077: Changes

A once great set of color-changing dice now just seems pedestrian as times change

Name: Hextec color changing metal dice

Description: This is a standard-size set of sharp edge metal dice. They are very basic in their design. Standard zinc dice with red enamel covering the faces and gold borders / edges between all sides. The enamel color will change from red to yellow with heat, or at least it used to. Over time this effect has lessened greatly and now there’s barely a difference between the color when they’re hot or cold. The font is another “old fashion” style font very similar to Excelsior with little ball ends on the 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9s. The 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate their orientation and the d10 and d% have nicely beveled waists. These dice are probably available in several different colors but it’s been so long since I bought them, I don’t know for sure.

Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 19.1 mm (Point->Point) 23.5 mm

Where did they come from: Amazon.

How much did they cost: $22

Material / color: Zinc, gold with red enamel that changes to yellow with heat

Quality: Pretty good actually. They’re holding up

Readability: Not great. The gold doesn’t do well from farther than my desk.

Value: Decent value for 2021. They were much more interesting back then.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 2 rolls

Fifty d20 rolls: 17, 11, 20, 18, 3, 3, 17, 2, 15, 1, 6, 1, 12, 7, 8, 11, 14, 18, 15, 8, 3, 8, 11, 8, 9, 17, 10, 18, 13, 1, 11, 14, 14, 5, 8, 18, 16, 7, 10, 4, 12, 16, 16, 8, 20, 13, 4, 15, 17, 5

Mean: 10.76
Median: 11
Mode: 8

4d6 drop 1 stat block: 10, 10, 16, 11, 9, 13 (69 total) A Cynical Elf Cleric from the slums of a port city who acts shallow but only to hide their insecurities

For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.

A 17th level Life domain Cleric casting Mass Heal:

A flood of healing energy flows from you into injured creatures around you. You restore up to 700 hit points, divided as you choose among any number of creatures that you can see within range. Creatures healed by this spell are also cured of all diseases and any effect making them blinded or deafened. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.

Everyone is pretty much healed to full hit points plus the caster regains 2 + spell’s level (2 + 9 = 11) HP for their Blessed Healer domain ability.

(This was NOT an excuse for rolling dice)

Random Tables rolls:

Campaign Start Scenarios: 96 – A mermaid gave each of them a magic sword and told them they were the chosen one to kill an evil lord. When the players all reach the Lord’s castle carrying similar swords they figure out that the Lord isn’t that evil and the mermaid just wants someone to kill her ex.

Fae Bargains: 99 – The character emits a melodious ringing noise every time they yawn, sneeze or burp.

(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way

Final Thoughts:

I bought these dice very early on in my Goblinhood. They were really nice dice (at the time) when dice weren’t that fancy for the most part yet. (boy do I have some bangers for the next review…) These dice are metal with fancy gold borders and have (had) enamel faces that changed color from red to a very yellowy orange color when they warmed up. The effect wasn’t subtle at all. They started of a deepish red and would turn very noticeable yellow/orange color when you’d run them under hot water or even leave them on a table where sun was coming in through the window onto them. They have some heft to them and roll with a nice thud (or thonk in my wooden dice tray).

They are showing their age now though. They are getting scratched up around the borders and they no longer change colors. They are a permanent orange/red color. These dice live in one of the very low-tier dice bins. Probably 10th or 11th out of the 11 bins. I never reach for them or use them for anything. I don’t know why I keep them other than I can’t throw dice away. If someone wanted a banged up started set of dice and these caught their eye, I’d absolutely give them away. It’s tough sometimes to have so many dice that I don’t use (Cry you a river, right?)

I think writing this review blog actually really helps me work through my collection to use old often forgotten dice sets that I collected years ago.. The bottom line is that these were once great dice and now they’re barely worth a look and I don’t ever consider bringing them out to play. Shame on me.