Federation Commander

The biggest obstacle is that I cannot get my TO DO list done now and do I really need to add "reserach dice, negotiate with dice manufacturers" to my list of things to do?

I gotta believe that somewhere is somebody who can do a more cost effective production run than Chessex. I don't have time to find them.

One would think that non-gaming trekkers would buy such dice as souveniers. They don't, perhaps because they have no way to know they exist?

I know there are a lot of kinds of dice. The ones that TFG-4 had made in England* were rather plain. Just an "emblem shaped depression" in the "one side" of the die filled with colored paint. I saw some really cool full-color dice at GTS one year. They actually print a picture on each side of the die.

I could see one of two things being done.

1. Find somebody who can make really cool dice. Have one or two or three made with a ship on the "one" side and numbers on the other sides. Put them on the shopping cart, but do not sell them through stores (as that would run the price up). They would be a "prestige" item.

2. Have a die made that said on the six sides: WW, SS, SP, GAS, HTS, MRS and you could use it as kind of a marker by the shuttle counter.

If somebody can find a place that would make any decent dice for 10 cents each in quantities of no more than 1,000 I would consider having sets made and sold through stores.


(*which has to be a dumb place to make stuff for the US market by the Olsen boys did a lot of things in England just because they liked flying there four times a year)

Thanks for the info SVC, i will keep my eyes peeled and try and do some research.

The other thing (besides the price) to keep in mind when making customized dice is that the balance on the dice doesn't always stay as even as it needs to be. Someone once mentioned to me that a customized dice set for one of the nationalities in a game that's been around for several years now was found to be imbalanced, with the national symbol that replaced the '1' facing heavier than the regular 'pip' facings on the other five sides. Word got around about it but not everyone's aware of the problem, which can be an issue if you don't know why your opponent is having a 'lucky' streak with the dice (or if you yourself don't realize why certain of your dice are "lucky").

Fed dice should have the national symbol on the "6" side then...

I've wondered whether the sides of a die with more pips would have any significant difference in mass so that "1" and "2" might be ever so slightly heavier and therefore cause more "6" and "5" results. Maybe they aren't weighted exactly in the middle. Maybe the paint in the pips makes up for some of that. Maybe it doesn't matter.

Scoutdad, Do you know any person with said boyscout qualities going to origins?...

Hmmm... let me think about it, and I'll get back to you.