I just remembered this moment form Orccon on Monday that I thought was amusing enough to put in its own entry.
On the way down to the con, Nolan told me that he really wanted to buy some of his own dice to go with the dice I’d already given him.
“I want a huge bag of dice, like the one you have.” My heart swelled as he continued, “Do you think I’ll be able to do that thing you told me about where they give you a cup and you fill it up for like five bucks?”
“I can’t remember the name of the company that does that, but if they are at the con, I’m sure you’ll be able to do it.” I thought for a second. “In fact, it’s kind of a rite of passage, so I hope you do get to do that.”
“And it would mean more to me than you could ever understand to get to be part of it with you.” I thought.
We walked through the whole flea market, twice, and he couldn’t find any vendor who was offering the cup-o-dice, but while I was buying my giant d20, he picked through the little cases of dice on the table, eventually picking up up one of those d100’s that you always see at cons.
“What is this?” he said.
“A d100,” I said.
“Who uses that?” He said.
“Someone who doesn’t know how to roll 2d10,” I said.
We laughed together, and the vendor joined us. It was funny, because it was true.
Note: In the original draft, I misquoted my son. I recalled him saying “who needs that” but what he actually said was “who uses that.” It’s an important difference, and I wanted to correct my error.
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Stop it Wil. I keep laughing at this, and a guy who sits in his office in the dark in the middle of all the servers really looks mental abruptly laughing.
(Although, I’d almost use this to tell everyone that reads it and sees you at cons, that they should bring a random die with them to give to you to give to Nolan so that his bag may be mighter than yours. 🙂 )
Chessex is who does the “cup o’ dice” or the even better “big-ass pitcher o’ dice” when they show up at cons.
Alternative answers:
– Everyone!
– People who are color blind.
– People who play with people who like to argue about which die is more significant.
– People who play with people who don’t have a d100 and would be impressed by it.
– People who play with people who would be annoyed that such a thing as a d100 exists.
– People who want a huge bag full of dice.
– People who don’t believe that independently rolling dice are truely independent.
– People who want conserve their precious luck rolling by rolling one die instead of two.
(BTW, I have a d100)
My friends and I used to call the d100 a golf ball, after one particularly frustrating attempt to actually use one. We realized trying to figure out which number was pointing directly up was roughly as easy as figuring out which dimple is on top on a golf ball.
I purchased one of the golf-ball-like d100s back when they came out, just for the novelty of it. They’re very impractical; they never stop rolling. Or maybe I’m just a spaz.
There was another type of d100, looked like a die inside a clear plastic ball or somesuch, I didn’t get one of those. I think there might have been a bead inside that settled onto the number you rolled. Didn’t appeal to me much.
I preferred the old 20-sided numbered 0-9 twice for my percentiles, though. You can’t hardly find them anymore; everyone seems to prefer the Susan B. Anthony dice (easily confused with 8-siders if you’re in a hurry and it’s dark).
Ah, well. If it mattered enough to me, I’d create a company which manufactured them and then I could make them how I wanted.
But the key point at the end of your story is absolutely true: Noone needs the d100, since a pair of d10s or psuedo-d20s is sufficient to the cause, and generally more practical.
But then, I didn’t need the monster nerf foam dice sets I purchased either, but they’re good for a giggle about once every year or so…
“Who needs that?”
Someone fully geeked-out and diving headfirst into D&D after discovering it … otherwise known as me.
Regrettably, D&D didn’t find me until I was 15. I got a couple good years in and then we all graduated and went off to college.
I’d love to get back into gaming, but I don’t think enough of my old crew would be up for it. I’ve been meaning to check out a local group — I really need to do that.
I don’t know about Orccon, but at Origins here in Columbus (yes, we have a gaming con), it’s Chessex who does the cup-o-dice.
*sigh* I’m sad that I know that…
You’re validating my own diceophilic tendencies. My collection is not massive, but it’s rather attractive. I call it my Nerd Bling.
I had a d73 once. At least, that’s what my friend told me it was when I bought it from him. But it was just a d20 that had gotten really scuffed up.
I was only 8 or 9 at the time. I think I paid a whole dollar.
the largest i have is a d30 and i bought that for the cat’s, so they wouldn’t be interested in mine 🙂 – they do tend to roll a lot of natural 20’s though – i wonder how hard it would be to teach avalon and our new kitten’s, xena and gabby how to play d&d – hey it’s only a thought. 🙂
For the record, I’m listening to the DnD podcast you did, released just today, and the portrayal of your character is classic. I’m looking forward to hearing the rest.
I keep playing the part explaining the Feywild over and over. 🙂
Chessex does the cup of die…but they were at Genghiscon this last weekend. <--bought cup o' die I bought a d7 this time...why? cause.
They were at the Colorado con this weekend. 😀
As others have said, the company is Chessex! And they were also at DunDraCon in San Ramon last weekend with their cups and pitchers o’dice.
More like the people who enjoy picking dice up off the floor and knocking over miniatures roll d100’s. But that’s just my experience…
Well, if you’re collecting at least one of every type of die, then, yes, you need a d100. (I need to get myself one of those d7s, myself, before the collection can truly be complete.)
-kat
A DM friend in college had a d100. He called it his “hit die”. We had a particularly obnoxious person playing with us, and whenever he got out of hand, the DM would chuck it in his direction. Dented a wall once when Shad was being a particular fucktard.
Good times. 🙂
They had reps at DunDraCon 33 in San Ramon, CA also this weekend.
I’ve seen two types of d100s. One was full of little rattly things. This managed to keep the cat interested in that one rather than our dice, which it otherwise liked to chase and bat.
FWIW, it’s the Chessex booth (http://chessex.com/index.html) that usually has that bucket of dice:)
I was in a group of friends that played D&D and Whitewolf regularly, and one of them had a 2 or 3 year-old son who occasionally sat in with us. His mom had one of the big foam dice, and he loved it, and even learned the proper word to refer to it. He scared the heck out of his babysitter once by yelling, “Die! Die! Die!” because he wanted them instead of the toy he was playing with.
Who needs a d100? Wild mages, that’s who. And not the wienie little, pansy 3.5 Wild Mages. No, the true 2nd edition Wild mages, the ones whom everyone would fear and run from every time the would cast a spell. Why? Because they never knew whether the spell would go off without a hitch, or if they would end up with an anvil on their head.
speaking of dice, I just bought a particular shirt at shirt.woot…
dude!!! .. lol .. so i met Wil at the watchmen screening today (it was awesome go see it) .. complimented him on his “roll for initiative” shirt he was wearing .. then i mentioned the awesome shirt worn by nick swardson in grandmas boy “choose your weapon” .. chatted for a sec and wil was very cool .. then i go home and check woot where i get all my cool shirts .. then i freak cuz the guy i just met is the creator of the awesome shirt im buying .. and it has dice like the shirt i mentioned .. weird .. he didn’t even shout out his shirt when i mentioned the other one .. anyways .. moral of story is this dude is cool and has excellent taste .. so i have subscribed .. thanks for the shirts and everything u have done .. I want to play dungeons again .. any good DMs out there?? .. peace yo
beautiful shirt.woot design!!!! absolutely love it!!
many thanks for the lovely story as well. sure hope you enjoyed the watchmen, so very excited to see it here in the frozen south of the north (this makes sense, honest. haha)
cheers!!
I have three of those 0-9 20-siders (white dice with red and black 0-9’s), and I love ’em. And since I have three, I can roll d1000 with them. Cos you never know when that’s going to come up. And I will never relinquish my useless-but-coveted d30. It impresses the newbies.
Does anyone else have a fascination with tiny, tiny dice?
I used to work at Goodwill (no pun intended) and I’d collect lost dice from various games – ones with letters, sports items, pictures, etc. My favorite is the one that has numbers, but one side says, “Kong Sleeps”. FTW!
Yeah, tiny dice are awesome. Remember Dinky Dungeons? The same little dice that came with that come in the Pirates game from Wiz Kids.
I have a sizeable number of the old 0-9×2 dice and won’t be willingly parting with them. Getting new ones to match new die color schemes, though, is next to impossible.
I love tiny tiny dice. I bought a couple fistfuls of them when they appeared in my friend’s gaming store. Less than completely practical for regular gaming usage but a LOT quieter when playing BOD (Buckets O’ Dice) games.
I did find a special use for them when playing large-scale BattleTech games, though. The games take so long to play, especially when doing larger than Company-on-Company sized battles. The most common interruption in the game was “Has THIS ‘Mech moved?”; the second most common interruption was “How far did THIS ‘Mech move?”; third was “Did THIS ‘Mech jump?”. Nobody could get anything done while everyone sorted out their options matrices.
Tiny tiny d6 dice to the rescue. After the ‘Mech moved, we’d place the die in front of the ‘Mech miniature (which indicated it had already moved) and set the die equal to its movement defense bonus, including the jump bonus. Since the highest movement defense bonus including jump is 5, a 6 meant zero bonus.
It sped up monster games of BattleTech noticeably — often cutting the game length in half.
After the combat round, everyone picked up their dice and the game sped onward.
You needed to hit DunDraCon in San Ramon, Wil. Chessex was there with their cup o’ dice deal.
The d100 is probably the Zocchihedron. Made by an old games distributor named Lou Zocchi. There is a You Tube video of him talking about manufacturing dice. That man really, really knows dice to a scary degree. I used to shop at his store back in the mid 90’s before Katrina.