012: Blue Sky Mine

Two sets of beautiful sharp edge resin dice. They’re different yet still the same…

Names: Sunrise Sonata Handmade sharp edge 7 piece dice set and Air Ashari dice set

Description: These are two sets of sharp edge resin dice made by Everything Dice. The sets are very similar, nearly identical in every way except for the color of the resin and the internal cloud inclusions, which are slightly different in each of the dice as you’d expect. One set is called “Sunrise Sonata” and is sold through Everything Dice. The other set is called: “Air Ashari“. This set is named after the multi-racial tribe trusted to guard the portal to the Elemental plane of air in Zephrah who watch over the Frostweald¹

Individual set descriptions:
Sunrise Sonata: A sharp edge set of resin dice in a medium-dark tinted purple-to-red-to-blue gradient with fluffy white clouds inside. The dice use what’s seeming more and more like the “standard resin dice font” which I’ll call: Oracle Sans adjacent. The numbers are neither large nor small and they’re inked in bright white. The edges and vertices are all very sharp, the d10s have sharp edged waists and the 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate orientation.

Air Ashari: A sharp edge set of resin dice in a light tinted pink-to-blue gradient with fluffy white clouds inside. This set also uses the Oracle Sans adjacent font. The numbers are neither large nor small and they’re inked in bright white. The edges and vertices are all very sharp, the d10s have sharp edged waists and the 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate orientation.

Size (d20): 21mm 

Where did they come from: Everything Dice (Sunrise Sonata) and The Critical Role online store (Air Ashari)

How much did they cost: 
Sunrise Sonata: $69 (Marked down from $98)
Air Ashari: $99

Material / color:
Sunrise Sonata: Sharp edge resin in a red/blue/purple gradient with white clouds inside.
Air Ashari: Sharp edge resin in a pink/clear/blue gradient with white cloud inside.

Quality:  Extremely good. zero nicks, scuffs, or polishing marks on the dice. The edges are sharp, the ink is tidy, and they are very clean overall. Everything Dice’s sets are often some of the highest quality dice you can find.

Readability: Very good readability on both sets. The white ink stands out wonderfully. The only way they could be more readable would be with larger numbers on each face. Thankfully the sets are both what’s called “all numbers” indicating that the 20 face on the d20 has a “20” on it and not some silly emoji/icon/logo that’s going to annoy me when I role a critical success.

Value: Here’s where the dice start to falter slightly. These dice were “heckin’ expensive”². They both retail for > $100 including tax. That’s a LOT to spend on a set of dice. Even though they’re beautiful and very high quality, that’s still too much to spend on a set of 7 ttRPG dice. I got the Sunrise Sonata set on sale for $69 (go ahead, say it…) which feels like a reasonable price point for these dice. The Sunrise Sonata set came in a beautiful art-covered box from Everything dice. The Air Ashari set came in an equally beautiful but slightly larger Critical Role themed box and included a themed microfiber polishing cloth. The packaging no doubt added to the cost but the boxes are so nice that I’m definitely keeping them even if I store the dice in my big dice case.

Overall Rating: 10/10 I can’t find any flaws in these dice. They’re delicate with hand-made inclusions, very readable, beautifully colored with their gradients and their no-nonsense font. I love the colors that Everything Dice / Critical Role chose and I’d consider buying more of them in other colorways if they were available. They came with collector’s boxes and are fantastically sharp edged. Finally some dice made it to the S-tier

Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 
Sunrise Sonata: 9 rolls
Air Ashari: 23 rolls

Ten d20 rolls: 
Sunrise Sonata: 14, 10, 4, 15, 4, 4, 2, 16, 6, 19 (9.4 avg)
Air Ashari: 3, 12, 5, 13, 14, 2, 10, 2, 20, 9 (9.0 avg)

4d6 drop 1 stat block:
Sunrise Sonata: 13, 9, 13, 7, 12, 16 (70 pts)
Air Ashari: 13, 8, 10, 15, 16, 11 (73 pts)

Very average stat block totals.
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and Point Buy totals to: 69.

Random Tables rolls:
Sunrise Sonata
Items in a bandits lair: 00 – A Bandit!
Dwarven Features/quirks: 41 – Carries a flask of infinite ale around with them, however, they never seem to be drunk. (It’s water)

Air Ashari:
Library Books: 5 – Bordrick’s Fantastic Adventure – Dwarven choose your own adventure book
Non/Low Magical Plot Twists: 43 – One of the main bad guys in the story turns out to be one of the PCs romantic interest (boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, etc…)

Final Thoughts: These are two really nice sets of dice. They’re quite spendy as well. Why in the world do I have the disposable income to keep buying all of these dice? I try not to think about what other hobbies I could have funded with what I spend on dice. It’s not astronomical but it’s much more than I should…. Where were we? Oh yeah, these two sets are very similar but just different enough and they’re each gorgeous in their own way. I love the blue and pink vibe of the Air Ashari set (they always remind me of Orym from Critical Role) and I like the dark wine color of the Sunrise Sonata set – though I don’t get a sunrise vibe from this set at all. I think a set with “Sunrise” in the name should have more bright red and orange color to them. Both sets invoke the sky in their names so the white brains clouds in the middle of the dice work out nicely with the overall aesthetic. They’re sharp, they’re clean, they’re very readable, the colors are lively and deep, and they come in a nice little box. If they were $50 a set I’d be emailing Everything Dice to come out with 20 different colorways. As it is I might wait until the next colorway they release goes on sale. My collection of sharp-edge resin dice is up to 22 sets… that’s 155 dice! (one set came with an extra d4) I wish I could bring that many sets to my weekly game… and also that I had the opportunity to make a few dozen rolls per session instead of maybe 5 (15 rolls if there’s combat).

When I started collecting dice I went through what I’d guess is a common progression:

– cheap plastic dice like those that come with the D&D starter set
– Cheap plastic dice but in bulk (18 sets for $21, mostly lead-free!)
– Fancier plastic dice (ie: Chessex). I think this is where most people stop
– Simple sets of metal dice
– Slightly nicer sets of metal dice
– Simple metal chonk d20s
– Sharp edge resin dice
– Dice Goblin’s first gemstone set
– Even fancier sets of metal dice
– Critical Role themed dice sets
– Gimicky sets (odd numbers of faces, strange shapes)
– More / nicer sharp-edge resin dice sets
– Special material d20s (Ceramic, wood, bone, stone, glass)
– Sharp-edge resin dice with fancy inclusions (butterflies, clouds)
– Liquid-center d20s and full sets
– Hollow sets of metal dice
– Solid Aluminum d20s / d60s / d120s
– Dice made of elemental metals (bronze, copper)
– Super-fancy hand-made boutique dice sets

I’m at that last stage currently and I’m wondering what is next after this (super-expensive metal sets – Tungsten?) Custom metal dice that I cast myself? Dice made from Plastinated human bones and tissue? Remember that problematic, kinda creepy “Actual Human Bodies on display” museum exhibit that was popular for a minute there before the pandemic? Actually maybe I’ll just pass on those and focus on Tungsten dice for now.

1. This is all from Critical Role lore surrounding the Tal Dorei campaign setting where all of Critical Role’s campaigns and several of their one-shot episodes take place. ↩︎
2. Quite fucking expensive ↩︎