"Dice - Did you know?? " Topic

I started a thread else where, about a couple of videos I found on the net about dice.. I am sure they are likley to have been posted here before, but they do make for interesting watching, if you don't know how our dice are made and why they tend in the main to have rounded edges.

Its not by actual design! And also why most rounded edge dice, have a biase!

link

I knew that dice were rock tumbled, but I did not know the number of times was as high as they are and that the effects can be quite so dramatic, on the randomness of dice.

It explaines why some of my own dice aren't as uniform in shape. Well worth a quick watch.

I always thought my dice were biased……

Interesting to watch though; I've never really thought about how they make the darn things.

I started this topic originally.. its got some interesting points on it.. TMP link

But yes, I think we are all so used, particularly us younger gamers, to the rounded edges, poly dice, or 11mm etc D6, that are common place. Infact I hold my hands up and have to say, having seen a set of sharp edged dice a friend had, with the blemish, I discounted them for being innacurate etc.. not realising the reason for the round edges and the variation is causes in the dice.

I did a quick compare of some of my D20s and its actually visible to the naked eye on some, now I have bothered to look, that there is a biase along certain axis.

I know one GW tournament player, who used to buy four or five packs of dice and work out the average (roll) of each die, and make up a set from the three or four sets. I just rule it out as being silly.
But given the points in the info and the nature of casino dice, it probably did mean he was able to cheat in a fashion.

As I own a couple of the big packs of small D6 for my RoE games etc, I am not about to replace all 60 plus dice with precision ones in one go. But I might just pick up some for my RPGs and build up the a few precision D6 as i go.

Its is interesting though.

Saw those vids a long time ago and retired all my dice and replaced them with his since.

Thankful for it too,
Brian

Yup. I was able to speak with Mr. Zocchi on the phone once. Very enthusiastic. This comes across in the videos.

I'm not so concerned with unbiased dice to replace any, let alone of my dice. I just accept the fact that they're skewed and roll on. Although, having one set would be nice.

Lou…
He reminds me of a used car salesman. Remember, he wants you to buy HIS dice.
I have a set of his, and they seemed to roll the same as all of the rest of my dice.
Just sayin'…

Oh granted he was a sales man. But I can see his points fully. And I had some biased dice I knew rolled one way or the other more times than not in my collection before seeing these videos. Having had a closer look at them I can see why now.
I previously put it down to the plastic being denser in one part of the dice over another, effectively weighting it.

What we need are some automatic dice rolling robots, what will do the repetative rolls, and log the findings and do a big comparrison of makers..

Nothing I use dice for requires a high degree of accuracy, precision, or lack of bias.
-Kle.

does this guy have a web sight?

Yes:

gamescience.com

Mr. Zocchi has been around gaming since at least the 1960's.

In 1977, at Origins in New York, I bought three clear plastic sheets with hexes printed thereon from Mr. Zocchi. I still use them for campaigns.

Lou is still gaming every chance that he gets. He lives in the Mississippi gulf coast area and I see him several times a year.