That makes sense, as my set are also well worn. The edges are rounding and the black numbering is almost gone, although you can still see whats what.

I'm just glad that the dice I kept hold of from my brother all those years ago are genuinely old and not so common.  

bbarsh wrote:
They were only available via the Holmes Set (early prints) or direct purchase from a hobby shop or TSR. The direct purchase sets came in a bag of five - d4 yellow, d6 orange, d8 green, d12 blue and d20 white.

When we played, we never had the Holmes set, only a really early MM and the PHB & DMG that I bought early '80's.

So unless he got the dice from the group he first played with, (which I sat alongside and watched with interest as a very young something year old) then he must have picked them up in a store as a bagged set of 5.

Interesting news though, thanks!  

TheMilford wrote:The dice that came in the 1981-183 boxed sets (later Moldvay/Cook through early Mentzer) and packaged as "Dragon Dice" were the lowest impact dice I have ever seen. One can actually scrape them with one's thumbnail. They flake and loose their edges very rapidly... even worse than what people refer as the  above pictured "low-impact" dice from the Holmes sets and earlier.

Well, yes. But I don't consider them "real" dice. The original TSR dice were meaty and dangerous - that new four-sider doubled as a caltrop! Those Dragondice were really pieces of crap....

Gnat the Beggar wrote:OK, so what are the green ones?

The green dice are probably almost as old as the low impact dice in the picture.

That style of high impact dice was from the early era when various shades of sparkly dice were not available.

In most game stores, the red, blue, violet and cadmium yellow dice generally sold out as single-piece sales before the green ones....which means that full sets of green dice from the era were/are more common than the other colors.  Even the ugly brown dice sold out before the lime greens.

Since we're talking dice, let me be even more pedantic:  The relatively sharp edges on this set seems to indicate they were not heavily used in gaming, since the edges of this type started sharp and wore round (as opposed to the round-molded edges of today's dice).  

Also, I believe I see a 17 or an 11 on one edge of the d20.  That means that this set probably came from the second run of colored high impacts....since the originals had only 0-9 on both sides.  You had to differentiate the 10's with either different colored ink or (my preference) dots

Or...they were bought at Walmart two weeks ago.  

For those of you who never rolled low-impact dice.......if you dropped them on the table too hard they would chip and shatter and come apart like ice cubes.  D20 dice from the Holmes Basic Set became unusable within a relatively short time...although some stayed in sly use if their chips and cracks made them likely to roll a 20.

The ice cream-colored dice in the picture would indicate an early Holmes Basic Set.  Midway through the second print TSR ran out of dice and shipped the boxed sets with chits...the chits are younger, not older, than the dice sets.  When TSR resumed shipping boxed sets with dice they were different color, size and texture.

OK, so it ain't the Dead Sea Scrolls, but there it is anyway.

The dice could be from Melendy Trains on eBay.  They were also known as Diamond Dice.  Information on Diamond Dice can be found on the DiceCollector's page at http://www.dicecollector.com/diceinfo_diamond.html



Diamond Dice/Melendy Trains' eBay store, which is looking a bit shy on dice at the moment:



. . . http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Melendy-trains_Dice



and an example of their low-impact dice:



. . .  
** expired/removed eBay auction **

What is an OSR?

Yes, yes, I know. The thrust of the quest was if the con was geared to rpgs/edition of D&D that some might consider falling under the rubric of old school? There, nice and gentle like

FormCritic wrote:
Looking at the NTRPGCon pictures one would assume that most of the action there was OSR.

I just went for the BBQ at Doug's house    

bbarsh wrote:
I just went for the BBQ at Doug's house    

Yeh, and that was an OLD SCHOOL food throw down there.  

BTW we are definitely going to look back at the humble beginnings of the NTRPG Con and laugh.  The place for 2010 has all sorts of room and is going to blow the doors off the La Quinta we held it at this year (as nice as it was, it was a mite cramped....)

http://www.ntrpgcon.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=55&func=view&catid=2&id=138

Mike B.