Dice

[Supplement Four]

What is it about dice?

I'm a gamer. I have the ubiquitous mounds of dice--all shapes and sizes--enough to last me many life times of gaming. I even have the stereotypical Crown Royal dice bag, though I don't use it to hold my dice anymore.

Yet, I happen upon a store this weekend, and I spy some really cool looking dice. So, yeah, I bought 'em. I bought the friggin' dice. Two sets. More friggin' dice.

But...they're so cool looking.

Something as simple as new dice has got me hankerin' to roll 'em in a game.

New dice!

I spent $14 bucks on 14 dice--a buck a piece! Stupid! I got robbed!

So, why do I feel so good about the indulgence?

And, why can't I wait to use 'em.

I mean, they're just friggin' dice!!

 

[sabredog]

Periodically I have to redo the red dots in all my black 6-siders. All 24 of them.

But I bought some of these a couple of months ago:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/a7d4/

I keep them on my desk at work and when some guy comes in to write a report and can't figure out how to get the computer working I give him these to diagnose the problem before he TASERs the monitor.

Oh, and my most extravagant dice purchase was this one:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/745a/images/1159/

Hematite dice that make dents in the table when I roll them so my wife got mad at me about it. Now I just threaten to throw them at obnoxious players.

But those giant steel 20-siders call to me at night in my dreams......

 

[soloprobe]

Hey, I found a set of Traveller dice at Noble knight games.com. Black 6 sided, with red numbers in a white Imperial starburst . They're sold in pairs......I bought three.......I'm such a grognard.....

 

[aramis]

Dice are a symbol...
... of fate
... of possibilities to explore
... of risk-taking
... of stories untold
... of gamerdom in general

 

[beowulf2044]

Those official Trveller dice were crap; the paper numbers glued to the sides fade. Still, everyone who comes to play in any game I run know that whatever game it is, it will always be with 6-sided die.

Or as I heard one of my players tell a newcomer: "The Ref doesn't go for those perverse polyhydrons".

 

[Cryton]

Hehe, I just bought a "Cup o dice" at Comicon, came out to over half a pound of dice as you get to cap the cup with a hand as you move it from the barrel of dice to the bag, for a meer 14.99. somehow, in the 78 dice I only got 4 d4. HAD to go back for another scoop.

Its an addiction. Hi my name is Cryton, I'm a Die addict. Please to meetcha.

 

[ShapeShifter]

You spoiled, sissy kids with your new-fangled dice!
Why, back in my day, we only had pencils with notches! PENCILS!
And before that, we had to roll sheeps' knucklebones!
Bah!

 

[Icosahedron]

Until a few weeks ago, I'd only ever bought three dice in my life - a pair of percentage dice and a D20. All the others I have came with games. I still don't have a lot, which is why I bought a set of 36 D6 a few weeks ago when I wanted to try out a couple of games that used dice pools and I just didn't have enough to throw.

Edit: The old memory is playing tricks; those dice were in a game too - it was a D12 and a pair of average dice I bought. (D6 reading 233445).

 

[Sturn]

My favorite set of dX dice are the 6 that came with my Basic D&D set. The set came with a wax pencil to fill in the numbers to make them more readable. I've had to refill the numbers a few times on the ugly orange, chipped dice, but I still use them while wondering how I didn't lose at least one of the set over the decades.

 

[Gatsby]

My favorite set of dX dice are the 6 that came with my Basic D&D set. The set came with a wax pencil to fill in the numbers to make them more readable. I've had to refill the numbers a few times on the ugly orange, chipped dice, but I still use them while wondering how I didn't lose at least one of the set over the decades.

A younger bud of mine started up with D&D4e and invited me along. So, I brought my original dice (yellow d4, orange d6, green d8, white and pink d10, blue d12) and sat amoungst his peers of twenty-something year olds. 'Yep', I told one of them. 'My dice are several years older than you....now get the old man a beer!'

 

[HG_B]

Oh, and my most extravagant dice purchase was this one:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/745a/images/1159/

Hematite dice that make dents in the table when I roll them

I hate you. I've been trying to forget about these and NOT purchase them. Now, I'll be thinking about them all day.

 

[sabredog]

What about those Gamescience jobs? I hate how they roll, and they have sharp edges. They might make good defensive weapons if you get mugged on the way to a game, though.

Here they have some glow-in-the-dark ones:

http://www.amazon.com/GameScience-P...-Inked-Precision/dp/B002GZ9LS4/ref=pd_sbs_t_5

 

[HG_B]

What about those Gamescience jobs? I hate how they roll, and they have sharp edges.

As a GM I like them for their random rolling property.

 

[Sturn]

A younger bud of mine started up with D&D4e and invited me along. So, I brought my original dice (yellow d4, orange d6, green d8, white and pink d10, blue d12) and sat amoungst his peers of twenty-something year olds. 'Yep', I told one of them. 'My dice are several years older than you....now get the old man a beer!'

My original set all look like your orange d6 (all d4-d20 are orange).

 

[sabredog]

As a GM I like them for their random rolling property.

How does having sharp edges make that much difference unless you are using dice that you've already altered to roll the way you want?

Mine are heavier than Gamescience dice and while they have rounder edges and corners they are plenty random enough. I prefer the heavier weight, too, so they roll and bounce around in the box lid I use a lot more than the other kinds do.

 

[sabredog]

I hate you. I've been trying to forget about these and NOT purchase them. Now, I'll be thinking about them all day.

:devil:

What about those bone ones? For "rollin' dem bones"

 

[HG_B]

How does having sharp edges make that much difference unless you are using dice that you've already altered to roll the way you want?

The tumbled dice that you like will roll certain numbers more frequently than others due to uneven tumbling. Therefore, less random.

 

[sabredog]

I must be missing something here. The dice are squared properly (all sides are even), but the edges are rounder than the sharp kind. So how are they rolling some numbers more often than others?

I haven't noticed any numbers coming up more often than others (though I sure wish they would sometimes).

 

[Gatsby]

There is a reason why casino dice are not rounded and why the name 'Game science' is .... science. Ya see, Lou (of Gamescience) is a man who LOVES his job and (thus) has Trader-5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2fxoNHIuU


I use his black and color them in with a orange red crayon!

And his Traveller Dice....no problems with them so far!

 

[HG_B]

I must be missing something here. The dice are squared properly (all sides are even), but the edges are rounder than the sharp kind. So how are they rolling some numbers more often than others?

I haven't noticed any numbers coming up more often than others (though I sure wish they would sometimes).

The "roundness" isn't even, thus not as random. Go to Vegas and try to round off the edges of dice...