I just received my two new dice sets.
Polyhedral 7-Die Gemini Dice Set Black & Red with Gold (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 & d00) CHX-26433
Polyhedral 7-Die Gemini Chessex Dice Set - Black-Blue w/gold (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 & d00) CHX-2643
I ran a test with both sugar & water and also sugar & salt on a bunch of my old dice. They were from different games throughout the years. A lot of them where not true. I threw them out.
I had two choices recommended to me if I wanted true dice: chessex or GameScience. GameScience was more expensive and I could only buy one set so I bought the above two sets for under $20 dollars. That way I could use a true white set as my base die for FU rolls and add the red & black for disadvantage and blue and black for advantage.
The new Chessex sets are noticably lighter. I also noticed they tend to roll around the same numbers. I'm afraid to do a true die test on both sets just to find out that the recommended dice are not true and thus wasted my money. They are pretty but I wanted true die.
What brand of dice do you buy for true dice?
NOTE True = BALANCED. Salt water balance tested for a perfectly randomized and true roll every time.
I researched this some a while back and seems like I read Chessex were not so great, or most dice that are "tumbled" to get rounded edges.
ReplyDeleteGame Science, I believe are supposed to be fairly neutral when the "bump" (created in the manufacturing process) is filed off, or near enough not to matter. From there, things get expensive enough that I discarded the idea and just contonued to roll my cheap dice, though I might order Game Science at some point.
Let us know if you discover anything affordable!
Multi colored dices are the riskiest (non homogeneous material), the best in this regard should be transparent dices but they are less readable. good or less good brands, finding really true dices is difficult, if I use real dices I prefer to change them frequently to avoid lack of randomness due to their anomalies.
ReplyDeleteWow! Gamescience dice prices have skyrocketed. I remember getting my sets for under $10 about 10 years ago. Maybe I just found a really good deal...
ReplyDeleteBest bet for fair dice these days would be something along the lines of this: https://www.electronickits.com/programmable-dice-kit/
You could modify with a microphone and use atmospheric noise as the random seed. And of course some dials to allow you to roll numbers of any range.
Edit: Found the cheaper game science dice
http://www.gamescience.com/Factory-Seconds-Dice-Discounted_c_66.html
It's so weird for me to see people roll 2d10 of the same color. All of my d10s are 20th century models and only have single digits, so i've got to roll them in color-mismatched pairs.
ReplyDeletebesides the link Anthony Chaplin gives, you can also find used Game Science dice. Just look closely at the pictures of the dice to see how worn they are. If you want true randomness, there are a lot of free dice rolling apps.
ReplyDeleteI tend to buy chessex. But I also hit the random bin of stuff that looks like it's made out of the leftover stuff from sets lol
ReplyDeleteHere’s the thing about “true” dice. Unless all players and GM are using a (large) dice tower or throwing the dice fairly hard against a backstop, it doesn’t really matter. If the players are shaking up the dice in hand and just dropping them or lightly rolling them, it doesn’t matter how good the dice are, they will not be random.
ReplyDeleteIf you have ever played craps in a casino, you know what I am talking about. They have those rules for a reason
Pretty good comparison here: geekandleisure.com - The Best D&D Dice and Dice Sets: 2018 Buyer’s Guide | Geek + Leisure
ReplyDeleteI read a bit more about this today and am close to the same conclusion I reached before: for me, I'm not sure it's worth it to spend $20+ for a set of dice when I could spend that on other aspects of the hobby.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, if I were to splurge on something "reasonable", it'd probably be Game Science, Q-Workshop, or these guys.
norsefoundry.com - 11 Piece Metal Dice Set
Spencer Salyer I agree but my only doubt is regarding metal dices: they look great but they barely roll, they can damage surfaces and they're too heavy to carry compared to dices made of plastic
ReplyDeleteBrian Jones It's probably random enough for rpgs, but just to play devil's advocate, casino dice are extremely precise, it's not just the rolling method that matters. Also, I've run an R analysis on several different brands of d20s, and it does make a significant difference, even for hand rolls into a little dice tray (no dice tower). Gamescience dice were definitely much more evenly distributed results.
ReplyDeleteAnthony Chaplin oh yeah, I agree, precision and accuracy of the dice matter. But the vast majority of players already have a ton of dice and are not going to spend the money on a new Gamescience set. Better to make sure they are rolling the dice they have correctly. It’s crazy the number of players I see just dropping a die, or barely rolling it. You will never get random results that way. It reminds me of the “pile” shuffles in Magic ccg - no, that is not a proper shuffle, and will not randomize a 60 card deck
ReplyDeleteBrian Jones Please clarify: "Better to make sure they are rolling the dice they have correctly." Please define "correctly".
ReplyDelete