Many tabletop games use cardboard tokens to represent items and resources within a game. However, gaming aficionados like to take their favorite games to the next level and trick them out with 3D tokens and miniatures. Top Shelf Gamer is a company created by people who love to play tabletop games and wanted to upgrade their games but found it difficult to find the pieces they needed. Therefore they decided to form a business to provide a one-stop shop for gaming needs.
What Is the Top Shelf Token Treasury Set 1?
The Top Shelf Token Treasury Set 1 is a collection of tokens which can be used for a variety of different tabletop games. It’s currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with a pledge level of $50 for each box set of game tokens. There are four different box sets of tokens, each of which are themed towards certain types of games. You can pledge to purchase as many or as few as you choose. These sets of tokens are all created by Top Shelf Gamer.
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The Token Treasury Components
Note: My review is based on a prototype, so it is subject to change and may not reflect final component quality.
Within Set 1, there are four different volumes each with a theme for the included tokens. Let’s take a look at what you get in each volume.
Treasure Chest, Vol. I
The “core” token set for any modern board gamer. This set contains some of the most common resources found in many board games.
- 24 stone (resin)
- 24 coal (resin)
- 24 wood (resin)
- 24 gold ingots (metal)
- 24 ore (metal)
- 24 clay/brick (resin)
The Treasure Chest is one of the must have volumes since most gamers have games, especially Euro games, which have natural resources as part of gameplay. The fact that the gold ingots and ore are made of metal further adds to the tactile feel of these tokens.
Harvest Handbook, Vol. II
Many board games have food resources of various types. This box set will have you covered for many games and is an excellent companion to the “Treasure Chest” set.
- 24 meat cuts (resin)
- 24 wheat sheaves (resin)
- 24 grain sacks (resin)
- 24 corn ears (resin)
- 24 bread loaves (resin)
- 24 pumpkins (resin)
Do you play games with an agricultural theme? Then consider the Harvest Handbook. The details and color of these six different types of tokens is incredible.
Elemental Essentials, Vol. III
Whether you’re into miniatures gaming, dungeon delving adventures, or a plethora of other games, this set will have you covered with tokens to track a multitude of effects and statuses.
- 24 blood drops (acrylic)
- 24 water drops (acrylic)
- 24 fire markers (acrylic)
- 24 frozen markers (acrylic)
- 24 electricity bolts (metal)
- 8 smoke clouds (acrylic)
- 4 explosion markers (acrylic)
The Elemental Essentials is great for dungeon crawler types games as well as RPG styles games. The blood and water tokens can represent life and magic/mana while the fire, ice and smoke tokens different types of spells. This volume can also be used with games set in a modern or futuristic theme.
Cataclysmic Compendium, Volume IV
Perfect for post-apocalyptic gaming and great for any other game where you need to track ammo, tools, corpses, or fuel.
- 24 bullet tokens (acrylic)
- 24 hammers/tools (metal)
- 12 piles of bones (acrylic)
- 24 fuel cans (acrylic)
- 24 gears (metal)
- 24 nuclear waste barrels (acrylic)
The Cataclysmic Compendium has some of the most interesting tokens. Whether playing games with zombie or post-apocalyptical themes, this is the set for you. The tools as well as the piles of bones also work well with your dungeon crawler games.
How to Use the Top Shelf Token Treasury Set 1
Top Shelf Gamer’s boxes of tokens are not games by themselves. Instead, they are made to be used for a variety of different games. While each volume of tokens has a theme, they are not necessarily designed for a specific game. Instead, for some of your games you may use only a few tokens from one box or maybe tokens from two or more boxes. Top Shelf Gamer has created a list of games which can use their tokens. Download a list of compatible games here. However, note that this is not an exhaustive list but suggestions for some of the more popular tabletop games out on the market and on gamer’s shelves. While you may choose to store the tokens within your individual games, the Top Shelf Token Treasury comes packaged in sturdy, high-quality game boxes with plastic inserts to keep the tokens separate. Also, by keeping the tokens in their own boxes, they are more readily available to use with the different games within your collection.
Why You Should Get the Top Shelf Token Treasury Set 1
One of the advantages to playing tabletop games over digital versions is the tactile nature of gameplay. I am always impressed when a game includes shaped three-dimensional pieces rather than cardboard counters or cubes. However, these physical pieces often add to the price of the game. With the Top Shelf Token Treasury Set 1 you can get tokens which can be used in many of your games instead of having special tokens for each of your games. The storage boxes are made to look like books and really add to a game shelf. Plus the insert inside each box help keep your tokens organized and ready to use.
Top Shelf Gamer sells lots of different tokens on their website and they ship in small plastic bags. However, the Token Treasury volumes will only be available through their Kickstarter Campaign. The suggested MSRP for each box is $75, so this offers quite a savings for those who pledge. In addition, the campaign has already met its first stretch goal so now instead of the original 20 tokens for most types, you will now get 24 of these tokens.
I enjoy upgrading my games and love cool pieces which are colorful and provide tactile sensation to the game. I have 3D printed some tokens for games but they never come out looking like I want them. I am very impressed with Top Shelf Gamer’s tokens they sent me to review. Even though these are prototypes, their are of excellent quality. I can’t believe the detail one some of these tokens, especially, the food in the Harvest Handbook and the objects in the Cataclysmic Compendium. Not only do I enjoy playing with these tokens, part of the fun is pulling out a game and determining which tokens I can use with it. My kids and I enjoy playing Bang! and the bullets make a great way to keep track of your life instead of using two cards flat on the table. While some may think $50 for a box of tokens for a game is expensive, consider that these tokens can be used across your game collection. Plus games that come with their own plastic tokens usually are more pricey than games with cardboard tokens and the plastic tokens look no where as nice as those in the Token Treasury. If you like to take your tabletop games to the next level and trick them out with beautiful tokens, then I highly recommend the Top Shelf Token Treasury Set 1. If you are like, me, you will want to get all four volumes. Since this is called Set 1, I can’t wait to see what tokens will be in Set 2.
For more information or to make a pledge, visit the Top Shelf Token Treasury Set 1 Kickstarter page!
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this product for review purposes.
