Poker Chips for Board Games (4 Viewers)

[jonsdragon]

Hello. I'm brand new to Poker Chip Forum. Does anybody here use poker chips for board game currency or points? Any suggestions for the best sets to use for board games?

 

[raynmanas]

Hello and welcome!

Apache's "Bank" set (these are china clays) was designed specifically for board games:

https://www.apachepokerchips.com/product/bank-18xx-board-games-poker-chips/

A lot of people also love the Iron Clays (these are ceramics):

https://roxley.com/collections/accessories/products/iron-clays-200

 

[NotDunric]

A lot of people also love the Iron Clays (these are ceramics):

https://roxley.com/collections/accessories/products/iron-clays-200

Iron Clays aren't ceramics; they're much closer to a china clay like the Apache bank set.

Iron Clays were my first non-dice chip set I bought as someone deeply entrenched in the board game world, I was very much the target audience, and bought them without any proper foreknowledge of chips or proper set sizes, denominations, etc. for poker use, and as a result bought WAY TOO MANY with the intent of paying micro stakes home games with them. I have ~1300 or so sitting around that have since been replaced (with BRPro ceramics, Dunes china clays, live casino THCs, etc).

That said, I think they're great chips for what they are, albeit a little pricey since they target the board game audience more than the poker audience which means people don't need them in larger quantities (a mixed denom 100pc Iron Clay set is enough for a ton of board games, so you're paying for the smaller volume in addition to the classed up packaging, racks with branded/molded lids, etc; fluff that poker players wouldn't care about).

As for the OP's actual question, we pull chips off the shelf for board game night on occasion, but it's not super often that games we play use traditional currency that isn't instead replaced with some sort of in-game resource. The two that come to mind in our rotation are Food Chain Magnate (heavy game about running a restaurant and making money) and Three Dragon Ante (a light D&D setting tavern/gambling/card game). And of course Brass Birmingham, with which the Iron Clays originated through Roxley.

 

[allforcharity]

Hello and welcome!

 

[LeLe]

Iron Clays aren't ceramics; they're much closer to a china clay like the Apache bank set.

You’re Correct, they’re weighted plastic chip at around 10g each

 

[jonsdragon]

Thank you for your suggestions and comments. I did end up ordering a ceramic set called Dia de los Muertos for no reason other than they looked really neat and had nine different designs. I was also able to get them custom (semi custom). So I took out the dollar sign and got some denominations that will work with both Poker and Board Games. Looks like I may have to wait 3 weeks or so for production before they can ship them. The only catch is the strong theme may interfere with some of my board game themes. So I am going to get Iron Clays or Apache bank also.

 

[NotDunric]

DDLM are a great choice!

If you ever want to purchase some Iron Clays, feel free to reach out to me directly; the massive bank of them that I have isn't getting any use at this point and I could certainly set you up with a lot.

 

[bjjensen]

All of my Monopoly sets have currency that's never been used, since I only ever play with chips.

Just remember to use backgammon dice instead of craps dice of you want to keep an undimpled board

 

[jonsdragon]

All of my Monopoly sets have currency that's never been used, since I only ever play with chips.

Just remember to use backgammon dice instead of craps dice of you want to keep an undimpled board

When I ordered the semi custom Dia de los Muertos set I deliberately used denominations that would match Monopoly money. Ones, Fives, Tens, Twenties, Fifties, One Hundreds and Five Hundreds. I also got Threes (very helpful amount for points with my modern board games), 1k and 2K.

 

[raynmanas]

Iron Clays aren't ceramics

my bad on that one. i've had it in my head forever that they are ceramics, they just look like they should be.

 

[NotDunric]

my bad on that one. i've had it in my head forever that they are ceramics, they just look like they should be.

Yeah no worries, I get it!
They actually have the slightest little recess for their little 1/4”-ish inlay space, but hard to notice in their marketing assets.

 

[jonsdragon]

DDLM are a great choice!

If you ever want to purchase some Iron Clays, feel free to reach out to me directly; the massive bank of them that I have isn't getting any use at this point and I could certainly set you up with a lot.

Thanks for the offer on the Iron Clays. I'm still waiting on my first ceramic set, the DDLM set. I'm leaning to getting one more ceramic set that has a more neutral design. The ceramics seem to offer the semi custom sets that let me pick the denominations on the designs or colors I want. Not a neutral design but Super Poker World ceramic chips look nice and very tempting for a Nintendo fan.

 

[RivieraDanny]

Monopoly with chips is fun too!!!!

WELCOME!!

 

[jack208]

Just chipping in with some comments since I'm from the board game world as well (and what the heck am I doing in a poker forum? LOL).

Iron Clays are popular among board gamers especially the Brass crowd as the thematic look is designed to fit the Brass era. It's also a step up from in-game token or paper money that board gamers are used to. Unlike poker players, it's almost impossible for a board gamer to justify $10 on a single chip when their games cost like $50ish on the average.

The analogy is you only drive from your home to the market daily, which is like 10ish km. So yeah, no point getting a Porsche (unlike you are so loaded, those are spare cash hehe)

The board game world also uses a lot of "metal coins" which are more closely designed thematically to fit each game, for eg a game set in the Roman era would feature Roman coins; one set in China would use the chinese pennies etc.

Iron clays and metal coins do a good job of leveling up from paper money or tokens. For a cost not much more than dice chips.

However there's another segment of board gamers - those who play the 18xx genre (a heavy economic train game) - where iron clays and metal coins are not so suitable nor give the correct feel. This group of fellas tend to use poker chips. This was the original target for Apache's Bank Chips. Notice the Apache Bank chips have a train track as its mold and the NCV (orange) chip uses a Train symbol.

Attached pic of my Apache Bank chip set.

Before this, I have the NexGen Pro for our 18xx sessions. I still keep the NexGen since we often host more than 1-2 tables of 18xx.

Here's a pic of a recent 18xx session where you can see the poker chips in play (on those Train Charter cards). You'll notice the num of chips used per charter is very very low. A 300 chips set properly denominated is sufficient to cover 80% of the 18xx titles in the market.

And board gamers are not too fussy about Ceramics or China Clay etc - and unless they are also Poker Players, the Compression Clays would not appeal to them, purely on price point factor.

Now back to the question, why am I stalking these poker forums?

 

[wickedwonka121]

This game uses chips, but paper "chips" will not do. Day green starburst FTW!

 

[BottomPair7]

Hello and welcome to PCF!