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Col. Lou Zocchi talks about dice

aramis

aramis

Administrator
Administrator
Baronet
Now that was very interesting! Thanks!
I've always wondered about Zocchi. He's one of the names that go back to the dawn of it all. Hell, I'd wager Starfleet Battle Manual was my fifth or sixth game. I was certainly playing that before SFB.
 
Then again, I'm one of those guys who likes my dice to roll really far. I have a set that looks like beach glass, and the 20 in that set out rolls (time/distance wise) any die I have seen.
 
Zocchi is one of the few P.T. Barnums left in the gaming world, K. Siembieda being the other. I always keep a full set of Zocchi dice, complete with a 0-9 d20 (of course). I prefer the opaque dice over the transparent ones, on account of the former's charmingly ugly color.
 
Isn't there a D&D monster named after Lou? I swear I remember hearing about one, once.

But, wow! I hadn't realized what a menace bad dice have become. Cheap dice manufacturers have literally killed thousands of Player Characters, eh? Someone needs to put together a multi-GP class action suit! Does D20 have a Lawyer Class yet?

Buy Zocchi dice! Pretend lives depend on it!

I still have my very first D20. I got it waaaay back about 1976 or so; it rolls like a marble these days.
 
ISTR there was a monster named for him, but I believe it was in Dragon.

For me, I found SFBM after SFB, and wish SFBM had the ship range of SFB, as it has the better play.
 
Drat! After hearing the DM (Dice Master) explain it I'm now spoiled for anything but manufactured dice. If the edges won't cut skin every time I pick them up to roll they won't do! If the points don't leave little dents in the felt when I roll them they aren't sharp enough! If I can't build a tower 10,000 dice tall without them falling over they aren't precise enough!

:)

Seriously though, I wonder if he ever Chi-square tested any of those supposed un-random rollers? I recall testing some of my dice through a large sample decades ago. The cheap, well worn, "lucky" dice I used for years from my first D&D game. They came out remarkably random. Proved to me "lucky" was a case of selective recall as I had always expected. And they were worn and rounder than my better quality dice of the same era (Gamescience solid white d20 with the casting spur more carefully shaved ;)) not because of the quality of the plastic but because they got used more. They just "felt" better somehow, and the cheap gems I kept buying looked cooler. That old solid white Gamescience d20 I splurged on (I think some friends thought I was crazy spending that much for it, I could have bought a full set of coloured dice for the same price) still looks brand new, because it's always the last one (as in almost never) used.

Sure casinos require a seriously strict level of quality, but it's not so much so they roll purely random as so they can catch cheaters :) Of course they do want the rolls to be random, they make money on the fact they can predict the outcome of averages. I really don't think an RPG needs that level of quality.

He is a great salesman, of that there is no doubt, and he has quality products, but the whole rounded dice bit sounds like a lot of hype :)
 
I've known about this for years. I'm glad you posted this, though. I mentioned this at my last campaign, making some dice illegal, and some of my players thought I was crazy.

Now, I'm going to send this to them so that they know I'm not.
 
Making special designs inplace of the dots or digits change the rolls also

I had to address when developing special MK (R) dice for WizKids LLC.

Size of actual dice, the size and depth of the dots along with design of the corners makes a huge difference in how a die will roll and land.

But sometimes need of looks or cost outway the actual rollability of the die.

Example: since we had young kids (who probably had younger siblings) we had to have rounded corners.
Example: In one product we had to use smaller size dice to keep cost down.
Example: In another product the dice had to fit into a wrap with cards, so they are so small that you can barely see them.

One of my favorite dice to roll was the die inside of a die made by Koplow games.
The outside was transparent with colored dots, and inside was a solid color die with dots.

The company that made Rolled Bones dice game had a neat idea but each dice was very costly to make. The had all the features of what cansino dice did, smooth faces, square edges and corners but they also were picture imprinted in the die it self. Color might fade if you really abused it but they did last a long time.
(Had full color pictures on them and text also. Sometimes it was hard to read the small font but it was there.)

Dave Chase
 
Chessex is selling Zocchi dice too:

CHX 23081 Diamond Poly Clear Prec Edge (7) $6.95
CHX 23084 Red Poly Prec Edge (7) $6.95
CHX 23085 Emerald Poly Prec Edge (7) $6.95
CHX 23086 Sapphire Poly Prec Edge (7) $6.95
CHX 23087 Amethyst Poly Prec Edge (7) $6.95
CHX 23095 Green Glow I/t Dark Prec Edge (7) $6.95
CHX 23096 Lt Blue Ice Poly Prec Edge (7) $6.95

So if your FLGS uses Alliance (the biggest distributor their is) as one of their sources, you can get them locally and not have to pay shipping. The dice are good, but they're sets of seven with only 1d6, so they're not ideal for Traveller.
 
interesting take on things there. I played in his store in the early 80's. (to the best of my knowledge) He had two stores 1 in Biloxi and one in gulfport MS. I was in the Air force and doing training at Keesler AFB.
 
A long time back when I first started gaming, a 'veteran' of pre-hardcover AD&D books passed on his secret regarding dice.

He said it wasn't the dice so much, composition and design not withstanding, but the surface on which such were rolled. He then revealed his personal preference for using a small wooden salad bowl to develop his 'english' to making saving throws and frequent natural 20s.

I have carried said sage advice with me through all my years as a player, and now a referee, and cannot find fault in his wisdom.
 
I remember my TSR dice, many years ago. They were bad, chipping & flaking. I was able pick a few of Zocchi's dice through mail order.

My favorite six-siders I GM with are nonstandard dice that are rodlike, made up of six long triangles. I like to have some more, but they don't seem to be made anymore. Can't remember what company made them.
 
aramis said:
It's a combat system with rolled stats... very 1st gen. (Traveller is second gen...)
Click to expand...

In that the "first" Generation was maybe two years long, I suppose you could classify Traveller as a second gen. When looking at RPGs as more than just skirmish systems with random unit generation, Traveller is a first gen RPG, sitting alongside D&D, T&T, Runequest, C&S, the final form of TFT, Metamorphosis Alpha, and a very few others. Chainmail/Brown box D&D, Star Patrol, the early components of TFT, and a scattering of others are that "neither fish nor fowl" Generation Zero.

But this is nomenclature, and religious nomenclature at that, so I'll stop now.
 
Darkhstarr said:
My favorite six-siders I GM with are nonstandard dice that are rodlike, made up of six long triangles. I like to have some more, but they don't seem to be made anymore. Can't remember what company made them.
Click to expand...

I think those are from Crystal Caste, though Chessex may be making them now.
 
Darkhstarr said:
I remember my TSR dice, many years ago. They were bad, chipping & flaking. I was able pick a few of Zocchi's dice through mail order.

My favorite six-siders I GM with are nonstandard dice that are rodlike, made up of six long triangles. I like to have some more, but they don't seem to be made anymore. Can't remember what company made them.
Click to expand...

Crystal Cache still does.
 
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