FUNKY DICE FOR THE WIN!!!

My Sicherman dice

Today I acquired - courtesy of eBay - a pair of Sicherman dice.

At first glance you might think these are just ordinary six-siders... but notice the "8" on the left die and the two "2"s on different faces of the right hand die.

These are true math rocks. And, almost, totally pointless in a gaming situation. 

They only work as a pair (so I must be careful not to mix them up with my many, many other six-siders).

One die has faces numbered 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and the other is numbered 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4.

Invented by Colonel George Sicherman of Buffalo, New York, in 1978, these dice have exactly the same probability of generating each number between 2 and 12 as a normal pair of six-sided dice (e.g. one in 36 for a total of two; two in 36 for a total of three etc).

Sicherman dice are the only other design of a pair of six-sided dice that replicate the probabilities of 'normal dice' (while using positive numbers).

Except for doubles - you're screwed there as the probabilities are clearly not the same. 

So, what's the point of these dice? Who knows? It's just playing craps with probabilities, a mental exercise.

But they're funky dice I didn't have, so I had to add them to my ever-expanding dice pool.

I guess you could use them for Traveller (or any other 2d6 system where it's the total that counts, and doubles don't give you any bonuses).

I'm pretty sure it was the prodigious Simon Miles, of Dunromin University Press, who first introduced me to these special dice at some point last year, during a commentary on - surprisingly - RPG dice. But from the moment I saw the Sicherman dice, I knew I had to own a pair.

However, I fear this may have opened a fiery portal to the world of other obscure math rocks...

Miniature Haul At A Miniature Price!

Money Well Spent: £7.38's worth of tiny terrain for the tabletop

Because I can't help but be spinning multiple plates at once, even though I'm trying to streamline and focus all my hobbies, I decide to pick up some bits online that could make scatter terrain for either roleplaying games or my Dead Man's Hand skirmish wargame.

I can't recall if it was an Amazon advert or I was searching for something and found myself on the site, but this was the first time I'd explored Amazon Haul, its low-price Aladdin's Cave of affordable odds-and-ends.

Obviously, I knew of its existence, but had always assumed it was for household goods and fashion items... i.e. no interest to me.

But it turns out there's quite a bit of miniature modelling items on there.

The prices are so low that I thought why not chance a tenner (the minimum purchase to get free shipping)?

I got a pack of 10 transparent blue d12s (for £4.49), which shipped from within the UK and were with me a couple of days later, but the balance of my order turned out to be coming from China.

Yet, it only took a week to arrive and Amazon provided tracking details for every stage of the journey.

For £7.38, I picked up a collection of resin rocks and tree stumps, two packs of miniature trees, an ancient Roman column, and a tiny well (painted and ready for use). 

None of this stuff was produced with wargames' tables in mind, they're advertised as being for "fairy gardens", ornamental plant displays, bonsai decoration etc but they all look as though they will work perfectly for what I have in mind.

I need to base the trees, find a 'statue' to fit on the column (and probably drybrush the whole thing to make it look more aged), and possibly paint up the resin rocks but that part of the hobby is well within my limited skill set, so I'm looking forward to that.

As I said, I've never used Haul before - and won't be a regular customer - but I reckon I got good value for money on my first purchase.

A gamer can NEVER have too many dice!

The Roll of the Ancient Mariner: Dice, Dice Every Where...

Of course I love dice. I'm a gamer. I have way more dice than I could ever possibly need, yet I still keep buying them. Like I said: I'm a gamer!

The latest acquisitions for my infinite dice pool are all six-siders, but are devoid of numbers.

The first is a giant - 1.5" x 1.5" per face - red, wooden "yes/no" die. Why flip a coin when you can roll a die, amirite?

Now, as gamesmaster, I can divest myself of any responsibility and blame the die.

Is there a guard coming round the corner as you try and climb through the merchant's window this evening? <rolls big red die> The die says: "yes".

Next up is a hessian bag of wooden cubes with letters on (a couple have 'yes' or 'no' on them). They are pictured below.

These are possibly a dice-based iteration of the classic Ouija board, although - deliberately - no instructions were included, so you can use them how you like.

Don't want to accidentally summon Captain Howdy in the middle of a game!!!

I'm picturing the player-characters encountering a fortune teller armed with a set of these, generating random, on-the-fly predictions that will (somehow) come true later in the campaign.

I welcome this opportunity to hone my improv skills (or lack thereof), conjuring up meaning from a splatter of random letters. It is human nature - apophenia - to see patterns in randomness.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Before The Tuesday Knights

After my aneurysm and stroke, I was looking for ways to keep myself entertained and so Nick, Pete and I started our Formula Dé League, playing monthly motor races and eating a lot of very hot curry.

As the Tunbridge Wells Formula De League we would race little plastic cars around boards representing a variety of Grand Prix circuits from across the globe.

The game uses the very clever mechanic of having the vehicle's different gears represented by different polyhedral dice. 

A moment of high drama during the Chinese Grand Prix

As with our current gaming we didn't always stick to the monthly schedule that we had drawn up in advance, but we still managed to rack up enough races for a couple of years (2006/2007) to give our league a sense of verisimilitude.

We each controlled a stable of two racers, competing for both individual and team glory.

Pete was Team Clover (Paddy O'Doors & Muhat Mecoate), I was Team Zerro (Damien Dash & Brian 'Whitey' Whitehouse) and Nick was Team Flamer (Antonio Wasp & Nick Nastily). Nick's Nick Nastily retired during the '06 season and was replaced by Jock Saway.

Press coverage of Nastily's retirement

During 2007, Steve joined us as Team Classic Rock for one race.

As well as creating newspaper clippings of key race-related stories, we even held "prize giving" ceremonies at the end of each year in local restaurants, handing out trophies and wooden spoons to the winners and losers.

A third year's racing was scheduled for 2008, but a resurgence of interest in roleplaying games led to the creation of the Tuesday Knights and that overtook our toy car racing exploits.

The TWFDL: Pete, Nick & I

The release of the Hollow Earth Expedition pulp adventure system had reignited Nick's enthusiasm for roleplaying games and he ran a short and sadly unfinished Edwardian campaign for Clare and I.

But it was the publicity around the publication of the Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons that got me thinking about starting our own broader gaming group, replacing our board game nights (we also played the collaborative Lord Of The Rings games) with regular roleplaying sessions.

And so was born The Tuesday Knights. In the end we didn't play Fourth Edition, opting for the more old school Castles & Crusades, which was then replaced by Labyrinth Lord, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Regular board game meet-ups resumed in 2023, with the launch of Monopoly Club, where Pete gets to show off his ever-expanding collection of themed Monopoly boards for Clare, Rachel, and I.

Mission: Accomplished! It Must Be Christmas!

Here we are: Christmas Eve. The time has come for the final tally of the roleplaying game dice that came in my specialist advent calendar this year.

We ended up with a very ordered spread:

• 3d4
• 3d6
• 3d8
• 3d10
• 3d12
• 3d20
• Metal d20
• 3d% (that is, d10s with faces marked 10, 20, 30 etc)

And a pin badge along with, today, a plastic miniature of a mindflayer/illithid

This novelty advent calendar was - unsurprisingly given its contents - the perfect pre-Christmas present from Rachel... and has definitely set a precedent for future festive favours.

The standout piece has to be the hefty, spikey, metallic d20. Unfortunately, some of its delicate numbering is nigh-on illegible to my old man's eyes and I can't help feeling it would work better as a slingshot projectile for taking down Biblical giants from Gath.

MUSICAL MONDAY: All I Want for Christmas - A D&D Christmas Carol (Ginny Di)

"Whoa, We're Halfway There; Whoa Oh, Livin' On A Prayer"

Dice (so far) from my advent calendar

We're halfway (12 days) to Christmas Eve, meaning we're halfway through my "dice advent" calendar (a glorious gift from my gorgeous wife, purchased from the TikTok Shop).

So far, the doors have revealed an interesting mix of dice (and an unexpected pin badge), namely:

• 3d4
• 1d8
• 2d10
• 3d12
• 2d20

All are quality dice that will find a home in my ever-increasing pool of roleplaying game dice, but I'm particularly smitten by the transparent 12-sider that was behind door number 12 today. It reminds me of a Fox's Glacier Mint.

But why no six-siders? Will the next dozen doors reveal a run of d6s?

We'll have to wait and see.