Veteran dice.

The beginning, circa 1989-1990.

 

While pouring through my gaming accoutrement the other day I stumbled upon a small bag of my original Chessex dice.

When I was maybe 9-10 years old, I was in the habit of going to a small hobby shop in Springfield Mall in Northern Virginia. The shop was small, probably already failing (as all hobby stores in malls tend to do...) and only had a few stands of Ral Partha figures, some ESCI/Ertl miniatures and the occasional other stuff I wasn't paying much attention to.

Having cut my teeth on games like Hero Quest, Battlemasters etc., I had grabbed some role-playing-game books from the local used book store and had only figured out that dice other than D6's existed.

I used my allowance (maybe w/ help of my dad, a fellow hobbyist) to pick up a twin set of Chessex dice, seen above.  This was before the "tens" dice became popular and before you could get additional D6's or D10's with your set.  It was a root beer and brown pair of sets.  D4-D20 w/ no repeats.

The root beer set remains intact and the brown set is missing two dice, one of which was taken by my sister for use with a board game she made for the science fair.  A stupid thing which I still hold grudge for today.

It struck me as I glanced through the dice that they'd been serving me well for nearly 25 years.  I've owned thousands of dice in that period, sold dozens of sets on, etc.  The dice in the picture above have been used for most role-playing games I've played and have always been my go-to dice when large numbers of dice were not necessary.

The dice are so worn you can see the edges chipped and cracked on the root beer D6 (one must wonder how many foes have been slain, or damage dealt by this one dice over its 25 year use...).  Sadly some of the brown ones are starting to show cracks in the center and I occasionally fear they will shatter upon impact!

I'm going to set out to replace the missing dice and possibly replicate the set for further use.  Only in my mid-30's, nostalgia creeps in when I stumble upon something like this.  They're silly little bits of plastic, but they've brought me a lot of joy and stubborn heartache!  It's perhaps my adoration for these dice which make me feel traitorous when I occasionally throw out extra dice, or sell them off.

I hope they continue to serve me well, as long as they can.  Thanks Chessex for 25 good years so far. I only wish you still printed this set...(I've asked, they don't!)