Dice Delve: The Power of Clarity

Today I'm going to pick a slapfight by tipping a sacred cow. I'm old, and my tastes run to the old, the vintage, the decrepit. You know, like stuff from 1985. The Dark Ages. When Dinosaurs roamed the Earth. And speaking of dinosaurs...

Lou Zocchi is one of the longest-running manufacturers of RPG-based products. He may be THE longest-running, and good on him for doing so. And like most people who've been in business since the 1970s, he's had his share of ups and downs. GameScience is currently the Elder Statesman of the Artisanal Craft Dice Movement. These should be the dice I prefer, since I'm crunchy and crusty, right? Let's just see what the current batch of GameScience dice looks like.

Go ahead. Drink it in. Are those not fetching as hell?

GameScience Gem Dice

RATING: 2/5

Considered by many to be the gold standard in precision dice. You know what I say to that? Bollocks.

Clarity   Sometimes
Heft       No

Color     Yes

Theme   Sort of

Value     No

The best-looking set of
GameScience dice I own, and
that ain't saying much.

The Good: Back in the day, when all this shit was new, Lou Zocchi was the first guy bringing the good stuff to the masses. Well, him and The Armory. And Windmill. And Diamond Dice. Okay, he was one of the first, and some would say, the best. I don’t know about that, but for what Zocchi is selling, his dice do in fact have precision edges, and they do look like gems in the light. Quality plastic? Sure, unless you get the Ugly Dice or the factory seconds. If you’re trying to rock it at the table Old School, these dice will get your there. No doubt. But at what cost?

Notice the size different as well as the quality difference.

The Bad: here is a picture of my old Armory clear d6 and a new GameScience clear d6. Need I say more? What GameScience is putting out now is, in my opinion, substandard. The size is off, and the impressions on the molds are just ugly. This is not 1982. We have options, now, and we are infinitely more picky about how things look. I believe his math, but I don’t know that I’ll ever roll enough dice enough times to see the bias inherent in whatever defects he might ascribe to each manufacturer. 

A different pic of the same dice above, shot in a vain
effort to make them look better. And yes, my inking sucks.

Zocchi has a separate video wherein he shows you how to ink your GameSciencedice: a 38 minute long video that goes over all of the vagaries and the extra equipment and supplies you need to do the job right. Other people just use crayons.  But this is the crux of it all; you are going to pay through the nose for a set of expensive pastel-colored gem dice that are nearly impossible to ink with a contrasting color because the transparent, pastel colored plastic has nothing for black or white ink to stand out against. These dice are, you know, too good to be true (he said ironically). The opaque dice are better in terms of contrast, but Geez Louise, I’m playing Dungeons and Dragons, here; I’m not running a geometry laboratory. This shouldn’t be more complicated than writing a grant.

How the hell am I supposed to ink these? Huh?
Black? White? Silver? Short answer: nothing works. 

The Ugly: Eleven bucks for a set of 7 dice in ugly opaque plastic? Fourteen bucks for gem colors? Remember, uninked. Unfiled. Un-everything. GameScience will happily sell a finishing kit with the best pens to use for inking, files to sand down the sprue clip, and an ink eraser pen for when you go over on the inking. I want to like these things, but honestly, I think we are way past this as a nation and as a people.

Well, these two are visible, at least.
But is that a good thing?

Recommendation: If you have the time, patience, and disposable income to invest in GameScience dice, then you are throwing the dice equivalent of a DeLorean on the table; it’s flashy, but it’s fussy, and you have to do a lot to get it up and running for you. It’s less a process or a project and more of a lifestyle choice, like owning a Triumph GT, or a vintage Harley.  Maybe owning GameScience dice works like attunement in that you have to spend some time with these dice to really imbue them with your essence. Or maybe you’re just a glutton for punishment. 

It doesn't seem fair to compare a brand new company to such learned veterans, but you know what? I'm going to do it anyway. Because, you see, that's how you learn. 

I didn't buy the full set of these dice. Now I kinda wish I had.

Halfsies Dice by Gate Keeper Games

SCORE: 3/5 to 5/5

Gate Keeper Games is a small publishing company that leans to the Artisanal side with, among other things, their recent line of Halfsies dice. These are swirled (pearlescent?) heavy plastic dice in two colors, divided more or less down the center. Problematic to ink, right? Read on, Scoffie McGee.

Clarity   Mostly Yes
Heft       Yes

Color     Sometimes

Theme   Yes

Value     Yes

These dice look much better in person than in photographs. 

The Good: My initial reaction to this line of dice was similar to every single other two-color binary/Gemini/eclipse dice attempt; namely, “Oh, that’ll never work.” But after looking at the color combinations and the corresponding names, I changed my mind. These are well-made, standard-sized dice that are as heavy or near enough to Euro Dice to feel good in your hands. The two-color plastic and complementary ink color are strong on theme and can easily serve as the “third” set in your single-color pearlescent dice. Imagine one black pearlescent set, one white pearlescent set, and a set of Yin Yang Halfsies dice, which is a mix of both colors. They are also available in a wide variety of color options.

Nice contrast.

Pretty good contrast. Same d20.

The Bad: The majority of the dice are legible and easy to read. There are a few, however, that are so committed to the theme that the trade off is clarity. Other color combinations are certainly matched to their named theme, but the color combination is more distracting than pleasing. These are, admittedly, personal quibbles on my part, and didn't deter me from ordering some of the dice, anyway. One color combination (DaVinci) looks like it would be hard to read, but the metallic ink picks up the light and is no trouble whatsoever; one of the problems with looking at pictures and then seeing the dice in person.

The d10s are DaVinci and the D6s are Phoenix. Nice!

The Ugly: Two sets will come to just over twenty bucks. It’s not cheap, but it’s not that expensive, either. Especially if you use your Halfsies dice as accents rather than the dominant theme of your playing set. Also, you may be torn, as I was, about ordering dice that are thematically correct, but not anything I’d ever play with. I just like the super hero themes. I may have to go back and get a set of Hulk dice. For academic reasons. You understand.

Recommendation: I don’t normally like opalescent dice, but Gatekeeper won me over with on point themes, good to great contrast and readability, and some attractive color combinations I've not ever seen before. They are hefty and look good on the table. If you like swirly-pearly dice, or just want something that reminds you of Your Favorite Superhero, you can’t go wrong with these.

Here's the Halfsies dice in my super-sweet GMs Dice Tray that looks like a dungeon door. Nice color and contrast and even with reflected light, the numbers are easily read. And the dice still look like cool and interesting objects.