What makes a good set of Dice?

[Archemedees]

Hey everyone, my first post on the forum, Ive been delving a little into the world of D&D after a friend of mine invited me out to a session with his group. I noticed that the majority of them had cheaper plastic dice that tended to roll around alot, too much IMO. Ive been looking into prehaps designing and making my own dice so I wanted to get some info from expierenced players. Heres a couple questions

1. What Dice make up a good set I was tol I'd need one of each die (it is die for singular right?) going form d4 to d20 and perhaps 2 d20s and a second d10 with percentages?

2. Is dice quality something that would matter at all? As in if you could buy a little more expensive dice that were of much much higher quality would you?

3. I've been told the sharper and cleaner the edges of a die the better. Is this actually true for most people?

4. If precision machined high grade metal dice were available in the market is it something you'd be interested in? Or would it even matter?

Any info from anyone would be awesome!

 

[the Jester]

Word to the wise- revert your text formatting to default. Right now it's black on a dark grey background for someone using the classic skin, and it's hard to read.

As to your questions, to make a good set of dice you need one each d4, d8, d12 and d20, two d10s (one as a percentile die- so from 00 to 90) and four d6s (for character generation).

More precise dice exist already; check out a company called Gamescience. Check this out for more details about what makes a technically good set of dice.

EDIT: As to your poll, it needs "I'd have to see them" or "depends on how cool they look" or something as an option- none of your choices fit for me.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Hey everyone, my first post on the forum, Ive been delving a little into the world of D&D after a friend of mine invited me out to a session with his group. I noticed that the majority of them had cheaper plastic dice that tended to roll around alot, too much IMO. Ive been looking into prehaps designing and making my own dice so I wanted to get some info from expierenced players. Heres a couple questions

1. What Dice make up a good set I was tol I'd need one of each die (it is die for singular right?) going form d4 to d20 and perhaps 2 d20s and a second d10 with percentages?

You need more than that, sadly. You probably need four or more d8s and d10s, and you might even want a couple of d12s. I have a "cube" of 36 d6s because sometimes I need to roll Fireball damage.

If you're playing or running 4e, buy a bunch of d20s. You don't want to slow the table down rolling a single d20 against the seven bad guys you caught in one attack. (I roll the whole set, and the position they land on on the battlemat determines which die applies to which creature.)

2. Is dice quality something that would matter at all? As in if you could buy a little more expensive dice that were of much much higher quality would you?

I have already done so with Gamescience dice.

3. I've been told the sharper and cleaner the edges of a die the better. Is this actually true for most people?

The difference is small. People have done scientific experiments proving that Gamescience dice are more random than other dice. Having said that, the difference is small enough you might not notice. I use Gamescience dice because some players have "favorite dice" that don't seem particularly well-balanced. There's an infamous die in our group, "Eggy", now banned, that seemed to roll only 1s and 20s. I DM a lot and don't want to use potentially unbalanced dice.

While I've bought some complete sets of Gamescience dice, you only really need to buy d20s. You usually have enough of the other dice that irregularities cancel themselves out anyway.

4. If precision machined high grade metal dice were available in the market is it something you'd be interested in? Or would it even matter?

I don't know if they need to be metal, although I've seen some high-quality non-Gamescience dice that are made of metal. They're more expensive, and I've not seen any experiments done with them.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Hey everyone, my first post on the forum, Ive been delving a little into the world of D&D after a friend of mine invited me out to a session with his group. I noticed that the majority of them had cheaper plastic dice that tended to roll around alot, too much IMO. Ive been looking into prehaps designing and making my own dice so I wanted to get some info from expierenced players. Heres a couple questions

1. What Dice make up a good set I was tol I'd need one of each die (it is die for singular right?) going form d4 to d20 and perhaps 2 d20s and a second d10 with percentages?

2. Is dice quality something that would matter at all? As in if you could buy a little more expensive dice that were of much much higher quality would you?

3. I've been told the sharper and cleaner the edges of a die the better. Is this actually true for most people?

4. If precision machined high grade metal dice were available in the market is it something you'd be interested in? Or would it even matter?

Any info from anyone would be awesome!

1: That's about right. A standard box of polyhedral dice normally includes 1 of each type, and a second d10 marked in tens. One of my quirks is that I prefer a d12 numbered 1-4 three times rather than the badly rolling caltrops that are standard shaped d4s - and I prefer to roll 20 sided dice to 10 sided.

2: Some people go for Gamescience dice. Most don't bother. But how do you measure quality?

3: For the purist. Most people don't care as long as it rolls and is easy to read.

4: Gamescience is doing high grade dice - so there is already a small market.

 

[Libramarian]

Welcome to the forum @Archemedees ,

I recommend getting the chessex "pound o' dice", which is...a pound of dice, of various types. Some of the dice have cosmetic flaws but I haven't noticed any nonrandomness. It's nice to have lots of cheap dice, so if one rolls off the table and under the couch you can just say forget it and find it later, rather than stopping the game to find your precious game piece.

If the dice are rolling all over the place try flipping it in the air and catching it before place it down (think flipping a coin). Come to think of it that probably makes cheap dice give more random results, as well.

 

[Umbran]

You are now splitting the question across two forums. The other thread is here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?347639-What-makes-a-good-set-of-Dice

If you prefer, I can close one. Unfortunately, with the polls, I don't know if I can successfully merge them.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Beyond a full set, they next most important thing to me in a set of dice is high contrast, so they're easy to read. Then comes durability, low cost, aesthetic appearance, and safety.

I used "crystal" dice for a while because they were pretty, but ultimately dropped them for solid high-contrast high impact plastic dice that were easier to use. I'd stay away from precision machined metal because it would give me the impression of sharp edges that might scratch tabletops or cause injury when the d4 is inevitably stepped on.

 

[Stormonu]

You lost me at metal. Metal is heavier than I like for my dice and I've handled precision metal dice before - the sharp edges hurt my hand.

I've bought gamescience dice before (precision plastic dice), but I really don't feel like they're worth it. Sometimes, I even actually like dice that seem to be biased - I had an ol' D20 know as Death that players feared for me to bring out because it never rolled below a 15, and tended to come up 19. They all cheered the day it broke.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Gamescience dice are made of bulletproof plastic (or so says the advertising). How do you break one?

 

[Gilladian]

I like Gamescience dice - I have several sets, and they're all decades old. But most players don't seem to care about "precision". They want "pretty". One of my players buys a new set of dice for her character in every new campaign - or, nowadays, she selects a set from her "retired" collection, as I think she has about 30 sets of dice!

I have had a few metal dice in my career; they never seemed to be any better than the plastic ones, and I certainly wouldn't pay much more than standard price for them. Then again, I haven't bought a new set in so long that I'm not sure I'm worth asking!

When I help a new player buy dice I suggest they get 1 "tube" or "box" set - 1d4 to d20, and a second alternately colored d10; plus a few extra d6es. That's usually all a player needs, especially for the first few levels of play. Later they may want a second set, or a few more of whatever (d4 for wizards with magic missile, etc...) but they can be bought as needed individually.