Hi my name is John and I have a problem, a dice problem. I am tortured by the sweet sirens call of polyhedral madness.
Its ok, there’s no shame in it. Come on, say it with me. My name is _______ and I have a dice problem. Now don’t you feel better? I sure do.
Each of us has their own special relationship with their dice. For some of us it’s a love/hate relationship. For others it’s a slow building dread as we wait for their inevitable betrayal at some critical juncture. And there are those lucky few who have dice that always seem to come through in the clutch.
They mesmerize us with their myriad colors and gentle clacking as we roll them, tempting the fickle mistresses of fate. We need them, we’re always on the look out for more, we have to scratch that itch. So when Michael from the Easy Roller Dice Company asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a few of their products, there was no way I could ever say no.
First up, from their Gun Metal Polyhedral Dice Series: Serpents Blood Dice, 7 Piece set with display case.
The Gun Metal series was recently successfully funded on Kickstarter and is available for pre-order on the website now. These metal dice are cast in a zinc alloy and then hand plated in black nickel giving the dice a stunning finish. The Serpents Blood set has numbers painted in a bright green that contrasts nicely with the finish and are easy to read. This set also comes with a nice leatherette display/carry case. They are the standard 16mm size and have sharper edges then regular tumbled dice. If you thought your d4 was bad before you better make sure you never lose this bad boy.
If you’ve never had metal dice before these will be a real treat. They roll best when using either a dice tower or dice box. Trying to just roll these hefty dice on your kitchen table won’t give you the best roll and may gouge, dent or scratch your table. The display case is nice and will make your dice stand out on your desk or gaming shelf but may not stand up to the bottom of your backpack under forty pounds of books. Treat it right and it’ll last you a long time. Next to the Borg-like d6 the d20 looks a little small and when compared to some other random d20’s, it is slightly smaller then most. The numbers on these dice are also smaller then most other dice I compared them to except for the d6 and d12. Does that matter, nope not at all. They are still easy to read and are absolutely gorgeous and will last you a lifetime.
Update!
Now that their kickstarter has been fullfilled the East Roller Dice Company has all their sets of metal dice available for sale on the website! There are 10 different sets to choose from and you can even buy 3 packs of d6’s. What are you waiting for? Hurry now there’s no line and no wait!
Next up I will review 4 different sets of dice together. They are all standard 16mm sets of 7, polyhedral plastic dice. The bread and butter of any gamer. Lets take a look.
Each set of dice comes in their own drawstring pouch which can hold up to 21 dice. I didn’t believe it when I read it on the website but damned if they don’t! The dice bags feature a black velvet exterior and 4 variable colored satin interiors, red, blue, gold and purple. Double stitched liners offer greater durability then the flimsy bags included by most other companies. Finally these dice bags include a double lined drawstring that is specifically designed to tie easily and stay sealed as your dice get bounced around.
So I went a little nutty and decided to roll each die 50 times to see how well they averaged out. I also took them to work and weighed them on our analytical balance along with some comparable sets that I already owned. Statistically it’s a really small number set but the dice seem fairly random and I think over a larger number of rolls they’d average out fairly well. The weights were pretty consistent with just a few die that were higher or lower then the average.
All of the dice were easy to read and clearly marked. The percentile die for both the opaque orange and the translucent orange sets have larger but thinner numbers then the other two sets. Both sets also have d4 that read on the bottom where the orange and grey swirl and Purple Dawn set have d4’s that read on the top. Does it effect how they roll, not in the least but the OCD gamer in some of us may balk at the inconsistency. If I wasn’t looking for something to write about as a review I may not have even noticed it. Oh, one thing though, the translucent orange set looks more pink then orange. Don’t worry though, if you order something and find out it’s not what you wanted Easy Roller Dice Company offers a 30 day money back guarantee.
With all of those dice you need to have something to put them in and that brings us to the last part of my review. Are you still using those old beat up Crown Royal bags? It’s time to up your game (see what I did there) and get yourself a Wyvern Reversible Microfiber Self Standing Dice Bag. Man, that’s a mouthful.
This huge bag will hold over 200 dice and seals tight with heavy duty double lined drawstrings. The cool thing is it’s also reversible. One side features black microfiber shell sporting a red wyvern with wings outstretched. The other is red microfiber with a black wyvern in the same pose. I prefer the black side out with red as the interior but hey that’s me. Since it is microfiber, it’s a snap to clean after the inevitable spilled drink or dropped snack during the game. I like that it’s self standing because when I play Battletech all of the dice are out and when they go cold it’s easy to toss them right in the bag (a regular occurrence). The only potential downside is that the wyvern may eventually crack and flake off but I’d say it the sign of a well used and well loved bag.
All and all you’re looking at some great products at a reasonable price backed by a 30 day money back guarantee. You can’t beat that! So check ’em out Easy Roller Dice Company and tell ’em Legends of Tabletop sent you.