I've been thinking a lot about dice recently. Now, I know gamers with hundreds of dice. Not me. I've never been the game publisher's fave. I don't buy many books or minis or games or dice or any of the other hobby paraphernalia that you see in its tonnage in the convention's dealers' room. But over a gaming life of 40-plus years, I've gathered a fair share of the loot. And I own a couple of pounds of dice. So this screed is me showing off my dice, and using them to talk a bit about the history of the game in so doing.
Dice from the 1970s: I started playing D&D with the Basic Set in the later 1970s, say 1977-78, when I was 14. A friend from down the block, Brian, brought over the box and ran us (my brother, Chris, and me) through our first adventure. We had such problems understanding what a 10x10 alcove was. And the first time we encountered a magic mouth was actually very scary! The dice that came in the box were not very sturdy, as you can see above. The d20s especially always got worn into rough spheres. Even the d4 is pretty banged up. Back then, a d20 came with ten faces numbered 0-9 and the other 10 faces also numbered 0-9. We colored half the faces red for the teens, 11-20, see?
Dice from the early 1980s: When the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons books came out, we got them when we could. We had the Dungeon Master's Guide first, with its appendix showing monster stats in the back — we used those gladly, since we did not have a Monster Manual. We knew the names of spells from somewhere, but we did not have the spell descriptions, so we just improvised. Not knowing what a Spiritual Hammer did, we ruled that it created an instantaneous hammer of force that slammed a foe for 1d8/level if it hit (and made a big hole in the wall if it missed). Dice technology had advanced after 1980, and we loved our "high-impact dice," like those above. It was a transitional period: look at the different amount of wear on the two d8s. The see-through "gem" dice were just coming out. The d20s still ran 0-9 and 0-9 — we colored in the numbers in two colors, and the red numbers were the teens.
Dice from the 1980s and 1990s: Now we get into the modern dice, not much different from the ones you can buy today. Among the dice above, the red d4 is older, and the blue d4 is newer, as you can see. The d20s are labeled 1-20. The first d10s were getting popular, some labeled in single digits, some in tens. The purple d10 was a gift from a college chum, sadly passed on now. I've always been fond of those brown d6s with the white pips, not sure why.
Modern Dice Sets: These three dice sets are basically common as dirt these days. The white set with multicolored numerals is fun. The blue set was a gift from a different college chum, given to me at Gen Con in 2025, the first one I ever attended.
Modern Metal Dice Sets: Nowadays, if you want to get fancy, you can get metal dice. These two sets were gifts, too. The silver ones with pink hearts were given to me by my (non-RPG) wife, for love. The gold set were a present from my online gaming group, the "Drakesmeade" game in the Wold — which means a whole lot, seeing as these are friends I have never met in real life. It just shows that online friends are physical friends as well!
An Assortment of Tiny Dice: I've always gotten a real kick out of extra small dice. The red d20 is included so you can see how small the others are next to it. Look at those teensy d6s!
Titan Dice: Anybody who loves the board game Titan (like I really and truly do!) knows that you need a LOT of d6s to play that game. Here are some (not all) of my Titan dice.
Some Odd Dice: These are just a few unusual ones, with the red d20 there again for scale. The clear ten-sided die with the little d10 inside it is a clever d100. The clear die result is the tens numeral, and the red number is the singles digit. The die is showing 86 above. The large wood rounded d6 is just neat. And the ginormous blue d20 is a great weapon if you ever have to brain an intruder. Even more so if you use your longest knee-sock as a sling. Or shove the die in it to the sock's toe for use as a sap or flail.
Storing Your Dice: And of course, what do you use to carry and store your dice? The blue and white plastic case was 3D-printed by a friend as a gift. The felt dice bags are pretty standard. The wooden box was adapted by me from a box of imported tea a boss gave me as a gift in the 1990s. Of course, people have been inventive in many many ways in taking care of their dice. Leather bags, special cases, and display racks. In college, a friend used a military surplus ammo box for all his dice.
Click Here: For more lore and fun dice stuff, check out these links:
