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Why the tokens deserve as much thought as the rules

A prototype is a conversation piece. The moment it lands on the table, players read it — and they judge whether a thing feels like a resource, a unit, a wound. A scrap of torn paper with "3" scrawled on it communicates none of that, and worse, it makes people handle your game gingerly. Good tokens invite full-tilt play: grabbing, stacking, flipping, sliding them across the table. That is precisely when the interesting problems surface. You do not need a workshop. A cutting mat, a steel rule, a fresh blade and an evening will get you a long way, and everything below is built to be remade in an hour when the rules shift under you.

Card, greyboard and the humble punch

The workhorse of prototyping is mounted card. Print your artwork at final size, stick it to 1.5–2mm greyboard with spray adhesive or double-sided sheet adhesive, then cut. Work on a self-healing mat with a steel rule and a fresh blade every session — a blunt knife drags the board and leaves furry edges that no amount of sanding will rescue.

For round tokens, a circle punch or disc cutter is far quicker and more consistent than scissors. Punches at 25mm and 19mm cover most coins and counters. Print registration marks so you can line the artwork up accurately, and always print a spare sheet: you will misalign one.

• Laminate the printed face with a matt or satin self-adhesive film before mounting. It protects the ink from damp fingers and stops edges lifting.
• Sand the cut edges with 400-grit paper wrapped round a block, then seal them with a thin wipe of PVA. This is the single biggest jump in perceived quality you can make.
• For a heavier counter, sandwich a washer or a coin between two card faces. The change in heft and in the sound it makes when it lands is remarkable.

Wooden discs and cut blanks

Blank wooden discs in 20mm, 25mm and 30mm sizes are cheap in bulk and feel good in the hand immediately. They take acrylic paint well, though they drink the first coat. Prime with thinned PVA or gesso, sand lightly with 240-grit, then paint, stamp or decoupage your design on top.

For crisp graphics, print onto self-adhesive label paper, stick it down, and trim round the edge with a sharp blade held at a shallow angle. Seal with two thin coats of clear acrylic varnish. Thin coats, or an inkjet print will bloom and run.

Wood is forgiving when you need to revise — a quick sand and you have a blank disc again. For shapes beyond circles, a small fretsaw and a clamped stack of 3mm plywood will get you meeple-ish silhouettes, though expect to spend a pleasant, slightly dusty afternoon on a mere handful of them.

Clay, putty and sculptural one-offs

Some tokens are really miniatures: a monster marker, a strange relic, a ship. Here polymer clay earns its place. It holds fine detail, cures in a domestic oven, and takes acrylic paint and washes beautifully.

• Roll to an even thickness using guide strips of dowel or card either side of the clay, so every piece matches.
• Press a textured object into the surface — coarse cloth, a key, a leaf — for instant detail.
• Bake on a flat tile rather than a baking tray so the bases stay true.
• Reinforce thin joints with a two-part epoxy putty, which cures hard and can be carved and sanded.

Clay is slow, so save it for the few pieces that carry the drama. Everything else can stay card or wood. A mixed set — one sculpted centrepiece, workmanlike counters around it — reads as deliberate rather than unfinished.

Weight, legibility and the playtest table

Two qualities decide whether a token survives contact with real players. The first is legibility: strong contrast, generous numerals, and coding that works without colour, using shape as well as hue. Squint at your token from across the table. If you cannot tell a 1 from a 7, neither can the player at the far end.

The second is weight. Light tokens get knocked and slide; heavy ones stay put and feel authoritative. Washers, coins and lead-free fishing weights all work as hidden ballast. Aim for a set that is uniform in mass — sort finished tokens onto a kitchen scale and pair the outliers up with matching ballast.

Finally, label everything on the underside: a number, a version, a date. Three iterations in, holding four sets of similar counters, that scrawl will save you. Keep each version in a small zip bag with an index card, and resist overwriting an old set. Those earlier tokens are your evidence, and the differences between them are the notes you will mine when the design finally settles.