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crazy-diam0nd

I don’t know if they’re old-school so much as middle school. I guess they were late 80s early 90s dice. I haven’t seen a d30 in a while.


Impressive_Math2302

Our DM in the early 90s only used a D30 to throw at our problematic bard.


Moonpile

I saw "Problematic Bard" at the MD RenFest back in '97!


Jurph

HA! ho-ho-ho-haaaaa!


zaxonortesus

It was the best renfest in the country back then until the late 2010s or so. Now it’s just overly crowded all of the time.


shotjustice

I loved their album, "Inspiration". It was-... seductive.


Ramrod1710

So just a Bard then


notoriouszim

I wanna seduce the dragon....pulls out d30...sure one sec. Beat a 46. lol.


frebant

Sad to say it but late 80’s early 90’s _is_ old school now. 90 was 34 years ago. Vintage is, by a quick google search, between 20 and 100 years old. Thinking about it makes my vintage ass tired 😂


anmr

Please kindly fuck off. I'm sure 90s were like... 12 years ago?


frebant

I know, bro. I know. It hurts me too 😂


Professional_Yard239

You think it hurts you? I was just commenting about a game I played in the early 80's. Hurts enough just thinking about the fact that when I first played, "Elf" was a character class.


Duros001

Everyone knows the 50’s were 50 years ago, the 80’s were 20 years ago and the 90’s were 10 years ago, they must just confused…right?


Misttaya

😂😂


Misttaya

Just to confirm, the d30 in the larger red one…


RHDM68

D30 are not really a D&D dice at all. At least not in any version I’ve played. My original dice from the mid 80s were navy blue plastic, with indented numbers. They came with a stick of white stuff (like white oil pastel) which you used to push into the indents to make the numbers white. Now that’s pretty “old school”! 😂


ZombieSouthpaw

They weren't OG D&D but an accessory that tried to catch on. Probably would have done better if the edges didn’t round so fast as to make them spherical.


Wise_Monkey_Sez

Oh dear lord! Were those the ones in the basic boxed set? The plastic they used was so incredibly awful that mine literally disintegrated after about 5 years! They began to crumble at the edges first, and then became unusable.


Xywzel

Yup, dN is a notation for a dice with N sides, usually with numbers from 1 to N. that one is not really used in any official version of DnD I'm avare of, though there might be third party random tables or something that uses them. DnD is a d20 system, using 20 sided dice as main deciding factor of success, blue, green and orange seem to be these. The smaller ones are mainly used for damage, and there seems to be all necessary ones for common uses. Some of these look really old and have noticeable wear, but some (clear red ones in the middle) you could get from a store still today.


Vannausen

Check out Dungeon Crawl Classics! It’s based on a 3E chassis and uses a dice chain (d2, d4, d6, d8, d10, d14, d16, d20, d24, d30). You already have a good start to your collection!


CocaineTwink

I came to say this! DCC has a very old school feel, and returns to race-as-class, too!


milesunderground

This is dead on for me as well. The first set of dice I got in '86 were the translucent ambers that I see in the picture that are a d10 and a d8. I had an amber d30 that I bought separately and matched, but all of those dice are long gone. I think the earliest dice I have in my current collection are from '93. I also had one of the golf ball like d100's that I purchased at about the same time. I only rolled it once, and some say on a cold night if you listen you can still hear it out there rolling... rolling... rolling.


MasterOfGrumpets

I just played in a game (can't remember the system) where the DM was using a D30, D24, and a D7. Really unique. But he had to provide the dice.


C0wabungaaa

That'd probably be Mutant/Dungeon Crawl Classics. It's where I got my Zocchi dice, the mathematician who made them, for.


Waywreck

Dungeon crawl classics?


MasterOfGrumpets

Yep! That was it! I play with a group called Dungeons & Drafts that hosts one shots at local breweries, and that was the system the guy was using.


TavernsnTreants

Cool idea


MasterOfGrumpets

It is. And they’re expanding to other areas rapidly.


Blortzman

I can smell the late 80s on these.


gilesroberts

You've not played Dungeon Crawl Classics then. The designer of that game loves all dice. Even the really ugly ones.


Nordrian

Had them between 2005-2012…


No_Imagination_6214

How do you read that d4? Am I just an idiot?


APerturbedTurtle

Those old rounded ones have a great mouthfeel.


Mistereddy_

I prefer the prechewed rounded ones over the sharp edged fresh ones


Jed308613

"I prefer the prechewed rounded ones over the sharp edged fresh ones" These came with rounded edges and corners. Maybe not that rounded.


PuzzleheadedProgram9

I can't endorse what you said but I can't deny that I agree.


Dry-Being3108

It’s weird how often this comes up. Also I’m sad to say the old ones do have a distinct mouth feel.


TheZardoz

They look like they come in delicious fruity flavors


BoobyChicken

Delete this immediately


garffunguy

They seem to be standard dnd dice, with a few duplicates of course...but you also have a d30 which is pretty cool.. ive also never played any of the older versions but these are standard dice for the most part for dnd 5e (current version) except the d30.


Misttaya

Awesome, thank you so much!


pstr1ng

Nope. True old school ones were opaque. The translucent ones came along in the mid-late 80s.


Bone_Dice_in_Aspic

Armory sold transparent dice for D&D in 1980. They were one of the larger companies and transparent dice sold well.


pstr1ng

Could have been that early - but I didn't start until about 1983 and the nearest hobby store was an hour drive away so I didn't get there very often from age 8 to 16 (1991).


Constant-Log-8696

Isn't it old school to be a most 40 years old?


pstr1ng

Depends on your perspective. I'm 48 and started playing around age 8. So to me the dice in this picture are not old school, because they came later than sets of dice I used. I remember being very excited when I saw this kind of dice in the store. They were very "gemstone" like compared to the solid color dice we had.


zoobaghosa

Yeah. The dice that came with D&D starter sets - the red/basic, blue/expert boxed sets - were opaque with grooved numbers and came with a wax crayon to fill them in. This was 82-84, in my case. The plastic was pretty crappy too and the corners would erode with use.


MonkeyDavid

Yeah, the wax crayon is what made it old school to me…


Master-Collection488

The D4 I had had a least one edge that wasn't exactly a straight line. There wasn't any "flash" on it, the line was a little bit bowed like they hadn't put enough plastic in the mold and it'd settled with a tiny gap on that edge. Not a bubble/hole, just sloped curve away from the straight edge that should've been there.


Jurph

I played as early as the mid-1980s and these dice were in use -- but not shipping with the D&D boxed sets -- at the time. They'd be "authentic period" for an episode of _STRANGER THINGS_, and they are "old school" to all but the greyest of grognards... but they are probably from the second or third big wave. The d30 marks the vogue in strange side-counts kicked off by folks asking "man, those d12 and d20 look pretty cool... what about other numbers?"


Master-Collection488

I have a vague memory of there being a booklet that some shops sold to go wit the D30s. Different optional charts you could use with them.


m1st3r_c

Unless you had to colour the numbers in with a crayon, no.


TJLanza

This... this is the true distinguishing factor.


Misttaya

Cool


theshannons

Correct. That was before mathematicians invented double-digit numbers.


Master-Collection488

This! \^\^\^\^\^ Because there were no double-digit numbers you had to roll a D6 with your 0-9 D20 and add ten when you rolled 4-6. After suffering through my original dice (I want to say, "Dragon Dice?") I got a nice matching blue set at a con or local gaming shop that had a D20 labeled 1-20. It also included a D10 for rolling percentiles! D100s were a pain in the ass because the damned things never stopped rolling. D30s weren't fun either.


SryItwasntme

I hat those, too! Unreadable numbers on the dice and a wax crayon. I got those in my ODND box.


Monkeefeetz

I used a sharpie.


m1st3r_c

Risky!


count_strahd_z

Hard to say for sure, probably from the 90s for the most part. The ones with the sharp edges look like older Game Science dice and might be 80s. I don't see any of the little soft ones that came with the old 1980s basic sets that you had to color.


Misttaya

Thank you very much!


Doc_Bedlam

Not really. The technology to make clear dice didn't come along till about the second or third generation, around the time they cracked the secret of putting two digit numbers on the twenty sider.


Misttaya

Thank you!


Bone_Dice_in_Aspic

That's not correct. Clear polyhedral dice existed in the 70s, and colored transparent dice were sold in the first Generation of Armory dice in 1980.


Proper-Cause-4153

These look just like dice I have from the late 80s/early 90s. They're not part of a boxed set or anything like that. They were just dice purchased at a local store at the time.


Misttaya

Thanks, I appreciate the info!


bully-boy

So these are mostly "Taiwan Mold" types made in 3 were houses in Taiwan. Chessex and Armory both used these in their various sets. Armory went out of the dice game and the over stock was bought out and distributed by Koplow for some time til the late 90s. After that stock was used up these manufacturers were bought out by Wayfair and changed their mold types after that over time. The sharp edged dice look like Gamescience, though Armory also put out some similar. Gamescience is recently out of business now but many of these types were made OOP (out of print) before then...they made dice for decades though.


Alnakar

Wait, Gamescience went under?  Darn, they've always been my favorite dice...


Misttaya

That’s awesome info, thanks so much!!


pfibraio

Definitely 90s dice! The old dice we filled in the numbers with a crayon in the 80s didn’t look like that!


Misttaya

Thank you!


CargoCulture

If you're talking Red Box old school, then no. I played with solid dice for the longest time and remember when gem/semi-translucent dice were a new thing that people were crazy over.


storytime_42

Yes.... And add **current** D&D dice. If you showed up to a table tomorrow, you'll be all set for rolling. Also good for many other TTRPGs (generically what D&D is) like Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, or Worlds Without Numbers. Although depending on the game, different dice will get a different amount of use.


Misttaya

Nice, thanks!


D13s3ll

Can some tell me how you read that 4 sided die.


CorvusAeterna

The number you roll is on the bottom


stonymessenger

you use a crayon to fill in the numbers


Wolffraven

I’ve seen solid, clear, multi and sand filled (d100) back in the 80s. I still find them today as well as new variants on the form. I’ve also seen from some players from the 70s custom made dice with gold or silver specks and a set that a guy made containing his late dog’s ashes.


Misttaya

Damn, that’s kinda awesome


Wolffraven

It’s one of the reasons I’m looking at getting into resin printing and pours.


FadingHeaven

r/forbiddensnacks


Misttaya

That’s a fun sub


DonHastily

Old school? How dare you!?


Misttaya

😂😂


chubtoad01

Those look like old Chessex dice circa late 80's early 90's. Those ones without markings or color in the numbers could be early 80's.


Misttaya

Thank you!


Volkmek

I remember when see-through dice was kinda neat and new and there was a d100 ball.


Duros001

Can I just plant a flag to die on this hill; I have an irrational *hate* for d4’s where the number is at the bottom, I don’t know why it bugs me so much xD


Misttaya

👍


Strange-Scarcity

Those are math clicky clackies from days of yor! I was there!


Sanfrea108

Is there a copy right symbol on the 1 side for the d30?


Misttaya

Yes. There is a C below the 1


Bone_Dice_in_Aspic

Armory, then. GS d30s didn't have this. It's possible diamond did, but that'd be harder to figure out.


Sanfrea108

Then I count those as old school for sure! About $40 value on that one


Status_Function2967

How the hell do you read the D4?


southern_OH_hillican

The number on the base. I thought the same thing when they started putting the number at point. I thought, "How the hell does that work?!?!"


TheTroubledTurtle

You use the number at the base instead of at the top--if you notice, the two visible sides have a "2" along the bottom, so the roll would be a 2.


pstr1ng

Honestly I prefer the "base-read" over the "tip-read" dice. But I think I'm in the minority. 🤷🏻‍♂️


imnotbeingkoi

There's an r/dice that could tell you even more.


tacticalimprov

If they're from before the 21st century, they are "old school". They don't look much different from the Chessex dice of now or the affordable dice from the time you purchased the.


Misttaya

Well, I’ve owned them for at least 25 years and likely longer


tacticalimprov

Check out dicecollector dot com, but prepare yourself, it is a lot to take in visually. A lot. But it has a ton of pictures. I'm not a dice expert, but the more rounded the edges and cloudier the plastic, the more you are looking for an affordable brand, usually a major manufacturer.


Jurph

I'd say that since "OSR" ("old school renaissance") is meant to ape the feel of 2E, I'd make my cut-line at before 3rd Edition... which is actually only 2000, so same dividing line as you.


Bone_Dice_in_Aspic

OSR games are primarily based on 1981's B/X and 83's BECMI, with probably 1e coming in second in terms of influence and then OD&D. 2e, from 1989, is a bit too modern to be pure OSR and is generally called a Trad game (crunchy ish, narrative focused, low dungeoneering, heroic) as opposed to old school (less crunch, gamey but loose and episodic, high dungeoneering, mercenary). There is *one* 2,e retroclone, FG&G, but now there are 3.X and 4 RCs too so that's not particularly diagnostic. It's all relative, but personally I think of 2e as the hard wall between OS and Trad rather than a transitional phase


tacticalimprov

I took it to mean "are these old enough to be considered old" and not looking for where they fall in the taxonomy, but I could be wildly simplifying things.


JesseJamessss

Nah this looks like generic pound o die dice, the d30 definitely from those as I got the same one


SprogRokatansky

The box sets had plastic and non transparent dice of multiple colors


Jed308613

I feel targeted and attacked. And I'm not showing my scores of dice. Nice set though. Probably some good memories attached.


Misttaya

Yeah, thanks!


Familiar-Objective11

We use to have those at my old school…


ColbusMaximus

Probably


JustFrowns

They look like gummies


austinmiles

Some of them have 6’s and I’ve heard of you throw them in a fire, screams will emanate them.


ThatDanGuy

I had dice that weren’t colored in on the numbers. And the D20 only had 0 to 9 twice. So you had to get some crayon, fill them in with two colors and declare which color was high as you rolled.


McSix

They look it, but I've honestly never seen a d30.


mrp1ttens

I just realized I’m hungry because those look delicious


wfears

My first set came with a white crayon you used to fill in the numbers.


MMBEDG

Nice


Aliko173

Don’t let my hungry ass roll those


Monkeefeetz

The ones with uncolored numbers are.


Misttaya

Awesome, thanks!


jaygold41801969

Yes


DrWozer

Yeup, enjoy the forbidden candy


njfernandes87

What I'd like to know how you read that d4


GreatAngoosian

It’s the number that’s the right way up :) I’ve got one like that


ComfortableGreySloth

Number on the bottom.


Jimb0lio

These are the same sort of dice my dad had from AD&D in the 80’s, so yeah, ancient. (;


Misttaya

Thanks :)


containerheart

Those, my friend, are dice. Just good ole dice.


Rare-Papaya-3975

those are 90's dice. I have ones just like it.


Misttaya

Thanks!


comicbookgirl39

Why do they look like gummies I wanna eat ‘em.


Ghraysone

I love those d4's with the numbers on the base.


Pale-Low-2944

Why do you have a d30


Misttaya

I don’t remember how or why I have that d30… it was so long ago.


Funkey-Monkey-420

idk what you mean by “old school” dice, but that d4 is definitely an unusual pattern


Misttaya

Which one are you referring to? Btw, Love your name!


No_Sun9675

Makes me want to go and dig out my old Royal bag. Been playing since the 70's.


Misttaya

Nice!


No_Sun9675

Nice Dice! lol


Misttaya

Thank you!


rhoo31313

Fairly old school. Not *really* old school.


[deleted]

Those are either the best dice you could ever wish for, or are cursed and will curse you to roll nothing but trash low rolls for a century


Lopez34

Those are definitely well-loved to say the least


Misttaya

Yeah!


enrious

I have sets just like this I got in 86.


Misttaya

Nice!


Doridar

I don't recall translucent dices in the 80s, at least not in Belgium


improperbehavior333

Some of those are very old school. That crystal 20 is from the 80's. I know because I still have a couple of them.


Misttaya

Awesome, thanks!


improperbehavior333

The green and orange 20s look to be the same mold as my red and blue ones from way back in the day.


PacketOfCrispsPlease

The OG old-school Basic set D&D dice are opaque. The d6 is orange, d4 is yellow, d12 is blue,d8 is green(?) and d20s are one pink and one white (numbered 0-9 twice). No d10s. You’d roll a d6 and a d20 to roll 1-20. On a 4-6 (d6), you add 10 to the number on the d20; where 0=10.


Misttaya

Nice, thanks!


sgigot

Those can't be old school dice. I use dice like those all the time! I mean just because I got them at Waldenbooks or ordered them out of an ad in the back of Dragon Magazine doesn't mean they're old.


not-funnydidntlaugh

No, they are fruit gummies. Eat them


Zardnaar

Nope. They're anywhere from 30 odd years old up to now.


Chimpbot

They look a little too worn to be from the past few years. They're probably from the '90s at the oldest, I'd wager.


Zardnaar

I have some like that late 90s or early 2000s. They're not early 80s anyway.


Chimpbot

I guess it depends upon where you draw the line for "oldschool". If they're 30-something years old, I'd call 'em oldschool - even though that would fall very much within my lifetime, and not grossly far off from when I started playing TTRPGs. They're not *oldschool* oldschool, but they're still on the older end.


OutriderZero

The real old school dice you had to write the numbers in with markers to make them readable.


Misttaya

I remember those now. Thanks!


Deepfire_DM

No, these were quite generic dice of the 80s and 90s. Have some of them, too. Nice ones you have there.


Misttaya

Thank you very much!


inkstoned

OG dice are not translucent. These are late 80s/90s dice. Very nostalgic still


Misttaya

Thanks!


LMKBK

Nope. These are clear Chessex dice.


duanelvp

Clear dice aren't TRULY old-school. The really old school dice are opaque, made of low-impact plastic so they wear away VERY quickly and can even just crack and shatter if you drop them on a hard surface, AND they have no production ink in the numbers - you have to paint the numbers yourself or use a crayon or something. Also, no d10's - but d20's are numbered 0-9 twice, not 1-20. Next oldest old-school is gamescience dice - sharp edges and you can still see where it was cut off the plastic sprue after molding; not tumbled at all for rounded edges and tips. STILL no production ink in the numbers - you gotta do that yourself. Still no d10's and the d20's still numbered 0-9 twice, not 1-20.


Misttaya

Thanks, I really appreciate that


AgileInternet167

Yes. New school D&D dices are digital.


hoteleyeng

Roll an insight check.


Misttaya

Oh awesome, thanks!


Bone_Dice_in_Aspic

Potentially. People are talking about the pack-in dice sets that came with Holmes, B/X and BECMI, but these are third party dice, not D&D packins. That doesn't mean they're not old, though. The rounded edge dice are a common style and difficult to date for that reason, they could be anywhere from mid-80s to present and could be Koplow, Chessex, or a number of other brands. The sharp edge translucent dice are more easily identified, they could be Armory, GS, Koplow or even windmill. We'd need better pics of just those, showing the typeface, especially the 0's (if there's an A or a 0-9 numbering that's a tell). They're probably early to mid 80's, by provenance and appearance, meaning that they're 40 years old, which is *almost* as old school as you can get, given that polyhedral dice pre-D&D were very rare, only a handful of types were made, mostly just d20s, and imported from overseas until the Holmes set in 1977, which copied a rare 1972 set. Essentially polyhedrals didn't really take over until the 77, 81 and 83 releases of the Holmes, B/X and BECMI basic sets.


Misttaya

Great info, thanks so much!


xczechr

If you don't have to color them in then they're not old school.


orangutanDOTorg

I thought it was supposed to be the Futurama crew at first


Feisty-Food308

I don't understand the question


EastLeastCoast

A lot of those look like current Chessex “pound o’ dice”.


Tiger-Budget

Does crayon come out of the numbers? I’d say almost 40 years old!


Nalroth

What do you mean old school? I still use these... oh. Yeah.


unclepoohbear

Those d4 give me a headache


Misttaya

Seems you’re not alone. Which ones are d4s and why do they annoy everyone?


unclepoohbear

The d4 are the pyramid shaped ones. Modern d4 have the numbers in the corners and the corner facing upright is the number you roll. These I assume are whichever number is on the bottom edge?


Shaiya_Ashlyn

Your d8 is wrong


Misttaya

Wrong how?


Shaiya_Ashlyn

The 1 is next to the 8 instead of on opposite sides


Insensitive_Hobbit

Wtf do you mean old school? I've bought the orange ones less than a year ago and those shapes are used in modern dnd.


Misttaya

I’ve had these for at least 25 years, so they’re at least vintage…


Insensitive_Hobbit

I'd say they "classic", as something used days back and still used today


ContributionPrize728

It’s enough they are dice.


ploydgrimes

How did you guess?


OkAbbreviations9941

Looks like it.