May 14, 2021

I Don't Like Gamescience Dice

I know this will get me thrown out of the old-school he-man munchkin hater's club, but I really dislike using those "precision" Gamescience dice. Yes, yes, I've seen Lou Zocchi's videos on why his dice are the best things since sliced bread. I've also read countless posts from gamers who love them. And now the DCC RPG practically requires you use them as only Gamescience produces most of the weird dice types needed to play.

Well, I've tried to embrace them. I've bought three sets over the past couple of years and while researching how to buy the additional ones needed for the DCC RPG, I just recently dug them out again. Now I remember why I hardly ever use them. Here's the:

Top 5 reasons why GS dice suck

  1. They're expensive. They usually cost about 3 times as much as other rpg dice.
  2. If you go the cheaper route and buy the un-inked dice, they are a pain in the ass to ink yourself. I'm way too lazy for this and plus they never look as nice as the ones that are inked at the factory.
  3. Defects. Precision, my ass. All of the dice usually have burrs or nicks in them. The d6's are typically slightly concave. You might enjoy spending your evenings sanding down your dice. I've got better things to do.
  4. They feel... wrong. Their light weight and sharp, poky bits combine to give me a negative tactile experience.
  5. They're just ugly. Compared to pretty much any other dice on the market they are really bland looking.

I know people swear by them because of their supposed fairer distribution of randomness. Well, I've done my own tests on my dice and sometimes the GS dice come out better and sometimes they come out worse. In any case, the differences in fairness are so minor as to make very little impact upon actual play. The differences certainly aren't worth the extra expense and time the GS dice cost you.

3 comments:

  1. Goodman has had their own line of dice made for them since about 2014-ish... they aren't from Gamescience.

    I pretty much agree on your points about Gamescience dice -- for every "defect" the "other guys" have, Gamescience has their own intrinsic, alternate defect. But I guess I can't blame Lou Zocchi for wanting to make a living...

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    Replies
    1. Well, that's good news that there are other sources now. Although one of the things that keeps me from embracing DCC is the need for all the new funky dice.

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    2. Well, if I may -- all of the "funky" dice can be very easily simulated with the standard polyhedral set -- with the one slightly awkward exception of the d7/d14 situation, where the closest easiest thing is to roll a d8 and ignore 8's (and use a control die with that for the 1-14 range).

      The funky dice are fun, but by no means essential to own. Meanwhile, many gamers already own d3's, d30's, d24's, etc., even before they discover DCC...

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