One for free and the other maybe not for me. I like them both
Name:
Description: Today’s review is two d20s that I acquired from two different places.
First, a sharp-edge resin d20 from the most recent Honest Dice Kickstarter It’s a vibrant medium red color with green/silver/gold holofoil inside. The numbers are carved into the faces and inked in white and the 20 face has a white hexagon. The font is similar to Futura but with a a couple of subtle differences. The 6 and 9 faces use underbars to indicate their orientation.
The second d20 is also a sharp-edge resin die. It’s a mixture of teal and clear resin with green/silver/gold holofoil inside. The numbers are carved and inked silver. The font is mostly Arial and the 6 and 9 faces also use underbars to indicate their orientation.
Size:
Red d20: (Face->Face) 23.13 mm (Point->Point) 29.02 mm
Teal d20: (Face->Face) 22.92 mm (Point->Point) 28.46 mm
Where did they come from:
Red d20: Kickstarter campaign (Honest Dice)
Teal d20: Guardian Games, Corvallis, OR
How much did they cost:
Red d20: $0 Thrown in as a “thank you gift”
Teal d20: $10
Material / colors:
Red d20: Resin and holofoil, red with white numbers
Teal d20: Resin and holofoil, clear and teal with silver numbers
Quality:
Red d20: Excellent
Teal d20: Very good
Readability:
Red d20: Excellent
Teal d20: Pool
Value:
Red d20: Excellent
Teal d20: Good
Overall Rating:
Red d20: 9/10
Teal d20: 8/10
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20
Red d20: 78
One Hundred d20 rolls (Red d20): 6, 9, 20, 7, 9, 19, 5, 5, 8, 14, 18, 20, 6, 20, 9, 4, 12, 11, 10, 7, 13, 16, 7, 5, 11, 11, 2, 1, 13, 16, 6, 6, 15, 14, 6, 20, 17, 8, 19, 16, 5, 9, 16, 9, 19, 19, 10, 6, 8, 19, 2, 6, 2, 18, 16, 1, 1, 13, 17, 17, 16, 5, 6, 12, 16, 6, 18, 8, 10, 7, 10, 11, 3, 16, 6, 12, 12, 17, 2, 10, 3, 5, 5, 3, 8, 2, 18, 4, 18, 9, 20, 20, 9, 5, 16, 16, 9, 12, 6, 10
Mean: 10.55
Median: 10
Mode: 6
Chi-square: 26.000 **
Result: Balanced
Attempts needed to roll a natural 20
Teal d20: 63
One Hundred d20 rolls (Teal d20): 15, 9, 8, 16, 10, 14, 2, 13, 2, 1, 8, 4, 14, 13, 1, 5, 15, 1, 4, 4, 19, 14, 14, 14, 7, 15, 3, 14, 14, 14, 16, 12, 16, 8, 17, 4, 13, 13, 3, 1, 20, 11, 3, 18, 3, 14, 15, 11, 7, 20, 1, 13, 15, 20, 5, 13, 4, 12, 11, 14, 4, 18, 15, 4, 2, 10, 11, 6, 4, 3, 19, 13, 9, 12, 20, 17, 20, 7, 15, 2, 5, 7, 7, 3, 6, 16, 13, 1, 9, 1, 14, 9, 14, 8, 19, 8, 3, 6, 18, 10
Mean: 10.08
Median: 11
Mode: 14
Chi-square: 23.200 **
Result: Balanced
6d20 drop 1s & 2s stat blocks:
Red d20: 16, 8, 3, 13, 12, 14 (66 total) A Weary Aasimar Paladin from a remote fishing village who gave up and walked away from his adventuring party.
Teal d20: 18, 19, 18, 14, 19, 10 (98 total) A forgetful Loxodon Cleric from a recently unmade realm who just wants to be reunited with his found family
For reference: the Standard Array method totals to: 72 and the Point Buy method totals to: 69.
A 13th level Aasimar Paladin (Oath of Devotion) named Evanderton Reeman meets a 13th level Reborn Cleric (Grave domain) named Grumbar Cornelius and they swap stories about the other folks that they have adventured with who are:
A Harengon Samurai named Yoshi who despite his small stature is an absolute no-holds-barred killing machine in a battle. Precision, speed, and carnage all rolled up in one cute fuzzy bunny.
A half-Elf/half-Tiefling Rogue named Ren who is so stealthy that she can sneak into your mind if you’re not careful. She disappears at the start of a fight and bodies start dropping. She’ll steal your wallet but only to fawn over pictures of your kids and before putting it back.
An Owlin Druid named Prisma who looks like a Patoo bird (Google it) with giant yellow eyes. She’s awkward as anything and befriends every animal she meets. She will eventually have a zoo full of familiars following her around.
A Tortle Wizard named Genzo who is currently polymorphed into a Kenku. He is very secretive and craves power. Everyone wonders what will happen when he gets that power, which he absolutely will… once he figures out how to turn himself back into a Tortle.
Evanderton and Grumbar share stories over a cup of tea before going off in opposite directions. One trying to get away from the life of an adventurer to retire and serve his diety, the other looking for his found family to help them save all of existence from the forces of evil.
I’m just going with a story today instead of a contrived barely-within-the-rules scenario that required dice rolls.
Random Table Rolls (1d20):
Red d20: Strange and Unique Customs: 9 – … at the age of 14, everyone gets a tattoo of a starburst on their neck to ward away evil
Teal d20: Strange and Unique Punishments: 18 – …Cursed with a magic mouth spell on their forehead for one month. if anyone comes within 10 feet of them the mouth screams, “I’m a degenerate and cannot be trusted!”
(I’m in-between random table generators at the moment so I’m scrounging for tables wherever I can, mostly in books)
Final Thoughts:
Red d20: After backing the 3rd? 4th? Honest Dice Kickstarter campaign in a row, they included an extra standard size d20 in the order of the early repeat backers. I didn’t have a choice on the color or size. I didn’t really mind though since almost all of their dice look really good to me. Dark resin with bright holofoil and large, easy to read numbers are one of my go-to styles of dice. There’s not much to say about this die that I haven’t said already in the small handful of reviews of their dice. I love the font, the color, the size, and the feel of these dice. This one is no exception. The green/gold holofoil shining just below the surface of the die really pops. I just got notified that Honest Dice is starting another Kickstarter for more sharp-edge resin dice like these this week. I’m guessing that I’ll be buying more of their dice soon. The only thing that I’d like them to change about these dice would be to offer a few more choices for font colors. They currently only do white and black. I’d love it if they did a few colors (not gold and silver please).
Teal d20: I was at brunch with the family a few hours south of here and down at the end of the block was Guardian Games which is easily one of my top 3 favorite game stores. I wandered in after breakfast to look at their dice and ended up buying a set of dice that I’ll review next week and this single d20 from the bulk bin. I really liked the teal color of this d20 and the somewhat matching holofoil inclusions inside. It’s sharp, slightly larger than standard size, and the color is gorgeous. The only downside is that the silver ink makes it very hard to read if one of the clear resin faces is on top. The silver just blends in with the holofoil unfortunately. It’s still a very pretty d20 and we’ll see if I keep it or give it away.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention the other thing that I received from Honest Dice with my last order, it was a rainbow d20 pin. (see above). It’s metal and kind of large. It’s a shame that I have no use for it though. I just don’t ever wear pins or have a pin-board to stick it to. I know that some people love that stuff but it’s not my thing. I’ll see if anyone wants it at my next in-person D&D session. Maybe some of them are pin-people.
** 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
Leave a Reply