And I still find it so hard to roll what I need to roll…
Name: Purple on Blue Sunrise set (no idea what the real name is and I’ve never seen them anywhere online)
Description: A set of 7 metal dice painted light blue and dark purple with light blue numbers and borders/edges. As is the case with most inexpensive metal ttRPG dice they are probably made of Zinc as that’s the cheapest non-toxic material to make dice with.
The dice have a thick coat of baby blue paint covering them and then have purple sun ray patterns on each of the faces making up the background. The numbers are painted light blue on top of the dark backgrounds instead of just using negative space for the numbers or carved/painted numbers. The “sun rays” originate in one of the corners and spread out across each face. The font is in the Times New Roman ballpark with serifs on the 1, 2, and 4 and little balls at the terminals of the 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9. The 6 and 9 faces use a tiny dot underneath the digit to indicate orientation. I haven’t seen this on any other dice. The edges and vertices are quite sharp on all dice except the d12 and d20. The d10s use beveled waists that look great with the color contrast of the baby blue and purple.
The dice are the perfect size for me (23mm d20 face to face) and are quite heavy for a standard-ish size set of dice. They’re so good I bought 3 sets of them. I’d buy more if they showed up in my local game store again.
Size (d20): 23 mm (face->face) (28 tip->tip)
Where did they come from: Lost Star Tabletop Gaming Outfitter
How much did they cost: $45 (??) not sure of the exact price but somewhere around that price
Material / color: Metal (Zinc) covered with thick purple and blue paint
Quality: Very good (even though they’re starting to show their age with chips and scratches)
Readability: Very good! They pass the “roll it on the carpet and read it from 8 feet away” test.
Value: Good. I haven’t been able to find these online… ever. They only showed up in the dice case of my local game store and I snatched up 3 of the 6-7 sets that they had in stock. I need to ask them to stock more of them again some time. They’re worth every penny.
Overall Rating: 10/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 16 rolls
Ten d20 rolls: 1, 19, 14, 19, 18, 13, 11, 8, 14, 15 (12.2 avg)
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 13, 11, 13, 17, 10, 11 (75 total) A Prejudiced Dragonborn Cleric from a moving island who has a bad habit of making ‘funny’ quips after every kill
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and Point Buy totals to: 69.
Random Tables rolls:
Campaign Start Scenarios: 20 – The party all arrive at a dungeon at the same time, to answer the same advertisement asking for help retrieving an artifact. When they start to argue about whether or not they should work together and split the reward, they get ambushed by a small group of goblins
Wilderness Encounters for Level 1 DnD 5e Characters: 10 – The characters come across a small cabin in the woods, abandoned and overgrown with vines. Inside lies a single chest filled with coins and jewelry that have been left untouched for many years.
Final Thoughts: These were those dice that I immediately bought as soon as I saw them in the glass case at the local game store. I saw this blue/purple set and immediately grabbed them up. I picked up another set in purple/white the next time I was in the shop and then came back the next day for a purple/blue/white set. These dice aren’t premium metal dice by any measure but they’re ticking all of the boxes for me:
– Big dice
– Easy to read
– Sharp edges (they stop quickly)
– Heavy (satisfying to roll in a wooden rolling tray)
– Thick coat of paint so they feel good to hold
– Great color scheme with such a simple design
I can’t find anything negative about these dice. They’re always a set that I look at and consider bringing to whatever table I’m playing at. Dice like these are why I’m such a dice goblin. I love high end boutique dice like the fancy ones in review #16 that cost a mint but I reach for these dice more often. The feel of these dice in your hand and the force that they hit the table or rolling tray with is so satisfying. I’ll never worry about damaging these dice, only what these will damage.
I never in a million years thought that I’d be someone who is this into ttRPG dice but these dice just feed that desire to own more dice. I don’t get to play / roll dice all that often and while I love the role-playing part of ttRPGs, I love love love rolling the dice. It’s totally impractical for me to own >100 sets of dice (plus who knows how many other miscellaneous single dice). Some dice sit unused for months and months. I just love buying dice and having them to choose from when I’m picking the dice I’m going to bring to a game. Thankfully I’m at a point now where it’s a lot more “I have one like that already and don’t need another” rather than the wonder of everything being interesting when I’m just starting to build out my collection.
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