I got an email request this morning :
I am wondering if you happen to know the color of the dice original to COC box editions 1-3?
I cropped some dice pics out of Chaosium Call of Cthulhu set reference shots I have saved and sent them back. So I thought I’d post them here too for posterity. The pics are crops, so a touch grainy. They’re old photos, not representing items currently for sale.
Can’t guarantee they’re all original dice – being used sets – but I have good reason to believe they are, based on the completeness and condition of everything else in the box.
See my Call of Cthulhu RPG reference page for more info about the sets themselves.
See also:
Masks of Nyarlathotep (1984) : A World-Spanning Adventure for Call of Cthulhu in a Box Set
Ringworld: Roleplaying Adventure Beneath the Great Arch (1984)
Thick ‘n Thin: Stormbringer 1st edition box sets (1981-2) – Roleplaying in the World of Elric
Believe it or not, the scholarly pursuit of understanding and cataloging the specific color of the dice included in each Chaosium boxed set (that included dice) was seriously undertaken by more than one gaming historian. Knowledge is good. I helped each of the efforts to gain enlightenment. I’m a big “list” sort of guy by nature and habit.
Unfortunately, the answer is somewhat disappointing. The Chaosium was absolutely not “The Orderium” when it came to the dice used in any specific boxed set. In the late 70s and for much of the 80’s Chaosium purchased most of their dice in bulk from Chessex. Greg Stafford and Don Reents (Chessex) go way, way back. The Chaosium bought the most economically priced dice they could, as long as they were of the right number of sides, and not factory seconds, the color of the dice did not matter at all. If Chessex had too many red D20s or Yellow D12s as overstock and were willing to sell them a little more cheaply, all the better for Chaosium. Back in the Chaosium warehouse each type of die was in a big box or fish bowl for the collators of the boxed sets to collate into the boxed sets. Chaosium collated and shrink-wrapped all of their boxed sets in house. Enduring the heat from the shrink-wrapping process was a right of passage on team Chaosium. As long as you put the required number of dice of the correct type in the box before shrink-wrapping it, all was good in the world. You wouldn’t be forced to clean out the room where the goats were kept at night. The only thing that was pretty standard when it came to the dice included was that the D6s were white, smaller, and had pips instead of numbers because, wait for it, they were cheaper that way.
I’ve spoken with Chaosium warehouse people from back in the day, including Greg’s kids who would pitch in from time to time, and the answer was always the same. Color didn’t matter. It was the type of dice and the quantity required that mattered.
NOTE: One common characteristic of the polyhedral dice (all but the D6s) is that they almost never had paint filling in the numbers. In the early days people were used to using a crayon or their own paint to make the numbers easier to read.
NB: I can’t speak at all to what Games Workshop may have done with their boxed sets and the dice they used.
Thanks so much Rick for the background! Kinda what I was expecting given the variety of dice I’ve been seeing; a lot of companies put their box sets together in-house back in the day.
It’s my understanding that Chessex was not founded until 1987, and these are box sets from 1981-1985. That timeline doesn’t mesh. Further, the images presented here, as well as my own experience with 4 box sets, indicate the dice were “sharp” or “precision” edged, which, as I understand it, Chessex never produced (reselling some GameScience for a time was the closest they came). The numbering patterns indicate to me that they would be GameScience…
I’ll hit you on face pages – the number maps are definitely unique on these, as is the font and plastic.
I’ve done a LOT of digging and asking on these, and they’re not a “known” manufacturer from the time period, and there was speculation that they might be a from a local injection molding company nearby that has since closed. I knw lots of manufacturers that it definitely is NOT, but I don’t know who it IS yet.
Do you actually have these in your possession? I’d be interested in some closer photos and where the numbers and sprues are. I have an old pair of what I believe are Windmill percentiles (proper percentiles–two d20s numbered 0-9). They’re pretty distinct as the percentiles are much smaller than armory or GS. Now I’m wondering if they were in the CoC 1st edition box because I have no idea where they came from, but I’ve had them since the 80s.
Crossposting this to some facebook dice groups.
No, sorry these are photos on file from past inventory. Best wishes. -W
Kathy – send me some pics; I think I can help.
I just came across a set of these dice myself, and I can absolutely differentiate them from windmill. Specifically, the 707 in the dice map is absolutely distinct, and the open 4s on all the dice are fairly unique.
I’m most curious if these were, in fact, Chessex dice from before 1980. Did they make dice before their “tumbled” dice became the norm?
Kathy – send me some pics; I think I can help.
I just came across a set of these dice myself, and I can absolutely differentiate them from windmill. Specifically, the 707 in the dice map is absolutely distinct, and the open 4s on all the dice are fairly unique.
I’m most curious if these were, in fact, Chessex dice from before 1980. Did they make dice before their “tumbled” dice became the norm?