What's up with the dice videos?

If you run across me on any social media you are going to quickly learn that I like taking pictures of the food I cook. For the last month or so I have also been posting regular videos about role playing game dice. Like most everything that I get into, there is something of a story behind it. 

The story actually begins with a casual conversation between me and Garin a long time ago in a comic book shop that has since moved locations due to the destruction of East Towne Mall. We were engaged in frequent, intense discussions about comic books. We talked writers, artists, characters, art styles, story arcs, characters, teams, and all sorts of other deeply nerdy stuff. I made a comment that we should record those conversations and turn them into a podcast. 

We did that. We did the hell out of that. The show evolved and changed. I learned quite a bit about myself. I learned that I am a bit of an audio video nerd. I like recording stuff. I invested continually in gear. I also learned that I don't like dealing with feedback. 

That may be surprising from the guy who posts content to a blog twice a week. Very few people read this thing. Like I get under a dozen hits per post. I cannot accept that blogging is a dead medium. More accurately I don't care. I have written a dozen times about why I blog. It is a writing exercise to flex my narrative voice. 

" Start writing, no matter what. The water doesn't flow until the faucet is turned on." - Louis L'Amour

That quote is what the blog is all about. It gives me a motivation to put my fingers on the keys and produce something intelligible. Notice I don't say something "good," "well-written," or "grammatically correct." The only thing impressive about my blog, not to minimalize my efforts or anything, is that it is consistently posted. I manage to string together posts about some sort of nonsense a time or two each week. 

No one comments. I mostly filter out posts that will ruffle feathers or seem inappropriate in one way or the other. I am not here to court controversy of any sort. This is the gym for my narrative voice. I am putting in my repetitions to stay healthy not impress anyone. If, along the way, I accidentally share something meaningful that is fantastic. I hope the less than a dozen people who tune in regularly are getting value for the time they are spending on my honied words. (Ha. Skyrim reference there.)

I miss podcasting. I don't miss hearing about how Garin's customer X or Y wants us to do whatever with the show. I don't miss pissing people off because I am a bit of an asshole. That is mostly why I keep to myself the majority of the time. If you are around me on a long enough time line I am guaranteed to pop off something that is going to irritate you. When that happens regularly on a podcast it kills the audience. For personal relationships, I am working on being intentional with my words. My sarcastic voice far out runs the part of my brain that cares about how I make others feel. Being a feeler and quick to react is a bad combination. It probably also made for some genuinely entertaining moments. I am not ready to get back into a show for that and about three dozen other reasons. 

I do like playing with recording stuff though. I have dozens of hobbies I am enthusiastic about. I knew I wanted to do something around table top role playing games. I also knew that I didn't want to live stream any of my RPG sessions yet. Honestly, I don't want to be the DM on a recorded game. I will absolutely get in my feels about the comments section. 

I thought instead it might be fun to make some short videos about gear I like. Dice have been a long obsession of mine. What I wouldn't give to reclaim the original sets I carried around in my backpack in my high school gaming days! I like to imagine I am going to find them as I sort through things. This is a pleasant fantasy. I never seem to get enough dice. They are a great gift. A fresh set really feels great at the start of a new game. 

The funny part is how I connect to some sets and not others. I used to bring a extra large tool organizer of dice to all my RPG sets. I purged almost all of those sets keeping just a few of my very favorites. For some time I had a couple of small organizers full of dice. I kept finding sets that I wanted to try out. Some of those worked out. Some didn't. Now I have my dice sorted into several small boxes. I probably will make videos about that at some point in the future. 

Imagine my delight when I found out that there are monthly mystery dice subscription services. I signed up originally with 1985 Games. Later I found Critical Dice's Endless  Bag of Dice subscription. I am two months into 1985 and a month into the Endless Bag of Dice subscription. Neither one is bad. The problem that I have is that my favorite dice come from two companies: Kraken Dice and Roll 4 Initiative!

Kraken has started making mystery bags. I am hopeful of a subscription service. If they toss in a monthly mini and a sticker or keychain I will be signing up way too fast. I have sort of fudged a subscription by buying a couple of sets a month from Kraken. It gives me something fun to open for a video. I also get AMAZING sets of dice every single time. 

R4I is a more traditional company. They have some great innovations like making their dice larger than the typical Chessex sets. More fun are their Arch'd D4s. 

Both R4I and Kraken offer dice sets that have the majority of what I want or need in a set. Seven dice just aren't enough. Let me break this down a bit. For those not in the know I want to explain something simple. A shorthand method of indicating dice needed is as follows: 4d4. This translates simply to four 4-sided dice.  The first number indicates the number of dice. The second number is a type designation. The number of each die you need changes based on the role you play at the table. A Rogue is going to need lots of D6s for sneak attack. An evocation based Wizard likely will want D4s, D6s, and D8s. Some of the other classes can get away with much fewer dice. Then there is the DM. That's me. 

Here is what I want: 

1D2: This is also known as a coin. Believe it or not there are often binary choices when I want to show that I am not piling damage on one character intentionally. When a monster has equal reason to attack two players I want to be able to show and tell how and why I am making the choice. It sounds like this:" On a 1 the barbarian tosses his spear at the cleric. On a 2 it is coming at the bard." *flip* Hopefully the players don't feel too cheated when I get a string of 1s or 2s. 

2D4: This is simple. I freaking love Magic Missile. If my villain is a wizard he doesn't miss unless the party has Shield at the ready. The baddie is also likely to use higher level spell slots for lots and lots of missiles. I don't necessarily mind re-rolling a handful of D4s, but I have considered doubling this number purely for psychological effect of a player seeing me grabbing 8D4. My favorite thing to hear a player say is," Oh. This is going to hurt." 

4D6: There really are never too many d6, but I always want to have eight of them in my kit for FIREBALL! It feels nice to roll all the damage for a base level fireball at one time. Also having 26d6 just on the off chance the party pisses off an Ancient Red Dragon enough to get toasted by its breath weapon feels excessive. 

2D8: Really I like the eight-sided die more than I want to admit. My NPCs know how to capitalize on cantrips and lots of Warlock, Sorcerer, and Wizard cantrips add D8s as you level up. Love rolling a handful of d8s for a high level Ray of Frost. These are also nice for Clerics dropping cures. 

2D10: Pretty much the same logic as D8s, but for Fire Bolt. 

1D12: These are for great weapon fighters, I guess. I don't use this one enough so I try to build random tables for things like encounters with twelve options instead of twenty. I mean an 8.333% chance of having to run from a dragon or beholder is more exciting than a 5% chance!

2D20: 5e is a 2D20 system mostly for advantage and disadvantage. It is simple and I like it. 

1D%: This is a ten-sided die that counts in tens instead of ones. It is used for rolling on a percentile chart. Who doesn't love percentile charts? It is one of the things I really miss from my AD&D days. 

Adding up the number of dice presented above that comes out to a 15 dice set. A lot of dice companies don't make than an option. R4I and Kraken both do! Now to be fair, I come to the table with twice, or sometimes three times, that many dice. Why? Because sometimes the dice demons are out to get me because my dice karma is not in good standing. 

When I was only buying Chessex dice, which pretty much from 1994 until about 2017 I had an easy solution to get all the dice I needed for a game. I kept a coin in my dice bag. I bought two sets of 7 dice sets which include one each of d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, D20, and D%. I added on at least one set of pipped D6. That didn't have me perfectly outfitted, but it was pretty alright. 

I also like having a good and evil set of dice. When playing a thief I roll one set for spilling blood in combat and another for opening locks and disarming traps. When playing cleric I roll one set for heals and the other for bringing religion to the heathen with my mace. Yep. Dice matter. 

I had no idea I would have this much to say about dice and videos.  It really could be summed up easily as follows: I wanted to have an excuse to record stuff and dice are an easy thing for me to be excited about. I already know I am going to expand out into minis, maps (and map alternatives), and a bunch of other interesting things. I may even do a whole series on switching my group over to Pathfinder 2E. Who knows? 

The only question is how long before I turn my little ten minute videos into a freaking podcast? It feels like I would need Garin for that.