouts as well.
Sports Gambling – Team A is considered a 10 point favorite to defeat Team B. This means that Team A is expected, by the professional gambling line setters, to outscore Team B by 10 points. This is known as a point spread. You can bet on the underdog or the favorite. If you bet on the favorite, they have to win by more than 10 points for you to win the bet. If you bet on the underdog, you will win the bet as long as the underdog keeps the game within less than a 10 point defeat.
These are just a couple simple examples to help you see the difference. Sports Gambling (the 2nd priority of DK) is a very lucrative market just as the DFS contests are. However, in the US, Federal Laws and regulations are a lot stricter on Sports Gambling than they are on DFS. As of this writing (11/27/20), 22 states (including the District of Columbia) out of 51 possible allow sports gambling.
DK is still in the infancy stages of getting their sports gambling business going. In the 22 states where they could potentially operate, they currently have a sports gambling offering in 11 of those states. The sports gambling business model for DK can be broken into two main offerings – mobile sports betting, and retail sports betting. Mobile sports betting means you can place a sports bet online from the comfort of your own home, while retail sports betting means you must go to a casino and place a bet with the sportsbook in person. I personally believe mobile sports betting is the real potential cash cow for DK out of the two types of sports betting offerings due to the convenience and ease of access. DK is currently working on and encouraging customers to lobby their state lawmakers to legalize sports gambling in more states.
How DK makes money
At the very least, before you invest in a company, you better understand how they make money. In Chris Mayers’ excellent book, 100 Baggers, that I mentioned above, he continually references top line revenue growth as one of the main common indicators of a possible 100 Bagger. This isn’t to tell you that any stock I pick will be a 100 Bagger just because it has great top line revenue growth, but if I am looking at a growth stock to hold for the long term, revenue growth is one of the first things I look at.
For DK, their means of making money is quite simple. I already went into detail above about DFS Contests and Sports Gambling. In DK’s latest 10-Q filing with the SEC (filed 11/13/20), revenue is broken out into two main streams: Online Gaming and Gaming Software.
Online Gaming (82% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
Online gaming is the true core business of DK and includes the aforementioned DFS Contests, Sports Gambling and additional gambling (non-sports) opportunities. DK refers to their additional gambling (non-sports) as “iGaming” or “online casino”.
For the 9 months ended 9/30/20, Online Gaming revenue totaled $239M, up 30% YoY from $184M in the same prior year period. Keep in mind, that this is an increase that happened during a COVID-19 global pandemic that delayed and shortened many professional sports seasons.
Online gaming revenue is earned in a few ways that are slightly different, but very similar overall. In order to enter a DFS contest, a customer must pay an entry fee. DFS revenue is generated from these entry fees collected, net of prize payouts and customer incentives awarded to users. In order to place a sports bet (sports gambling), a customer places a wager with a DK Sportsbook. The DK Sportsbook sets odds for each wager that builds in a theoretical margin allowing DK to profit. Sports gambling revenue is generated from wagers collected from customers, net of payouts and incentives awarded to winning customers. The last form of online gaming revenue is earned in similar fashion to a land-based casino, offering online versions of casino games such as blackjack, roulette, and slot machines.
Gaming Software (18% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
While the Online Gaming revenue stream mentioned above is a Business to Consumer (B2C) model, the Gaming Software revenue stream is a Business to Business (B2B) model. The Gaming Software side of the business was born out of the acquisition of SBTech, a company from the Isle of Man (near the UK) founded in 2007 that has 12+ years of experience providing online sports betting platforms to clients all over the world. The acquisition occurred as part of the SPAC driven IPO in April of 2020 that combined “the old DK company” with SBTech so that they now are “the new DK company” listed as DKNG on the NASDAQ. SBTech is a far more important part of the story than just being 18% of today’s revenue. The reason for this is because DK will eventually (planned mid-late 2021) be migrating all of their DFS and gambling offerings onto SBTech’s online platforms. Currently, for DFS, DK uses their own proprietary platform but that will move to SBTech with the migration. Currently, for online gambling, DK uses Kambi, the same online gambling platform that services Penn Gaming (PENN), a DK rival. But that’s enough about the software migration for now, back to the Gaming Software revenue.
The Gaming Software revenue stream for DK is essentially a continuation of SBTechs’ B2B business model. DK contracts with business customers to provide sports and casino betting software solutions. DK typically enters two different type of arrangements with B2B customers when selling the gaming software:

  1. Direct Customer Contract Revenue: In this type of transaction, the software is sold directly to a business (casino for example) that wants to use the software for their own gambling operations. This revenue is generally calculated as a percentage of the wagering revenue generated by the business customer using DK’s software and is recognized in the periods in which those wagering and related activities conclude.
  2. Reseller Arrangement Revenue: In this type of transaction, DK provides distributors with the right to resell DK’s software-as-a-service offering to their clients, using their own infrastructure. In reseller arrangements, revenue is generally calculated via a fixed monthly fee and an additional monthly fee which varies based on the number of gaming operators to whom each reseller sub-licenses DK’s software.
As mentioned above, SBTech was an international company based in the Isle of Man before being acquired by DK. Thus, the majority of their business in their first 12 years of operating independently has always been international and outside of the United States. This has helped DK, which has historically been US focused, expand it’s international reach.
A perfect example of expanding this international reach occurred recently during October (technically Q4) in which DK’s B2B technology (powered by SBTech) helped enable the launch of “PalaceBet”, a new mobile and online sportsbook offering from Peermont, a South Africa based resort and casino company. The deal was headed by DK’s new Chief International Officer, Shay Berka, who previously spent 10 years working for SBTech as CFO and General Manager. Mr. Berka took on the role of DK’s Chief International Officer upon the merger in April earlier this year. I think this deal shows that DK has integrated SBTech and it’s business very well into the larger business as a whole. They are not wasting any time using their newly acquired resources to expand their reach and bring in new sources of revenue.
This is the end of my first article about DK. My goal is to drop Part 2 later this week. The focus of Part 2 will be an in depth answer of the question – “Can we 10x from here?”
Disclosure: I am/we are long DKNG. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
submitted by Historical-Comment36 to investing [link] [comments]

Online gambling legislation and regulation. Starting your own gambling product.

Online gambling legislation and regulation. Starting your own gambling product.

Mobile gambling
If you plan to develop an app with the ability to deposit and withdraw real money, then such a product automatically falls into the category of gambling and you will need to license your business for successful operation.
Mobile and Web Based Apps
So let’s talk about the different kinds of online gambling apps available on web and mobile. We’ll be covering both free-play gaming apps and real money casino app games you can find for iOS, Android devices and web browsers.
Mobile gambling is more common for poker, casino, bingo, and skill games. They have advantages in terms of a low barrier to enter the market, instant liquidity, product knowledge, and marketing expertise, minimal infrastructure costs, and the ability to bring a brand to the market quickly. Consequently, this form of gambling does not sit neatly with jurisdictional boundaries. Multiple gambling opportunities are available, including betting on various events and markets, in a relatively simple format. Gambling products can also be integrated into betting on television shows or virtual racing and sports games as well as offering lotteries, bingo, poker and casino games.
Most Popular Gambling Apps
Sports betting, casino, poker and lotteries are the most popular forms of online gambling. However, other forms are available too. These include the following: Bingo, slot machines, different card games, roulette and other game of chance. One of the best things about online gambling and betting apps is the number of choices you have.

Sports Betting

Betting means making or accepting a bet on the outcome of a race, competition, or other event or process, the likelihood of anything occurring or not occurring, or whether anything is or is not true. Today most sports betting is done via mobile-friendly sites and apps.
Today most sports betting is done via mobile-friendly sites and apps.
The introduction of live betting for sports like soccer and tennis means that bettors who are sitting inside stadiums watching games can now pick up their mobile devices and find real-time betting value with the best sports gambling apps. This has really unlocked a door to the future of sports gambling and the popularity of online gambling apps.

Poker

Many sites offer free poker, where no real money is wagered, although in some cases players can accumulate credits that can be exchanged for prizes. This is the case why people are going to play for real money. There is an ongoing debate over whether poker should be classified as a game of chance or skill. The parameters of legal poker playing are still unclear and differ between jurisdictions. Since you are not gambling with money, I’m pretty sure under the law it’s just a video game for now.

Blackjack

Blackjack is the game of choice to many high-rollers and do you know why? Because blackjack is a challenging, logic and skill-based game where your thinking, strategy, and calculations determine the outcome of the game.

Bingo

Bingo is one of the most popular and socially accepted games in the world. Bingo is a traditional form of gambling that has seen considerable innovation in recent years. It is also the only form of gambling recognized in the Gambling Act that does not have a specific statutory definition, the Act providing simply that “bingo” means “any version of that game, irrespective of by what name it is described”. Bingo must be played as an equal chance game. For game to be classed as “bingo” it must meet the Act’s definition of “equal chance gaming” (as opposed to casino gaming). Thus, it: must not involve playing or staking against a bank, and must be a game in which the chances are equally favorable to all participants in the sense that each ticket or chance has the same probability of success as any other.
Licensed bingo is a well-regulated and socially responsible form of gambling that takes place in a safe environment. Many sites offer multiple forms of bingo with different features, types of games, and costs of play. These sites often cater specifically for women and some research suggests that they may appeal to markets who would not typically engage in traditional forms of gambling.

Slots

Slot machine is one of the most beloved game among the gambling community and it has been a part of the industry for a long time. They provide fun and entertainment and their simplicity allows gamers to start playing at once. This can play out in different ways depending on the machine you’re playing. For instance, there’s Pick a Fortune, a five-reel, 20 line game that puts players right in the studio of a television game show, including the potential to play a Deal or No Deal-style bonus round. A super trend over the past few years is mobile-friendly slot games. These apps and websites were developed to enable players to enjoy their favorite games on their smartphones at any time. Another dominant slot trend is licensed branded slots that are based on popular movies, television, and musicians.
Virtual Money vs Real Money
Let’s find out the difference between social gambling and real money gambling, as well as the differences between gambling through apps and gambling through a web browser. It can be quite confusing trawling through all the casinos, slots, and lotteries available, both through your mobile web browser as well as through mobile app stores, in the form of downloadable apps.

Virtual money

The main difference between virtual money and real money gambling is that the in-game virtual currency in social games and gambling-type games is used only like credits that are not paid out as winnings or anything given to player in cash, making these games exempt from gambling regulations.
Virtual money is loaded on user game accounts via in-app purchases in mobile applications or the game balance funding from a card via web based applications.

Real money gambling

Real money gambling via your mobile device is only allowed in countries where laws have been passed that allow for this type of gambling online, or there are no laws in place that prevent it. The payment systems are the legal way of services payment in the gambling app, performing as the intermediary between the gambling facility and the client. With their help, users replenish deposits and withdraw funds to personal accounts in financial institutions. If the application uses the payment system of a well-known brand, that gives players additional confidence in the resource. Nowadays, there is a wide range of payment systems, some of which operate all over the world, other systems are oriented towards the citizens of one or several countries. A number of services accept money of different world currencies, while others allow currency transactions of one state only.
What is an Online Gambling Licensing
The internet has a global audience, there’s no single piece of legislation that covers the legality of online gambling for the entire world. Mobile gambling doesn’t typically accept customers from every single country in the world. It often focuses on certain specific regions.
Instead, most countries have their own local laws that deal with the relevant legal and regulatory issues.
Ultimately, questions of legality all go back to the location of the casino or where the website operates out of. In closed regulatory systems, such as Italy, France, and the Netherlands, licenses, and advertising rights are limited to domestic providers, which must be located within their country’s geographical boundaries and these are only permitted to offer some types of products. Some jurisdictions, for example, Norway, Sweden, and Canada legalize and regulate online gambling, but this is limited to a single site that is owned by the government. Under such an approach, the government becomes the operator and regulator and all revenues are returned to the government.
Remote gambling is generally permitted. That means that an operator that is licensed may provide gambling services to citizens in the country via all forms of remote communication (and using equipment that may be located in the country or abroad). Equally, a remote operator may be licensed to offer gambling services to citizens in any jurisdiction in the world using equipment located in the country. The law provides that, for each type of gambling (betting, gaming, and participating in a lottery), there will be two forms of license available: remote and non-remote forms (land-based). If you provide facilities for remote gambling, online or through other means, and advertise to consumers you will need a license from the licensing jurisdictions or local licensing authorities. Before an online gambling site signs up its first customer, before it accepts its first bet before the first card is dealt, it must be licensed by a recognized governmental entity.
Certain regions in the world have specific legislation in place that allows them to license and regulate companies that operate online gambling sites or provide industry services (such as the supply of gaming software). These regions are referred to as online gambling jurisdictions or licensing jurisdictions.
Depending on what type of entertainment you are going to implement in your internet establishment, you will have to apply for the corresponding permissions. Online gambling laws in Europe vary from one country to the next. The industry is well regulated in some countries and less so in others. There are several online gambling jurisdictions located in Europe. Some of these are members of the European Union (EU), and thus subject to the various rules and regulations of that body, while others are independent. Each of these jurisdictions has an authority that’s responsible for approving gambling sites for licenses that enable them to offer their services legally. They also regulate their licensees.
Countries that Provide Gambling Licensing
Today there are lots of licensing jurisdictions located all over the world and offering different terms for their customers. Depending on the country, licenses can be local, international (distributed in several countries), have a different set of documents for registration, costs of registration and further support, various operating conditions and other special details.

Which gambling license is both internationally recognized?

The government of Ireland offers casino operators, software, and service providers in the gambling industry, with a gambling license that allows gambling operators to conduct business related to casino, lotto, and other gaming-related activities. Ireland Gambling License is one of the most popular license for online casinos worldwide. Ireland has long been recognized as one of the preferred locations for Online Gambling operators to base their operations. This success has been due to a combination of factors, such as a progressive legislative system, political stability, first-rate telecommunications facilities, and a well established financial services industry. A wide range of gambling sites operates out of Ireland including sports betting, casino sites, poker, bingo, and more.
In stark contrast, the UK is the largest regulated market for online gambling in the world, and corporations are already comfortable exploiting the intersections of gambling and gaming, betting in-play, social gaming, Bitcoin, financial trading and spread betting, betting exchanges, e-sports and, most profitably, mobile gambling. 40% and 60% of online gambling in the UK took place in Gibraltar.

International licensing

Europe is home to the following online gambling jurisdictions: Alderney, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Malta. Malta is currently the country that is most accommodating to gambling companies, and the license offers whitelisted online gambling in sports and casino games in many European territories. But takes an extreme amount of time in paperwork and background checks. Also, you pay 5% of all your gross profit to the EU.
Among countries offering gambling licensing services, the attention should be paid to Curaçao jurisdiction, which is considered to be one of the most promising for the online gaming business.
Curaçao Internet Gaming Association (also known as Curaçao eGaming) is both a regulator and a licensor, and its licensing works worldwide except Curaçao itself, USA, France and Netherlands. Using Curacao as an example, let us examine in detail the process of obtaining a license, the necessary documents and expenses.
How to get a License on Curaçao
  • Documents necessary for company registration:
  • criminal record;
  • passport scans;
  • bank account confirmation;
  • documents proving payments for utility services.
After the company is registered, an operator can apply for the license providing the following documents:
  • a document certifying the right of domain possession;
  • description of games planned to be used in the project;
  • a list indicating countries of potential operation;
  • illustration of server locations to be used in the project;
  • a copy of the agreement with a software provider.
Gambling license cost:
  • Bank account opening $1000
  • Company registration $3600
  • Company management per year $3600
  • Application processing fee $1000
  • License fee per year $4800
  • Equipment/software fee starting from $1500
  • Server maintenance per year $6000
Apart from that pay for technical support and maintenance every year. The entire license issuing process takes between 2-4 weeks. Curacao Internet Gaming Association (CIGA) also has the power to review a license and, if it finds that an operator has breached a license condition, has the power to impose a range of sanctions including revocation of the license.
Apple and Google Gambling Rules
You’ll be surprised at the limited number of real money gambling app options available on the AppStore and Google Play Store. Most real money casino gaming is done through gambler’s mobile web browsers and not through mobile gambling apps that you’ll find for iPhone and Android phones. Apple allows online gambling applications in a few forms, and not just in places where it is explicitly permitted. They do not allow any payments through the applications – those have to be done on the websites. Apple has far stricter developer guidelines for iOS apps than Google does for Android apps, so it’s fine to assume that whatever you choose to download from iTunes is usually safe, secure, and meets a certain standard.
Any real money casino in the iTunes app is required to have proper licensing and permissions before Apple will approve the app for use or downloads. While Google Play is technically regulated, it is much more loose in what can be hosted.

Apple Store

Gambling, gaming, and lotteries can be tricky to manage and tend to be one of the most-regulated offerings on the App Store. Apple has rules for apps that support real money wagering, including sports betting and poker. Those apps and lotteries must have necessary licensing and permissions in the locations where the App is used, must be geo-restricted to those locations, and must be free on the App Store, and Apple rate even simulated gambling apps as appropriate only for users 17-years-old and up.

Play Store

Google keeps the reigns tight. To be able to successfully upload apps to the Google Play store, developers need to have a valid license for the specific countries they are targeting and comply with their regulations. The app must be free to download and must prevent under-age users from gambling in the app. As a final precaution, all gambling apps are required to display prominent information regarding responsible gambling practices. This brings its policy in line with the Apple App Store.
Countries where gambling is illegal
It is also important to remember that while gambling is growing rapidly in many places, in others it is totally or partially prohibited. As well as in the majority of the US, sports betting is illegal in India, Pakistan, and China, three of the largest gambling markets in the world. Most countries have rules against gambling. Almost all Islamic countries prohibit gambling of every kind, but many turn a blind eye to online gambling or simply do not have regulations in place for this grey area.
In the United Arab Emirates, however, any kind of gambling is prosecuted. National lotteries are the only legal forms of wagering on the Asian country’s mainland. Cambodia, North Korea strictly forbids online and offline gambling amongst its own citizens but allows tourists to participate in these activities.
Qatar is the strictest country of all when it comes to gambling laws. All forms of gambling activities are considered illegal, and even sports betting is not permissible.
Starting your own gambling product
Numerous online casino platforms in the market offer fantastic casino games like bingo, poker, roulette, and many more.
If you have an idea, but don’t know where to start, we advise you begin with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to pilot your proof of concept for investors. MVP spotlights your core features and lets your investors know there are bigger and better things to come.
For MVP you do not need a large team, just a few people are enough to create a fully functioning prototype. In the case of successful numbers of your prototype, the further development of a full-fledged product will require more team, resources and time, however you will be sure that your development and your costs will pay off.
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A thousand words wasn't enough? Here's five thousand.

List acquired here.
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Metal Coins for Board Games, A Compulsion - Part II

Part II: In this half of this article, I discuss generic metal coin manufacturers and other options for adding metal currency to your games. Check out Part I for more info about games that include metal coins and coins designed with a specific game in mind.
Edit: I've fixed the image link for the "new" Terraforming Mars cubes. Thanks to u/halfisglassfull for pointing out the error.
Back in 2016, I posted an article under my other username (u/Luke_Matthews) about my obsession with adding metal coins to board games, which you can read here:
Board Games and Metal Coins, An Obsession
What started as a diversion became an obsession, and since that article bloomed into a full-on compulsion. I’ve upgraded over 60 games with unique metal coins and currency, and I’d like to share the current state of this compulsion and what I’ve learned along the way.
It’s such a strange thing, because metal coinage is a purely aesthetic upgrade. They don’t change game mechanics or offer any extension to the gameplay experience. Even so, deluxe editions have proven there’s a market for aesthetic upgrades, and metal coins have grown into one of the most popular.
I have fallen down the rabbit hole of adding unique, thematic coins for each individual game. This approach is not for everyone. If, instead, you’re interested in adding generic coins you can keep aside and use for multiple games, I’ll talk about what sets I think are the best for that purpose at the end of this article.
For now, let’s get on with the show! GAME TITLES ARE LINKS TO PHOTOS. For a more user-friendly image browsing experience, view this post on my website or on BoardGameGeek.
NOTE: There is no way this will be an exhaustive list of all the metal coins available. I’ll talk about coins I have direct personal experience with, as well as make notes of other coins I don’t have and why I don’t have them. There will likely be a lot of coins not included here, and I encourage you to add your own experiences and pictures in the comments.

FANTASY COIN, LLC

Fantasy Coin is one of the first companies I encountered making a range of different coin styles specifically for gaming applications, without tying them to specific games. Of all the coin manufacturers out there, Fantasy Coin are definitely my favorite. Their coins are thick and heavy with fantastic finishes and colors, and come in a wide array of fantasy and sci-fi themes.
Getting ahold of Fantasy Coin’s products can be a bit fraught, though, as their primary source of income tends to be Kickstarter. Their website frequently sells out, and as their stocks dwindle, they’ll run another Kickstarter to replenish. Once one of their Kickstarters ends and ships, they’ll typically have stock which can be ordered directly from their website, but be warned you might have to do a little research to find out when more are available.
They’ve had some logistical problems with a couple of their Kickstarter campaigns, but for the most part they’re really good at fulfilling them. Their latest campaign was really well handled, and I think they’ve done a great job of addressing their past issues. Some previous backers, IMO, go a little overboard blaming them for mistakes, but forgiveness is not a typical trait of spurned backers.
Don’t listen to the haters. Fantasy Coin’s products are genuinely amazing and come at a great price, especially if you get them in bulk from Kickstarter.

Alchemists

I spent a long time trying to decide what coins I’d get for Alchemists. Since it only really requires one denomination, I had a ton of options (the Charterstone coins are a phenomenal choice, FYI). I decided on these coins from FC’s “Magic” set.

Caverna

Caverna’s one of the first games I upgraded with FC coins, and I have WAY too many coins for the game. They’re real nice, though, all from FC’s “Dwarven” set.

Clank!

Originally, these coins resided in my copy of Lords of Xidit. They’re a great, generic fantasy theme, so can go in many games. Once I picked up the Roll Player coins, though, I thought those were a better fit for LoX, so I moved these over to Clank. And they’re a perfect fit!

Five Tribes

This is probably one of my favorite upgrades using FC coins. I couldn’t find any really good, affordable Arabic- or Middle East-themed coins (at the time, there are some now), so I decided to lean into the fantasy side for Five Tribes. The silver coins are from FC’s “Serpent” set, and the golds are from their “Air Elemental” set. I think both work really well as representations of djinn.
Some people complain, when using coins like this for Five Tribes, you can’t hide their denominations. If it’s important to you to do so, I suggest getting either pouches or player screens to keep the coins hidden. However, I’ve never once found open money to have a significant impact on the game, so we just don’t bother.

Lancaster

I was originally planning on putting the old Brass coins into my copy of Lancaster, but when FC launched their latest Kickstarter and I saw their “Nottingham” set, I just couldn’t resists such a perfect thematic match.

Lunarchitects

Lunarchitects doesn’t actually have currency in-game, but one of the other great uses for metal coins is as victory point chits. Lunarchitects has a LOT of VP chits, and I definitely went overboard here, but it’s such a great game and I love these “Sci-Fi” coins from FC.

Nippon

There are actually several different options for Japanese themed coins, including the Yokohama metal coins and Artana’s Japanese set (which you’ll see in the next section). I chose to go with Fantasy Coin’s “Feudal Japan” coins for Nippon, because I just love the way they look.

Race/Roll for the Galaxy

Here’s another couple of games without currency, but for which I’ve replaced the VP chits with metal coins. In this instance, I don’t think I went overboard at all, and these “Credits” coins from FC are just an amazing aesthetic upgrade for two classic games.

Yedo

Yedo is one of my wife’s all-time favorite games, and ranks high in the worker placement genre for me. So, naturally, I bought the same “Feudal Japan” coins I used for Nippon for my copy of Yedo.

ARTANA

While Fantasy Coin is the company you’d turn to for fantastical and sci-fi-themed coins, Artana’s where you go when you’re looking for something with a more historical bent. While they don’t mimic specific real-world coinage, their designs evoke real-world cultures and time periods, which make them a fantastic choice for your average Eurogame. They tend to be lighter and thinner than Fantasy Coin, but not in a bad way. They also have 5 different sizes and finishes, from “Tiny” – which live up to their name – to “Jumbo” which are larger than a US half-dollar.
Artana’s coins used to only be available via Kickstarter, but they’ve since shifted their model to selling through game-bling websites like The Broken Token and Top Shelf Gamer. Since many coin manufacturers still rely on periodic crowd-funding to release new products, Artana’s consistent availability makes them unique.
I have just as many Artana coins as Fantasy Coin, and for good reason: they’re awesome. I’m primarily a Eurogame player so their coins are a thematic match for a lot of games I own. Their price-point is roughly the same as Fantasy Coin – on the lower end of the spectrum, overall – although because they have five different sizes and styles in every coin set, the price point varies depending on what specific coins you buy.

Akrotiri

I’m still genuinely surprised at how perfect Artana’s “Ancient Greek” coins are for Akrotiri. The specific motif perfectly matches the designs in the game, and I couldn’t ask for more.

Archipelago

For Archipelago I wanted coins fitting a 1700’s nautical aesthetic. These are from Artana’s “Pirate Ships” theme. The other coins in the set were a little too “skull and crossbones” for what I wanted (although colonizers ARE just another form of pirate), but I thought these two coins fit the theme really well.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig

I mean, these “Early English Kings” coins aren’t technically thematically appropriate. But I had them and figured I’d toss them in with a game set in 1800’s Bavaria because… well because the game needed some coins.

Concordia

Got a game set in ancient Rome? Get some “Ancient Roman” coins!

Istanbul

Again, near-perfectly themed coins from Artana’s “Persia & Asia Minor” theme. I really like the way these coins look with Istanbul.

Troyes

Artana’s “Middle Ages” theme is great for a game set… in the middle ages. They’re a little more Anglo-Saxon than Frank or Norman, but no one’s ever really going to notice. Ystari games once made coins for Caylus which were a perfect thematic match for Troyes; alas, they are no longer available.

The Voyages of Marco Polo

These are the first Artana coins I ever picked up, from their “Renaissance” theme, and they couldn’t look better in this game.

Yamatai

Really, any of the Japanese-themed metal coins I’ve seen or owned – from the Tokaido coins to Fantasy Coin’s “Feudal Japan” theme – would work well in Yamatai. But as beautiful as this game is, I wanted something with a bit more variety. Artana’s “Japanese” theme fit the bill perfectly.

Giochix Historical Coins

I’m a little torn on the Giochix Historical Coins. On the one hand, they’re nice sizes and weights, and they feel and sound great. On the other hand, they’re not really filling any sort of necessary niche. Artana has the “historical” space covered pretty well, and Fantasy Coin’s selection of SFF themes is pretty universal. If they were going to create specifically thematic coins, I wish they’d have filled some of the holes in this tiny industry, or just gone completely generic, which actually would’ve fit their physicality a little better.
All that said, Giochix did manage to create a couple of themes I found useful, specifically their “Pre-Colombian” theme, which is an area of the world other companies have neglected. It is, however, pretty niche, and I understand why they chose to make more applicable themes for Eurogames.
I only have two minor gripes: First, the shiny finish – while not necessarily bad in and of itself – does make the denominations a little hard to tell apart at a distance. Second, the relief on the faces of the coins is very shallow, looking much more like modern Euros than anything fantastical or historical. The problem this leads to is making it very difficult to differentiate coins from different themes, but if they’re assigned to a specific game this shouldn’t really be an issue. (It’s only an issue for nutty people like me who have this many different coin sets.)
They’re a good price, coming in at about 24¢ (US) per coin, which is on the low end of the scale. Their affordability goes a long way to ameliorate the complaints I have. Now, it’s just a matter of figuring out their availability outside Kickstarter.

Altiplano

There aren’t many coins out there with a South/Central American theme, so when Giochix made their “Pre-Colombian” set, I knew I had to put some in my copy of Altiplano.

Lost Cities: The Board Game

Uh… same.

Heaven & Ale

Okay, so it’s a bit of a stretch to have Giochix’s “Spanish Colonial” set representing Heaven & Ale, a game about beer-brewing monks more likely set in Germany or Belgium, but there were Benedictine monasteries on the Iberian peninsula, so I’m just gonna run with it.

Isle of Skye

“Celtic Apogee”. Can’t be a better fit. As a side note, the metal coins for Clans of Caledonia would also be a great match for Isle of Skye, but I wanted to differentiate the two.

Lorenzo Il Magnifico

This very Italian game deserved some perfectly-themed “Medieval Italian” coinage.

Roman Coins

Since I got these sets in bulk from Giochix’s Kickstarter, I ended up also getting their “Ancient Rome” set. But I have no game to put it in. I would be suitable for Concordia or Trajan or any game set in Ancient Rome, but I already have coins in Concordia, and no other game with a Roman setting at the moment. Here’s a picture anyway.

REAL CURRENCY

Sometimes, fake coins either aren’t the answer or aren’t available. If you can’t find fake coins for your games, the best option might be actual currency, either historical or current. I’ve used real currency in 5 games, so far.
The real problem with acquiring real currency, especially if it’s historical or foreign (I’m in the US), is availability and price. Most of the time you’re not going to find it any cheaper than fake coinage, and getting enough coins in large enough lots to use for board games can sometimes be a chore. If you’re willing to do the extra legwork, though, you can get ahold of some really nice coins.

Ukrainian Kopiyka/Hryvna

When I published the original version of this article, I saw people shortly after talking about Ukrainian coinage for games. I followed through on picking some up, because they are INSANELY cheap in this context, running about 8¢ per coin. Which, incidentally, is massively higher than the exchange rate for some of them, but still massively cheaper than fake coinage. The design is pretty, and is the same across all the kopiykas, and they come in all the standard European denominations.
There’s a problem, though. The 1s and 10s are extremely small, thin, and light. Smaller and thinner than a dime, and significantly lighter. For me, this is a massive issue, for a number of reasons. They’re so small and thin I actually have trouble picking them up, which makes them frustrating to use. But more importantly, they’re not really an aesthetic upgrade from punchboard coins. Every time I used them, I found myself disappointed and just wanting to go back to the cardboard ones.
There is one MASSIVE exception here: the Ukrainian 1 Hryvna coins, which I’ll detail below under “Village”.

Camel Up

I put a set of these in Camel Up, and that’s what I’m using for the pictures. But, honestly, I’m going to replace them very soon.

Village

The unlike the kopiykas, the 1 Hryvna coins are actually pretty fantastic. They’re a little bigger than a quarter, and they’re really beautiful. You’ll have to cope with a very, very Orthodox design, and they’re obviously only good for games with a single denomination. But all those features make them really perfect for Village, a game with a small number of single denomination coins and a church as a major part of the theme!

Le Havre/Le Havre: The Inland Port

I couldn’t find good, fake coins for Le Havre, so I just bought real ones! These are WWII-era aluminum “Emergency Coins” from France, and they’re absolutely fantastic. They’re a little light, being made from aluminum, but they’re beautiful and thematic, even if the time period is a little off.
Beware, though: There are two different kinds of these coins. Some are from the French Republic, occupied in WWII by the Germans but still opposed to them, and some are from Vichy France, a French state who became collaborationists with the Germans. You can tell them apart (both physically and in ideology) by their mottos: The Republic coins say “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”), where the Vichy coins say “Travail, Famille, Patrie” (or “Work, Family, Fatherland”. YEAH).
Don’t get the Nazi-adjacent coins.

Grand Austria Hotel

Good Austrian coins for games are hard to find at a good price. The thematic ones – especially for a game like Grand Austria Hotel – are prohibitively expensive. Granted, it’s not entirely necessary to replace the money tracks in GAH, but I wanted to anyway.
I ended up picking up a bunch of semi-modern Austrian Groschen. They’re a little small, and they might be too modern for the theme, but they’re Austrian and that’s enough for me.

Great Western Trail

I absolutely can’t take credit for this particular idea. I saw a reply on BGG from user TRONOFOTHEDEAD with the idea of using Indian Head Pennies and Buffalo Nickels for Great Western Trail, and I followed suit. I gotta say, I *love* these coins for this game, especially the 2-cent coin as the round marker.
This is a rather expensive upgrade. The bulk of the coins aren’t too bad. The Buffalo Nickels are actually only about 7¢ per coin, but the Indian Head Pennies run about 60¢ each. The two, together, average about 37¢ per coin, which is on the high end, but not terrible.
It’s the 2-cent coin which really breaks things, though. I paid $14 for the 2-cent coin alone, the common price range is for coins in not great shape. To be fair, when shopping for coins like these, you’re rarely going to get coins in decent shape at these prices. This is the cost for what are called “culls”, or coins collectors have separated out as junk and are selling in bulk because they’re not collectible.
But they’re perfect for board games!
As a side note, the metal coins for Montana: Heritage Edition are a near-perfect thematic match for Great Western Trail, if Big Kid Games decides to sell them at retail.

Russian Railroads

I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect upgrade than these. The included coins are clearly modeled after rubles, so real rubles are a great replacement. This set was comparatively expensive, costing me about $18 for 20 coins, but since I only needed those 20 and they were so thematically perfect, I bit the bullet.
The problem, now, is 90’s era rubles are pretty difficult to find. I tried searching for them on eBay (where I got these) and couldn’t find a decent lot.

OTHER GENERIC COINS

These are a couple of examples of other fake coins not specifically designed for board games, but which work well under certain circumstances.

Pachinko Tokens

Pachinko tokens are an absolutely fantastic option for generic coins, especially if you want something vaguely U.S.A. themed. I originally bought a large lot of them for a planned LARP which never materialized, and have since repurposed them for several different games. Almost all pachinko/pachislo tokens are about the same size and weight as a US quarter, and most of them will come with Japanese, vaguely American, or casino/gambling designs. Mine are mostly U.S.A. themed, so I use them in games with a modern Western theme.

No Thanks

No Thanks doesn’t actually have currency, per se, but it does have a set of tokens used for gameplay. My generic gold pachinko tokens fit the bill very well.

Panamax

Finding modern-themed fake coinage is actually rather impossible, so pachinko tokens work really well in modern western settings like Panamax or…

Suburbia

Again, modern Western setting, and nearly thematic coins to go with it. A great addition to Suburbia. At least right up until I get my copy of the Collector’s Edition, which includes bespoke metal coins!

Pirate Dubloons

“Pirate Dubloon” is probably the most ubiquitous theme in fake coinage, both metal and plastic. I got these particular coins on Amazon, for really cheap. They’re about he same size as a US quarter and come in 4 different finishes.
Note: these are the same coins Eagle & Gryphon Games sells for Empires: Age of Discovery, but they’re MUCH cheaper on Amazon and can be obtained in larger quantities.

Libertalia

I don’t have a hell of a lot of pirate-themed games in my collection, so I found the one game they work really well with.

CUSTOM POKER CHIPS

Some games just scream for custom poker chips instead of metal coins, and I can’t help but oblige. I’ve made custom chips both for currency and tokens for games, but I’ve only included pictures of the currency here. Making custom poker chips is actually fairly easy with a set of relatively inexpensive tools. I’ve created a tutorial on how to do it, which you can find HERE. That tutorial also has links for artwork which can be used for printing your own stickers for the games I detail here.

Capital Lux

The square wood “coins” included with Capital Lux, frankly, baffle me. They neither look like gold coins nor match the theme of the game, and for a card game as beautiful as Capital Lux, with stunning art from the always amazing Kwanchai Moriya, they actually detract. So it was a no-brainer for me to design chips for the game.

For Sale

For Sale could easily have been upgraded with metal coins, but something about the punchboard design just called to me for custom poker chips.

NON-COIN CURRENCY

Sometimes a game has some form of currency that – GASP!isn’t coins. There are still tons of opportunities to upgrade currency like this, though!

Castles of Burgundy

The “Ore” from Stonemaier’s Treasure Chest is a perfect upgrade for the Silverlings in Castles of Burgundy.📷

Lord$ of Vega$

There’s a chance I may replace these with full-size custom poker chips some day, but for right now I love using these mini poker chips in Lord$ of Vega$. These particular chips aren’t available anymore, as far as I know, which is a shame. They’re the only mini poker chips I’ve found modeled after regular chips instead of the plastic, ridged ones, which I viscerally dislike.

Patchwork

I mean, this one’s just obvious, right?

Terraforming Mars

Okay, there are a couple of different sites offering a metal cube upgrade for Terraforming Mars, to replace the metallic plastic cubes included with the game. The upgrade is phenomenal, and it was one of the first things I ordered after getting the game.
Here’s a pic of that set.
But it’s always bothered me that the “gold” cubes in the set are the gold bars from the Stonemaier Treasure Chest instead of actual cubes. I know it’s a piddling thing, but it just seemed a little off.
A friend of mine, Eric, is the biggest Terraforming Mars fanatic I know. My gaming group plays the game a lot, and Eric plays it even more, with multiple groups he joins to play. So it only makes sense he’d be the one crazy enough to actually requisition a new set of metal cubes for Terraforming Mars, ones better matching the style of the game by a) actually having CUBES for the gold, and b) all being different sizes.
Here’s a pic of these new, awesome cubes.
This set is better, IMO, than the ones you can get from The Broken Token**. Eric** plans to make them available via an Etsy page soon, and I’ll update this article with a link as soon as it’s up and running.

DISHONORABLE MENTION

I know I already mentioned the coins for Tokaido’s Collector’s Edition, but before I bought the CE I had these coins for my retail edition. They’re unmitigated garbage.
They’re thin and flimsy and tiny and they don’t sound great or feel particularly good and they’re really not any better than the carboard coins and they’re Chinese and not Japanese and they’re trash.
A pic of these awful coins
I paid $2.47 for 40 coins, shipped, and I got ripped off, honestly.

COINS I DON’T OWN AND WHY

Obviously I’m not going to go into detail here about games I don’t own which include metal coins. I mentioned several sets in the Bespoke section above. But here are some details on some metal coins made by other companies and why I haven’t added them to any of my games.
The main reason I don’t own any of these is price. I was willing to spend the extra bucks for game-specific coins for LoW and 7 Wonders, and maybe my set of Russian Rubles, because the theming made it (sort of) worth the extra cost (I’ll be honest: I own and love those coins, but probably wouldn’t pay the price again. Maybe. I think?). Most of the coins below cost nearly the same (75₵-$1 per coin), but aren’t specifically themed for a board game.
In a lot of cases, getting enough coins for a board game involves multiple “sets” – as the manufacturers define them – so you don’t run short during play. With these manufacturers, multiple sets just end up being too damned spendy. That being said, the coins they make do look fantastic. The designs are really good, but they’ll need to come down in price before I’d be willing to buy some.

Legendary Metal Coins by Drawlab

The designs here are really great. I contemplated getting a set of their Arabic theme for Five Tribes, but I couldn’t justify the cost. Even in bulk, at their cheapest offering, they’re still 70₵ per coin. Most games, in my experience, require 50-60 coins to ensure you don’t run out at higher player counts, which rounds out to about $35-$48 for a set (depending on how you acquire them). That’s a little above my top end; half-again to double what I paid for the coins from Fantasy Coin and Artana.

Campaign Coins

Campaign Coins are really beautiful, and have the most “high fantasy” feel of any I’ve found. I actually considered getting sets from them for Lords of Xidit, simply because they match better thematically. However, at their cheapest, they’re about identical in price to the Legendary coins, so just out of my range.

Minion Games

Minion Games doesn’t have a wide variety, with only two different themes: “Metal Dragon Coins” and “Futuristic Metal Coins” (the coins for Hegemonic), and they range in price from 70₵ to 90₵ per coin. Which is, frankly, absurd.
They’re cool looking coins, but they’re absolutely not worth the price.

Moedas & Co

The only reason I don’t have experience with Moedas’s coins is because I just haven’t ordered any yet. They have some very awesome bespoke coins for specific games, including the giants like Terra Mystica, Great Western Trail, Lisboa, and more. Their prices are right in line with companies like Artana and Fantasy Coin, and their coins look genuinely great.
They’re a Brazilian company and their website doesn’t handle currency conversion, so to place an order in North America you have to e-mail them directly, which does add a layer of difficulty. It’s not something I’m at all averse to doing – the owner replies occasionally on BGG and other users have posted positively about their products and service – I just haven’t done it yet.

Never Stop Tops & Coins

Again, gorgeous, but expensive. Not quite as expensive as some of the others here, but still just outside what I would consider affordable. And, honestly, I haven’t seen any recent information about this company, so they may not be making coins anymore.

Shire Post Mint

Shirepost’s coins aren’t really viable for this kind of application. They primarily do licensed coins (Lord of the Rings, Kingkiller Chronicle, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc.), and they’re not built for bulk orders. They’re designed to be a novelty, and are wildly expensive, coming in at well in excess of $1 per coin. So, they’re cool, but not really worth it for board gaming.

Rare Elements Foundry

Rare Elements Foundry is one of the first companies I ever encountered making metal fantasy coins. Unfortunately, they are ungodly expensive for the most part. Their coins run around $22-$25 for a set of 10, pushing them up to and even beyond Shirepost’s prices. Their coins are very beautiful, but not feasible in quantity.

BEST GENERIC COINS

Here’s the thing: I love upgrading the coins in my games, and I think metal coins add a genuinely massive aesthetic boost. They’re absolutely my favorite type of upgrade. BUT, I also understand buying separate, thematic coin sets for a ton of different games isn’t for everyone. You might want metal coins, but would rather just have one or two generic sets you can use across multiple games whenever you play. So here are my opinions on the best coins for that purpose:
Honorable MentionPoker Chips
Poker chips, either generic or custom, are a great option. They’re frequently cheaper than metal coins, and you can get them in a bajillion different styles with or without denominations. But they’re not metal, and that’s an issue. They’re a fantastic option, though.
Honorable MentionPachinko Tokens
Granted, pachinko tokens have a weird “theme” and they look more modern than thematic, but honestly they’re great coins and you just can’t find a better deal. They come so cheap and in such large quantities I have to mention them here as an option for the budget-conscious.
Honorable MentionScythe Coins
The Scythe coins are absolutely fantastic quality and, as I mentioned before, are almost so thematic they’re themeless. If you want a set of coins with a little extra flair and don’t think their odd theming will clash with your games, you absolutely can’t go wrong here.

BEST SINGLE-DENOMINATION COINS – CHARTERSTONE COINS

Stonemaier does it again with their Charterstone metal coins. You absolutely cannot get a better set of coins for games with a single denomination. Some examples of games these coins would work great in are Lancaster, Russian Railroads, Villages of Valeria, Alchemists, and Village. But, basically any game where you only need 1s, get yourself a set of these.
Charterstone Coins

BEST OVERALL GENERIC COINS – SEAFALL COINS

The clear winner here are the Seafall coins from Plaid Hat Games. They may be rather generic, but their design is beautiful, and they’d make a fantastic addition to any game you’d want to use them with. They’re a tiny bit expensive at about 40¢ per coin, but there’s over 100 coins in the set and if you’re only buying them once, it’s an absolute no-brainer.
They’re a great size and weight, and the colors and finishes are unmatched. I really like how distinguishable the colors are on these coins, and I absolutely love the satin finish because it keeps glare low and amps up the color variance, making the coins easy to tell apart from across the table.

If you can only get one set of coins for all your board games, make it this set.

METAL COINS FOR BOARD GAMES, A GEEKLIST

I acquire new coins as I get new games, and sometimes coins change homes when a game leaves my collection. To track and show these changes, I’ve started THIS GEEKLIST on BGG. Do you have metal coins in your collection? Do you want to show them off? Please add your own pics and descriptions to that GeekList! I know my collection is not comprehensive, and the more pictures and suggestions for coins and they games they work with would be incredible!
Thanks for spending the time to peruse my compulsion for metal coins in board games! I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures and commentary. If you have metal coins of your own and would like to show them off, I’d love to see them added to the GeekList, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you want to talk about metal coins, or DIY upgrades, or board games in general, you can always find me on Twitter @PixelartMeeple, on Instagram @pixelartmeeple, on BGG at PixelartMeeple, and on my website www.pixelartmeeple.com! You can also hear my (much more succinct) thoughts on games on The Five By podcast.
Thanks for reading, and happy gaming!
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One of my players notes that chronicle our sessions!

About 2 months worth of sessions happened before this particular player joined my game but she has been taking really great summary notes and recently sent them to me. Not all of the info is correct/names of people places spelled wrong but it’s really cool to see my players perception of what’s going on. She was absent for the last two sessions so she took notes based on word of mouth so some of those events aren’t necessarily in chronological order. It’s a long read and it might be hard to keep track of but I hope you enjoy it!
Session 1 (Oct 6th) Kit was the huntress of Queen Briand/Castle Holbrook—the queen adopted a young girl named Draya who doesn’t seem to age, even as the Queen sickens and becomes unresponsive. She’s been fleeing for a month from Castle Holbrook after witnessing horrible cult sacrifice led by Draya, pursued by hooded figures that seem immune to arrows. She’s met on the road by blue dragonborn (Saar), person dressed like a scarecrow (Skully), female aasimar in platemail (Marikiel), red tiefling in Emerald Sky Academy uniform (Neiros), tabaxi (Tazak), human bard (Robinson—I don’t think you ever met him, Chris) and a sad-looking horse (Saponlloe/Palloeson), plus a regal-looking man in merchant clothing (Gabriel) and his assorted guards. Kit blurts out the story to the group and asks them if they can help her get to Bell’s Ring for help from the wizards of the Academy. Gabriel knows Queen Briand and Draya, tells us they are coming to Bell’s Ring in about a month for a political retreat and meeting of allies. We camp on the road, notice a hooded figure with a gold fanged mask plus 9 others watching us. Their feet don’t touch the ground, and he can either see through Neiros’ invisibility or sense him by smell. Saponlloe pulls out an amulet that produces sunlight, which seems to burn them. They advance, we run to the town. Kit falls asleep in the back of their wagon, and we get to the city, where Gabriel shows a medallion to the guard for entrance and Kit is placed in the Stockade/barracks for her protection. Saponlloe reveals that he is a druid able to transform into a horse and stays with her because he feels his story is somehow connected to hers, even though he can’t remember much. The others go to the cathedral of Vertis and a library, and Robinson and Neiros stay at a different inn.
Session 2 (Oct 13th)
The Stockade is attacked during the night—the torches gutter out, the guards outside the door and right inside are slaughtered by something invisible/shadowy and the doors open on their own. A figure with a golden mask enters Kit’s locked room and recognizes Saponlloe but calls him Palloeson (“do you still feel the guilt of Reda/Retta?”), tells Kit “I won’t let you harm Draya!” and attacks, transporting the two of us to some sort of shadow realm for a round of combat. The other attackers overwhelm the guards, and even make some of the dead come back to life and fight. Tessa enters the Stockade midway through the battle and helps. After some combat, a winged demon figure with a sun emblem on his belt appears, admonishes Guilt/Corona Albright (gold mask) that this wasn’t part of the plan, and portals the two of them away to a view of a dark sky and a palisade wall, although we hold onto his mask. Marikiel is killed, Taz badly wounded and left at the cathedral to recover. Tessa tells us of her vision and her intent to join the party. Skully has a spotty memory of the letters “A_L_U_D_C_R_U_M” in some order or combination connected to his past. Saponlloe/Palloeson tells me of Reda, a young man/”Blessed One” whose murder he witnessed, and he remembers the name “Alucard” and some sort of blood moon in connection with the murder somehow with Skully’s clue. Saar collects Marikiel’s body and tells us of his plan to bring her back.
Session 3 (Oct 20th)
Saar knows of Sigmaris, a fabled city to the north where the dead can sometimes be brought back to life, and he plans to take Marikiel there. Tensions are heightened in the city, but we head to the bazaar to buy rations and warm clothes to head north. The tailor tells us of white-skinned elf living in the woods who could be a guide for us (Aedris). The gates are guarded, so Skully leads us out of the city through the sewers. We find Aedris in the woods; he tells us that his whole clan was slaughtered by someone named Rage leading the orcs/beastmen and he wants revenge in exchange for his help. We head to a nearby monastery for advice; leader tells us to try the White Drake Academy to the northwest. We travel 3 days with no interruptions, see a sign on the fourth day warning us of “greenskins” and pointing to Northshore (N), Morioh/Eagle’s Rest/White Drake Academy (W) and keep going west. We’re attacked by a group of goblins/orcs on the fifth day, and Taz is killed, but we get info from a survivor that they recognize the gold mask. Rage has one, and she now rules Baelsergo, the city of beasts to the north, and the Blood Drinkers (symbol on the orc clothing). So now we have RAGE (Aedris’ enemy), GUILT (Corona), and FEAR (Draya) connected with golden masks. We travel to the town of Morioh and sell some loot. Kit goes to the temple of Velen to search for answers, gets a vision of a dark sun from the statue at the altar. Skully and Palloeson have some more info on their amulets being keys to the Temple of the Sunwalker, somehow connected to the druids of the Dawnfire Archipelago and their enemies (evil bat druids), and the name Alucard Cruorem, who took something from the good druids. ALUCARD = Gabriel, who they were traveling with at the beginning!
Session 4 (Oct 27th)
( was only here for the last hour and a half or so, so I don’t know what happened in detail at the beginning of the session with the circus and such) We get to Eagles’ Rest. People from the party visit a circus where a woman named Belona throws herself on spikes and isn’t hurt by them. They somehow see her golden mask and decide to assassinate her because of her assumed connections to the other golden-masked figures. Something about her triggers Palloeson’s memory, and then he connects with a woman named Sara, who breeds horses, and spends time with her outside the city. Saar has reservations on killing Belona, but casts Detect Evil and is staggered by the sheer force of evil and tormented souls around her. A plan is made to silver the spikes she falls on and try to kill her. Saar sees the image of Vestis watching them in the crowd, a serial killer they killed earlier in the campaign—he puts on a golden mask and disappears. Aedris is the only one at the circus to observe, since Vestis won’t know him. Belona falls on the spikes and transforms into some immense terrible demon and murders most people in the tent, but Sara the horse breeder transforms into some sort of bright moon goddess and fights it, and they chase each other away over the hills. The party runs to the docks, steals a ship, and sails for the academy, bringing the bodies of Mary and Taz. We have to leave Tessa and Robinson behind. RAGE = Belona
Session 5 (Nov 3rd)
We sail to the peninsula with the Academy and Neiros goes off to talk to his grandmother. We know Vestis is a golden mask now, but we don’t know what corresponding emotion it is. Most of us head to the library for research, and Saar finds the Tomes of Understanding he’s been searching for. Skully finds info on the amulets and the druids of the Dawnfire Archipelago/Celestial Isles (Hircine people = eleves loyal to the god of the sun, drow = elves loyal to the god of the moon). Kit researches the next eclipse, and talks to a professor about the Celestial Isles, the druids of the Dawnfire Archipelago, and their Ritual of Ascension (meet a spirit animal in their dreams to become druids). He doesn’t know anything about the Temple of the Sunwalker or evil blood druids. We stay for a long time to let Saar and Scully read the first Tome, and Skully learns about his previous life that he can’t remember. Tessa catches up and shows us her new tattoos, which are part of the ones she had in her vision, and tells us just a bit about Galadia and her sword/her backstory. We overhear that Eagles’ Rest has requested help from the Academy against the Blood Drinkers. Palloeson communes with the Briar King and now has formidable power and a thorn-wrapped arm with a pool of blackness in his palm. We are teleported to Northshore, the closest teleport option to Sigmaris. Skully talks the lady blacksmith into silvering our weapons. We decide to camp outside after the inn owner is racist to Saar, but the orc force attacks in the night.
Session 6 (Nov 10th)
The soldiers of Northshore are heavily outnumbered; Saar, Aedris and Palloeson rush in to help, Kit follows at a distance. Skully sneaks in to get some of our weapons back and get civilians out. The three party members are knocked unconscious and taken away by a giant lizard to the NE as the townsfolk are rounded up and told to go about their business under new beastman rule. Kit runs back and tells the other of the kidnapping, they meet up with Skully, and they track them NE. The three are taken to Baelsergo and imprisoned, and the amulet is taken to Rage. Palloeson escapes, confronts Rage, and is killed. We pull off an escape plan for the rest, and get out into the woods, crossing rivers to throw off the scent.
Session 7 (Nov 17th)
We keep heading north to flee, and then realize that our plan to get to Sigmaris is foolish, especially since we no longer have the bodies of Mary and Taz. So we change course to Caspia to get Tessa where she needs to go. Skully tells us everything he learned from the Tome and that the mask and the amulet is somehow what made him a skeleton person. His name used to be Aethis, he knew Palloeson as a member of a druid council, Skully didn’t get in, and they trained and did bad things. He knew the people who are now the golden masks (Alucard = Gabriel Mercrow, FEAR = Draya Braves, GUILT = Corona Albright, RAGE = Belona, MISERY = Dresden Nabacroft, APATHY = Vestis). The area they were, the Hirstfall Islands, was hit with a plague and Gabriel’s family died, and he is mad because the islands were blockaded and he thinks that’s why they died--revenge?. We reach the Great Lake and see kobold settlements around it, build a boat, and set sail. We are stopped by Thoss the black dragon and talk our way past him, but then find out Vestis is following us. We call Thoss to help, Vestis fights him and both are badly hurt. Vestis flees and the party kills Thoss but Skully dies in the process.
Session 8 (Nov 24th)
We loot Thoss’ hoard and lay Skully and Palloeson to rest, but keep Skully’s skull and Palloeson’s briar arm and hair just in case. Vestis is back to following us and tells us that Gabriel is coming to get the amulet in 5 days, so we should just give it up. We decide to head for Caspia and head into a series of caves back towards Northshore (with some kobolds in tow), but are attacked by a roper and brains on legs. We win the fight and press on.
Session 9 (Dec 1st): first session when I am in VT and unable to play
The party makes it back to the town controlled by beasts, does some shopping, and meets with Alucard/Gabriel. They agree to give him the amulet if he shows them what he is planning with the three of them and then leaves us alone. Neiros and Saar get tattoos using the ashes of Palloeson and Skully. The group sets sail towards the Dawnfire Archipelago with Alucard. Draya torments Kit alon g the way until Tessa intercedes. Our boat is boarded by a slave trader, and we discover that Saar has been framed and is wanted for slave trading. We win the ensuing battle and take the leader’s boat, then sail to the Dawn Fire islands with Alucard’s group, fighting some elves who think we are the slavers (thus becoming the villains). The trip takes a week, and we eventually reach an island with a culture of elves. The grandmother of Erny’s new character (El o’El? Am I spelling this right?) thought it was the goddess Lunarra the whole time (whole culture deceived by Kil’Jaeden), and cannot believe they have been misled, so she sends him with us to undone what has been done.
Dec. 8th (2nd session away)
It takes three days to reach the tower from the island, a whole day for the party and Alucard’s group to climb to the top of the tower in the Dawnfire Archipelago and another day for part of the group to make their way back down into “the prison not meant to be seen”. Kit, Nieros, Tessa, stay at the top of the tower, and then go back down to hunt for some provisions. Aedris, inside the tower, finds a portal at the bottom and vanishes into the Feywild, taking the rest of the inside group with him. Gabriel and his group take the crown and bracers they were seeking and disappear, but these items were what held the prisoner in place, and he is freed. It turns out to be Kil’Jaeden, the Great Deceiver, and he is released upon the Feywild, his form that of a monstrous naga/yuan’ti. The toweportal sinks into the ground and disappears, leaving the rest of the group back at ground level fighting other snake-like creatures drawn by Kil’Jaeden’s release. We travel to Caspia by boat, with the trip taking 16 days total. The group planned to lie about being the owners of the slavery contract and have members of the crew pretend to be slaves, but thought better of it and told their guards the truth, probably saving their own lives. Tessa travels to the Hall of Contracts and writes a message to her father, who seems overjoyed to know she is back and tells her to wait for him at a fancy hotel suite. Tessa also discovers that the place she needs to visit for the next step of her journey is a tomb in the common district. The session ended with Kit, Tessa, Saar, Raymond (Travis’ new character), and Nieros in a posh hotel room in Caspia, waiting to meet Tessa’s father, and Erny’s character and Aedris off by themselves in the shopping district. They think that Tessa is in danger from her father and don’t want any part of it. (Kil’Jaeden has been out for 17 days. We know through Kit’s research at the Academy that the next eclipse, the vision of the dark sun that Tessa and Kit have both seen, is about a year away).
Dec. 15th In the back room of the Golden Sun, Tessa, Kit, Saar, Raymond, and Nieros decide to go out and do some shopping/explore the city while waiting for Tessa’s father to travel the seven days from Zweilkhad to Zanarkand to reach them. Tessa and Kit go to Latheos the clothing merchant for new, less-conspicuous outfits; loose white robes with hoods in fine material. Kit, as a paler-skinned human, stands out somewhat in Caspia, so she covers up and tries to avoid notice. Kit and Tessa also travel to the Sandy Shards weaponry shop, where Tessa translates for Kit and we buy crossbow bolts for the crossbow taken from Thoss’ hoard. Kit also spots an intricate longbow made from some flexible metallic material, which proves to be designed to take strain off of the drawer and allow for greater accuracy and damage (+1).Raymond the mercenary buys manacles, Kit buys some Caspian gold bead and jewelry, Aedris buys a new brush for Bazul, and we buy a bunch of health potions as a group from a red-skinned tiefling owner of the Fire & Fury. Shopping episode! The tiefling is teaching some children in Caspian, but Nieros and Tessa translate and we learn he is teaching a class on rudimentary elements of magic and the danger of pact bargains. Aedris is badly affected by the heat of Caspia, but borrows Raymond’s ice spear to cool himself down. He also brings most of the money looted from Thoss’ hoard to the Hall of Gold bank and creates an account/changes some into platinum for carrying ease. The group walks to the Housing District to find the statue that Tessa needs to see, but are approached by two women in gauzy purple and blue clothes asking for a good time. They hang on Aedris, Nieros, and Raymond. Raymond shoos them away, but they discovered a good portion of their gold missing. Nieros attempts to search for them, but they disappear into the crowd. When we reach the statue, it depicts a man pointing a sword missing its point to the west and slightly south (the statue of Stormscale was pointing out over the ocean to the north). Around the base of the statue a building has been put up, which appears to be some sort of small house and church meeting place. An old woman is inside, and she invites us in after Tessa explains she is on a pilgrimage as a follower of Bahamut. We head in to allow Tessa to read some historical scrolls and search the base of the statue. The scrolls have some obviously redacted/missing sections, and no mentions of Bahamut (Zanarkand is devout to Ifrit) but we learn this is a statue to Abdul Jakar, an ordinary man who led a rebellion, and he is buried in Bela Cruz. Nothing turns up on our search of the statue. Kit asks Tessa to teach her some useful Caspian phrases in our downtime, and she also finds a phrasebook in a local bookstore. The group deposits the rest of our funds into the bank in a joint account. Two members must be present to make transactions, and if no transactions are made after 5 years, they will presume the group is all dead and take the money. Nieros has a new fancy set of clothing designed. Saar and Nieros head to the Court of Ambassadors, a giant library, and Saar tries to find books on ritual magic, but instead they meet Ignis Fireseeker, the High Judge of Caspia, a huge, buff man with arrow tattoos around his eyes and a golden insignia on his belt. He tells them that the female pickpockets work for Betra’s Serpents, an immensely powerful master assassin conclave. Ignis tells them that there is a contract/bounty (50,000 g each) for them , but warns of the likelihood of death if they take it. There are rumors that the bar Caspian Nights is being used as a hideout, and their leader is The Fang. When they tell the rest of the group, Tessa reacts to the name Ignis. We name the group The Silver Dawn, and come up with nicknames, then timeskip to Tessa’ father arriving. We are escorted out of the hotel by 20 Juda-Fen (high ranking soldiers, white-skinned tieflings with gray blindfolds), then meet his caravans outside the city. Domina Highland is a tiefling with skin that is red, bordering on slighty purple, in a fancy overcoat and gold jewelry. He greets Tessa warmly, glad to see her back, and then we go as a group to meet the Emperor Tur’Koatl. The palace is immense, and the Emperor sits on a flame-shaped throne as we approach, bowing. We introduce ourselves, and he interacts with us as we do: tells Nieros that he knew of his grandmother, makes comments on Tiamat when Saar speaks, informs Kit that Caspia is at war with Ivalice, and calls Tessa “The Whore”, although Domina Highland tries to stop him. We tell him the details of Kil Jaeden’s release, and he seems pleased that Tessa told him before telling her father. He takes it as good news, and takes us on a tour around the city to greet his people. Raymond plays Kingdoms/Cappicho against the Emperor, a game that is like a combo of chess and checkers, and does quite well for a beginner. The Emperor chastises Tessa for assuming he didn’t already have the information when she attempts to explain/tell him of the danger, so she falls silent. Kit asks more about the war with Ivalice, and gets the same treatment: a bit more info (closed borders, no trade, stolen caravans), but then a reprimand. We get back to the caravans speak with Tessa’s father. She learns from him that Galadia was killed by the Serpents, hired by the Abysswaters because she spurned the marriage that had been arranged between Tessa and their son. They are the ones the sarted “The Whore”, but her mother and older sister played into it. He also tells us that he has spies in Ivalice, and Holbrook has allied itself with the two other major cities, which is strange, because they are usually sworn enemies. He also informs Kit that Queen Briand has recently passed and Draya is fully in charge. Kit passes over the information of her cult. Tessa tries to negotiate with her father over retrieving Thoss’ treasure, and we ask for the ship to be repaired/renamed
Note: if people are interested I can try to keep this going with updates. Also I’m not sure if my player who took these notes is a reddit user. If she is I will eventually give her credit for the note taking.
Edit: added Dec 15 session notes.
Edit: Add new session notes.
Dec. 22nd The group travels on the caravan towards Tessa’s home, but midway we pass a woman on the road and allow her to join the caravan (Esmeralda). We pass by a signpost with Belacruz scratched out. Several of us are startled as we notice that the caravan has suddenly shifted from three carts to two, people have shifted in looks/age, and we appear to be in some sort of timeshift. Some of the party members do not notice, or believe that everything is normal. A younger Emperor Ter’Koatl is onboard (approximately 10-15 years younger), and Tessa has become Abdul Jakar, the Chosen of Bahamut. Tessa warns Kit to not interrupt anything, but just to watch and listen to everything around us. We travel to Abdul Jakar’s village, where we are greeted warmly and a great feast is prepared. Tessa keeps up the charade of being Abdul. We are attacked at the feast by a large group of warforged. Abdul’s wife and child are slain, and just as a creature is about to kill the Emperor, Tessa/Abdul leaps in front of the blast and saves him. We suddenly pop back to our original reality, only Tessa has a new set of tattoos and is sobbing hysterically. Only some of the party are able to remember what happened. We reach the Highland home, and Tessa must greet her mother and sister, who are acidic and unwelcoming. Lissandra blames Tessa for her childish behavior and running away from home, forcing her to marry Stega’Agar of the Abysswater family and take on more family duties. Tessa apologizes, but Lissandra and her mother are unmoved. We are given rooms in the Highland’s household. The group splits up for the night, with Tessa, Kit, and Saar going to the Casino with Tessa’s father and the rest going to the library of the Highlands to do some research. The Casino group plays a few rounds of a blackjack-based game, on Domina Highland’s tab, until a strange woman comes over and offers us a bigger gamble. She pulls out a deck of cards, and tells us that if we can pull one certain card from the deck, she will pay us handsomely. Saar draws a card from the deck and gains 50,000 exp and a magical iron flask. The woman pulls a card and she and the deck pop out of existence. Tessa and Kit drink at the Casino until it is time to go home. We run into the library group, and Saar finds out that the flask is magical from Nieros. He then opens it, and a giant creature made of fire pours out, until Saar convinces it to get back into the flask. Raymond, Elowells, and Nieros stuff a bunch of books into Aedris’ bag of holding. Dec. 29th The party gathers in the Highland home the next morning and discusses the need to visit the dwarves and Draconia, and how to release Lunara from her imprisonment in the Black Temple, Kil Jaeden’s plane. We did find a book with a spell that can bring us to the Black Temple, but we are not yet a high enough level to cast it. Aedris begins to examine the six magical books that he, Saar, and Nieros grabbed from the Highland library. Saar prays to his goddess, and an eagle lands in his window and then flies off to the west. Through her hangover, Kit prays to Velen for strength and guidance. Tessa joins morning prayers with her family, and while her father is pleased to see her, her mother and sister are not. She learns that Lissandra will be marrying Stega’Agar in approximately 2 months/7 moon cycles, and that this marriage will help solidify business dealings between the two families. The party heads to the Nine Hells Academy to do some research, 2 families away from the Highland estate, a massive building of jet black stone with a sharp, jagged appearance. The library is staffed by Transmuted Horrors, twisted masses of flesh and human body parts created by Domina Experiyankas as servants. Raymond develops a permanent fear of them. While at the library, Saar researches Kil Jaeden’s plane, the Black Temple. After the God Wars the gods all chose to stay in their own planes as an act of neutrality. Saar intuits that Kil Jaeden probably switched places with Lunara somehow, willing to bide his time in the Feywild to have someone release him. Using this method, he could avoid the gods detecting him as he entered the Material Plane through the Maelstrom, breaking that neutrality. This means that Lunara truly is trapped, since gods cannot willingly leave another god’s plane. He also learns that the plane is inhabited mostly by yuan-ti and lost souls, and the Temple itself is guarded by a hydra. Kit researches Velen’s beginning and tenets—Velen and his brother Virtus were part of an adventuring party (including Dhal Ul, Leolothwyn, Perthamal, Shallisara, Drasta Stormscale, Agnizarro) who helped out in the chaos before the God Wars and rose to fame and glory. Somehow the two brothers ascended to godhood after slaying Neshrac, although the process is unknown. The group leaves the library and goes to buy some magical items (at a shop next to the smithy where Galadia worked), including a cloak of fear for Aedris. He decides to test it as we leave the shop, catching Eloells unaware and causing him to shoot a Transmuted Horror in his confusion. Bystanders cry out at the incident, and the party scatters in fear. Several party members duck into alleys, but Saar and Aedris attempt to rush past some guards and are captured and brought to the Hall of Justice. Tessa, back at the shop, explains what occurred to a guard, then goes off to find her father to speak on behalf of the prisoners. We are all brought before the High Judge, Domina Justicar. We are ordered to pay 40,000 gold (10,000 for attacking a guard and 10,000 per soul for the three souls needed to make another Transmuted Horror). We take 10,000 gold out of the bank and Domina Highland pays the other 30,000 in exchange for a 90% share of Thoss’ hoard. Tessa parts on worse terms with her family than when we started, and we walk the 16 days back to Zanarkand. We pass a caravan full of caged animals on the way, and Saar learns that the creature in the flask he received can grant three wishes, but accidentally wastes one wishing it back into the flask. Back in Zanarkand, Kit goes back to the weaponsmith where she bought her bow, learns that the material is called steelwood, and has it engraved with a stylized version of Velen’s shield and the word “sacrifice”. We get on our repaired boat and sail 13 days towards the islands of Arathaal (sp?). Tessa learns that there is a holy temple of Bahamut somewhere on the island. We see that the HIrstfall islands are ringed by a combined Caspian and Draconian fleet, not allowing other ships close. Saar communes with Palloeson’s soul, and it does answer his three questions about the inhabitants of the island, but it appears to release him from some sort of prison and his oily black horse form gallops towards the island. It leaves large puddles of blackness on the ship that swallow anything thrown into them and causes necromantic damage. Saar uses one wish from the djinn to wish the souls of Tazak, Marikiel, and Aethis/Skully peace, and tries to include Palloeson, but his soul does not respond. He uses the final wish to wish us capable of handling the threat that is Kil Jaeden. Kit has a vision in her seasickness of “our party” (viewing this as Velen) holding a black crystal with a red center. I stab my brother and pour his blood over the crystal, and then do the same to myself, and my vision goes to black. We make our way to the island Palloeson ran towards to find a giant black ooze where a building once stood, and some of the party follow the horse’s black hoofprints to a hill. Saar traps Palloeson in the now-empty flask, and they battle the Briar Knight and his briarbeasts, barely escaping with their lives.
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