I am thinking of organising an IRL small club for chess variants/go. While it is easy to print as many boards as needed worst case on paper, the question is then how to source pieces - I'm mostly focused on games like go / draughts / abalone where they are essentially shapeless/round.

I would like to try to find alternative ways to source large number of pieces - I read in online forums to try to get buttons, flat glass vase fillers, does anyone have similar ideas on how to get them in bulk or recently solved a similar problem? En passant, I am not looking to "forage" them e.g. collecting them from a gravelly beach or "mold my own" by making salt dough incidentally so it's more of a sourcing question rather than DIY question.

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@ronin3b maybe just search for something like 'counters' on Amazon or similar. e.g. www.amazon.co.uk/Counters-Coloured-Learning-Mathematical-Calculations/dp/B0DBQC2J41

That's going to be one of the cheapest ways to get a large number of pieces. You might find that people are more engaged/understand the game better with a real set, but they cost more of course.

Good luck with your club!

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Hobby and handicraft stores may sell different kind of pieces and flat boards, and you can find games from second hand stores.

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