Monday 9 January 2012

Dice - Ever thought about them.. I mean seriously?

Over the years I have bought lots of dice. I have bags of them. I got some free in games. Some free in give aways. Some I have found on the floor, under the table after role playing sessions.

We all have them, and we all tend to have loads we never really need. Well certainly the role players do. Me included.

Well I watched these two videos.. worth a look.

And



I have to admit i recall looking at a set of sharp edged die and seeing the blemish and just walking away. But I probably shouldn't. As I have to say, I do indeed have some favourite dice. And it is because the do seem to roll well. Conversely i have a friend who has dire luck with dice.

Now I didn't think that these small amounts of edge rounding, difference in size etc could matter that much frankly! But when see quite how much material is taken off the dice in the smoothing process to remove and polish them. You realise how it can easily start to each near 0.5mm! No wonder a lot of my D20's are not the same size. They all started out that way, but depending on how long they get polished for, the sizes alter. And the chances of rolling numbers.

I think this chap sold his business on, since these vids were made. But I am rather tempted to get a set of Game Science dice and see how they perform, compared to my RPG set.



4 comments:

Shelldrake said...

The videos are very interesting to watch.

Thanks for posting them :-)

Goose on the loose said...

Yes, it explained why some of my dice didn't seen quite as random. And why some of my D6 are not all the same size, despite being meant to be!

I think it could be time to retire a few of my older dice and maybe invest in a set of these for rolepalying at least.

Buying 36 x D6 for wargaming from these guys would prove pricy!

Only Warlock said...

Gamescience is still in business, they are the great grandaddy of all polyhedral dice makers (in fact I purchased a new glow-in-the-dark set last year).

http://www.gamescience.com/

Weird WWII said...

Saw these vids a while back and immediately replaced my whole collection with his and I have to say for the better.

Great insight on the biz and science of the almighty gaming dice.

Brian