I know that these have been floating around the web for a while, now, but I hadn’t actually taken the 20 minutes to sit down and watch them until last night. It was worth it. Absolutely fascinating stuff, including a lot of information on how dice are actually manufactured. Now I feel compelled to go out and spend $30 on a set of his dice.
I love all the old wargames in the booth, including the very prominent “The Next War” by SPI.
Yeah, I'm gonna end up doing just that! Dammit! I like the crappy dice I already have. I thought I had this whole dice thing taken care of! And oh, lord, you should see my wife's dice collection! I wouldn't have the heart to even suggest she replace them all! It would cause marital discord, to boot!
$30?!?! Why does everyone think GameScience dice are expensive? You can get brand new sets for $5-7 bucks from various eBay vendors.
I love the opaque GS dice, especially in yellow, pumpkin, and white.
This was very enlightening! Thanks!
It's one of the most interesting videos about dice and chance that I've ever watched. Actually it's the only vid I've watched, but still great!
Everything he's saying is correct, and I'm reasonably sure of this as every time I've seen a review of Gamescience dice, the results of multiple rolls are fairly random compared to the average die. That said I will probably still buy 1lb bags of irregulars because I have yet to have a bad roll make the game substantially less fun all by its lonesome. Still, might splurge for a "savings throw only" set.
I saw these videos a few years ago, and drank the Kool Aid. That year I got myself a set of Gamescience Dice, and I love them.
I don't know if they are really more random than my other dice, but I will say that I had sets of other dice that trended high or low. These are pretty even.
I love the sharp edges to them, and I loved hand inking them.
I have a lot of regret over my decision to buy some Gamescience dice. I ordered 2 sets and many of the dice had extra flash of them. Their site says you're supposed to sand this off yourself. Okay, fine, that I can get over, though I don't like it.
But I also had problems with both sets where there were actually chips missing from the dice. I took photos and emailed them, asking for replacements (both d6s had the problem, as did one of the d20s) and both d6s that they sent in replacement had the exact same problem.
Maybe they just had a bad batch at the time I ordered or something, but when the whole gimmick of the dice is how they're better made, it's just left a bad taste in my mouth.
I've been really happy with my Gamescience dice; I think I had 2 flawed ones in perhaps 15 sets (some were gifts.) Their warranty replacement was nice and quick – the first time they even threw in a free d12 keychain.
If you see a hole try sanding it down anyhow- sometimes you'll get a crater in the middle of the mold "kick mark" but often the bottom of the crater is at or above where the die should be.
Holy Shit…I think that dude just made a sale.
A few years ago, I spent about a half hour listening to Lou Zocchi tell stories at his booth at Origins. One of the best half hours I've ever spent. He talked about dice and some amusing incidents revolving around dice. Wish I had a recorder at the time.