Knights & Knaves Alehouse

that green on purple looks way better than it sounds.

francisca wrote:that green on purple looks way better than it sounds.

Thank you I think!

I got my wife (who paints) to mix that color up from green and yellow acrylic that we had laying about. Gamescience dice are hard to paint by hand as the numbers are inconsistent in depth and edge sharpness e.g. d6 is a piece of cake, d20 is really hard to get right. You can see that the 8 in the 18 on the d20 looks a bit off.

Some die have a 'G' mark which I thought would be a nice touch to paint in. Unfortunately the G on the d% is embossed so I could paint all but that one. Tempted to try and dry-brush it but unsure how successful that may be.

Hah! Its just that if someone told me they were going to paint the numbers of their purple dice green, I'd react with a "YUCK".

But seeing them, I see that it looks great.

I'm too lazy to actually paint my GS dice. I either use a crayon or multiple applications with a paint pen.

RE: the inconsistency with depth. The newer GS dice seems to be much worse in this regard compared to the 80s-vintage dice I have.
On the other hand some of my 80s era dice have a few more flaws, overall.

I used white acrylic paint that I had lying around to number my GS dice. It was a much bigger pain than I had anticipated.

One thing I am really disappointed about with my GS dice are the flaws. Even using fine sand paper and exacto knife, I just couldn't get all the sides flat, and the sand paper left a scuffed appearance. I don't know if I just got a bad batch, but I really have to wonder if this doesn't affect the dice roll at least as much as the rounded dice.

Steve wrote:I used white acrylic paint that I had lying around to number my GS dice. It was a much bigger pain than I had anticipated.

It does take a while. You get faster with experience tho'. There's nothing more punishing than doing them in order of no. of faces and realizing that being halfway through the number of die is nothing like being halfway through the number of digits!

Steve wrote:One thing I am really disappointed about with my GS dice are the flaws. Even using fine sand paper and exacto knife, I just couldn't get all the sides flat, and the sand paper left a scuffed appearance. I don't know if I just got a bad batch, but I really have to wonder if this doesn't affect the dice roll at least as much as the rounded dice.

I've just been minimising the flaws with the exacto knife. Some of my dice have chunks missing - they arrived that way. I don't buy them for the precision anyhow. Their ugliness appeals to me.

Steve wrote: One thing I am really disappointed about with my GS dice are the flaws. Even using fine sand paper and exacto knife, I just couldn't get all the sides flat, and the sand paper left a scuffed appearance. I don't know if I just got a bad batch, but I really have to wonder if this doesn't affect the dice roll at least as much as the rounded dice.

On my 80s era GS dice, the imperfections are limited to a slight circular groove in the shape of a small arc across a number, or perhaps a number which isn't quite as deep as it should be (like an 8 with the middle section not as deep as the top and bottom of the number). Nothing which would affect the fairness of rolls, its all cosmetic.

However, the newer ones I bought, the flaws affect the rolling, such as a big hump on one face, or convex faces on *some* of the sides.

In all cases, these flaws are on the d20. None of my vintage d20s have any flaws that I think would affect the outcome. I'm glad I bought a bunch when I could.

I've had nothing but bad luck buying GS dice... Never again. Every set I've purchased has extra plastic on some faces on at least 1/3 of the dice in the set, and no amount of sanding makes them perfect. Give me the rounded Chessex dice any day.

I think what GS is really selling is provenance.

A handful of Gamescience dice has a little story to go with it.

A random pick from the 90c bin in your FLGS doesn't have much to offer the superstitious (each dice in that bin has been rejected by how many people, right?) or the discerning (there is no claim of quality) buyer.

Found this little sucker at a seafood restaurant recently. Perfect for my playing dice!

Hahaha that's cool as all hell!

- Wheggi

No gamescience or funky colours for me: I like plain black dice with white numbers and rounded edges. (My wife has purple dice and my son has transparent ones. We also have a large pot of "other" dice that don't belong to anyone in particular.)

I do like to use certain unconventional dice. Starting at the left and going clockwise, that's a d30, a d24, a d20, a d16, and then the normal ones from d12 on down, with my character-rolling d6s in the middle.

No gamescience or funky colours for me: I like plain black dice with white numbers and rounded edges. (My wife has purple dice and my son has transparent ones. We also have a large pot of "other" dice that don't belong to anyone in particular.)

simplicity at its best. +1

Gamescience dice stink.

So, P&P, how many hopes and dreams have you ended with those plain black dice?

How would you characterize your DM'ing? Fair, generous, tough? Vicious bastard?

Can't really answer that one, cos I don't see myself from a player's point of view. I only DM about a third of the time. We tend to swap out DMs a lot, in my group, and all of us are willing and able to take a turn in the DM chair.

I think I kill characters less often than others here do--but I also think my players seem to be cautious, careful and pretty good at the tactical, nuts-and-bolts side of the game, while still capable of thinking far out of the box sometimes. They usually seem to find a way to get past the challenges I set them without losing anyone.

I think I'm a generous DM with the treasure, although I'm less generous than a Gary Gygax module.

PapersAndPaychecks wrote:No gamescience or funky colours for me

Love that d16! Who manufactures those, do you know?