Weird Die Uncovered! Film at 11

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

While poking through the dice bin at the local game
store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
it).

Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
are mostly worn off.

It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.

Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
about it's origin and original use?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

On 2 May 2005 20:51:44 -0700, "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net>
wrote:

>
>While poking through the dice bin at the local game
>store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
>it).
>
>Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
>are mostly worn off.
>
>It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
>Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>about it's origin and original use?

I have a bunch of these. I prefer to use 20-sided 10-siders rather
than the newfangled 10-sided kind.

And back in the Elder Days, 20-siders marked 0-9 twice were the only
kind of 20-siders available. And you had to ink them yourself. I've
got a couple of these that I inked with black for 1-10 and red for
11-20.

You can still get 20-sided 10 siders; at
http://www.gamestation.net/products.asp?dept=1326 for example.



--
Erol K. Bayburt
ErolB1@aol.com

 

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"decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1115092304.506669.194880@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?

I've got like ten of em. I never actually use them, but they are in my dice
box. I assume it's just a way to carry one less die or something. People
would often crayon in one set of numbers in one color(for 1-10), and then
the other set in another color(11-20), and use it as a 20 sider.
Personally, I just found it easier to use a real 20 sider, but that's just
me.

--
Jeff Goslin - MCSD - www.goslin.info
It's not a god complex when you're always right

 

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"decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in news:1115092304.506669.194880
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

>
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?
>

I have one that's in pretty good condition, I inherited it from my dad when
I found his old 1E stuff. I just use it as a normal ten-sider, not sure if
that was the intent though.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Erol K. Bayburt wrote:
> On 2 May 2005 20:51:44 -0700, "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net>
> wrote:
> >It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
> >Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> >about it's origin and original use?

> And back in the Elder Days, 20-siders marked 0-9 twice were the only
> kind of 20-siders available. And you had to ink them yourself. I've
> got a couple of these that I inked with black for 1-10 and red for
> 11-20.

The other way (other than using two ink colors) was to roll another die
with the 20-sider (usually a d6). If you rolled 4-6 on the d6, it
meant your 20-sider roll was 11-20. I still do this when I'm a player,
being an old fogey, but use d20 when I dm.

 

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On 2 May 2005 20:51:44 -0700, "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> scribed
into the ether:

>
>While poking through the dice bin at the local game
>store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
>it).
>
>Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
>are mostly worn off.
>
>It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
>Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>about it's origin and original use?

I have one of those, it is extremely clear plastic, making it so that not
only is it useless as a d20, but because you can't really read the numbers
anyway, it isn't a very good d10 either.

 

[Brian]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

"decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?

I've got one like that as well. However on mine one of the 0-9 sets has a
little '+' beside each number, so it can be used as a d10 or a d20.

Brian

 

[JF]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85 wrote:
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?
>
Sounds like the old low impact d20, 0-9 twice. These used to be part of
the D&D boxes of the 70's and early 80's. It's chipped up because the
plastic is soft enough to scrap off with a finger nail.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Mark Blunden wrote:

> The tricky bit being if you pick up the wrong one. One of our
players, who's
> notorious for his low rolls in any case, borrowed what he thought was
a d20
> from another player's dice bag because he'd forgotten his dice, and
> proceeded to do especially badly for the rest of the game. The other
players
> only realised what was wrong when he rolled a 0. We still remind him
> occasionally that he's the only player we know who could roll a
natural 0 on
> an attack roll.
>
> --
> Mark.

Totally awesome.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Erol K. Bayburt wrote:
> On 2 May 2005 20:51:44 -0700, "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
>> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
>> it).
>>
>> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
>> are mostly worn off.
>>
>> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>>
>> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>> about it's origin and original use?
>
> I have a bunch of these. I prefer to use 20-sided 10-siders rather
> than the newfangled 10-sided kind.

The tricky bit being if you pick up the wrong one. One of our players, who's
notorious for his low rolls in any case, borrowed what he thought was a d20
from another player's dice bag because he'd forgotten his dice, and
proceeded to do especially badly for the rest of the game. The other players
only realised what was wrong when he rolled a 0. We still remind him
occasionally that he's the only player we know who could roll a natural 0 on
an attack roll.

--
Mark.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Erol K. Bayburt wrote:
> On 2 May 2005 20:51:44 -0700, "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>
>>While poking through the dice bin at the local game
>>store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
>>it).
>>
>>Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
>>are mostly worn off.
>>
>>It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>>
>>Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>>about it's origin and original use?
>
>
> I have a bunch of these. I prefer to use 20-sided 10-siders rather
> than the newfangled 10-sided kind.
>
> And back in the Elder Days, 20-siders marked 0-9 twice were the only
> kind of 20-siders available. And you had to ink them yourself.

Uphill! In the snow! And you'd wear an onion on your belt!

- Ron ^*^

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85 wrote:
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?

These are from the late 70's/early 80's. The D and D boxed game, red
dragon facing adventurers on the cover, soft format rulebook inside,
had a set of poorly cast hard plastic d4, d6, d8, d12, d20 inside. They
were prone to chipping. The d20 was, as you say, numbered 0 to 9 twice.
The set came with crayons to fill in the numbers, but generally we used
paint or sharpies. You could also get soft plastic versions (solid
colors) that were cast better and did not chip. Nobody made double
pyramid d10s yet.

I seem to remember d20 00 to 90 twice being available as well.
Somewhere I saw a 000 to 900, but I do not remember if it was d20 (done
twice) or d10.

I think the first good quality polyhedral dice that I saw were around
'82 or '83. They were a big deal at the time.

MadKaugh

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

"decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1115092304.506669.194880@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?
>

It's a 'd10' from way back before d10s were invented.

Geoff.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Matt Frisch wrote:
> On 2 May 2005 20:51:44 -0700, "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> scribed
> into the ether:
>
>>While poking through the dice bin at the local game
>>store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
>>it).
>>
>>Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
>>are mostly worn off.
>>
>>It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>>
>>Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>>about it's origin and original use?
>
> I have one of those, it is extremely clear plastic, making it so that not
> only is it useless as a d20, but because you can't really read the numbers
> anyway, it isn't a very good d10 either.

I have one like that too - like the other posters say, you're supposed
to ink the numbers in yourself. (Yes, the early days of gaming were
that deprived).

Personally, I like to keep it uninked and give it to players who
forget their dice as punishment.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85 wrote:
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?
>

I am sure that my old GM has a few of these, and some of them
have a small mark or dot next to the 0-9 on one of the ranges,
which indicates that it needs either a 1 or 2 added to the front
of the number concerned. Thus to roll it as a d20 you have to notice
the extra markings, or you can colour in with paint or a crayon.

I guess the crayons are not supplied any more.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Time to step up the meds; I could have sworn decalod85 just said...
>
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?

That's an early D20, which also served as a d10 before the idea of dice
in shapes other than the five Platonic solids was around. Early in the
1st Edition DMG, you'll notice Gygax talks abut the d10s we're familiar
with as a new thing. (The die you found would already have been
considered old-fashioned when I started in 1984, but you could still
find them back then.)

What you take as the numbers being mostly worn off might just be them
being uninked, by the way. You were expected to take two different
coloured crayons and fill them in, so that for example the black sides
would represent 11-20 and the white ones 1-10. You could also use it as
a d10.

As for the chipping, given its probable age, being situated in a big
unruly bin of random dice, and the fact that early RPG-type dice were
made very cheaply, I wouldn't be surprised if it's more round than
icosahedral (the familiar d20 shape).

 

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decalod85 wrote:
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?
>

Shades of 1980!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

"decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1115092304.506669.194880@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought it).
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?

Dice like that were used for percentile throws. Figured heavily in
games like Top Secret.

-Michael

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85 wrote:
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?

Um, that's a standard D20. You lazy modern slackers are the ones who
invented the ones that have 11 - 20 on them. REAL gamers got those
dice and colored in one set of numbers to represent the 11-20 range.




--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Sea Wasp wrote:

> decalod85 wrote:
>
>> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
>> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
>> it).
>>
>> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
>> are mostly worn off.
>>
>> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>>
>> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>> about it's origin and original use?
>
>
> Um, that's a standard D20. You lazy modern slackers are the ones
> who invented the ones that have 11 - 20 on them. REAL gamers got those
> dice and colored in one set of numbers to represent the 11-20 range.
>
>
>
>
With crayons... ah the memories... I have a sealed bag of dice from
the Red Boxed set, crayon included.

--
Tetsubo
My page: http://home.comcast.net/~tetsubo/
--------------------------------------
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
-- Anatole France

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Sea Wasp <seaobviouswasp@sgeobviousinc.com> wrote:
>> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Um, that's a standard D20. You lazy modern slackers are the ones who
>invented the ones that have 11 - 20 on them. REAL gamers got those
>dice and colored in one set of numbers to represent the 11-20 range.

Loonies colored in both sets -- one set with a crayon the exact
same color as the die itself.

Donald

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

On Tue, 03 May 2005 11:21:37 -0400, JF <jmf@queens.ca> wrote:

>decalod85 wrote:
>> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
>> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
>> it).
>>
>> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
>> are mostly worn off.
>>
>> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>>
>> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>> about it's origin and original use?
>>
>Sounds like the old low impact d20, 0-9 twice. These used to be part of
>the D&D boxes of the 70's and early 80's. It's chipped up because the
>plastic is soft enough to scrap off with a finger nail.

hehehe, we called those bubblegum dice, cause they looked like they
were formed from bubblegum

G

 

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"decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1115092304.506669.194880@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
> While poking through the dice bin at the local game
> store, I came across an oddball (of course, I bought
> it).
>
> Of course it's all chipped to hell, and the numbers
> are mostly worn off.
>
> It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
> Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
> about it's origin and original use?

Gotcha beat, just purchased a set of dice and in the set was a 20-sided die
and it was made it out to be a 4x5 (4x{1-5})....
This was in a new set of dice so I can't say if this thing was new or old.
I could take a digi-pic and post it here for anyone's edification should
anyone want.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Quiggy wrote:
> Mark Blunden wrote:
>
>
>>The tricky bit being if you pick up the wrong one. One of our
>
> players, who's
>
>>notorious for his low rolls in any case, borrowed what he thought was
>
> a d20
>
>>from another player's dice bag because he'd forgotten his dice, and
>>proceeded to do especially badly for the rest of the game. The other
>
> players
>
>>only realised what was wrong when he rolled a 0. We still remind him
>>occasionally that he's the only player we know who could roll a
>
> natural 0 on
>
>>an attack roll.
>>
>>--
>>Mark.
>
>
> Totally awesome.
>

Ditto, except in our case it was a player with an eight-sided d4 (1-4
twice) who just thought
he was really unluckly that night on his longsword damage rolls until we
noticed his error.

 

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On 2 May 2005 20:51:44 -0700, "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote:

>It's a 20 sided 10 sider. It has 0-9 on it twice.
>
>Never seen one like it before. Anyone have any ideas
>about it's origin and original use?

Well, geez, now I feel old.

Back before there were D10s that only had 10 sides, there were D20s that
were *not* numbered 1-20, but were numbered 1-0 twice. You used the one die
as a D10, a D20 (required you to apply different colours for each set of
0-9), and two of them made a D100.

I still have the first pair I ever bought (back in 1981), so that I could
play DragonQuest, a black one and a light blue one. Both so heavily used
that they're nearly spherical now (not that there's anything inherently
wrong with the plastic used, which is quite resistant). Both inked and
re-inked countless times, I finally stopped using them only a couple of
years ago when my other players constantly complained that no-one could
identify what number I rolled (even me). (Unfortunately the high-quality
plastic meant that ink or paint wore off very quickly.) I reluctantly
retired them and started using pre-inked D10s and D20s that I've scored from
various boardgames over the years.

I've got dozens of 'em now. Standard issue in games published by Chaosium,
for instance (back when Chaosium published more than one game, and those
games came in boxes). I *think* that the last one I got came with the
original boxed set of Avalon Hill's RuneQuest, 3rd ed., in 1984.

The D20 was subject to evolution. The first innovation was marking one set
of 0-9 with a little "plus" sign, so that you could use it as a D20 without
needing two colours of ink. Shortly afterwards someone came up with the
idea of just printing the numbers 1-20. (This was resisted for a long time
because it ruined the aesthetics of using them as D10 and D100.) It was
around this time that the D10 (with only 10 sides) started becoming a
popular concept. They still came without inked numbers, though.

Finally, some enterprising dice manufacturer came up with the idea of making
dice that were PRE-INKED, well-shaped AND resistant to wear, and, well,
we've never looked back.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Probst bprobst@netspace.net.au
Melbourne, Australia MSTie #72759
"Ziggy had Garfield neutered? Now that's funny!"
ASL FAQ http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mantis/ASLFAQ