Puzzled by all of the dice choices at your local game store? Yes Please!
Name: Puzzle Cube Copper Metal RPG Dice
Description: This is an oversized set of 8(!) sharp edge metal dice. (there’s an extra d6). They are probably made of Zinc and the faces are enameled and divided with lines making them look very much like Rubik’s cube type puzzles. Each face is a different vibrant color. The numbers are all painted black. The font is a bold “plain” font very similar to OCR-B Letterpress but with straighter bodies for the 7 and 2 digits. It’s also similar to Avenir Next Bold if they stretched it slightly vertically. The 6 and 9 faces use small dots that are the same color as the face dividers (copper) to indicate their orientation. The d10 and d% have sharply edged waists. The dice came in a metal tin with foam to keep them seperated.
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 22.4 mm (Point->Point) 27.8 mm
Where did they come from: Guardian Games in Oregon
How much did they cost: $55
Material / color: Metal (Zinc) ROYGBIV (all the colors)
Quality: Good, well made, nicely enameled.
Readability: Excellent for the lightly-colored faces and difficult with the dark faces (black numbers)
Value: Good value for the style and quality
Overall Rating: 9/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: One roll!
Fifty d20 rolls: 20, 1, 19, 14, 1, 5, 7, 8, 11, 15, 4, 20, 6, 1, 15, 2, 7, 3, 10, 2, 17, 16, 5, 3, 13, 6, 1, 14, 19, 1, 14, 1, 14, 19, 12, 7, 3, 3, 19, 2, 11, 20, 3, 1, 19, 20, 3, 8, 12, 1
Mean: 9.16
Median: 7.5
Mode: 1
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 14 (71 total) A Prejudiced Half-Orc Bard from a haberdashery who likes to settle arguments with an arm wrestle
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
20th level Bard making performance rolls The Bard is singing / playing music / etc… to distract a tavern full of patrons while the rest of the party sneaks from backroom to backroom looking for someone. The bard has expertise in performance and gives themself a d12 Bardic inspiration each performance check until they run out (5 times total). Shall we say it’s a DC of 30 to distract the entire crowd?
(roll + ability mod + inspiration)
Check #1: 19 + 17 + 2 = 38 success!
Check #2: 19 + 17 + 6 = 42 success!
Check #3: 13 + 17 + 6 = 36 success!
Check #4: 6 + 17 + 6 = 29 FAIL!
Check #5: 3 + 17 + 3 = 23 FAIL!
Check #6: 12 + 17 = 29 FAIL! (no more Bardic inspiration)
(This is another excuse for rolling dice)
Random Tables rolls:
“I Search The Body” Complications: 59 – The body’s been enchanted to repeat a speech promising a reward to the person who finds the one who killed them.
Tavern Events: 64 – The inn is flooded with people. Survivers of a battle not far off. Some seem to only have superficial wounds while others are not as lucky. Over the sounds of heavy breathing and moaning the party hears a voice ring out “CLERIC!! We need a cleric!”
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I made a trip to Oregon recently and found time to stop by Guardian Games, one of my favorite game stores. I did my homework ahead of time and found a few sets of dice on their website that I wanted to check out upon arriving. I figured that if I liked them I’d buy them… and buy them I did.
This dice set got me interested with it’s very strong puzzle vibe. I’ve been solving Rubik’s cubes since I was 12 years old (I even have 2 of them sitting on my desk here with me right now ). This set made the dice look unmistakably like those puzzles. The set came with 2 d6s that look like Rubik’s Cubes. One of them solved and one in the standard “checkerboard” pattern that every child learns how to do when they first start playing with a Rubik’s Cube.. The d4 looks like a Pyraminx, the Rubik’s Cube’s easier-to-solve little brother. The d12 looks just like a Megaminx (harder to solve than the standard Rubik’s Cube). The colors that were used for the faces aren’t true to the colors of the original versions of the puzzle toys but the aesthetic is great no less. The little copper colored lines that cross all of the faces align perfectly and make them look like they could be tiny versions of the actual puzzles.
The numbers are all enameled black and that works well for the light and medium colored faces but doesn’t work very well for the darker faces, and the numbers are very hard to see on the dark green and dark indigo faces specifically. I think white numbers would have been slightly more readable overall but they wouldn’t have looked as good with the puzzle theme that they were going for. I just love the variety and shades of different colors in this set. Oh well. I have sets of dice that are much harder to read than these.
This is my first set of dice from Foam Brain Games but after looking at their website, I think I need to add them to my list of companies that I buy more dice from. I’d seen this set in Instagram ads (I think?) and had them on the internal “maybe” list in my head. I’m glad that I got to see them in person. They’re nice and big and heavy.
The only complaint I have (other than being hard to read on 2 faces) is that the d20 is very jumpy when I roll it on a pad of paper sitting on my desk, and that they rolled comparatively low. Of course rolling a 1 can always be entertaining in-game so I’m not worried.
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