Review: Rose & Pentagram Design's Historic/Fantasy Dice
I like dice. No, that's not quite right - I love dice. I have a highly disturbing affection for the look of a well-balanced cube, the smell of new plastic/metal/resin/wood, and the visceral feel of a handful of luck scattering across the gaming table. I have the pre-requisite large bag of generic dice, but it's the rare and intriguing that turn my head more than anything. Rose & Pentagram, along with their t-shirts, camping board games and recreations of historical games, do some dice which made my collector's instincts twitch. This is a quick review of two of their products, the Dragon Dice (no relation to the no-dead game) and the Lord and Lady dice, resin recreations of 15th century dice from Germany.
I checked out Rose & Pentagram's website (http://www.historicgames.com ) a couple of weeks ago, and promptly ordered the two sets. They arrived within about a week and a half, despite ridiculously slow international shipping times (US to Canada), and are exactly as pictured on the site. The Dragon Dice are slightly smaller than the Lord and Lady dice, but are comparable in weight and heft. The black pips are clearly visible against the bone colouring, but going by shots on the website, the other colours of Dragon Dice may not be as easy to read.
Dragon Dice:
These dice resemble nothing so much as your classic D&D dragon, after having been shoved into a junk yard car crusher - six sided dice created by the body of a dragon, his face peering out menacingly from under his wing, his tail crushed down and around the sides of the cube.
The detail is quite fine, although indistinct in places. The scales and teeth are very clear, but an excess of stain around the edge of the dragon's wing muddies the image somewhat. The dragon's face is remarkably expressive, letting the viewer know exactly what dear old Smaug thinks about being shoved through a trash compactor. Despite the relatively large size of the dice, they're quite light - not weighing down the dicebag, but also not quite heavy enough to give a really satisfying roll across a softer or cushioned surface. They're best for rolling on wood or glass, as the rougher surface of the dice, when compared to the mass-produced flat plastic jobbies, means they won't skitter off into the unknown at every toss.
A brief test of the probability distribution turns out well. A six-sided die, tossed 90 times, should, in theory, land on each number 15 times. The dragon dice performed well within appropriate deviation after a couple of identical tests, resulting in averaged results of 1 = 18, 2 = 15, 3 = 11, 4 = 17, 5 = 16, 6 = 12. At a price of $5 (American) each, plus $0.75 shipping, these dice are more expensive than a basic pair of six-siders, but they're a lot more fun. Some painstaking work went into the Dragon Dice, and it shows. Kudos to the designers!
Lord and Lady Dice:
More for the adult audience than the Dragon Dice, the Lord and Lady set are a pair of resin dice taken from an historic example, the cube formed from the naked bodies of a man (the Lord die) and a woman (the Lady die) in a crouching position. The dice are, in fact, anatomically correct (and the Lord's obviously been staring at his counterpart), the 1 pip placed rather appropriately on each. The detail on these is much broader than on the Dragon Dice, only the faces carved with any fine lines. The Lady's braids and the Lord's beard and mustache are well done, and the lack of staining lets what detail there is shine through without the muddy effect noticed in a few tiny spots on the Dragon Dice. These dice are great conversation pieces - the other players from the game I was in last night stopped play entirely to pass them around and giggle like the five-year-olds that we are.
The dice are quite light, given their size, and feel rather insubstantial in the hand. The open form of the cube no doubt contributes to this, as the Dragon Dice are only slightly smaller, and are of the same weight, yet feel much more substantial in the hand. These dice don't roll terribly well, skittering where they should tumble, and often sliding off a slick, flat surface onto the floor. Some more weight would definitely help in that regard, and, I've got to say, if Rose & Pentacle ever starts making the L&L dice out of heavier plastic or metal, I will be buying these again. And again.
These are cool. These are really cool. The historic background adds to that coolness, making them perfect for dice games at Ren fairs, SCA events, medieval recreation, LARPs, conventions and dead-dog parties when you can't find your strip-twister board. They're great conversation pieces, easy to read, exceedingly high in geek-points and - if the emphasis is even needed - pornographic!
They just don't work.
I performed the same test on these as on the Dragon Dice, and while the Dragons passed with flying colours, the L&L dice failed miserably. Rolled 90 times, the Lord die displayed a decreasing spread: 1 = 23, 2 = 19, 3 = 16, 4 = 16, 5 = 11, 6 = 6. Great if you're not playing Silhouette, I suppose. The Lady die was just as uneven, but in a different spread: 1 = 29, 2 = 19, 3 = 9, 4 = 3, 5 = 16, 6 = 14. The bulk of the weight of these dice is in the back/buttocks, and the 1 pip is on the front of the torso on both, making the origin of the problem plain. The Lady's breasts help to tip the balance a bit, the 6 pips along her back turning up with much greater frequency than for the Lord, but the 4 pips on the bottom of her feet occur exceedingly rarely because of that same reweighting. These may be taken from an historic design, but the Rose & Pentagram team needs to return to the drawing board and figure out how to redo the dice so that they roll evenly - otherwise, they?ll be nothing more than geek-point conversation pieces, gorgeous though they might be.
At the end of all this, I still recommend that folks take the time to check out the site. The customer service is excellent, shipping is quick, the products are well made, for the most part, and the Dragon Dice are great - well worth the price.
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