I’ve used coloured glass stones in the past. Use different colours for 1s 10s 100s. It’s not perfect, but t tub of these is pretty cheap iirc and great in a sack as a life counter in games like escape the dark castle!

Woah this looks amazing. Now I have a new project to add to the list! Got any videos of it in use? How does it feel? Did you document the build process?

Damn you for opening up these possibilities!