Looking for dice-based TTRPG players, who have a few minutes free time for a quick survey.

[RuneOfTheMill]

Hi all!

I'm a 25 year old game design graduate from the west of Ireland, exploring options regarding entering the business of fully customized resin dice making. I'm currently signed up for New Frontiers, which is an Irish entrepreneurship development programme that supports early-stage startups.

In the desk research stage at the moment, and I'm looking to gather info about dice enthusiasts and the tabletop community; the demographics, experience and opinions that you wonderful people encompass.

If you have a few minutes free, I'd really appreciate your input by completing this survey: TTRPG Market Research Survey

I'm hoping this post follows the rules of the forum, I understand completely should any moderators need to remove it.

Thanks a million in advance to anyone with the spare time,
J.

 

[aco175]

Looked at the survey. Not sure why you need sex and pronouns. I can see age and income to help the survey. There was a couple areas where there is a cost and you want in whatever money we use where I found to be a problem. I use dollars and one question asks what amount I would spend on a dice set. The lowest figure was 10-30 where some currencies find this low and some might be high.

Anyways welcome to the site and hope you get what you need. Thanks for not asking for my email, not too many would fill it pout if you did.

 

[RuneOfTheMill]

Looked at the survey. Not sure why you need sex and pronouns. I can see age and income to help the survey. There was a couple areas where there is a cost and you want in whatever money we use where I found to be a problem. I use dollars and one question asks what amount I would spend on a dice set. The lowest figure was 10-30 where some currencies find this low and some might be high.

Anyways welcome to the site and hope you get what you need. Thanks for not asking for my email, not too many would fill it pout if you did.

Appreciate the welcome! I'm essentially trying to cross-reference different demographics and how they respond, from prior research and interviews I've seen neurodivergent, disabled and LGBTQI+ players feel underrepresented at times in the community (especially people with visual impairments), hence those questions. Ill also be using the distribution of age, gender, location and sexuality to create fake reference customers that reflect the wider community.

Very valid point on the currency side, bit of an oversight on my part, I'll have to amend that in future.

For anyone unsure about answering, every question is now optional, so don't share anything you're not comfortable with!

 

[John Dallman]

I'll do the survey later, but here are some pictures of custom dice that Chessex made for me.

 

[sevenbastard]

I'll do the survey later, but here are some pictures of custom dice that Chessex made for me.

At first I thought the add below your post was the dice and was very excited I could finally get dice shaped like silverware.

 

[RuneOfTheMill]

I'll do the survey later, but here are some pictures of custom dice that Chessex made for me.

Thanks John, that's incredibly helpful! I was quite curious about how peoples experience with chessex custom orders went, most of my respondents have went to the likes of Esty/Artisan Sellers for custom dice.

 

[John Dallman]

I was quite curious about how peoples experience with chessex custom orders went.

Fairly well. I was doing this in 2015-16, but stopped when the pound suddenly sank against the dollar. I'd also made most of my practical ideas by then.

At the time, Chessex took graphics files (I gave them PDFs I'd generated from designs done in Inkscape) and laser-engraved them, then filled the engraving with some kind of filler compound and tumbled the dice in soft material (wood shavings or packing peanuts, I think) to polish them and clean up the filling. They had a wide range of colours and sizes of dice they could engrave, which met all my needs. The price was about $1/face, not dependent on the size of the die, plus the price of the die, which depended on size, material, and so on. There was a minimum order of ten dice of any given design.

They would make a sample, and e-mail photos, since that's much cheaper and quicker than shipping samples. That's where those photos came from.

 

[RuneOfTheMill]

Fairly well. I was doing this in 2015-16, but stopped when the pound suddenly sank against the dollar. I'd also made most of my practical ideas by then.

At the time, Chessex took graphics files (I gave them PDFs I'd generated from designs done in Inkscape) and laser-engraved them, then filled the engraving with some kind of filler compound and tumbled the dice in soft material (wood shavings or packing peanuts, I think) to polish them and clean up the filling. They had a wide range of colours and sizes of dice they could engrave, which met all my needs. The price was about $1/face, not dependent on the size of the die, plus the price of the die, which depended on size, material, and so on. There was a minimum order of ten dice of any given design.

They would make a sample, and e-mail photos, since that's much cheaper and quicker than shipping samples. That's where those photos came from.

That's interesting, there's definitely similarities there to the approach I intend to take. Its nice they were so transparent about the process with you, I'm glad you were able to get your needs met. Have quite a bit of respect for Chessex, my first set was from them and they're clearly beloved in the community, definitely as much of an inspiration as they are my competition

Thanks again for your input, really do appreciate it dude!

 

[Deset Gled]

I took the survey. One thing that I noticed is that the discussion of randomness, balance, accuracy, etc, never came up at all. That's a bit of a red flag.

Personally, I never buy any really weird "artisan" or custom dice because I don't trust them to be true. I've seen all sorts of weird, intricate filled dice and custom shaped stuff, and I get that it's fun to think about the artistry of them. But if you do anything that throws off randomness (due to weight distribution, shape, etc), you're not really making game dice anymore. You're making funny knick-knacks that sit on a shelf. Which is cool and all, if it's what you want to make. But that's basically the realm of craft fairs and Etsy stores, not a startup or serious long term business model.

Also: Dice Questions?

 

[RuneOfTheMill]

I took the survey. One thing that I noticed is that the discussion of randomness, balance, accuracy, etc, never came up at all. That's a bit of a red flag.

Personally, I never buy any really weird "artisan" or custom dice because I don't trust them to be true. I've seen all sorts of weird, intricate filled dice and custom shaped stuff, and I get that it's fun to think about the artistry of them. But if you do anything that throws off randomness (due to weight distribution, shape, etc), you're not really making game dice anymore. You're making funny knick-knacks that sit on a shelf. Which is cool and all, if it's what you want to make. But that's basically the realm of craft fairs and Etsy stores, not a startup or serious long term business model.

Also: Dice Questions?

Great point- and something that's come up quite frequently among respondents. I was kind of naïve in assuming fair and balanced dice would be a prerequisite for any premium dice product - although from analysing my competitors it's an extremely common pain point. I've added the question, appreciate you highlighting my oversight. I have an automated system for testing dice in bulk, and the results of each set will need to be within a reasonable distribution range in order to pass QC and be shipped to the customer. As you pointed out, inclusions are one of the biggest issues, and I'm looking into translucent, modular lattice structures that can be auto generated that compensate for the balance shift caused by internal objects.