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- Dec 16, 2019
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)
- Thread starter Surtur
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- Dec 20, 2018
Don't waste 'your time, it was designed by Monte Cook and it shows in that it's a game about sorcerers, wizards and whoever the fuck their lame ass friends are.
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- Feb 3, 2023
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
We kinda talked about this a while back but wanted to hear peoples' thoughts re: dice.
I've been eyeing up getting myself a fancy set by way of Gravity Dice just because the idea of getting a set to have forever that aren't cruddy amazon bulk ones is appealing especially considering I use them frequently but christ they're expensive.
Has anyone bought these before or used them and can weigh in on their quality and how retarded I'm being with my money? And can you recommend any other manufacturers or companies that make good ones of comparative quality? Or just give tips that may or may not devolve into 'don't waste your money retard'.
I've been eyeing up getting myself a fancy set by way of Gravity Dice just because the idea of getting a set to have forever that aren't cruddy amazon bulk ones is appealing especially considering I use them frequently but christ they're expensive.
Has anyone bought these before or used them and can weigh in on their quality and how retarded I'm being with my money? And can you recommend any other manufacturers or companies that make good ones of comparative quality? Or just give tips that may or may not devolve into 'don't waste your money retard'.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2020
Metal dice are an overpriced meme designed to separate fools from the money and roll like absolute shit and chip tables. I can't tell you how many times the one zoomer in my group has tried to roll a die only for it to just fall flat on whatever surface he's using with a dull thud and slide a few pathetic inches with no tumbling. No fucking soul to those things. There is literally nothing wrong with resin dice.
robobobo
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2014
Yeah, I've yet to be impressed by any of the metal dice I've seen. They're expensive as fuck, can be damaging to table surfaces, and offer very little advantage over plastics unless a crazed vandal is going around hitting the dice with a hammer. The die itself might last your lifetime, but the paint on it may very well be worn to shit after a couple years while I have decades-old plastic dice that look and roll fine. Though to be fair, metal dice are at least less retarded than the stone and wood dice I've seen out there.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
I think Gamescience and Chessex are pretty well regarded. I wouldn't bother with metal dice though.
(I wouldn't advise weird dice like a d100 though because those are never good.)
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
I have not bought Gravity. But from what I know about metal dice:
Aluminum dice solve a lot of the issues with the other metal-dice type which is zinc-based Chinesium. But they are light, not much heavier than plastic dice, so unless you really throw them at your table they probably won't fuck it up. They also have fewer issues with "dice inertial" being you can get them to actually roll.
The big downsides are they are very, very unsatisifying to roll because they are so light. Also, if you are getting coated aluminum - as those seem to be - you still will have issues with "oblonging" like with plastic dice. Just less so.
For those dice specifically, I would have concerns about the coating. I have a set of coated aluminum dice with engraved numbers, and after only about a year of weekly play the coating on them started to get a little worn & scratched at the corners from rolling multiples. That'd be a huge problem with those dice since the numbers are all painted on.
The other metal dice type are zinc-based chinesium - which who gives a shit if its chinesium, its dice - but don't be fooled. They are heavy and feel great in your hand, but they roll like shit. They are so heavy you need to really put some thought into getting them to roll and not just spin on their axis. If you aren't rolling on a mat of some sort, they WILL fuck up your table. You will do a bunch of test rolls and say "those guys on the internet are fucking retards with weak-ass table, mine is fine" and then in the heat of math-battle that D20 will land at the right angle/velocity and your table will have a divot. Or as in one case, you will miss the table and now your original 1930s hardwood floor has a divot.
If you do demand your shiny memey trinkets and full disclosure over the past 6ish years I have spent (or had spend on me at christmas) a couple hundo on shiny meme trinket dice so I'm not judging just forewarning
If you want aluminum dice, get a CNC set with engraved numbers and are bare-metal.
If you want Zinc-chinesium alloy, I have used Die Hard Dice and they have a nice product with a lot of nice designs. But you can probably get ones just as good from Amazon using what's likely their same supplier, for half the price.
My most favorite dice are a set of Lapis gemstone dice. They are the perfect weight/density, look baller as shit, and no issues with rolling. Only thing is I can only roll one stone-die at a time and have to use a tray to protect them from the table.
My other go-to "travel" set is a Red & White set of Game Science with some Chessex black-and-ivory when I need that 3rd die.
My Diehards are display and occassionally trotted out to wow the newbs, my aluminum set are effectively bag ballast.
Stone dice are really dumb but if you can get an amazon set so worth it. The trick is finding a good seller who will sell actual rocks with a slight coating packed properly, and not just resin mixed with stonedust. You can't tell - the place that made my favorite set was booted from Amazon by the time I went to buy 2nd set from them.
Wood dice are 8000% retarded, I promise you. There is zero good from wood dice - too light to feel like a good roll, and they aren't large enough to show off the wood grain.
I also have a pair of Horn D-6s that look baller as fuck but QC was garbage so they roll 3 a lot.
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- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
wait, that's supposed to be bad?
throwing down some tungsten natty 20s shredding character sheets and books alike feels great.
alternatively use some real bone dice, former pet to be metal af, or claim it to be human to never get an invite again.
painted numbers are a pain in the ass, it's like buying dice with an expiration date to get blank dice...
if you go the cnc route, at least use some of these as a discussion starter: https://www.printables.com/model/616349-skew-dice
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- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
In regards to chinesium dice, I want to add:
from my experience, the d6's and d4's are fine and I haven't had much issue getting them to fall with some good variation.
You can also get d6s with rounded corners/edges and those will build up more of a "used patina" when shaken in groups than the fucked up scratches on your D20s. Also less likely to fuck up your table. I said LESS.
"How do you turn magic missile into a fireball? blank d6s."
from my experience, the d6's and d4's are fine and I haven't had much issue getting them to fall with some good variation.
You can also get d6s with rounded corners/edges and those will build up more of a "used patina" when shaken in groups than the fucked up scratches on your D20s. Also less likely to fuck up your table. I said LESS.
I saw a short recently about using blank dice to fuck with your players.
"How do you turn magic missile into a fireball? blank d6s."
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- Aug 6, 2019
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- Nov 20, 2018
I found the setting to be blander than Forgotten Realms.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Man, all this dice talk makes no sense to me. I'm used to giving away dice when we run demo games, so a few years ago bought a literal bucket of every size dice from d4 to d20 off Aliexpress (plus a couple more buckets of d6 because you always need more d6s for wargames) for like... 20 bucks? 25 bucks? Anyway, whenever I have a die I feel its starting to go bad I just throw it away and get a new one from the respective bucket.
Sure, it's the equivalent of having only blue jeans and white t-shirts in your wardrobe but it works for me.
Sure, it's the equivalent of having only blue jeans and white t-shirts in your wardrobe but it works for me.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
>he doesn't even roll them 10 times for every side they have to calculate chi-square
smdh
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
I have a 5lb bag of Random Chessex (what's left; spoiler, after 10 years its still well over 3/4ths) that I use for loaners & to quickly fill out shit that likes to stack a bunch of dice types, and to replace shitty board game dice. So any dice beyond that is purely just because I like them. The matched sets of chessex I have just because I like having matched sets and dig the designs.
I am in no way saying metal, stone, bone, ivory, wood, polymer, toe nail, or plasma dice are a wise spend, in fact its a pretty dumb purchase. But I've got money and I like to spend some of it on shiny baubles for battle taxes, and so I spend it. $40-50 once or or twice a year on some overpriced dice doesn't wreck my budget or negatively affect my retirement.
I mean there are free dice apps for any mobile device, websites with free authenticated rolls, chatbots that do it.... so you don't even need physical dice at all. So its really all just the degree to how much money you're willing to waste on elf game accessories.
In other words:
Come within throwing range of my metal dice and see if you still feel the same way, scrub.
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- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Whenever I'm taking dice out of the buckets I just put my carry pistol on the table and roll each dice in front of it once.
They get the idea.
No, I understand. I'm not judging anyone who does it. The hobby is a luxury to begin with so if you feel like treating yourself to something nice and it won't break the bank, then why not just do it? I wouldn't have nearly as many books I'll never use for anything otherwise.
My point is that watching people talk about respective merits and flaws of specific materials, methods and manufacturers for dice is like watching French people arguing about cheese. I'm the kind of guy who goes for Kraft singles and Land O Lakes, the entire conversation flies far above my head.
WhatIsThePunchline
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2020
If you want specialty dice just buy bone dice. It's a good material for it that isn't plastic or resin.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
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- Feb 4, 2013
The biggest retardation ever is raising DCs on things that should be trivial at anything but the first few levels just to artificially make things challenging with zero creativity.
That's always been a problem, even in the 70s, and it's the reason Gygax wrote the original Tomb of Horrors (not the modulized version, but the Origins I version). Everything is a trap, mostly obvious, and you have to think around the adventure. Outside the 3e version dice don't solve that dungeon.
The more years I play the more I appreciate games like Amber DRPG and Noblesse. Insane power levels and crazy challenging at a good table despite zero random chance.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
It's interesting that the sort of knowledge of the game world that the OG D&D assumed the players had has since been relegated to "metagaming".
Adventurers were supposed to be paranoid and careful (hence how long it took to move through dungeons), because finding traps was difficult (up to level 9 a thief would find any given trap on a toin coss) and they were dangerous to disarm (failure resulted in the trap being sprung on the thief), and both rolls were made in secret by the GM. So, in most cases the players were looking for telltale signs of possible traps and attempting to safely activate them if possible, or at the very least bypass them. Likewise, a lot of encounters with monsters could be avoided with tactics, intimidation, stealth, barter or simple conversation.
Ironically, it wasn't all about rolling dice. The "roleplaying" part of roleplaying game covered much of what now are skill checks with DCs, and the challenge of a puzzle or a social encounter gets all condensed into a single dice roll. No wonder people think the skill system lacks depth compared to combat.