The quality of blind bag dice has increased since I last gambled on them
Name: Fizban’s Fortune Bronze Dragon d20
Description: This is a single sharp-edge resin liquid-core d20. The die is made of clear resin with a liquid center with bronze colored mica powder inside. The font is something similar to Futura but with a a couple of subtle differences… The bottom of the ‘8’ is larger than the top and the flag on the top of the ‘1’ is minimal and sharp at the bottom. The numbers are carved out of the faces and inked in a bone white color. It’s very readable, especially if the bronze mica powder is swirling around inside to act as a dark background. The 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate their orientation as <Deities> intended. The die came in very neat simple cardboard case that looks like a small square treasure chest with D&D logos and branding. The 20 face has the D&D “&” symbol instead of the number 20.
Size: (Face->Face) 25.10 mm (Point->Point) 31.21 mm
Where did it come from: Modern Games in Bend, OR
How much did it cost: $20 (I think?)
Material / color: Clear resin with a liquid core and bronze mica powder inside. The numbers are inked in a Bone white color.
Quality: Very Good
Readability: Very Good
Value: Very Good
Overall Rating: 9/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural & (20): 4
One Hundred d20 rolls: 11, 4, 10, 18,2, 6, 19, 7, 16, 4, 17, 8, 13, 7, 6, 18, 2, 14, 2, 12, 1, 15, 14, 9, 8, 10, 4, 10, 6, 4, 9, 6, 20, 18, 18, 1, 14, 18, 12, 18, 8, 1, 7, 2, 15, 16, 8, 20, 9, 5, 1, 20, 18, 14, 9, 12, 9, 5, 16, 16, 1, 8, 15, 20, 7, 12, 5, 12, 12, 19, 19, 19, 15, 11, 17, 3, 8, 3, 13, 5, 6, 10, 9, 12, 5, 17, 1, 17, 1, 4, 14, 15, 12, 16, 7, 3, 7, 9, 14, 6
Mean: 10.31
Median: 10
Mode: 12
Chi-square: 10.400 **
Result: Balanced
6d20 drop 1s & 2s stat block: 16, 7, 18, 10, 19, 12 (82 total) An outspoken Half-Elf Barbarian from a broken home who came out of retirement for this adventure
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
A 20th level barbarian (Path of the Giant) with a 24 STR (level 20 Primal Champion), 6 proficiency bonus, trying to grapple a Kraken in a wrestling match.
The Barbarian is already raging (Persistent rage) and using his Demiurgic Colossus feature becomes size: Huge.
Round 1:
Grapple attempt #1: Barbarian STR check: 17 + 13 = 30
Kraken: STR check to resist: 8 + 17 = 25 The Kraken is grappled
Round 2:
Kraken: STR check to break the grapple: 7 + 17 = 24
Barbarian STR check: 15 + 13 = 28 The Kraken is still grappled
Round 3:
Kraken: STR check to break the grapple: 6 + 17 = 23
Barbarian STR check: 19 + 13 = 32 The Kraken is still grappled
Round 4:
Kraken: STR check to break the grapple: 9 + 17 = 26
Barbarian STR check: 11 + 13 = 24 The Kraken breaks free
Round 5:
Kraken: STR check to grapple the barbarian: 15 + 17 = 32
Barbarian STR check: 13 + 13 = 26 The barbarian is grappled
Round 6:
Barbarian: STR check to break the grapple: 7 + 13 = 20 Indomitable = 24
Kraken STR check: 8 + 17 = 25 The barbarian remains grappled
Round 7:
Barbarian: STR check to break the grapple: 18 + 13 = 31
Kraken STR check: 10 + 17 = 27 The barbarian breaks free
Round 8:
Barbarian: STR check to to grapple the Kraken: 15 + 13 = 28
Kraken STR check: 18 + 17 = 35 The grapple fails
Round 9:
Barbarian: STR check to to grapple the Kraken: 16 + 13 = 29
Kraken STR check: 11 + 17 = 28 The Kraken is grappled
Round 10:
Kraken: STR check to break the grapple: 6 + 17 = 23
Barbarian STR check: 18 + 13 = 31 The Kraken remains grappled
Rounds grappled:
Kraken: 5
Barbarian: 2
Random Table Rolls 7d20:
Dungeon Room contents: 66 – A Tiny silver dragon statue
NPC names: 76 – Eda Elwin, Baker, Female
(I’m in-between random table generators at the moment so I’m scrounging for tables wherever I can, mostly in books)
Final Thoughts: I was traveling through Oregon and I thought Bend must be big enough to have a game store, and I was right. Modern Games in Bend was a small game store but it was nice and had a modest selection of D&D books and accessories. They did have 3 or 4 different “blind” D&D dice displays. I bought this one for myself and bought 3 more to give out randomly to the rest of my D&D group the next time we played. I hope they enjoy the dice.
After looking at the examples of dice that could be in the Fizban’s Fortune blink treasure boxes I figured that no matter what I picked, I’d probably be pretty happy with the die. They were all d20s and there were glass, liquid center, and two types of metal dice. I like all of the examples on the display except the “Common” metal die with the dragon scales. Fortunately I got this liquid center die with bronze mica powder inside. It looks a little bit plain when It’s just sitting on the table but it really comes alive when it’s shaken and the glittery powder inside is doing it’s thing.
The only things that I would like to be different are:
1) The font color. One of the players at my table opened her blind Fizban’s Fortune box and got the same die but with a teal font. The color of the font looked so much better against the bronze than the bone white ink on my d20. I don’t dislike mine but Teal ink really pops.
2) The logo on the 20 face. No one should be surprised here. I’m almost universally against logos on the 20 face of the dice. It’s slightly less annoying that it’s the D&D “&” logo but why can’t companies just ink the high face in a different color so that I still get the rush of rolling a 20 instead of a “&” for a critical success. At least it’s not some random logo of a small dice maker who thinks that the world needs to know that they created the die that I’m rolling.
Otherwise I’m very happy with this d20 and will keep it in my rotation for a while. I have a few other liquid-center d20s but mostly in full sets of dice.
I applaud WoTC for releasing liquid center d20s. Usually the dice they put out into the world are plastic garbage. This one is much better than that. If you see the Fizban’s Fortune display at your local game store, take a chance on it. (You’re visiting your local game shop at least semi-regularly, right? RIGHT???!!!)
** I’ve added a new value to the reviews called “Chi-square” which is a calculation of the difference between of the number of times each value was rolled in the d20 roll test compared to the number of times each value would be rolled in a perfectly equal roll test. (perfectly equal means every value comes up the same number of times, or [total number of rolls / number of sides on the die]) Chi-square gives a sense of how far away from the statistical average the results of the d20 roll test were. It’s not a perfect measure of a die’s balance and fairness but it’s a good step in that direction. More information about die fairness / balance roll testing can be found here: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/70802/how-can-i-test-whether-a-die-is-fair
Leave a Reply