Dice pioneer Louis Zocchi passes away

Dice manufacturer Louis Zocchi passed away on April 15th at the age of 91.

If you've ever rolled dice with more than six sides, Zocchi is most likely connected to you having that experience. He and his company Gamescience were the first in the United States to manufacture polyhedral dice. He is also the inventor of the 100-sided "Zocchihedron."

Zocchi was well known on the convention circuit for his sales pitch, in which he described the dice manufacturing process--and highlighted the flaws in the dice made by his competitors.

In addition to dice, Zocchi worked on many games and magazines, including a number of wargames including Star Fleet Battles and The Battle of Britain. He was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming's Hall of Fame in 1987 and was presented with the E. Gary Gygax Lifetime Achievement Award at Gary Con in 2022.

 

[Doctor Depravo]

When I was a wee nerdling circa 1984-85, Colonel Lou had a little booth at a local comic con. His wares stood out, as he had dice and RPG materials in a sea of funnybooks, and I was in awe. Of note was this very busy, very wordy posterboard affixed with hand-placed stickered letters and photos TSR Dice versus his own GameScience Dice "proving" his dice were better.

He was crochety and charismatic and gruff and knowledgeable. Big Cantankerous Coot energy, yo.

Fast-forward to GenCon 2008. I ran into him at his booth again... and he had that exact same posterboard on a tripod frame. It was battered-n-tattered-n-stained, but it was the same danged prop from decades prior.

I have photos. (Also snapped some pics of him passed out in his chair in his booth, snoring away like a grandpa taking an afternoon nap.)

 

[aramis erak]

When I was a wee nerdling circa 1984-85, Colonel Lou had a little booth at a local comic con. His wares stood out, as he had dice and RPG materials in a sea of funnybooks, and I was in awe. Of note was this very busy, very wordy posterboard affixed with hand-placed stickered letters and photos TSR Dice versus his own GameScience Dice "proving" his dice were better.

He was crochety and charismatic and gruff and knowledgeable. Big Cantankerous Coot energy, yo.

Fast-forward to GenCon 2008. I ran into him at his booth again... and he had that exact same posterboard on a tripod frame. It was battered-n-tattered-n-stained, but it was the same danged prop from decades prior.

I have photos. (Also snapped some pics of him passed out in his chair in his booth, snoring away like a grandpa taking an afternoon nap.)

I've replicated his dice stacking with armory vs GS dice... the height difference for d10's was interesting - not as dramatic as his d20's, but they aren't truly fair. But then, I did the stats on many of my dice just for S&Gs...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Come to think of it, back in the 80s I remember dice accuracy being a topic of some discussion. Dragon magazine used to print letters, editorials, and whole articles about how to test your dice for accuracy and catch potential cheaters at the RPG table. I remember a number of advertisements touting lines of dice with claims of superior quality and accuracy. I do not seem to see quite so much interest in the topic today.

Yeah, those old Dragon articles with the incredibly detailed tests for randomness were wild. I think they died out because, for the most part, even "inaccurate" dice only skew things about 1%.

Unless someone has legit loaded dice, it really falls into the "who cares" category for most players.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Game Science site has a silver zocchihedron for sale at the moment. I suspect it'll sell out once word gets around of Lou's death.

 

[ephemeron]

I found the green Zocchihedron I've had since the early '90s and rolled it in his memory.

(It came up 92.)

 

[guachi]

The first dice I ever owned that weren't out of the Basic or Expert boxed set were Game Science dice. I've since lost those dice. But I now own at least a dozen sets of Game Science dice that I've purchased over the last 40 years or so. My favorite dice I own, bar a single set I got a few years ago.

 

[Celebrim]

The Game Science site has a silver zocchihedron for sale at the moment. I suspect it'll sell out once word gets around of Lou's death.

He suffered a fire and a loss of a lot of his stock a few years past and I don't feel his online store really ever recovered from that. It's not clear to me that anyone is making Gamescience any more now that he has passed away. All Gamescience dice may become collectible.

 

[Starmaster]

Yeah, those old Dragon articles with the incredibly detailed tests for randomness were wild. I think they died out because, for the most part, even "inaccurate" dice only skew things about 1%.

Unless someone has legit loaded dice, it really falls into the "who cares" category for most players.

I never had a problem with die results not looking random except when a player would flip the die instead of actually rolling it. However, I did have a case of a player's "Dragonbone" apparently not rolling randomly. This was an early electronic die roller from the early 1980s that could generate random d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20 rolls (and perhaps percentile? - I don't recall). It seemed to generate a VERY large number of d20 rolls in the 16-20 range, so I finally had to ban it from the table. He wasn't too happy since it cost $20, which was a lot of money for a part-time worker in the early '80s.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

By Rick Meints, President of Chaosium

Lou Zocchi deserves all the superlatives used to describe him. When The Chaosium began in 1975 Lou reached out to our company founder Greg Stafford to offer invaluable advice to a struggling business that needed all the advice it could get. Lou knew distributors, game stores, and the marketplace. Greg listened, learned, and found a mentor in a man who had a deep passion for an industry that at the time barely saw itself as anything more than a hobby business.

Lou and Greg both held a passion for the gaming community, so much so that Gamescience and The Chaosium were two of the five founding families of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) when it started in 1978. They both wanted to share their hard-earned knowledge with newer companies; a foundational belief The Chaosium holds to this day. We are all us. We all succeed together.

I personally had little knowledge of Lou’s place in the gaming hall of legends until 2015. Greg and I were wandering the Gen Con Exhibitor Hall and ended up at Lou’s Gamescience booth where Greg introduced me to the “grandfather of gaming”.

While I had visited Lou’s “every expense spared” booth at Gen Con several years prior, something felt distinctly different. I never had the honor of talking to Lou at length, yet he heard me, and helped me. He knew of the challenges we faced getting Chaosium back on its feet, and how we should address them. Greg and Lou spoke effortlessly, continuing a conversation that had started decades ago. At best, I stood by hoping to be on the shoulders of giants.

A few years later at Origins Lou and I were both loading out our booths in the Marshaling Yard. Lou walked over to me, as his van was right next to mine, and said, “Rick, I need your help and advice.” Even though tired, I leaned in. The wise sage wanted something from me, an honor I felt I likely did not deserve. His words still echo with me to this day: “How do I find and open the gas cap to fill up this rental van?” I stopped and noticed my van and his were the same model, the same year, and we both stood on equal ground. Two tired guys trying to load up after a good show, get some food, and get home. I showed him where the gas cap was, he thanked me, and he turned back to his work. I thought he only knew my name because I still wore my show badge. I said “I remember when Greg introduced me to you at Gen Con.” Lou looked over his shoulder, paused but a blink, and said “We all miss him.” Now I say the same words about Lou: We all miss him.

Lou Zocchi possessed many talents. He promoted an industry before it was even remotely an industry. He believed in the power of our community, its excellence, and always had fun.

We shall not see his like again. The Chaosium remembers you fondly Lou, and wishes you Vale and Farewell.

Vale Lou Zocchi (1934-2026)

Lou Zocchi possessed many talents. He promoted an industry before it was even remotely an industry. He believed in the power of our community, its excellence, and always had fun.

www.chaosium.com

 

[Stormonu]

I never had a problem with die results not looking random except when a player would flip the die instead of actually rolling it. However, I did have a case of a player's "Dragonbone" apparently not rolling randomly. This was an early electronic die roller from the early 1980s that could generate random d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20 rolls (and perhaps percentile? - I don't recall). It seemed to generate a VERY large number of d20 rolls in the 16-20 range, so I finally had to ban it from the table. He wasn't too happy since it cost $20, which was a lot of money for a part-time worker in the early '80s.

Dragonbone! That was the name of that damned electronic gizmo! I was just talking about it in the dicey-dice thread.

I seem to remember Lou talking about that device, and he was not convinced it was properly random (and having come from hobby programming the likes of my own Zork-likes on computers, I was in agreement).