star Fleet Battles Dice

[Savedfromwhat]

Hey guys i just got an old copy of SFB and it had 2 romulan dice inside one with the romulan symbol and one with a bird of prey. I was wondering if there were any others ( I heard there were klingon and fed ones) and if there are is there any way to get them, and if not these are really cool and if ADB could do them again that'd be sweet.

[Scoutdad]

Saved: there were more sets available...
Federation (blue die w/black pips)
Romulan (red die w/black pips)
Klingon (black die w/white pips)
Kzinti (white die w/black pips)
Gorn (white die w/red pips)
Hydran (green die w/white pips)
Lyran (yellow die w/green pips)
ISC (yellow die w/black pips)

I managed to score either 3 or 4 sets of each when they were available. Now, about the only way to get them is through ebay or to get lucky at a gaming convention or some such.

I'm at work right now and can't be certain... but I think I have one set of Andromedan dice also... but I could just be remembering a set of green dice with black pips we bought for our Andro player to use. I'll check later today.

I know several people have suggested to Steve that he try to reproduce them. They are one of the things on his "someday" list. I'm sure if he every finds a manufacturer that doesn't need to print a minimum of 250,000 or so and it's affordable - he'll do it. Until then, just keep looking and good luck.

[Mike]

Would any of the mini or model paints be strong enough to hold up so that a person could paint their own dice those color schemes? Probably for most games of FC only a few would be needed.

[Savedfromwhat]

I saw that Chessex will make custom dice but I am not sure about the pricing, would that be an avenue I could use (or even ADB if the price was right)

Scoutdad: Wow considering that there were all those different sets I must have lucked out and gotten my favorite race thanks for the info.

[Davec_24]

I reckon painting the dice probably would work, although it would eventually wear off with handling (even the paint in the pips of dice you buy wears off eventually), at which point you could just re-paint them. If you can find dice with the correct plastic colour and just re-paint the pips, this would be even better.

[Scoutdad]

I saw that Chessex will make custom dice but I am not sure about the pricing, would that be an avenue I could use (or even ADB if the price was right)

I had a couple of custom Federation and Empire VBIR (variable battle intensity rating) dice made for me (in the racial colors I was playing this year) by Chessex while at Origins. They charge $1.00 a face for a custom imprint, so my dice were $6 each - suffice it say, I won't have custom dice made for all 16 races.

Now, if you want SFB/FC type dice with a racial image replacing the one pip - then you're only looking at $1 a die + whatever the charge is for converting your artwork to a file form the computer can use.

Scoutdad: Wow considering that there were all those different sets I must have lucked out and gotten my favorite race thanks for the info.

Sometimes the gaming gods smile down on us.
It took me forever to collect a full set... and I started buying them when they were still fairly readily available. I've thought about going to Origins with the artwork files on a USB flash drive next year and trying to get a set of:
Orion Pirate dice (blue dice w/white pips)
Tholian Dice (red dice w/white pips)
WYN Dice (yellow dice w/red pips)

Just to have a full set, but I've been told I get OCD about having complete sets before - so I'm trying to withstand the temptation.

[Steve Cole]

We ran out of those years ago.

I'd like to do more but I don't know where to get them done.

Trick is to get the price WAY down.

I don't know what the price is for a set of custom dice. Say it's $1 each. We would need to get the price south of 15 cents each and preferably before 10 cents each, buying in quantities of say 2,000-5,000. (Wholesale discounts, shipping, labor, and packaging would take up about 80 cents per die.)

And then we'd have to be convinced people would buy them.

[Davec_24]

Sounds like the classic problem of not being able to make a test run to see if people will buy them because the cost of making a smalle batch makes the price per item huge. I think if you could do them for a reasonable price, people would buy the dice because you can never have too many dice, and they're nice pretty dice that look cool and are collectible as well.

[malleman]

Mike,

Try using a paint pen with a med tip. Since the tips of most med paint pens are almost the same size as a pips on 16mm dice it takes almost no time to do your own. You can order the dice in all of the SFB racial colors and paint the pips the same as the ship colors. If you make any mistakes, just scrape the excess paint off with a hobby knife after it drys. I did this for all of the races that I like. Of course, they are probably not as nice as Scoutdads dice, with symbols for the #1 pip, but it is kind of neat to have a set dice for your favorite race.

[Steve Cole]

Dice did not sell all that well when we had them. Based on the sales of the stock we inherited, I'm not seeing enough market to bother making more. But I didn't say "never".

[Savedfromwhat]

SVC How many of each type would you need to be made, I checked Chessex's website and it was .42 cents for 1000 dice with one Image printed (of course this is surely negotiable for buisnesses) but you said you would need like 2000 and I am assuming it would not be 200 of each but around 100 to 150 for each race. Again no where near the .10 cents that would be managable.

[Scoutdad]

Saved: You're back to the same problem... money.
Assume it is only 150 of each type. 150 custom imprinted dice go for $0.60 each, or $90. The old set had 2 different images for each race. One was the national symbol, one was a cruiser silhouette.

Now assume you go with the 7 major races (Fed/Klink/Rom/Gorn/Kzin/Lyran/Hydran). At 2 images each - that's 14 different runs and at 150 each - that is $12,600 for the run of 150 sets.

Now the problem is that ADB has tied up over $12,000 of operating capital that could be used for future Fed Comm development or other business expenses. They will (hopefully, but not likely) make that back when all of the dice are sold... but how long would that take? Sure a few people have expressed and interest, but would they be interested at $15 to $20 for a set of all 14? I know I wouldn't simply because I already have multiple sets.

Additionally, due to the Texas inventory tax laws, they'd have to pay an annual tax on the dice in stock each year until they were sold... I'm sure I've missed (or misconstrued) several salient points in this discussion - but I sure am glad hat I don't have to make those kind of operating decisions on a regular basis. I'd have already run the company into bankruptcy.

[Davec_24]

Of course this is all hypothetical and won't happen for a long time if at all, but if people who already have part of a set or a full set of the SFB dice not buying any more dice is an issue, perhaps any new dice which get made should be different from the old ones enough to encourage those with SFB dice to buy the new "FC dice" sets.

[Scoutdad]

Or, some enterprising (and trustworthy, boy-scout type...) forum member who's going to Origins could be charged with collecting the money from anyone interested, then he could either find or create the requisite line art, go to Origins, and have custom dice made for all interested parties.

Those would really be "Limitied Edition" dice.

[Davec_24]

While this would save ADB the initial payout of making a whole batch of dice, it wouldn't be as accessible to players as having "official" dice available through game retailers. For example, it would be difficult for overseas customers to get these, or at least more costly due to shipping costs and/or customs charges.