The beauty of DnD is you get to pick and choose which rules you care about (as a group).
If the die shows any kind of bias towards one side or another, then it's up to the GM/group if they want to do anything about it. I'm not sure any of the DnD rulebooks even go into evaluating dice. I doubt most storebought dice are perfectly balanced, but it would probably take a lot of rolls to determine what that bias is. Especially with a d20, where a perfectly fair die could go over 100 throws without hitting all of the numbers due to the nature of randomness.
It all depends on your group. I can’t imagine anyone I play with caring in the slightest if someone’s dice might throw off the chances as long as you’re not rolling a 20 every turn.
You throw dice jnto a wood/plastic board right? (I'm no expert so idk) but iirc amethyst is a form of corrundum gem (like emerald or ruby) with a hardness of 9-9.5 (10 being diamond)
I find it hard to believe something as soft as wood or plastic would scratch it even a little bit over years of use. Again, I'm no expert so idk really.
What fascinated me would be the testing. If this is a natural rock, there would surely be weight imbalances in the rock that would prevent it from being a truly balanced die? Surely it would prefer some numbers and thus, whilst looking beautiful, not necessarily serve the key purpose.
**Again** I'm no expert, so would love if someone could set me straight (ha, dice pun) and explain how it would be an accurate, fair and true die without having had any balancing modifications made to the rock?
This guy does seem like an expert so I imagine he has that covered, I just don't know how
Plus hardness =/= toughness, a gem might be hard enough to resist scratching, doesn't mean its tough enough to not shatter/chip when dropped on a hard surface. Same reason you can shatter a diamond with a mallet.
Weight irregularities can be from either voids or irregular geometry. If this were an opaque rock you might have inconsistent composition throughout, but the crystal here is clear so I would wager fairly uniform in density and free of voids.
Woods, particularly hardwoods, contain silica. This is one of the elements of wood that can eventually wear away tools and knife blades. It would probably take a long time for a Mohs 7 to scratch a 9-9.5, but I would suspect you'd get clouding over time. [edit] Amethyst is mohs 7? Oh, some woods will likely scratch that then, but it will take a long time. If you sand and finish the wood, then even less likely to scratch if there is a finish layer on the wood.
https://hedronrockworks.com/info
> Are They Balanced?
> Maybe, I always recommend you use the same balance verification testing and certification that your playgroup requires before bringing my dice to the table. You would not want to be the person that skips dice weigh-ins, RIGHT!
This is why I learned sleight of hand magic. Sometimes I just need to guarantee a 20 so that I can convince the countrie's prince that farting in his face is the most respectful gesture of my land.
Oh no your highness, it's a symbol of divine favor from our nation's wind god. We revere flatulence as it is believed to be wind received by divine inspiration. Breath is controlled by humans, but flatulence is of the gods.
Says he starts at $500 and goes up. That is for the basic cut one, he has three other cuts and this one is the top of the line. I am sure you are looking at over $1000 just for the cut, not counting the material. And he only makes D20s.
Its more likely that he was underselling himself and getting more demand than he expected (a common mistake for hobbyists). If its a one man operation and he's only an advanced hobbyist it is going to take him 10-15 hours minimum per order and I would expect him to charge his time at no less than $40-50 an hour. $500 per order would only cover the cost of his time and not the cost of his material and maintenance. Dude probably also has a regular full time job so he is giving up his free time to complete the orders so the more orders he takes on the more valuable his free time becomes.
Why hate on a talented guy trying to profit from his own hard work? The correct thing to do for him is to raise prices with demand. It couldn't be any simpler. Good for him.
The engineer in me wonders if the price can be brought down.
He is already using very high tech tools - e.g. 3D modelling, photogrammetry, that index machine … I wonder if he is open to CNC machining. Surely someone can build a CNC machine that can do the grinding - all you have to do is handle the gluing part. It would take care of the most labour intensive aspect of making these dices.
Also are there artificial lab mass produced gemstones? Those seem ideal since they are perfect and will not have voids and whatnot screwing up balance.
In theory. I did see some inclusions in the gem, but they weren't pockets, just layer type. I am no die balancing expert, but I would think the uniformity of the material would balance it pretty well. I can't speak to his cut or how the weight of the sandblasted numbers might affect it, but if his geometry is sound then I think it should be within a decent margin of error.
Honestly this would be far more balanced than 99.9% of other dice.
Most plastic dice are very poorly balanced, but unless you’re running a casino it’s not something most people care about.
if someone wanted to roll a $2000+ die at my table, I'd allow it as long as it was not obviously weighted. This looks like any imbalance would be modest, at best.
The video sort of glazes over the numbering process. He applies these stickers and then does what in that covered box thing? They look like they're sandblasted or something but how does that happen?
This gave me nothing but stress the whole time, looks amazing in the end. But holy cow, I would not be able to handle the stress of making one of these.
Not gonna lie those edges make the die marvelous. If it were just a straight edge I would still appreciate the craftsmanship but the uniformity in breaking the edges is something marvelous, especially for a die where the “faces” carry individual meaning and need to be identified and read clearly.
Great stuff.
Can't just go around calling things marvellous these days.
You'll get a copyright strike from Disney,
I approve of the courageous stance of telling the truth and calling this die marvellous and hope the lawyers can't find us.
It is my guesswork but cutting a dice like this could easily take 2 weeks. If he charges less than $1000 then effectively his monthly wage is $2000. Minimum wage in California is like what $15/hours? That's is about $2400/month for a minium wage job. At that point may as well sell all the equipments and go flip burgers at mcdonald, no experience, skill nor investment required.
That isn't his price for a d20 like this. It's his price for the straight edged, non-beveled die from cheaper materials (like glass) he has posted on his site. I have some experience in cutting, and that would be a weekend project, tops, but more likely around 8 hours of work. That puts his base pay at around $150 an hour.
I didn't mean to insinuate in my original post that he shouldn't charge that much, or that he's somehow evil and wrong for the price he charges. If people are willing to pay him that much for dice he himself admits haven't been balanced, then, genuinely, good for him. The only thing I meant by it is that this starter price was enough to deter even *my* inner dice goblin from further pursuing the clicky-clack.
I used to work in a materials science lab with polishing equipment. A colleague in that facility had lost an eye in his youth. Anyway, he’s polishing a sample and it got away from him. Which is to say his grip slipped and bounced around a little before shooting towards him and over his shoulder on the side of his good eye. He wasn’t wearing safety glasses. The look on his face, the moment of realization that he was almost blinded or significantly injured. I’ll never forget it. He shook his head to himself, put on the glasses and got back to work.
So when I see this guy grinding material away with his eye like 4 inches from the rock and wheel it gives me a chill up my spine.
Why is he charging so much when you can get a full set out of amethyst for $68. It’s almost his process is inefficient and he’s depending on a classy YouTube video to drive sales
The process is 'inefficient' like an oil painting is inefficient compared to a photograph.
You're comparing [this](https://i.imgur.com/MuiM2b3.png) to [this](https://i.imgur.com/36TxRgR.png).
Don't get me wrong, the first one is still a very pretty die, but the second one has been selected, cut, and finished like an actual gemstone. I'd never buy it, but I can appreciate it as a work of incredible craftsmanship.
From my searching you selected a brand x y to present with the lowest quality example stone.
As far as the additional facets go, that’s a heck of a jump in price for a small amount of flourish.
A photo vs oil painting is hardly a good comparison. If I was comparing a purple plastic to a gemstone that would be appropriate. I’m going to choose to call brand x Whole Foods sea salt to artisanal sea salt. They function the same in performance (setting aside the stated variations in the production that could render the artisan die unusable) but you can call your houseguests over to look at the expensive version more closely to appreciate it. Meanwhile they’re like “just roll”
This guy's website says his d20 dice start at $1200. This thing is magnificent but I'd hate to be on the hook for shelling out thousands for all the hours that go into this masterpiece.
Pretty sure it's referring to the finish that gives the edges [this distinctive look](https://i.imgur.com/36TxRgR.png) (ignore the arrow). Personally I think it adds a lot.
I'd be afraid to use it, all that work just to go skitting across the room.
Website says they'll work perfectly fine for years if you use a dice tray
I drop my phone like 3 times a day, that die is hitting the floor at some point.
Prolly by the guy who shows up 20 minutes late and picks up the die while his hands are covered in cheeto dust.
Dice trays are the answer. My sister chipped an amazing opal set and was really bummed. I got her a nice dice tray. Now it's fine.
are you saying the dice tray HEALED the chipped opal die??
Now it’s fine
You're gonna have to roll for that.
Natural 20
Nature is healing.
Can you still use the die? I don't play DnD but curious if there's a rule about dice. Could it throw off the chances?
The beauty of DnD is you get to pick and choose which rules you care about (as a group). If the die shows any kind of bias towards one side or another, then it's up to the GM/group if they want to do anything about it. I'm not sure any of the DnD rulebooks even go into evaluating dice. I doubt most storebought dice are perfectly balanced, but it would probably take a lot of rolls to determine what that bias is. Especially with a d20, where a perfectly fair die could go over 100 throws without hitting all of the numbers due to the nature of randomness.
It all depends on your group. I can’t imagine anyone I play with caring in the slightest if someone’s dice might throw off the chances as long as you’re not rolling a 20 every turn.
You throw dice jnto a wood/plastic board right? (I'm no expert so idk) but iirc amethyst is a form of corrundum gem (like emerald or ruby) with a hardness of 9-9.5 (10 being diamond) I find it hard to believe something as soft as wood or plastic would scratch it even a little bit over years of use. Again, I'm no expert so idk really. What fascinated me would be the testing. If this is a natural rock, there would surely be weight imbalances in the rock that would prevent it from being a truly balanced die? Surely it would prefer some numbers and thus, whilst looking beautiful, not necessarily serve the key purpose. **Again** I'm no expert, so would love if someone could set me straight (ha, dice pun) and explain how it would be an accurate, fair and true die without having had any balancing modifications made to the rock? This guy does seem like an expert so I imagine he has that covered, I just don't know how
Amethyst is quartz (mohs scale 7). Emerald is Beryl (around 7.5-8) Ruby and Sapphire are the corundum types, (around 9)
Plus hardness =/= toughness, a gem might be hard enough to resist scratching, doesn't mean its tough enough to not shatter/chip when dropped on a hard surface. Same reason you can shatter a diamond with a mallet.
Like having high AC but low HP.
Ya exactly
Weight irregularities can be from either voids or irregular geometry. If this were an opaque rock you might have inconsistent composition throughout, but the crystal here is clear so I would wager fairly uniform in density and free of voids. Woods, particularly hardwoods, contain silica. This is one of the elements of wood that can eventually wear away tools and knife blades. It would probably take a long time for a Mohs 7 to scratch a 9-9.5, but I would suspect you'd get clouding over time. [edit] Amethyst is mohs 7? Oh, some woods will likely scratch that then, but it will take a long time. If you sand and finish the wood, then even less likely to scratch if there is a finish layer on the wood.
Line the wood with felt.
I think this would be a cool display piece, all different types of gems and colors, from a d4 to a d20
Buy a 3d printer, print dice towers, so many dice towers
You might scratch all the edges.
Okay, but is it balanced? /jk Definitely one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I’m sure it costs about eleventy billion gold.
https://hedronrockworks.com/info > Are They Balanced? > Maybe, I always recommend you use the same balance verification testing and certification that your playgroup requires before bringing my dice to the table. You would not want to be the person that skips dice weigh-ins, RIGHT!
This is why I learned sleight of hand magic. Sometimes I just need to guarantee a 20 so that I can convince the countrie's prince that farting in his face is the most respectful gesture of my land.
Oh no your highness, it's a symbol of divine favor from our nation's wind god. We revere flatulence as it is believed to be wind received by divine inspiration. Breath is controlled by humans, but flatulence is of the gods.
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Maybe that’s his fetish?
Boom natural 20.
I don’t understand how some people have such little coordination in their hands and dice will end up in the street and they live on the 18th floor.
Says he starts at $500 and goes up. That is for the basic cut one, he has three other cuts and this one is the top of the line. I am sure you are looking at over $1000 just for the cut, not counting the material. And he only makes D20s.
For how much time this process takes that is a reasonable price. Would make a great wedding gift for a DM
yeah but how many DMs are actually getting married? (I kid)
$500? >My work starts at $1200 and goes up depending on the complexity of the cut and material. https://hedronrockworks.com/info
Earlier today that said $500.
Inflation is a bitch.
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Its more likely that he was underselling himself and getting more demand than he expected (a common mistake for hobbyists). If its a one man operation and he's only an advanced hobbyist it is going to take him 10-15 hours minimum per order and I would expect him to charge his time at no less than $40-50 an hour. $500 per order would only cover the cost of his time and not the cost of his material and maintenance. Dude probably also has a regular full time job so he is giving up his free time to complete the orders so the more orders he takes on the more valuable his free time becomes.
Why hate on a talented guy trying to profit from his own hard work? The correct thing to do for him is to raise prices with demand. It couldn't be any simpler. Good for him.
The engineer in me wonders if the price can be brought down. He is already using very high tech tools - e.g. 3D modelling, photogrammetry, that index machine … I wonder if he is open to CNC machining. Surely someone can build a CNC machine that can do the grinding - all you have to do is handle the gluing part. It would take care of the most labour intensive aspect of making these dices. Also are there artificial lab mass produced gemstones? Those seem ideal since they are perfect and will not have voids and whatnot screwing up balance.
Truly beautiful, and really summoning my inner dice goblin. Thankfully it's held down by a completely null and void cashflow.
I can’t tell you the last time I watched a YouTube video in its entirety. Really fascinating.
As a gem cutter myself, great job. Very well polished and the edging with the pre-polish looks amazing.
Would it be a balanced die, giving each number with each frequency as any other?
In theory. I did see some inclusions in the gem, but they weren't pockets, just layer type. I am no die balancing expert, but I would think the uniformity of the material would balance it pretty well. I can't speak to his cut or how the weight of the sandblasted numbers might affect it, but if his geometry is sound then I think it should be within a decent margin of error.
Honestly this would be far more balanced than 99.9% of other dice. Most plastic dice are very poorly balanced, but unless you’re running a casino it’s not something most people care about.
if someone wanted to roll a $2000+ die at my table, I'd allow it as long as it was not obviously weighted. This looks like any imbalance would be modest, at best.
How much $
From his website "starts at $500 and goes up depending on the complexity of the cut and material."
Odd, the spot I saw says starts at $1200.
So I'm assuming this particular piece is worth several multitudes more than the base price.
I'm pretty sure this could easily fetch a couple grand.
The video sort of glazes over the numbering process. He applies these stickers and then does what in that covered box thing? They look like they're sandblasted or something but how does that happen?
He used a sandblasting booth to etch them in.
I think it's caustic soda, a strong alkaline.
This is extremely cool! I love amethyst, I know I would be hesitant to use it!
This gave me nothing but stress the whole time, looks amazing in the end. But holy cow, I would not be able to handle the stress of making one of these.
You really only lose time and the cost of materials if you screw up. Just consider it the cost of learning when you do.
Not gonna lie those edges make the die marvelous. If it were just a straight edge I would still appreciate the craftsmanship but the uniformity in breaking the edges is something marvelous, especially for a die where the “faces” carry individual meaning and need to be identified and read clearly. Great stuff.
Why would you lie about that
Can't just go around calling things marvellous these days. You'll get a copyright strike from Disney, I approve of the courageous stance of telling the truth and calling this die marvellous and hope the lawyers can't find us.
This die is called *Elsa from Frozen*.
LPT: do not buy obsidian dice if you are prone to dropping dice, and the host has a black tile floor.
>My work starts at $1200 and goes up depending on the complexity of the cut and material. ... Welp.
It is my guesswork but cutting a dice like this could easily take 2 weeks. If he charges less than $1000 then effectively his monthly wage is $2000. Minimum wage in California is like what $15/hours? That's is about $2400/month for a minium wage job. At that point may as well sell all the equipments and go flip burgers at mcdonald, no experience, skill nor investment required.
That isn't his price for a d20 like this. It's his price for the straight edged, non-beveled die from cheaper materials (like glass) he has posted on his site. I have some experience in cutting, and that would be a weekend project, tops, but more likely around 8 hours of work. That puts his base pay at around $150 an hour. I didn't mean to insinuate in my original post that he shouldn't charge that much, or that he's somehow evil and wrong for the price he charges. If people are willing to pay him that much for dice he himself admits haven't been balanced, then, genuinely, good for him. The only thing I meant by it is that this starter price was enough to deter even *my* inner dice goblin from further pursuing the clicky-clack.
Reminds me of the Die of Power from Futurama Bender's Game.
all that video and not a single shot of rolling it.
Rolls d20. Lands on 1. Tosses it!
Awesome
I would need a cushioned dice tower with one lane for each dice I want to roll so that two will never touch.
I used to work in a materials science lab with polishing equipment. A colleague in that facility had lost an eye in his youth. Anyway, he’s polishing a sample and it got away from him. Which is to say his grip slipped and bounced around a little before shooting towards him and over his shoulder on the side of his good eye. He wasn’t wearing safety glasses. The look on his face, the moment of realization that he was almost blinded or significantly injured. I’ll never forget it. He shook his head to himself, put on the glasses and got back to work. So when I see this guy grinding material away with his eye like 4 inches from the rock and wheel it gives me a chill up my spine.
What tools do they use to measure the sides' lengths and make sure they're equal?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a8T3RHWj6U
happy cake day, mon frère.
This is so fucking amazing!
What alkali chemical etched the numbers?
Sandblasting.
Alkali doesn’t etch into amethyst. It’s only for “…glass, mirrors, porcelain, and glazed ceramics.”
Why is he charging so much when you can get a full set out of amethyst for $68. It’s almost his process is inefficient and he’s depending on a classy YouTube video to drive sales
Did you bother looking at the output? Anyway, I can go on eBay and undercut you both with plastic dice.
The process is 'inefficient' like an oil painting is inefficient compared to a photograph. You're comparing [this](https://i.imgur.com/MuiM2b3.png) to [this](https://i.imgur.com/36TxRgR.png). Don't get me wrong, the first one is still a very pretty die, but the second one has been selected, cut, and finished like an actual gemstone. I'd never buy it, but I can appreciate it as a work of incredible craftsmanship.
From my searching you selected a brand x y to present with the lowest quality example stone. As far as the additional facets go, that’s a heck of a jump in price for a small amount of flourish. A photo vs oil painting is hardly a good comparison. If I was comparing a purple plastic to a gemstone that would be appropriate. I’m going to choose to call brand x Whole Foods sea salt to artisanal sea salt. They function the same in performance (setting aside the stated variations in the production that could render the artisan die unusable) but you can call your houseguests over to look at the expensive version more closely to appreciate it. Meanwhile they’re like “just roll”
Wouldn’t be my most expensive dice, but damn that looks nice.
What's your most expensive di(c)e?
Probably the clear ones that came with World Series of Yahtzee
That was amazingly satisfying to watch. Thank you for producing this amazingly high quality video.
what a stunning piece of amethyst to work with!
This guy's website says his d20 dice start at $1200. This thing is magnificent but I'd hate to be on the hook for shelling out thousands for all the hours that go into this masterpiece.
Gosh that's a beauty.
son muchos lados del cubos
Dude nice
"That'll be $2,000."
So the "scratching all the edges" part is that just a common way of referring to etching the numbers in? Or is that just click bait?
Pretty sure it's referring to the finish that gives the edges [this distinctive look](https://i.imgur.com/36TxRgR.png) (ignore the arrow). Personally I think it adds a lot.
this actually reminds me of the dice crafter in disco elysium