When I make Steve's little clown that "walks" down the ladder it has a number of dowels that I round over. I use my disc sander and just round them by slowly spinning them around. You could also just put a piece of sand paper flat on your bench and sand them by hand. Neither of these will give you the consistent look that a router will, as Chief mentioned, but they look good enough for government work
![Smiley :)](https://www.stevedgood.com/community/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
Depending on your project and the size of the dowels used you can get them looking pretty good with a little effort and it won't cost much.
Barry