Review of Elvish Dice Set (Glacier & White)

Blurb from the publisher: 'These dice are so beautiful that we should have written this description in Quenya. This language was a symbol of the high status of the Elves, the firstborn of the races of Middle-earth. It's elven Latin, the language of the most noble race ever. Its sparser use also became symbolic of the slowly declining elven culture in J.R.R. Tolkien's universe. But as one wise elf has once said: "Á harya indo máralessë", and we follow. Our dice are a symbol of hope for elvenkind because we have been upgrading them since the beginning of Q-Workshop's history. Every year brings new colors and new improvements in our production technology, our designs, and our paints. All to make the dice worthy of Galadriel's attention. The Elvish sets are our most precious creation. We are proud of them, and humbly believe that we thus celebrate elven glory and invite the elves again into our world.

The Elvish Glacier & White Dice Set - We have named them "helca ar glân" because these are our first dice that are dedicated to all the elven ice wastes, where you can see the might and magic of unthinkable great icebergs and deep snow - which mercifully covers everything on the world. The real glacier is like a mountain that towers over everyone else and like a sleeping giant waits for his turn to conquer the world. The elves feel this. Like in their ancient forest, among the ice peaks, they feel unity with nature, their harsher and frostier incarnation.'

What you get: Your EUR 11 or equivalent will buy you the Elvish Dice Set (Glacier & White), a set of seven plastic polyhedral dice in the standard variety any roleplayer expects: a d4, a d6, a d8, two d10s (one in single digits and one counting tens), a d12 and a d20.

The dice are of standard size, all of them having an approximate length of 2 cm. The background is frosted blue, while the engraved designs and numbers are white. The numbers are both large and crisp, and are surrounded by a phrase in an elven-like script. The line does not have a main symbol, thus all numbers appear on each die.

The Frosted & White is only one of the nine Elvish sets that Q-Workshop currently markets, and the newest iteration of those dice. Other sets include translucent ones with different colours of letters and designs, opaque ones with green or black backgrounds, and even a glow-in-the-dark version.

The strong points: I just realized I had never reviewed any of Q-Workshop's Elvish Dice Sets, even though I own a handful of them. Plus, we have seen together the Elvish Graphite Suede Dice Cup. This injustice ends here. One major advantage that all Elvish Dice Sets share is that what looks like an elven script one day is a magical or mysterious script the other. The dice fit thematically not only the elves, but any high culture with an advanced pseudo-medieval civilization, wizards, sorcerers, magic, and what have you. The colours of this set remind me of the frozen wastes, of regions in the land of perpetual snow... or is it the crystal waters of a permanently clear pool? The font is innovative, with uneven numbers which feel as a result of a calligrapher slowly scribbling on a scroll. It is so cool that were the wrappings (colour and elvish-script) to disappear, I could have easily seen it to serve the horror genre, tales of mystery, or even Call of Cthulhu.

The fact that the set is not linked to an IP makes it ideal as a committed fantasy set and increases its versatility. No company logos, no campaign designs, just elves, their numbers and their script.

Unless the dice come poorly manufactured, there aren't many flaws one can find on a set. There are no defects or imbalances when it comes to dice-rolling. I rolled each die around a hundred times, and even though the numbers obviously did not come out exactly as statistically expected, there is nothing to suggest that there are inherent flaws. If this is the one single pair you have, it will perform its duties with ease.

The weak points: None of the 6s and 9s in the dice that contain them both are marked in any way. Admittedly, the design of each number is vastly different; one is not the mirror image of the other, as is the case in the majority of sets out there. I like the innovation. Yet, I wouldn't have minded some additional diacritics for the players who, in the middle of the game, would have expected a harder marker on what is what.

The numbers are clear and easy to read, I would have gone easier however on the script. It is overpowering in many ways, and does not let the numbers breathe, at least aesthetically. The d20 is, as expected, the worst offender, since it has the smallest sides. I repeat: the numbers are ultimately easy to read. I just wish they were more minimalist than what they currently come out as.

These dice might feel a bit quaint if you use them with tropes that do not include elves or magic, e.g. hard sci-fi. On the other hand, should these be the only dice you have access to, they roll great.

Conclusion: The newest Elvish Dice Set (Glacier & White) is also one of the prettiest and most original. Not many people correlate cold colours and designs with the Elves. Stay frosty.

To find out more about Q-Workshop take a look at http://www.q-workshop.com/. The Elvish Dice Set (Glacier & White) can be found right here.

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