Sometimes you take the bad with the good, or the normal with the odd
Name: Red Randomizers d20
Description: This is a standard-size pair of aluminum d20s. They are annodized red and have carved unpainted numbers. The underlying Aluminum is silver, so the numbers are silver on a red background. The dice are sharp-edged (for d20s). The font is a relatively plain non-serifed cheaper-looking Helvetica which means that it’s probably Arial. The 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate their orientation. The dice were sold as a pair and oddly, one of the dice is numbered normally with 1-20 and the other d20 is oddly numbered 21-40. They are well machined and relatively light as you’d expect from Aluminum dice.
Size:
low (1-20) d20: (Face->Face) 19.92 mm (Point->Point) 24.43 mm
low (1-20) d20: (Face->Face) 20.0 mm (Point->Point) 24.43 mm
Where did they come from: Etsy (Seller: Zucati Corp)
How much did they cost: $25
Material / color: Aluminum, anodized red
Quality: Very good
Readability: Good but not great. I could read them from 4 feet away on the rug.
Value: They are a fair value.
Overall Rating: 8/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20 (or 40):
Low numbers (1-20) d20: 24 rolls
High numbers (21-40) d20: 13 rolls
Fifty rolls on the lower numbers (1-20) d20: 8, 13, 10, 10, 9, 19, 13, 7, 9, 9, 20, 1, 1, 2, 18, 4, 13, 8, 2, 4, 12, 14, 10, 1, 12, 6, 7, 17, 15, 12, 11, 7, 11, 2, 9, 20, 10, 4, 8, 17, 5, 14, 16, 20, 20, 10, 4, 3, 5, 19
Mean: 10.02 (Average roll)
Median: 10 (Middle)
Mode: 10 (most common)
Fifty rolls on the higher numbers (21-40) d20: 40, 23, 38, 21, 26, 24, 35, 38, 28, 25, 23, 29, 26, 23, 37, 39, 38, 27, 35, 32, 38, 28, 33, 38, 40, 22, 28, 33, 35, 31, 21, 26, 29, 26, 32, 39, 22, 38, 21, 36, 33, 30, 39, 33, 34, 24, 21, 25, 31, 33
Mean: 30.52 (Average roll)
Median: 31 (Middle)
Mode: 38 (most common)
6d20 (reroll 1s & 2s) stat block (low d20):
14, 20, 14, 17, 13, 8 (86 total) – An agreeable Elf Monk from the City Of Ten Thousand Flags who lost minor appendages due to their gambling addiction
6d20 stat block: (reroll 21s & 22s, subtract 20) (high d20):
14, 9, 6, 18, 6, 10 (65 total) – A Flamboyant Dwarf Wizard from the Black Dungeon who is really (I mean REALLY) afraid of the dark
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
Five Flurry of Blows attacks (2 unarmed strikes each) from a 17th level Monk:
20, 24
18, 19
15, 30
17, 29
28, 24
Five Concentration checks from a 17th level Wizard (Resilient CON feat):
16, 13, 8, 17, 17. Having a -2 for CON saves makes for a flimsy Wizard.
(This is another excuse for rolling dice)
Random Tables rolls (6 x d20):
Things to find in a cult hideout: 57 – A very nice tapestry. Tells the story of a famous hunter. Very common 50 years ago.
The Shiny One: 76 – You gain the ability to speak in peoples minds for 1 hour. They must be willing or fail a DC 18 INT save.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: Until I bought these dice I didn’t own any Aluminum dice and had only recently learned that this was another metal that dice could be made out of. Yay for alternatives to Zinc! I looked at all of my favorite dice companies and weeded through a lot of dice that really didn’t like with oddly shaped vertices/edges, weird color patterns, logos on the 20 face, etc… just looking for a relatively plain set of Aluminum dice that weren’t too expensive. It was (still is) relatively difficult to find a nice (basic? am I basic?) set of Aluminum dice. Fortunately that is about to change next month. I’ll have some gorgeous full sets of Aluminum dice in… 4-6 months or so.
So back to these. These came as a set, otherwise I would have just bought the standard (1-20) d20 and not the 21-40 d20. I don’t know what TTRPG game uses dice that go up to 40 though I am a little curious. I’ve never used the higher d20 in-game but I have used the standard d20 with unmemorable results. It’s hard to get excited about these dice. They’re nice looking, have cleanly machined numbers, have a nice anodized red color to them but they’re just simple d20s. in the standard size. They would be more interesting if they were bigger, had inked numbers, and were both numbered 1-20 so that I could use them for advantage/disadvantage rolls at least. It’s easy enough to just subtract 20 from the roll on the higher d20 to get the normalized (1-20) roll. (ie: performing a modulo 20 operation on the die results)
These dice do make a nice sound when you shake them together in your hand. The sound is very similar to the clicky/clacky sound that stone dice make when you shake them. These dice roll well and stop quickly. They’re awfully lightweight (as you’d expect) which I’m never a fan of but maybe some day after getting home from the gym where I’d just been blasting my biceps for 3 hours in the weight room, I’ll be happy to have a nice light d20 or two to roll without straining in the least to pick them up.
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