In a typical Dungeons & Dragons group, the players take the time to craft their first characters and usually those characters will be remembered. I mean who can ever forget their first? But the step that elevates an interested player to a fan comes the day they buy their own set of dice. Standard dice sets typically are either 7-piece or 10-piece polyhedral sets. By tradition, the packaging consists of the bare minimum of dice needed to play the game.

That is where the problem starts.

Anyone who ever started out as spellcaster will tell you, they always needed more dice. Spells are the most powerful feature and ability in D&D. By 5th level, a Wizard embarks on their first 3rd level spell slot, gaining access to one of the game’s most iconic spells: Fireball. Fireball in 5th Edition deals 8d6 Fire damage to targets within its effect radius. When you think that the standard sets either only includes one or two d6, it becomes a daunting task for players and DMs. The ideal dream is to throw down a fist full of dice and do the math without having to keep track of previous rolls. Most players and DMs solve this problem with random number generators or dice generators. Over the course of a player’s (and DM’s) career, they will accumulate dice both for aesthetical and practical reasons. The aesthetical purpose is obviously to collect these wonderfully colored dice. The pragmatic reason is simple: you always need more dice. There are products for players and DMs to acquire huge bags of dice at a fair price point, gaming conventions will have dice buckets for customers to buy in bulk, or they buy sets of dice at a time to acquire a reasonable assortment of dice.

Besides the initial investment on the three Core Rulebooks (I’m talking from the DM’s perspective), there are also dice, and then let’s include any other props or handouts that cost money. Ultimately, a DM has a larger monetary investment up front already, dice shouldn’t have to be one of them.

Enter Dice of Rolling

From their website:
Dice of Rolling are a 5th edition optimized set of 29 RPG dice designed by a GM and a Twitch streamer! Ever wanted to roll all 8d6 for a Fireball in a single toss? We’ve got you covered. We’ve tailored this set to include plenty of the dice you need for common spells and abilities. Better yet, each die is color-coded by type to speed up play. This is the dice set we’ve always wanted for our table, and with your help we can bring it to tables everywhere!

What You Get:

  • (4) d4s
  • (10) d6s
  • (5) d8s
  • (5) d10s
  • (2) d12s
  • (2) d20s
  • (1) d%

Not only are the dice distributed well to maximize dice rolling, but they are aesthetically color coded to aid new DMs and even players with recognizing the dice easily.

Dice of Rolling is on Kickstarter! 

Dice of Rolling’s dice set will be open crowdfunding via Kickstarter and right now if you would like an email notification for when it starts, you can click here or on their website: diceofrolling.com.

You can also follow them on social media on their Facebook and Twitter.

Update: Their Kickstarter is officially live! Click here.

Backstory – Oh Boy!

So you may notice on the site’s description about the dice set about being optimized for DMs and Twitch streamers. You might be wondering why, well let’s meet the lovely people behind Dice of Rolling.

Jon and Keni Hill are the people behind this fantastic idea. Keni runs a Twitch channel called PKC Games. Keni streams 40 hours a week there while Jon runs several roleplaying games. They’re both die-hard gamers, so they understand the basic needs of most players too. Jon is a user experience designer with a proficiency bonus in product design, manufacturing, and fulfillment.

Here’s a bit more story provided by Jon:

It really all started after coming back from PAX West last year. They’d gone to PAX for the last 4 years, but 2016 was just off the hook. We had met some of our idols like Chris Perkins and the rest of the Acquisitions, Inc crew. Probably the highlight of the trip was hanging out with Don Escridge (creator of The Resistance) late into the night at our hotel, drinking tequila and playing Skull & Roses. 
Upon their return, they were inspired. Out of nowhere, Keni suddenly wanted to stream on Twitch, and Jon wanted to start DMing a D&D campaign. They both followed through. Keni is now growing a great Twitch channel with an awesome community, and Jon has been DMing since last September. At the moment Keni streams mainly Nintendo games, but at some point they hope to combine the two passions and start streaming their D&D games as well.
The idea for Dice of Rolling arose immediately after Jon started DMing. As a newbie DM, along with his fellow players, there was a moment of clarity as he struggled to explain which dice to roll for probably the 100th time. “Why aren’t these things color-coded?” I asked the table, and one by one everyone replied with some variation of, “Yeah, why aren’t they?” As a user experience designer, this is one things where his mind went.
Later that night, Jon searched for a set to the one he had in mind, but shockingly there was nothing. Jon couldn’t find a shred of evidence that there’s ever been a product like this. This idea for a color-coded polyhedral dice set (not counting ones that players may have made on their own) may be the first of its kind. Jon committed then and there to bring this product to market.
Time skip 8 or so months since PAX, and they’re super excited to bring Dice of Rolling to market. They’re hoping to attend PAX Unplugged for the first time as exhibitors.

Dice of Rolling Offers Something Unique 

I can say from personal experience, watching new players taking on the large smack of jargon and knowledge can be a daunting and sometimes frustrating task for both new and veteran DMs. It’s sometimes not a great process, there is a learning curve when it comes to D&D (as well most roleplaying games). One of the products that I genuinely enjoyed being produced for 5th Edition were the spell cards, it helped reduce the bookkeeping for all casters characters. Players love them, it’s a quick resource to prepare spells and cast them without sifting through the book. Even digital spell cards from D&D Beyond has streamlined the experience.

Dice has been one of the matters that has yet to be approachable. It took some of my players months to familiarize themselves the basic shapes, as none of them were math majors or dealt with higher trigonometry like myself. I’m not showing off, I’m just emphasizing that the learning curve for the game has always been the following: 1) the Action economy, 2) Ability Scores & saves 3) Spells & Attacks, 4) Dice and 5) Class Features. Not always in that order but Dice is definitely one of the big learning curves many new players undergo before becoming experts.

If I had something like Dice of Rolling for my new players, it would definitely have helped them learn the game much quicker than the six months it took for them to realize the difference between a d8 and a d10 (one of the most common mistakes), or d12 and d20 (another common one). Even when I start DMing for other groups full of new players, it remains one of the biggest learning curves to overcome. The lack of confidence leads to players not want to step into the shoes of DMing, which is sad since I know many players over time develop their own sense of story but repress it because they lack a command of the game.

I don’t want that for new DMs, I would lover for anyone to pick up their books and dice and say to their gaming group, “hey, I got a new campaign idea, want to play?”

Additionally, as freebies to help promote Dice of Rolling, there are printable Action cards to help players learn about the Action Economy (arguably one of the first and longest running learning curve to master).

Click here for crop-marks and here for no crop-marks. You can also find them on diceofrolling.com.

Final Impression & Links

I’m honestly very honored and pleased to support this amazing project. This a great cause for the community as I hope it will inspire more players to take up the Dungeon Master mantle and find their calling as a storyteller. You can definitely show your support by visiting diceofrolling.com and sign up to be notified when their Kickstarter goes live!

Don’t forget to check out their other social media!

Also check out and support Keni and her Twitch channel!

In case you missed it, click here for the Kickstarter project page.

Updated June 27, 2016: Kickstarter is live and added Kickstarter links and removed PHB giveway link.

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