Dwarven Stones
- Thread starter Sundaram
- Start date
PurplePCEater
First Post
I've a set of the haematite dice that I picked up at the end of last year. They weren't cheap, the dice themselves are small (the d20 is less than 1cm in diameter - overall the same sort of size as the really small dice sets), but they are really nice dice.
I use them on the odd occasions when I actually play and for 'significant' bad guys when I'm running - the d20 has a tendency to roll 15+ - my players hate them.
The haematite dice also have a nice weight and solid feel to them (comes from being made of haematite, I guess...). Just a little bit too solid to hurl at recalcitrant players though...
One of the other players in that particular group has a set of malachite dice which are really pretty. Personally I'm not especially fond of translucent dice - I find them too hard to read and the lighter coloured gemstones such as the amethyst and quartz fell into this category as far as I was concerned.
If you get a chance to see them/handle them up close I'd highly recommend it - I'm not so sure I would have bought them online, especially from a website that asks for credit card details without using a secured https connection. That said, shipping to the UK wasn't really feasible at the time, though I see there's a UK/Europe distributor now at www.em4miniatures.com - the exchange rate does appear to be $1 = £1 though.
HTH.
I use them on the odd occasions when I actually play and for 'significant' bad guys when I'm running - the d20 has a tendency to roll 15+ - my players hate them.
The haematite dice also have a nice weight and solid feel to them (comes from being made of haematite, I guess...). Just a little bit too solid to hurl at recalcitrant players though...
One of the other players in that particular group has a set of malachite dice which are really pretty. Personally I'm not especially fond of translucent dice - I find them too hard to read and the lighter coloured gemstones such as the amethyst and quartz fell into this category as far as I was concerned.
If you get a chance to see them/handle them up close I'd highly recommend it - I'm not so sure I would have bought them online, especially from a website that asks for credit card details without using a secured https connection. That said, shipping to the UK wasn't really feasible at the time, though I see there's a UK/Europe distributor now at www.em4miniatures.com - the exchange rate does appear to be $1 = £1 though.
HTH.
Quickbeam
Explorer
I purchased a set of the hematite dice for one of my friends as a gift last year, and another gamer in our group also has a set of Dwarven Stones. There's no question that they're very cool in theory...but not so much in practice.
Here are the problems as I see them:
1) They're way too small.
2) They are very irregular in shape, which leads to skewed rolling.
3) From what I've been told by a few people in the dice manufacture industry, the Stones have a tendency to fracture along unseen faults. That flat out SUCKS when you consider that they cost $25 and up IIRC.
4) Because of the aforementioned issues, you'll likely find yourself using them quite sparingly...which sorta mitigates owning them IMO.
If you do decide to proceed with your purchase, inspect the dice very carefully before leaving the store -- unless your ordering them online. In that case, cross your fingers and pray for a good set. Once you've got them, make certain that you always roll them on a forgiving surface like a mouse pad to prolong their life. And by all means, enjoy them!! As I said above, they look amazing, but I wanted you to be fully aware of the possible downside to buying them .
Here are the problems as I see them:
1) They're way too small.
2) They are very irregular in shape, which leads to skewed rolling.
3) From what I've been told by a few people in the dice manufacture industry, the Stones have a tendency to fracture along unseen faults. That flat out SUCKS when you consider that they cost $25 and up IIRC.
4) Because of the aforementioned issues, you'll likely find yourself using them quite sparingly...which sorta mitigates owning them IMO.
If you do decide to proceed with your purchase, inspect the dice very carefully before leaving the store -- unless your ordering them online. In that case, cross your fingers and pray for a good set. Once you've got them, make certain that you always roll them on a forgiving surface like a mouse pad to prolong their life. And by all means, enjoy them!! As I said above, they look amazing, but I wanted you to be fully aware of the possible downside to buying them
.
.
Axiomatic Unicorn
First Post
Tsyr said:
.... in a rolling lots of 20s kinda way, right?
I have the hematite and blue jasper sets, I found that I used them all the time at first and now I rarely use them, the hematite d20 had a knack of rolling strings of 18's + 2's, this I found very interesting. They do look cool and I don't regret purchasing them even though they cost 40$ a set
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