Bring Some Luck to Your Dice

Are your dice unlucky?  RPG players, do you have trouble rolling critical hits? Game Masters, do your NPCs die without having a chance to react?  Do your monsters get slaughtered as you roll below 5 every time?  I may have an answer to your problems – this may be just the thing for you… Dice Sprites!

Countless ancient cultures, from Greeks and Romans to Chinese and Maori, have used good luck charms. Be they trinkets, dolls, or animal parts, these good luck charms have helped many people through difficult times.  Now there is a way to bring that luck to your gaming table… Dice Sprites – the gamer’s good luck charm!

I normally review RPG books and miniatures, but I decided to take a light-hearted detour and review an interesting RPG table item this week.  I’m a gamer.  Pretty much all of my activities outside of work are related to gaming in some way.  One of those activities is looking at gaming related stuff.  That sounds vague – let me be more specific… I like looking at items that may be useful or interesting at the RPG table.  A few weeks ago I ran across something that piqued my interest… Dice Sprites!

What Are Dice Sprites?

Dice Sprites are small, handmade, clay polymer figures that protect and train your dice.  They can also be used to intimidate your players’ dice (if you are a GM) or your GM’s dice (if you are a player) [okay, well, as intimidating as a cute, colorful sprite can be].  I ordered a collection of sprites for a red/white dice set (red dice with white numbers).  I left it up to the claymancers to choose appropriate colors to match my dice and the result are shown in the pictures you see in this article – very nice indeed!

I ordered these directly from the sculptors, a.k.a. the Claymancers, and they were very quick to answer any questions I had and offered top notch customer service.  These cool little sprites vary in cost from 4$ (for the baby sprites) to 15$ (for large intricate sprites).  Price is dependent upon the size, difficulty of the pose, and whether or not the die is removable.  You can buy these in sets or individually, though the price for a whole set gives a bit of a discount to the overall price.

Where Can You Find More Info?

If you are going to PAX, you will be happy to know that the Claymancers recently made a deal with Games & Gizmos and they will be on display, and on sale, at PAX (at the Games & Gizmos booth).  You can also find more information at their website HERE and you can email them directly at claymancers@gmail.com.  The Claymancers do special orders as well as producing the standard sprites, though they will not produce a sprite based on a copyrighted item.

Quick Review:

Price: Reasonable – considering these are hand made to order you can’t beat the price.

Quality: Excellent – my sprites arrived packaged well and in perfect condition.  I’ve had them for 3 weeks now and moved them and inspected them.  No peeling paint, no chips or divots.  These things, while fragile, still hold up to a fair bit of movement and handling.

Usefulness at the Table: Limited – here is where we run into the only problem with the sprites.  They are a cool novelty and I like bringing out the one that holds my d20 and setting it on the table until I need to roll the die. I’m a gamer and a game item collector, so I find a use for them and like having them around (even my girlfriend thinks they are cool).  However, if you are on a tight budget and only purchase absolute necessities, these may not be for you. If your budget is looser and you like cool and interesting stuff at the table, give these little sprites a shot.

Rating: These sprites get 3 out of 4 stars!  Go check them out and see what you think.

Until next time, I wish you good gaming!

~DM Samuel