Got any Dice Questions?

[Kevin_Cook]

What is a good way to clean dice without damaging them? Plastic ones and metallic ones, specifically. And how often should that be done?

Well it depends on what the die is made of .. ie type of plastic .. in general I just use friction and skin oil .. if it is really dirty .. I have used alcohol and or a commercial degreaser (409 / fantastic / Simple Green)

Then why do others have rounded corners? Easier to polish, cheaper, less gamer cursing for stepping on them, or etc?

They have rouned corners because they are not precision dice .. ie they are molded rather than machined ... and as was said earlier .. they may have been tumbled

Any idea on where I could find tungsten or tungsten carbide dice, or is that something I'd have to special order myself? If I did need to special order them, any idea where I could do that?

I have never heard of Tungsten dice ... perhaps someone like Ace Precision R&D could do something like that .. if the stock can be found (email link is in the page header)

[Kevin_Cook]

If you are not interested in new or rare dice that were inventoried this month ... Please ignore this post



Click on the IRONDIE ZTARK D10 for highlights of dice added in July 2012

[Ksheep]

If you haven't heard yet, there's another dice-related Kickstarter: Spherical D14s and D18s. Thought you might like to know.

[Randomguy]

Do you have any binary dice? As in 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, as opposed to the Binary Arts brand. For playing robot characters, of course.

Did you ever step on a d4? Which is worse, stepping on a d4 or stepping on a lego?

There's an entire wall of dice on your website labelled "retired". What made you retire them? Is there any particular reason that almost all of them have 1's pointed towards the camera?

[Kevin_Cook]

If you haven't heard yet, there's another dice-related Kickstarter: Spherical D14s and D18s. Thought you might like to know.

Yep .. I was one of the first backers as the artist who created the dice is one of my big supporters

Do you have any binary dice? As in 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, as opposed to the Binary Arts brand. For playing robot characters, of course.

Does this help? Binary and Hex dice

Did you ever step on a d4?

Not that I recall

Which is worse, stepping on a d4 or stepping on a lego?

I would think that a d4 would be much worse

There's an entire wall of dice on your website labelled "retired". What made you retire them? Is there any particular reason that almost all of them have 1's pointed towards the camera?

that is the container / shelf that was retired ... and it was retired because it was too hard to maintain .. every time I got a new casino die .. it took an hour to reorder the shelf

[Darrin]

Oh jeepers .. sorry I missed this Darrin ... I know I have looked here since the 24th .. wonder what happened

As to the patent

It was filed in 1980 ... and my understanding is that patents generally are 15 year patents .. so it sounds like this one

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...y=PN/4,346,900

Has expired ... the problem is .. my list ... (http://www.dicecollector.com/DICEINFO_PATENTS.html) is not up to date ... so there may be a newer patent now

Well, your patent page does have this later patent: 5690331. It mentions 4346900, but it claims that 4346900 doesn't specify "identically shaped sides" or an equal chance to land on each face.

It was filed in 1996, which means the patent expires in 20 years (before that, it was 17 years). So... it looks like TSR (or rather WotC) owns the Wedge D4 patent until 2016.

Hmm... looks like they were used in Dragon Dice, although they didn't use numbers on the faces.

[rakkoon]

So the smallest dice in the world are 0.3mm and cost over 800 dollars?
Impressive.
Have you ever seen them in real life?

[Kevin_Cook]

Well, your patent page does have this later patent: 5690331. It mentions 4346900, but it claims that 4346900 doesn't specify "identically shaped sides" or an equal chance to land on each face.

It was filed in 1996, which means the patent expires in 20 years (before that, it was 17 years). So... it looks like TSR (or rather WotC) owns the Wedge D4 patent until 2016.

Hmm... looks like they were used in Dragon Dice, although they didn't use numbers on the faces.

NICE ! and Thanks ... I was not aware that Google Patents had come along this far ... I now need to go back and change my page to point to their URL rather than the USPTO

So the smallest dice in the world are 0.3mm and cost over 800 dollars?
Impressive.
Have you ever seen them in real life?

I have not seen such a die ... where did you see them for $800 ... I have contacted Johns Hopkins University ... and asked them to help me acquire one (as they were the ones who made the worlds smallest die) and they promised to do so ... but never came through


PS: Sorry for the delay I was in Indianapolis at GenCon

[rakkoon]

Through one of the links on your site (most of them seem to be slightly deceased btw ). Here it is, they say 870 dollars but I have no idea how accurate the site is

[Kevin_Cook]

Through one of the links on your site (most of them seem to be slightly deceased btw ). Here it is, they say 870 dollars but I have no idea how accurate the site is

Yea .. I contacted them back in 2006 ... that was the COST .. not the price to purchase

[Kevin_Cook]

Through one of the links on your site (most of them seem to be slightly deceased btw ). Here it is, they say 870 dollars but I have no idea how accurate the site is

Yea .. I contacted them back in 2006 ... that was the COST .. not the price to purchase

[Kevin_Cook]

Through one of the links on your site (most of them seem to be slightly deceased btw ).

I picked 20 at random and only 1 of the 20 was dead :(

Here it is, they say 870 dollars but I have no idea how accurate the site is

Yea .. I contacted them back in 2006 ... that was the COST .. not the price to purchase

[Kevin_Cook]

If you are not interested in new or rare dice that were inventoried this month ... Please ignore this post



There were too many amazing dice to choose from this month so click on the NO DICE above for highlights of dice added in August 2012

[Enix18]

I'm actually curious if you can identify a set of dice for me. They showed up in my collection one day and I haven't the faintest idea where they came from or what they might possibly be used for.

Since I don't have a picture handy, I'll have to describe them. They're white, six-sided dice with various images imprinted on the sides instead of numbers: a lightning bolt, a chair, a set of dice, a mug of ale, and a fist impacting something. There's also one red die in the set.

[Ksheep]

I'm actually curious if you can identify a set of dice for me. They showed up in my collection one day and I haven't the faintest idea where they came from or what they might possibly be used for.

Since I don't have a picture handy, I'll have to describe them. They're white, six-sided dice with various images imprinted on the sides instead of numbers: a lightning bolt, a chair, a set of dice, a mug of ale, and a fist impacting something. There's also one red die in the set.

After a quick Google search, I think i found what you're describing: They came from a game called "Inn-Fighting", which appears to be a D&D card game made by Wizards of the Coast. Pic of the dice in the link below, and you should be able to get more info from that.

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/263257/inn-fighting

[Enix18]

Yep, those are them!

That's so weird, though: I've never even heard of the game "Inn-Fighting," let alone known anyone who played it. Now I'm really not sure where these things came from...

[Ksheep]

Yep, those are them!

That's so weird, though: I've never even heard of the game "Inn-Fighting," let alone known anyone who played it. Now I'm really not sure where these things came from...

Did you buy a pound of dice recently? I know a friend had done that and got two or three really odd dice.

[Cicciograna]

Hey Kevin, were you aware of this? How old is the oldest d20 you have?

[Kevin_Cook]

Good catch on the INN FIGHTING one KSheep

I even updated the dice database to reflect the description .. as I just had them down as INN-FIGHTING .. with no sides descriptions

Hey Kevin, were you aware of this?

I was aware of the fact that Greeks and Romans did have icosahedral dice ... I was not aware of this specific die .. thanks !

How old is the oldest d20 you have?

approaching 50 years old (Mid 1960's)

[the OOD]

When God does play dice with the universe, does he stop by to borrow some from you?

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

[Ksheep]

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

Love the Good Omens quote. Good to hear that there are other people out there that have actually read that.

[Kevin_Cook]

Noone even noticed .. or noticed but didnt comment about my comment about God and Dice ... in this photo ... from last months dice

[Conners]

Hello Mr. Cook. Would like to ask you about ordering a large number of custom dice.


I am currently looking for a good place which does coloured d6s (red, blue, white), with one side being black. I haven't decided on the size of these dice, but a small size is likely desirable in this case.

My second concern, is how to ship these dice in packets, to many people. Would a custom-dice manufacturer be willing to mail an order in such a way? Or would I need to hire someone who specializes in packing and shipping?


I'll be grateful for any insight you can offer me. Thank you very much, in advance .

[Kevin_Cook]

Hi Conners

Depending on how many you want ... they can be purchased from a dice vendor like GameStation or from a direct manufacturer in China

As to packaging ... my guess is you would need to hire someone ... as most manufacturers if not all .. ship dice in bulk (1000+ at a time)

Hello Mr. Cook. Would like to ask you about ordering a large number of custom dice.


I am currently looking for a good place which does coloured d6s (red, blue, white), with one side being black. I haven't decided on the size of these dice, but a small size is likely desirable in this case.

My second concern, is how to ship these dice in packets, to many people. Would a custom-dice manufacturer be willing to mail an order in such a way? Or would I need to hire someone who specializes in packing and shipping?


I'll be grateful for any insight you can offer me. Thank you very much, in advance .

[Conners]

Thank you for replying.

Would you say there are any benefits to addressing manufacturers in China directly, or is it just as well to contact GameStation?

[Kevin_Cook]

It depends on how many you want .. and how many sides custom

Thank you for replying.

Would you say there are any benefits to addressing manufacturers in China directly, or is it just as well to contact GameStation?

[Conners]

Only one side would need to be custom. The number of dice would be over a thousand, perhaps more than two thousand.

[Kevin_Cook]

I suggest contacting in order

Chessex (they have the best variety of colors)
GameStation (Likely have the lowest prices .. in bulk (as I understand it)
Q-Workshop (they have the best quality as they actually mold the dice to your specification)

Only one side would need to be custom. The number of dice would be over a thousand, perhaps more than two thousand.

[Reaper_Monkey]

Hi, I've just inherited some dice which have been in the family for some time - most of which are just regular old dice from the pub my grandfather used to own.

Three of them however are a little different, and I'm unsure as to what game they're for (if any, specifically) or why they differ in the way they do. I thought you might be able to enlighten me.

The dice themselves are all d6, with pips, and all have the pips on the four side coloured red (I'm aware that this is a common feature for Chinese dice) but they also have the one side replaced with text. Two dice have " E T " in red lettering, and the remaining die has " J D " (also in red). The ET side has the 'E' in the lower left and 'T' in the top right, clearly offset - whilst the JD side are just both centred in the middle of the die.

Judging from the lack of perfectly regular spacing of pips on the dice, I'm assuming these were produced by hand, so it could just be that these are custom made dice for people with those initials so they could always claim them (no doubt reclaimed by the pub when lost or something). But I thought I'd ask as you might know something more about this kind of thing.

I'll also include these details, as they might matter:
The colour of the dice are very yellow in colour - and appear to have hairline cracks on their surface in black. Also, all dice are right handed (with 1 facing up they read 1,2,3 in a clockwise order), and all dice have 3 and 2 aligned in the same diagonal (bottom left to top right when 1 is facing upwards) and have the six face aligned with the parallel lines crossing form the 2 side to the 5 side.

Any details of the origin and potential game these might have been used for (or at least confirmation that they're likely custom made dice for individuals) would be fantastic as I'd like to know more about these 'heirlooms' of mine - so thanks for any light you can shed on them.

[Kevin_Cook]

I agree .. these do seem to be hand made ... I might be able to tell more ... if you were to post a photo somewhere

Hi, I've just inherited some dice which have been in the family for some time - most of which are just regular old dice from the pub my grandfather used to own.

Three of them however are a little different, and I'm unsure as to what game they're for (if any, specifically) or why they differ in the way they do. I thought you might be able to enlighten me.

The dice themselves are all d6, with pips, and all have the pips on the four side coloured red (I'm aware that this is a common feature for Chinese dice) but they also have the one side replaced with text. Two dice have " E T " in red lettering, and the remaining die has " J D " (also in red). The ET side has the 'E' in the lower left and 'T' in the top right, clearly offset - whilst the JD side are just both centred in the middle of the die.

Judging from the lack of perfectly regular spacing of pips on the dice, I'm assuming these were produced by hand, so it could just be that these are custom made dice for people with those initials so they could always claim them (no doubt reclaimed by the pub when lost or something). But I thought I'd ask as you might know something more about this kind of thing.

I'll also include these details, as they might matter:
The colour of the dice are very yellow in colour - and appear to have hairline cracks on their surface in black. Also, all dice are right handed (with 1 facing up they read 1,2,3 in a clockwise order), and all dice have 3 and 2 aligned in the same diagonal (bottom left to top right when 1 is facing upwards) and have the six face aligned with the parallel lines crossing form the 2 side to the 5 side.

Any details of the origin and potential game these might have been used for (or at least confirmation that they're likely custom made dice for individuals) would be fantastic as I'd like to know more about these 'heirlooms' of mine - so thanks for any light you can shed on them.