Nostr notes by James Maliszewski (Unofficial)

Too Many Is it possible to have too many dice? That's a ...

2026-10-31T20:24:58Z

Too Many

Is it possible to have too many dice? That's a question I recently asked myself after attending Gamehole Con and CleriCon this month.
When I was younger, my answer would certainly have been no, in large part because, in the '80s, there weren't that many dice to buy, at least where I grew up. For the longest time, the only dice I ever owned were the ones that came in RPG boxed sets. They were almost universally terrible – either the infamous "low impact" dice associated with the Holmes D&D Basic Set or the almost-as-bad Dragon Dice from other TSR offerings. I think the first decent dice I acquired were the Gamescience set included in Call of Cthulhu, but it's possible I'm misremembering.
Regardless, I cherished every set of dice I acquired, even the bad ones, because, as I said, I didn't have the luxury of being able to pick and choose from a vast array of options. Even when more options became available to me, whether from Gamescience or The Armory, I still rarely bought them – not that I didn't want to do so. Being young, I didn't have a lot of money and what money I did I have I saved for being more games and adventure modules.
When that changed, I started buying lots of dice, so many, in fact, that I filled several bags with them. I soon had dice of every conceivable color and manufacturer. The trouble was that I rarely made use of most of them. I had a few favorite sets – I'm particularly fond of green dice, for example – with the rest primarily being purchased "for show." I'd pick up almost any dice or sets of dice that I thought looked cool or that caught my fancy in some way or other.
Sometime later, I looked at all the dice I'd accumulated and thought, "Do I really need this many dice?" It was a fair question, given how few of them I ever actually used. Furthermore, I play increasingly online and make use of a variety of dice rolling bots or apps, making physical dice ever less useful to me. I started to feel as if maybe, just maybe, I should stop buying dice. After all, I already literally had more dice than I could ever use. What was the point of buying more?
That remained my position for some years and, truthfully, I didn't find it hard to refrain from buying more dice. That changed last year when I was seated at a table at Gamehole Con and a player seated near me had a few of these delightful gelatinous cube dice that glowed in the dark. I was so enamored of them that I asked where she'd gotten the dice and then, the next day, bought a couple for myself. There was also a complete polyhedral set of similar design, but I held off on buying it. Once I got home from the con, though, I regretted not buying the full set and vowed to correct my mistake next year.
When next year finally arrived, I made good on my promise and bought the set, along with a handful of other dice from the same manufacturer. I also bought myself a(nother) set of DCC RPG dice from the Goodman Games booth – they were 25% off; how could I resist? – and spent an inordinate amount of time staring at dice for sale at the Chessex booth and elsewhere. I resisted buying any more dice, but, as I did last year, I found myself slightly regretting not being more indulgent. Maybe next year, I thought.
What is the appeal of dice? Why do we gamers want to have so many of them? Why do I find myself thinking about getting more of them when I already have so many? Objectively, it's ridiculous and yet I still ponder these and related questions on a regular basis. What's wrong with me?

https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2026/10/too-many.html

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Con Season (Part II) I've been back from Gamehole Con for a ...

2026-10-23T20:19:24Z

Con Season (Part II)

I've been back from Gamehole Con for a few days and am now preparing to attend another, local convention, CleriCon. I attended for the first time last year and had a great time. I'll be running a couple of games there, as well as playing in a couple. I'll give a full report of my exploits at both conventions next week, when I've had a chance to catch my breath.

https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2026/10/con-season-part-ii.html
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https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU0JnW89lyTOx3aDZqDU5N0cAr-S7xhAZiSrJqahBHb8qgSjjhpw__0EGbwIOht-rKcszUbA3cgw2TacB_EdlWLuh-n3Agn4_KRQI3rUMYCvYZw0zihdf11KDSrmnAJjhQ_iHrb9GeGsgW2462EGXjl0K34eM6eqH4Ozqpye_r_UEIksB_Bc3L9xlVgr0K/s72-w400-h186-c/images.jfif

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Con Season (Part I) Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Gamehole Con ...

2026-10-16T03:26:27Z

Con Season (Part I)

Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Gamehole Con in Madison, Wisconsin, the first of two conventions I'll be attending in the next few weeks. As I did last year, I'll write a post or two about my experiences at the convention. I always find that attending in-person events like this reinvigorates me and, truthfully, I could use an infusion of energy these days.
If, by any chance, any readers are attending GHC, I hope we'll have the opportunity to meet. It's great hanging out with my fellow gamers in the flesh, as I've discussed before. The Internet is a wonderful tool, but nothing can beat sitting around a table with people you can see and spending a few hours rolling dice and roleplaying with them. It's a reminder of where this hobby began and what I still like most about it.
More next week! Wish me luck.

https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2026/10/con-season-part-i.html