Dice Goblins
Our son mentioned that he and a friend at school have been discussing how they are both dice goblins. I’m not sure we strictly meet the definition, but we do like a pretty set and the vendors at cons (or even our local game store) can be dangerous.
I thought it would be fun to go through all the dice we’ve accumulated through the years, going all the way back to my original set that I got when I started playing D&D circa 1998.
A small hoardThe original teamCurrent heavy hittersPike for scale
There is of course some ridiculousness in having this many since right now only he is playing an in person game; most of my play is online, though I do sometimes still use dice locally for secret rolls. But there’s a story behind each of these, and my oldest dice introduced randomness to a lot of epic adventures.
Starting in the upper left where the first row is 1-10, the second row is 11-21, and the third row is 22-30, we have:
My original set, an earth elemental theme of green text on brown speckles. These are Chessex but I’m not certain where I bought them… probably a local game store. Sadly lost one of the d10s at some point.As my group played more in high school, I realized I needed at least one more d20, so got this Chessex white text on clear set. Not sure what happened to the d10s. Kinda hard to read.As I got into DMing more I picked up a Chessex set of white pips on red d6 for damage rolls and the like. There were 12, looks like I’m down one.At some point (still in high school) I got these two white text on red d10 to use as trackers/counters. These might have come from a friend’s hoard?This black text on orange swirl Chessex set is what I think of as my “new” set from college. Never mind that peak 3e playing time was over 20 years ago. Got in part because the clear set was a mistake and too hard to see!A single black text on white hexadecimal die (similar to a d10 but with more faces on each half) that was a gift from my old roommate and fellow D&D player Emery. I should use it for generating encryption keys or something.This set of six black pips on orange d6 with little kobold faces in place of the 1s was a Kickstarter reward for backing Kobolds Ate My Baby! (All Hail King Torg!)A huge black text on dire metal d20 that is super heavy. I almost never roll it for fear of damaging things. I think I got it from a vendor at PAX East in 2011 or 2012?This gold text on blue and purple swirled set was my wife’s first set and her first step towards dice avarice. Pretty sure it’s another Chessex we got so she could join me and my friends for a few one shots when we lived in Boston.These extra white pips on blue green swirl d6s are also Andrle’s, gotten around the same time.A set of six white text on blue d6 with little rocket logos in place of the 1s that I got for being a member of the Maximum Fun podcast network.A single white text on light blue d6 with the little Angel logo in place of the 1 that I got for participating in the Extra Life fundraiser a few years ago.A red text on black dire d20 that kid got at the Wizards of the Coast booth at OrcaCon in 2020, just before COVID.A fungible token decision making coin my sister got me for Christmas a few years ago. It came with a whole joke pamphlet about how, unlike NFTs, it actually exists and can be held.This white text on green and blue swirls set is our child’s first set, a Chessex we got at Blue Highway when we started playing together. Not sure what happened to the d4, it’s probably in the house as a caltrop.A pink faces and metal text and edge dice set that is my wife’s and was also bought at our local shop. She wanted a pretty but heavier set to play with.We got this light white marble set free with a large Die Hard Dice order, which also included the dice trays shown above. I think these are intended to be drawn on? We’ve been afraid to even though the inset text is currently almost unreadable.Another freebie: gold text on black semi translucent set.This white text on aqua set also free from Die Hard.Free again: black text on black swirls set.Kid picked a new set for himself with black text on blue-purple. It is called Eldritch Blast and glows in the dark.Gold text on dark purple and pink swirls, Rose Gold, was Andrle’s choice.Four different dire metal d20s from the Mythica line. The big ones can be split in half to have swapped sides and also glow in the dark. There is a blue a purple Spellbinder Nightfall, a pink and purple Spellbinder Fae Queen, a mostly pink AfterDark Neon Haze, and a mostly blue AfterDark Neon Rain.I picked this single white metal Reticle Zenith Clone d20. The extra outlines on each face look cool and go well with my other sets.My big set from this 2023 haul was this expanded Lumina Carbon Knight set that includes a second d20 and 4d6. The black outlined text is inset into the dark brushed metal. This is my new primary set and I love the heavier roll even if they’re technically Star Wars themed.This year I joined a Dungeon Crawl Classics online play game with folks I met in a Star Trek podcast Discord. Our DM sent us all a set of the unusual DCC dice. Mine are white text on dark blue.Kid had requested mini dice for his birthday this year, so Oma bought him these white text on translucent blue Critlings High Tide dice. (We helped.)We realized we all “needed” a mini set, so Andrle grabbed this white text on translucent purple Critlings Iris Moon.As part of this new mini dice order they gave us a freebie: a set of recycled material mini dice that are gold text on kinda dark translucent yellow.We also selected this Critlings Indigo Sparkle set which is white text on dark blue-purple sparkles. Spaaaaaace!(The observant will note a few of these got arranged out of order, because I didn’t think through these full timing details until writing the post.)
What are your favorite dice sets? How do you avoid accumulating a draconic hoard of them?
#collection #dd #dice #dungeonCrawlClassics #games #orcacon #paxEast #rpgs
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