Look your dice in the eyes and say “That’s it! Off to dice jail!”
Name: Dragon Eye Dice Set & Tray
Description: This is a set of seven sharp edge transluscent resin dice with “dragon” eyeball inclusions in the middle that are weighted slightly so that they always look up. The dice are the standard shapes except for the d4 which is a “shard” shape. The dragon eyeballs are black on the back half and have a greenish white Sclera/Iris (the two parts of the eye aren’t really separated) and the pupils are black vertical slits. The resin is a lovely shade of medium ocean blue and the numbers are inked in gold which really works well with the blue resin. Finally someone knew when the right time to use gold ink for numbers was. The font is very similar to Relay but the 5 digit is much closer to Paralucent Medium (if there were a medium weight version of Paralucent). The 6 and 9 faces use underbars (thankyouverymuch) to indicate their orientation. The dice came in a flat cardboard box in very tight foam cutouts with a mostly-clear plastic lid/cover so that you could see the dice.
Size:
d20: (Face->Face) 21.23 mm (Point->Point) 26.41 mm
Where did they come from: GameStop
How much did they cost: $32
Material / color: Blue tinted resin with liquid centers containing (fake) dragon eyeballs. Gold ink for the numbers
Quality: Very good
Readability: Excellent!
Value: Surprisingly good, especially for Gamestop
Overall Rating: 9/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20: 68 rolls!Fifty One Hundred d20 rolls: 15, 10, 19, 1, 10, 10, 8, 11, 9,19,14,19,4, 14, 1, 6, 18, 13, 12, 10, 9, 20, 14, 1, 19, 20, 13, 17, 2, 15, 13, 18, 5, 14, 7, 13, 5, 11, 16, 16, 10, 5, 14, 6, 16, 8, 11, 6, 19, 10, 13, 11, 12, 20, 13, 1, 10, 8, 3, 1, 12, 19, 9, 16, 13, 1, 13, 15, 9, 16, 5, 16, 10, 12, 5, 12, 12, 12, 9, 3, 2, 16, 2, 19, 6, 1, 3, 17, 9, 20, 1, 10, 9, 16, 3, 2, 11, 14, 4, 13
Mean: 10.65
Median: 11
Mode: 10, 13
Chi-square: 23.60 **
Result: Balanced
4d6 drop 1 stat block: 14, 10, 9, 10, 8, 12 (63 total) A Cunning Half-Elf Fighter from a poor dairy farm who hates music
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
A 20th level fighter that used 6 of their 7 ASIs to get their CON from 9 -> 20 and the other ASI for the Tough feat rolling hit points for each level up from 2nd to 20th level:
Level 1 Automatic 10 – 1. Current HP Max: 9 (CON = 9 [-1 modifier])
Level 2 Rolled: 10 – 1. Current HP Max: 18 (CON = 9 [-1 modifier])
Level 3 Rolled: 6 – 1. Current HP Max: 23 (CON = 9 [-1 modifier])
Level 4 Rolled: 6 – 1 + 8. Current HP Max: 35 Feat: Tough (CON = 9 [ -1 modifier])
Level 5 Rolled: 3 – 1 + 2. Current HP Max: 39 (CON = 9 [ -1 modifier])
Level 6 Rolled: 7 + 2 + 5. Current HP Max: 54 ASI (CON = 11 [ +0 modifier])
Level 7 Rolled: 9 + 2. Current HP Max: 65 (CON = 11 [ +0 modifier])
Level 8 Rolled: 10 + 1 + 2 + 7. Current HP Max: 85 ASI (CON = 13 [+1 modifier])
Level 9 Rolled: 10 + 1 + 2. Current HP Max: 98 (CON = 13 [+1 modifier])
Level 10 Rolled: 4 + 1 + 2 . Current HP Max: 105 (CON = 13 [+1 modifier])
Level 11 Rolled: 6 + 1 + 2. Current HP Max: 114 (CON = 13 [+1 modifier])
Level 12 Rolled: 9 + 2 + 2 + 11. Current HP Max: 138 ASI (CON = 15 [+2 modifier])
Level 13 Rolled: 10* + 2 + 2. Current HP Max: 152 (CON = 15 [+2 modifier])
Level 14 Rolled: 3 + 3 + 2 + 13. Current HP Max: 173 ASI (CON = 17 [+3 modifier])
Level 15 Rolled: 3 + 3 + 2. Current HP Max: 181 (CON = 17 [+3 modifier])
Level 16 Rolled: 7* + 4 + 2 + 15. Current HP Max: 209 ASI (CON = 19 [+4 modifier])
Level 17 Rolled: 5 + 4 + 2. Current HP Max: 220 (CON = 19 [+4 modifier])
Level 18 Rolled: 8 + 4 + 2. Current HP Max: 234 (CON = 19 [+4 modifier])
Level 19 Rolled: 2 + 5 + 2 + 18. Current HP Max: 261 Feat: Tavern Brawler (CON = 20 [+5 modifier])
Level 20 Rolled: 6 + 5 + 2. Current HP Max: 274 (CON = 20 [+5 modifier])
* = I re-rolled a 1 as most DMs do for hit points.
It’s nice how fast the hit points accumulate with Fighters and Barbarians in this way. I did roll a little bit higher than average (6.53 avg. over 19 rolls). Thank you DM for letting me re-roll those 2 ones. Without those, the average roll would have been 5.74
Random Tables rolls:
Campaign Start Scenarios: – 11 A strange plague has run rampant through the town, turning nearly everyone to stone. Your party were unaffected and meet in the silent inn, filled with statues.
The Bulbous Bag of Birbs: – 25 Chicken: 1d4 chickens that are indifferent to friendly to party.
(I’m getting these random tables at: https://d100tables.com by the way
Final Thoughts: I was at a local mall and wandered into a GameStop store to look for xmas gifts for one of my kids. While looking around I noticed that they had TTRPG dice. They had 5 or 6 different designs / colors and they weren’t very expensive either. I thought I’d be fine with this set of dice and went up to the register to buy them and a couple of video games. At the register the kid working there said that they dice were BOGO and asked if I wanted to pick another set of dice. Of course I did and brought them up to the register. I then found out that the BOGO was only for GameStop members, and I’d have to buy an annual GameStop membership for like $30. That would take $2 off of the price of the 2nd set of dice effectively and leave me with a useless membership to a place I almost never shop. What a scam / moneymaking tool a membership to that place is. They’re not Costco, they don’t have the lowest prices around or anything. The kid even tried to push me on the values of the membership. I kept declining until he gave up and just sold me the dice. Not without their POS system timing out on the register when I tried to pay. He had to then ring me up on a different register while a long line of people formed behind me waiting to pay. No need to go back there for anything.
The dice though, they’re very nice. I love the color of blue that they used for the resin and I like the eyeballs that point up all the time. It’s neat to have a die where it keeps wiggling for a second after it comes to a stop. Similar to the liquid center dice with mica powder in the middle that swirls around for a second or two. They’re very well finished and the gold ink actually works well with the blue resin. The d4 shard shape is probably my 3rd or 4th choice for a d4. I wish they would have balanced that out by including a rhombic d12 (the best shape of any dice so far). I’d absolutely buy another set of these dice (I have 2 eyeball sets already I think?) if I could find another fun color. I just wouldn’t bother with GameStop.
So the takeaway / TLDR: These dice are good mmm’kay? The place I bought them is bad though. Dice: good, store bad. Got it?
** 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
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