Is this die fancy or just kitchy based on a guy with a mustache?
Name: Jacques Ze Whipper Chonk d20
Description: This is a large Chonk nearly-sharp edge resin d20. The die is dark slate blue with gold colored filigree under a clear coating. The numbers are inked in a deep red. The font is very similar to Adobe Garamond bold using the small Roman-ish numerals. The top of the 3 and the tails of the 6 and 9 are a little flatter but it’s very close otherwise. The 6 and 9 faces use small red dots to indicate their orientation. The 20 has a curly mustache under the digits. The die came in a fancy cardboard box with filigree designs on the outside.
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 33.41 mm (Point->Point) 40.44 mm
Where did it come from: Emberglow Gaming
How much did it cost: $30
Material / color: Resin / dark slate blue with gold designs and red numbers
Quality: Very good. Nice and clean.
Readability: Poor. The red on blue doesn’t work well from more than a foot or two away.
Value: Decent value. $30 for a fancy chonk d20 is fair.
Overall Rating: 9/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 16 rolls
Fifty d20 rolls: 6, 3, 13, 2, 2, 9, 13, 14, 2, 7, 15, 7, 4, 15, 16, 10, 8, 18, 16, 9, 10, 5, 20, 20, 3, 4, 9, 5, 7, 4, 5, 13, 12, 9, 17, 20, 19, 20, 11, 15, 18, 19, 12, 10, 11, 15, 8, 13, 7, 16
Mean: 10.92
Median: 10.5
Mode: 7, 9, 13, 15, 20
6d20 drop 1s and 2s stat block: 9, 9, 20, 3, 16, 6 (63 total) An attentive Tiefling Cleric from a poorly run orphanage who mistrusts anyone smaller than them
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
20th level War Cleric with Maxed Wisdom wielding the mythical Cuthbert’s Mace while fighting a CR 10 Stone Golem. The Cleric is using Guided Strike (if needed), Divine Strike, and casting Searing Light at 9th level for each attack.
Cleric attacks:
17 + 5 + 6 = 38 HIT! (1d8 + 6 + 5 + 2d8 + 8d8) = 6 + 6 + 5 + 10 + 33 = 60 dmg
Stone Golem attacks:
15 + 10 = 25 HIT! 19 bludgeoning damage, reduced to 9 (Avatar of battle)
12 + 10 = 22 HIT! 19 bludgeoning damage, reduced to 9 (Avatar of battle)
Cleric attacks:
11 + 5 + 6 = 22 HIT! (1d8 + 6 + 5 + 2d8 + 8d8) = 6 + 6 + 5 + 12 + 39 = 68 dmg
Stone Golem attacks:
1 + 10 = 11 MISS!
9 + 10 = 19 MISS!
Cleric attacks:
9 + 5 + 6 = 20 HIT! (1d8 + 6 + 5 + 2d8 + 8d8) = 1 + 6 + 5 + 14 + 39 = 65 dmg
The Stone Golem (with 178 HP) has been felled
(This is an excuse for making a silly combat scenario where our character always wins and I get to use a broken mythical magic weapon from the OG D&D days)
Random Tables rolls: (6d20):
Strange Curses of Transformation: 44 – Your Race changes to a Minotaur
Side Quest Hooks: 60 – A local temple has reported strange events in the surrounding area: beasts attacking villagers, bandit lords more closer to the village, and mysterious lights and sounds that can only be observed from within the village.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: This is not a die that I would normally buy. It’s based on a “whippy Frenchman” on the internet named “Jacques Ze Whipper” (a pun based on Jack The Ripper) who is good with a whip. Emberglow dice wanted to collaborate with him to make this design available in 3 sizes. I bought this d20 as a gift for one of the people I play D&D with regularly when I gave out chonk d20s to my group a few weeks ago (see review 087: “Everybody In The Place“). This die wasn’t available to ship yet so it didn’t arrive in time for me to give it to my friend and I had to find another chonk d20 that fit their character / personality better. I think I did ultimately do better with the “fuck you” / “fuck me” d20 which they liked very much.
This die is made in a way that I don’t normally appreciate, which is making a smaller die with wallpaper on it and putting it into a mold with clear resin to coat it. I prefer dice to be hand-made if possible so putting something printed on a piece of plastic and then making a resin die around it is less interesting to me than playing with different resins, holofoils, inclusions, liquid centers, hand painting, etc… This die is a good version of the former which looks like it could be hand painted. The box that it came in is fairly fancy, dark blue with dim gold filigree and coiled whip designs on it. It does step up the level of fanciness a bit.
I don’t like the lightness of the die and that some of the gold designs on on the die shine brighter than others in the light. Also, the mustache under the 20 is odd and as I’m not a fan of this whippy Frenchman (or his mustache). The die rolls very abruptly and bounces up and down and also skids a little bit more than other chonk d20s that I own. I like the contrast of the red font on the blue/gold background. I can appreciate that this is a well made version of a design that I’m lukewarm on so I can give it a 9/10 rating even though I wouldn’t buy it for myself on purpose.
Now the debate… save it and give it to someone in my party or just offer it to the first person to compliment it? Last session, I had a d20 that was a bonus gift with another order and I just kept it in it’s box so that no one could see it, and as we played, I moved it in front of people as they rolled natural 20s. The person who rolled the last natural 20 got to keep it. It was a fun thing to do, especially since they didn’t know what they were getting and you never knew when the last natural 20 would be rolled. Maybe I’ll gauge my group’s interest and hand this one out in a similar manner in the future.
Addendum: I ended up giving this d20 as a gift to the last person who rolled a 1 during my most recent game session. (It ended up being the GM). Everyone else at the table seemed to know who this JZW person was and recognized it from the designs on the box.
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