Thursday, January 23, 2014

The dice gods send their love


Ok, I admit it: I'm a dice freak. Imelda had her shoes; I have dice. I just can't help myself. (Apparently, I'm not alone.) Every new game seems to require a new set (or sets) of dice. I've even had custom dice made because they looked so cool.

Quite innocently, while looking up something else on the Interwebs, I came across a picture of a bone die. Following the link, I discovered The Jelling Dragon website that had lots of things for Viking era reenactment. Among the treasures were these bone dice. At just about $1.00 per die (20% of what my "ancient dice" cost), I ordered 10 and waited to see what would arrive.

I was quite surprised to see them arrive today from the UK in less than a week (sometimes the mail travels so fast that the conspiratorial powers that seek to prevent rapid trans-oceanic passage have no time to react). Even before feeding the cats, who have no patience with any of my nonsense that keeps me from seeing to them as soon as I arrive home, I tore open the package to see whether I'd misspent my $10.00 (plus shipping).

I hadn't.

Charming little instruments of fortune (or misfortune)
They really are little beauties, handmade and nicely polished. Lack of uniformity in size and shape is among their many charms. I'm sure that skews their results somewhat, but how I couldn't say. No doubt Lou Zocchi would disapprove. The Jelling Dragon site listed their size as "9-11mm," which was my first clue that they were irregular—and small.

Even more charming next to that ugly penney
Being made specifically for Viking reenactment purposes, they will be ideal to use for Saga games or the D6 I need for Song of Blades and Heroes.

While digging around still more after finding these dice from Jelling Dragon, I found other bone dice from SJ-Seamstress, another UK company that makes 18th c. reenactment things. These look different and are a bit more expensive at £1.00 per die. I ordered 10 of these as well and eagerly await their arrival.

Alea jacta est!

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