Awesome Dice

What’ll ya have, Mack? Let Chronicle’s Cocktail Dice call the shots. Roll the three dice for your answer: one die is for liquors, one’s for mixers, and one’s for garnishes. With 216 possible combos, the fun is in the surprise. The 32-page booklet further helps customize your drink with what you have on hand.

Here’s an unconventional way to generate random numbers for board games. This unique gaming accessory packs a complete polyhedral dice set onto a zinc alloy wand. Instead of rolling these dice, you spin them, and the number is indicated by a blue pointer. In addition to the six dice on the wand, its spinning base functions as a D20.

These limited-run D6 dice from CountyComm are precision-machined from Ultem. This heat-resistant, translucent amber polymer is quickly becoming one of our favorite materials. It’s typically used to make products like circuit boards, aircraft parts, and eyeglass frames, but recently, it’s been turning up in EDC items like pens and compasses. Sold in pairs.

Yarro Studios’ mechanical dice spinner is a modern spin on a vintage gadget. Push its button, and its flywheels go spinning. Let go, and two random numbers appear in its windows. The Dice-o-Matic is made from aluminum and comes in D20/D20, D10/D10, D12/D8, D6/D4, and D6/D6 with pips. There’s also a Zoltar Dice-o-Matic decision-maker.

These limited-run six-sided dice from CountyComm are precision-machined from a lightweight, phosphorescent material that can glow for up to 24 hours. Like other glow-in-the-dark stuff, expose them to direct sunlight or a UV light source for the brightest and longest-lasting effect. They’re sold in sets of two.

Etsy shop Fever Dream Supreme makes this giant-size d20 for Dungeons and Dragons players. Each 10-inch, 5-pound die is handcrafted from whitewood and hot-branded numbers on its 20 sides. It makes a great display piece or a hidden storage box if you opt for the removable panel. Available with or without stain or numbers.

These unique dice from Aether Objects are made from cassette tapes. Each die has strips of vintage cassette tape preserved forever inside see-through resin. Their embossed numbers are painted with a vibrant yellow inspired by ’80s cassette graphics. Sold in a set of seven dice and packed in a cassette-style storage box.

W&M Levsha shows how they made a cool gizmo that takes the place of a 6-sided die. The brass gadget is about the size of a pocket watch and has a lever that spins a flywheel that’s engraved with six dice faces. When the lever pops up place, a mechanism stops the wheel to reveal a random number.

Lynx makes all kinds of cool accessories for tabletop gaming. Among our favorites are these D6 dice that look like bullets. They’re cast from 100% brass with a baked-in copper tip. They’re designed to roll evenly on their six sides, but we think you should earn bonus points for landing one on its flat rear end. Sold in a six-pack with a metal storage box.

From dice towers to dice spinners to dice cups, you can roll dice in many different ways. Pixelcadet’s dice-tossing blunderbuss might be the best dice roller yet. This large-bored, rubber band-powered gun uses dice as ammunition instead of bullets. Here’s how its cartridge works. You can purchase the .STL files to print your own on Etsy.

Hedron Rockworks handmakes dice from gemstones. In this video, he transformed a hunk of amethyst into a stunning purple D20. He started by scanning a 3D model of the stone to identify the best orientation, carefully cut and polished its facets, then sandblasted its numerals. Those frosted edges and star facets are gorgeous.

The reason for shaking dice before rolling them is to randomize them from their starting positions. But the guys at Atypyk Paris seem to think that shaking dice also makes their pips move around. Their nonsensical Shaken wood dice come with the dots already shaken for you. Another first-world problem solved. Or not.

These unique nested dice offer more possible outcomes to your tabletop gaming sessions. Each has an inner die with a see-through outer shell that can be used to add, subtract, or as another game modifier. Available as a set of six D6 or seven polyhedral inner dice.

Makers Simone Giertz and Laura Kampf were looking for inspiration for projects and came up with Build Dice. This set of aluminum dice helps set parameters for creative projects. The first cube has objects, the second has materials, and the third one has properties. They come in a handsome walnut display box.

After wowing us with their 60-sided RPG dice, Flying Horseduck is back with a series of 120-sided metal dice. Each 53mm die is CNC-milled from solid aluminum and weighs an impressive 0.5 pounds. Available in d20 and d120 variants in five colors plus a hefty 1.4-pound stainless steel version.

These precise and substantial RPG dice from Flying Horseduck roll random numbers between 1 and 60. Each 37mm piece is carved from solid aluminum using a 5-axis CNC mill. They also make d4, d6, d10, d12, d20, spindown d60, and life-or-death versions, each with 60 sides.

If you’ve ever wondered how they get all those little ink dots into dice, this video shows one of the more modern methods. This special printer uses a camera to detect which side of each die is beneath it, then deposits tiny droplets of ink into each pip. Here’s another machine that doesn’t care what angle the dice are at.

Ben Hoblyn and Ross Montgomery of Dice Ideas make art using D6 dice as their medium. They use the six pip configurations to create shades of light and dark, resulting in monochrome images which reveal themselves the further back you stand from them. Their biggest piece so far is a tiger made from 30,000 dice.

A normal 6-sided die weighs about 0.2 oz. This 4″ stainless steel die by Justin Voss is a bit heftier. This video shows how he used a CNC plasma cutter to slice up the steel, then cleaned up the edges with a grinder and welded the pieces together. If you know how to weld, you can pick up a kit of pre-cut parts on Justin’s website.

TheGearFly’s keychain tool resembles a dice cube, but you won’t be using it to play board games. Instead, it works as hex wrenches and 1/4″ magnetic driver, allowing you to use a wide variety of standard bits. Its sixth side has a slot that’s perfect for holding a U.S. dime, transforming it into an impromptu flat-blade driver.

Board game players looking for a fun way to randomize their dice rolls should check out this very cool and unique dice tower from RUBrand. The tower features undulating layers of laser-cut, high-density wood fiberboard with cutouts that tumble dice as they cascade from the top to the coliseum below. Assembly required.

Celebrate your love of RPGs and fine spirits with these awesome D20 whiskey stones. They help keep spirits chilled without diluting and look great doing it. Each one is made from volcanic obsidian laser-etched with an Ice Dragon or Lich King design. They measure appx. 1.57″ across x 1.9″ tall and are food safe.

You can buy oversize wooden dice on Amazon and Etsy, but none of them look nearly as rich or substantial as this handmade version by Gao Wood Lab. Watch as they transform a block of African blackwood and brass into a beautifully-inlayed jumbo die. Now, will you please make us a giant D20?