Dice

[coffee]

Do you remember your first set of dice? I remember mine.

We take those happy little polyhedra for granted these days, but it was not always so. Back in the day (this is for you youngsters out there; old timers, I can already see you nodding your heads), there was no profusion of colors and numbers-of-sides at your friendly local game store. There was no d10, we used the d20 (which was numbered 0-9 twice - you had to color half of it to make it a d20).

Oh, and High Impact only meant when your stoner friend tried to walk through a closed glass door.

They came as a set, with a very pointy yellow d4, a red/orange d6, a green d8, a blue d12, and a white d10/d20. After a few games, the d20 started rolling longer before it would settle down. Compared to today's dice, they were crap. But they were mine, and I loved them.

Well, I don't have them anymore. A friend of mine played a Mage in AD&D (we all played AD&D in those days) and had started with the same dice. Everytime he got another missile for his magic missiles, he bought a new set of dice. But when he made, I think 19th level, they didn't sell them anymore. So I gave him mine.

I was thinking how cool it would be to have those old dice for a good old school Original D&D game. I almost bought a Holmes basic set on eBay a while back, just for the dice, but I didn't.

And then today, I found five sets, still in their plastic bags, on eBay. And I won!


Does anybody want a classic set of dice for their classic game? I might be reasonable about price...or I might just keep them for myself.

Either way, I'm Mr. Happy Guy right about now!

[crimhthanthegreat]

Congrats on finding the dice! As I posted elsewhere, we played with just a d6, with The Dice and with chits. A fun journey. I have about 3 or 4 hundred dice now. Plus I have two paper weight size monster d20's and a few d30's and d24's. Dice are always fun. ;D

[makofan]

I have a Crown Royal bag full of all the dice I've been buying since 1979. Some are really old.

[foster1941]

My first set of dice came from the D&D Basic Set (Mentzer/Elmore version) -- 6 blue plastic dice and a white crayon. One of the dice (the d4, I think) disappeared somewhere along the line. I still have the other 5, in my Mentzer box, but they're in pretty ragged shape and I doubt I'd ever use them again.

The Holmes box I bought at GenCon sometime in the late 80s or early 90s had an incomplete set of the OG dice you describe (the d4, d12, and d20 but no d6 or d8), and for a long time I was on a fruitless quest to find a complete set. I finally succeeded a couple years ago when Noble Knight Games discovered a lost cache of them (or, rather, I suppose, someone discovered a long lost cache and sold them to NKG). I bought 3 or 4 sets, all but one of which I've left sealed in their plastic bags. For awhile these (plus some extra six-siders I picked up at a liquor store) were the only dice I was using, and if I were to run an OD&D campaign I imagine these are what I'd use. Anything else just wouldn't feel right to me...

[coffee]

I didn't bother to look at who was selling these, but it turned out to be Noble Knight Games.

Now I'm on their mailing list.

[doc]

I used my original d20 so often that it eventually became round. Seriously, a d1.

Doc

[greentongue]

That reminds me. In my dice bag I have the original D4, D8 and D12 for the original White box D&D set.
I may have the other dice but I don't remember where I got the other ones like them so, I can't positively identify them.

I have a couple of Royal Crown bags but they no longer hold my dice. A white satin bag does that.
=

[coffee]

doc said:

I used my original d20 so often that it eventually became round. Seriously, a d1.

Doc

There was a guy, back in the day, who started people playing D&D in what would become my first group (this was before my time). I only got to play in one game of his, because he'd moved away. This guy had the old d20's that were virtually round and would keep rolling forever.

There were about 20 of us playing, a real old-school game. Everything that happened caused 2d6 of damage, but he used a different pair of d6's each time. One time he pulled out a pair of round d6's he'd gotten in Germany.

He explained why he'd bought them: "People kept telling me my dice were round, so I had to!"

And it was a very good night of gaming, to boot.

[Finarvyn]

coffee said:

Do you remember your first set of dice? I remember mine.

They came as a set, with a very pointy yellow d4, a red/orange d6, a green d8, a blue d12, and a white d10/d20. After a few games, the d20 started rolling longer before it would settle down. Compared to today's dice, they were crap. But they were mine, and I loved them.

I still have my first set of these dice, and they reside in a spot of honor on my bookshelf here in my den. They are long since retired from play, but I did buy a couple more sets from Noble Knight.

There were some neat "porcelain" style dice put out a few years ago, and I had this wacky idea of buying a nice set of these in the original colors, but sadly I waited too long and the colors I wanted had sold out.

doc said:

I used my original d20 so often that it eventually became round. Seriously, a d1.

A friend of mine from '75 had a white d20 which was round enough that we called it his "twenty-one sider" and it would roll and roll before finally coming to a stop. I like your d1 terminology much more than our d21, however.

[Thorulfr]

Still have the original set that came in the Holmes box, half the d20 marked with red Magic Marker; as with others here, that d20 was rolled so many times it is nearly round.

My current dice bag is the belt case from a TI-55 calculator that I got when I started college. The calculator only lasted a couple of years before the power pack gave out, but the case is still good after 26 years.

[tgamemaster1975]

I have my original rounded off dice, they are completely beyond use. I have a pair of d6 dice that all of the pips are skull and crossbones. I wish I could get a complete set like that. The old d20s that were numbered 0-9 twice, I liked to color them in black and red but I had one set that I colored in silver and gold with metallic ink.

[Deleted]

I don't have my original set anymore. In fact, I have just (1) set now (including a d6 weather caster, a d8 compass directional, & a d12 hit locator). I bought them a few years ago, & I swear these are blessed or something (even though I replaced the d6 with (3) "Cardinal" brand pip dice). As for my original set I got with my "Black Box", those have been gone for a loooong time. I used to have a whole charm box filled with dice (everything from stones to a golf-ball sized d20), but I somehow lost them in our move earlier this year...

[coffee]

Woo hoo! I got my dice today! (That was pretty fast shipping.)

They're just like I remember, although the last time I saw them they didn't have such sharp edges. Oh, well, a few games and they'll smooth up a mite.

Now I REALLY can't wait to play!

[philotomy]

Yeah, I remember mine. I had the Holmes set with the chits, so I was dice-less for a little while (no dice to be found, anywhere). I finally found a set of dice at a hobby shop. They were terrible, but at least they were dice. The d20 was yellow, and was pre-inked (badly). It turned into a big marble in short order.

I have no idea what happened to those dice; they're long gone. I eventually got some Gamescience dice (because of the ad in Dragon), and those became my dice of choice. I'm still using Gamescience dice (although not the same set).

[coffee]

I recently got a set of Gamescience dice; it was in the Collector's Edition of Castles and Crusades.

C&C is okay for those who are fed up with the complexity of 3.x, but there wasn't enough there for me. Curiously, that's what drove me back to OD&D. So some good came of it!

[philotomy]

coffee said:

C&C is okay for those who are fed up with the complexity of 3.x, but there wasn't enough there for me. Curiously, that's what drove me back to OD&D. So some good came of it!

I, too, came to OD&D by way of C&C.

[doc]

I kind of like C&C. It is basically what OD&D would look like it if was done now instead of in 1974. It is a denfinite improvement over 3.5, but still doesn't have the frenetic spark of creativity that OD&D had from Day One.

Some day soon I'm going to post exactly WHY I like OD&D so much. But I just want to get it right in my own head first.

Doc

[Finarvyn]

I'm biased on this since I was a playtester for C&C, but I think that C&C does manage to capture that "old school" feel while still being based on a more modern structure. The SIEGE engine is simple and easy to run, the classes are pretty well worked out, and the game allows for a person schooled in 3E to make a quick transition to a more simple philosophy by the elimination of skills/feats.

Rather than suggest that C&C is what OD&D might have looked like, I submit that it's more like what AD&D might have looked like. C&C is still more wordy and detail-driven than OD&D.

[thorswulf]

My Holmes set came with chits, no dice. My first dice were from Gamescience, and have long gone the way of the dinosaurs. In reading some of your stories, I remembered my friend Mike. Mike collected oddball dice. I think the funkiest were dice tops, and set of solid 2" brass dice. We never used the brass ones, as his mom would have given us hell for denting her dinner table!

[coffee]

Just an update to let you know (just in case you care) that my old school dice have a more traditional home: A Crown Royal bag. (From what I've heard, that's the dice bag of choice for your older, more worldly gamer...)

[crimhthanthegreat]

A Crown Royal bag is very good and I also use cigar boxes for both dice and as a sturdy crushproof box for my OD&D books that are the set in play.

[Deleted]

The most fun about using Crown Royal bags is drinking the product contained within. ;D
I've got a lot of them hanging around the house; they really do make the best dice bags: elegant & sturdy.

[Rhuvein]

I've still got my dice from the Holmes box. The d4, d10(20) and d6 show some wear and the black flecks from the numbers are mostly gone. The d8 and d12 still look very good.

Heh, the plastic dice bag show loads of sharp pokes/pricks in the plastic from the d4!! ;D

[simrion]

Still have my first set of dice from my first rules set, Moldvay Basic. I love those low impact dice that you had to color in with a crayon! I've accumulated a few hundred of them in all sorts of colors and conditions. I like the Gamescience Precision edged dice too. Especially the aforementioned 0 - 9 with the + symbol to denote the tens. Got the Wife and Kid collecting dice too. They tend to go for the newer, rounded edge dice in the various funky colors and our shapes/designs...

[bigjackbrass]

The first set I ever bought are still in my dice tin, originally a set of clear "gem"-style dice from an unknown manufacturer they have gradually yellowed over the years. They don't see much use any more - they look as though they've been smoking Lucky Strikes for twenty five years.

Shortly after I bought them I managed to get hold of some Gamescience dice, though, and those are the ones I love. Not only have the clear ones not yellowed in the slightest they also show very little sign of wear, which is more than you can say for the TSR and early Games Workshop dice I had.

[Finarvyn]

crimhthanthegreat said:

I also use cigar boxes for both dice and as a sturdy crushproof box

A nice crush-proof holder for dice is the plastic white TANG (powdered drink) or KOOL-AID container. Screw-top lid, and you can use the lid as a cup to hold dice during the game.

[simrion]

bigjackbrass said:

... I managed to get hold of some Gamescience dice, though, and those are the ones I love. Not only have the clear ones not yellowed in the slightest they also show very little sign of wear, which is more than you can say for the TSR and early Games Workshop dice I had.

If I'm not mistaken the early Gamescience packages indicated the dice had a 1 - 2 year warranty against normal wear?! I really like the Gamescience Precision Edge Dice...

[bigjackbrass]

simrion said:

If I'm not mistaken the early Gamescience packages indicated the dice had a 1 - 2 year warranty against normal wear?! I really like the Gamescience Precision Edge Dice...

I believe they did, which sounds odd these days but early polyhedral dice weren't especially good (in fact I seem to recall reading that the first sets were teaching aids and not actually intended to be used as dice at all) and I have a few very worn and battered examples in the old tin. How many people took Lou up on the guarantee I don't know, but he was a great salesman - a showman, really - and I expect that he sold a fair few sets on the back of it.

And call me old-fashioned, but I like my d10s to have twenty sides ;D

[brumbar]

I too still have all my dice that I have used since 1979, including the old d20. Over the years I have retired some of my older dice but pull them out when I get together with one of the groups I have been gaming with since 1983(same top secret campaign since 83, but d&d as well - the different versions over the years).