Blood Counters

It is Halloween time now. I have all sorts of pool and counters made from plastic rings and I cut the "ring" part off. I have skulls, spiders, bats and ants. Any grocery store. Also a good time to find edges in the seasonal aisle. Even better wait until Nov. 1st and get them 1/2 off.
Or go with the traditional glass beads from a craft store, Big lots, walmart.

Juggernaut1981 wrote:

1) Vase beads
2) Decorative garden glass beads
3) Make your own (it's actually really easy if you can get a Wad Punch)
4) Any craft store should have suitable bead options.

If you'd like more information about how I have done it, I am happy to add details. I did make custom VTES counters with BLACKTOWN VTES and both the Sabbat and Camarilla logos in the background.

I would like some more info, those sound really cool.

A little while ago I had a poll on my blog asking, what players use as blood counters:

• VtES Glass Beads — 33 (15%)
• Normal Glass Beads — 114 (55%)
• Dice — 10 (4%)
• Coins — 11 (5%)
• Poker Chips — 2 (0%)
• Gaming Tokens — 5 (2%)
• Miniature Skulls/Roses/.. — 5 (2%)
• Gun Cartridges — 5 (2%)
• M&MS — 2 (0%)

Others included stuff like plastic (glow-in-the-dark) beads, metal necklace beads, bracelet beads, bottle caps, washers, .. you name it.

I also remember a blog having pictures of a variety of blood counters, but I cannot remember which one.

Josephdmorse wrote:

I would like some more info, those sound really cool.

So the process for making them was fairly simple.

1) I found decorative glass beads used for vases or landscaping. I found them in a general hardware store. They are approximately 20mm in diameter (about 5/6th inch diameter). The bag would contain about 100 to 120 beads with a flat back and a rounded top. Most of them were transparent but there were frosted ones and 'metallic coated' ones.

(Here is an idea of one of the sorts of things I mean on an Amazon link www.amazon.co.uk/Decorative-Glass-Pebbles-Nuggets-approx/dp/B0053YP9L8)

2) Get a "Wad Punch" which is just smaller than the bead diameter (the beads are usually uneven in size). Here is a link to one: www.lawson-his.co.uk/priory-pri94014-wad-punch-9-16-14mm-pri94-p57586.

3) Get a nice printing program like GIMP or Inkscape. Create a circle that is the same size as the Wad Punch. Make sure you design it in 300dpi or greater and print it at 300dpi or greater. Print them out on normal paper and use the wad punch to cut them out.

4) Buy felt of a suitable colour. I use a bright red, like cardinal or crimson, but you could easily use "snooker-green" or something similar. I got a LARGE amount of felt for a few dollars in a fabric store.

5) Buy a cheap art brush.

6) Cut the paper circles out, cut the felt out with the wad punch and glue the paper to the back of the bead by painting it with PVA glue. Then when it dries, glue the felt on with PVA glue.

If people want, I can make these sorts of things up and post them out if you're willing to cover cost (not personal labour, just the materials & postage).

If you follow this process you will get something like the beads in this post: juggernaut1981.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/custom-made-tournament-loot.html

www.joann.com/panacea-products-purple-mini-gems-3-lbs/8186546.html

3 lbs of glass beads.. I wouldn't find a better price.. unfortunely, purple is the only color they offer in this big of a package. if your not worried about having enough for everyone then they have other colors... except red. which sux

The thing with M&M is they are tasty, and when you can't avoid that conditioning bleed of 6, there is a silver lining that you have sweets. Taking mine to the UK Nationals, though I don't understood why some players hate them.