"Using wood craft blocks for dice?" Topic

Going the opposite technological direction from my last post, I've been thinking about making special dice for an initiative system I dreamed up. I have a handful of little wooden craft dice for projects, and to me they seem to make great dice.

I like the fact they have sharp edges and don't roll far, like casino dice. But I don't know if they are properly balanced give the density of the material (wood). Can anyone enlighten me on this?

I'd be very surprised if they were as well balanced as proper dice.

OTOH I'd be very surprise if anyone could take advantage of any imbalance without a ridiculous amount of testing.

If you want to be careful …

Just eliminate the obviously flawed cubes.
Make a pool of each type of die with more than you need.
Make everyone choose their dice randomnly from the pool.
This will help randomnise the "error".

I have used wooden cubes from Michaels for home-made special dice for years. They work just fine. Vegas may not like them, but for games they are great.

Use them and have fun.

Jim

I have just put small labels over top some extra dice I had on hand. I have thought about getting the Michaels blocks but decided not to spend extra when I have so many dice already.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the stuff that's sold as "dice" aren't made to all that exact specifications anyway, so you'll probably not notice any difference with craft blocks, as long as you eliminate any that are visibly out of shape.

If they roll 6s more often than not, send some to me to use in In The Grand Manner games.

Over time, if you keep track of what sides come up, you'll be able to detect if a side is favored (which might not be a bad thing, depending on what you want to accomplish).

As Spectacle said, there are some dice out there that are not exactly made to exact specifications, including some well-known name brands used by gamers.

I think the fact that wood blocks have sharp edges works in their favor. That means they're less likely to roll far and, as a result, less likely to roll over on their center of gravity. From what I understand, that's the big problem with dice with rounded edges (and why casino dice have sharp edges.) Today's lesson: Don't buy dice with smooth, round edges.

The question is with wood is whether they are so unbalanced they will roll over onto one side most of the time. I don't know. You would think working with that size block, the density of the wood in a cube would be consistent.

Not really, although you should be able to identify issues by color of the wood, differences in grain, etc.

Just look for blocks that are more uniform than others, and use them.

Been using them for years, in various sizes. I used an ink pen to mark them, then I coated them with varnish. Never have been concerned with their balance. Just game on. Cheers!

All the points above are valid … but this doesnt stop the game industry from using wooden dice :)

How about using wood balls or ball and dowels?

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That's an incredibly odd, yet facinating idea…

Why not use wood balls and dowels?

Answer: Because I'm too lazy to build something like that. :)

Interesting concept though.

For a project I am currently working on, I used the little wood blocks from Michaels. The initial problem I had was bleeding (I used a pen to draw the icons). Of course, this can be easily fixed by primer – I was just lazy. They roll nicely and the different sizes is quite nice.
Also, if you are even just a little artistic, you can make some very nice dice.