Critit Holiday D20 Loot Stocking review
Critit are a UK-based company selling a range of largely TTRPG themed products such as dice, notebooks, and clothing. They offer a Christmas focused item they call a loot stocking, which you may recognise as a play on the idea of loot box type products. Unsurprisingly, what you get is a number of their products packaged within a Christmas stocking. The loot stocking costs £29.99 and they promise the contents will be worth more than that, not counting the value of the stocking itself. While it’s not currently Christmas (or even near to Christmas) they mentioned the loot stocking during the Christmas in July event and, let’s be honest, at this point time is meaningless and we all deserve a stocking full of shiny things. Anyway, long story short I picked one up to find out what I would get.
The description for the stocking claims it contains “a minimum 2 sets of dice, storage and lots of other goodies”. Taking a look at the promotional image, which presumably shows an example of the contents, you can see that it has two coasters, a pen, some kind of storage roll, some animal miniatures, and three wrapped things that are likely dice or similar. Overall not a bad mix, assuming it’s representative.
So what was in the stocking I received? Well, the promotional image was very accurate. I’d say it was accurate to the point that the vagueness of the description on the site feels unnecessary. While the specific items themselves are likely random, the type and quantity of them doesn’t appear to be.
As shown in the photo above, my stocking contained: two coasters, a pen, that storage roll thing, two animal miniatures, two sets of dice (with four D6s each), and a set of monster tokens. Being able to inspect the storage roll in person makes it clearer how it works: there’s a zipped cylindrical compartment in the center, presumably for dice, that the attached sheet then wraps around.
It’s difficult to confirm the retail price of the items as the pen, storage, and dice don’t appear to be sold by Critit currently, possibly implying that the stockings are used to move old stock. That wouldn’t be unusual for a loot box style item and it’s hard to criticise the decision as long as the items are of good quality. The items that are currently sold through the site are:
- Coasters: £7.50 for two.
- Animals: These appear to be from the Animal Minatures Core Box set, which is 24 miniatures for £30. That works out as £2.50 for two.
- Monster tokens: £5
So far that’s £15, or half the cost of the bundle. The item description says the stocking is a bonus that isn’t included in the value calculation so I’ll exclude that here. That leaves the pen, storage, and two sets of dice to make up at least another £15, which they clearly would do. It wouldn’t be uncommon for a single set of dice with the four D6s to be sold for that much, or close to it, and I can’t imagine the storage roll would have been sold for much less.
Given the similarity of the contents to the promotional image and the clear delivery on the promise that the value of the items would exceed the price paid, so far the stocking seems like a winner. Now we have the all important question of the quality of the items.
As it turns out, I can’t complain there at all. The stocking itself feels nice (i.e. it’s not just a single layer of cheap flimsy material) and I appreciate them not just slapping a Critit logo on it and calling the job done. The storage roll and coasters are good quality, though I suspect the coasters are not intended for actual use. I certainly wouldn’t want to test them with coffee stains as they seem to be bare wood. The storage roll is perhaps a little difficult to button up just because of the flexibility of the leather, but that’s not really something they could avoid with this design. The monster tokens are… well, they’re laser cut monster tokens. If that’s what you need then that’s what you’ve got. The animals are perhaps of limited use, but the quality is good and if nothing else they’re good to practice painting on. The dice are well made with no obvious defects. Plus they’re very sparkly, which the photos here didn’t really capture. As for the pen, that’s pretty much just a novelty filler item but the value of everything else is enough to make up more than the cost of the stocking and who doesn’t need a bit of novelty occassionally?
I think the key point is that nothing in this bundle is low quality and, importantly for loot box style bundles, it isn’t based around having a single valuable item and then a lot of filler. Overall, the stocking appears to deliver on the promise of containing items to a higher value than its cost. As with any loot box style purchase, it may be a bit hit-and-miss as to whether the items are useful to you or match your personal style. In the case of the loot stocking this is somewhat helped by the items largely matching what the promotional image shows, with the variation being more in the detail of each item rather than the item composition itself. If you need a couple of sets of dice (and don’t mind what style), and would find the storage, coasters, or monster tokens useful then it would be worth considering. Similarly, if you need a present for the TTRPG gamer in your life and they haven’t told you something specific then bear the loot stocking in mind.
I am a software developer by day and dip into a range of related activities in my spare time, including working on my own software projects, writing, proof-reading, and, of course, gaming of both the digital and boardgame varieties. I am slowly starting to sink my teeth into game development.