Dice in the old D&D starter boxes?

[whitebeard]

I bought this box in ~1990. It came with newer dice.

Orange red D20 & D8
Light green D12
Dark green D10
Black D6 & D4

At this point, I don't think they were doing anything consistent with the colors. But the font on the dice is what you want to match. TSR used a decimal point nexto to the 6 and 9 to distinguish these.

[Goblin-King]

Well... The point of this question is that I want to get a set of dice specifically for D&D.
I thought it would be cool to go retro and get a set matching the original box. But it seems this doesn't quite make sense.

Thanks for the input though

[Big Bene]

I remember a light blue and an orange. Also a yellow, I think. No bright colors, all of them rather on the pastel side. And the plastic was weird, too.

[clmckay]

I can't swear my memory is correct, but I think a box I got in the early 90's had a separate small plastic tray/container in the box with a generic white crayon. The dice were a dark blue. As mentioned, with the small dot to denote the 6/9.

[Goblin-King]

It seems these ugly *fragglers* were the first differently colored dice D&D players used. Urgh! Look at those sharp edges! What kind of company would produce dice like that? OOOOOOOH!


Doesn't even have a D10

Moving the topic slightly along... Where does the iconic RED D20 come from?

[whitebeard]

It seems these ugly *fragglers* were the first differently colored dice D&D players used. Urgh! Look at those sharp edges! What kind of company would produce dice like that? OOOOOOOH!

GamesWorkshop apparently!

[Big Bene]

These come very close in look.

[Decipher]

Kind of an old thread, but I still have mine also. Mine are quite different than I remember everyone else having. I remember everyone having the plastic one like Big Bene posted in his link. Mine were packaged with the 1981/1982 red starter box by my old friend Frank Mentzer revised, but the dice themselves are transparent orange plastic. I have them still to this day in a closet somewhere. I might dig them out and post a pic. I remember I also had a blue or black crayon but have since lost it. I ended up using the ink from a black Bic ink pen to fill in the numbers. I always liked how the old plastic dice rolled. They felt great and I personally prefer them over the newer acrylic dice any day.

Oh its a treasure hunt, I gotta find those dice now.

Did anyone ever get a clear set with their box set?

[Markus Darwath]

In my Basic set (Moldvay revision) some of the dice were orange and some were yellow. In the Expert set mine were all blue. I still have some of them (crayon filled numbers and all), but sadly I don't have all of either set. I may have to dig through my bag of random dice and see if I can make a full set using all three colors.

In response to cornixt: I don't know about the -original- dice sets, but mine had d10s. What they lacked was the 10-sided percentile.

[Cael Darkhollow]

In my Basic set (Moldvay revision) some of the dice were orange and some were yellow. In the Expert set mine were all blue. I still have some of them (crayon filled numbers and all), but sadly I don't have all of either set. I may have to dig through my bag of random dice and see if I can make a full set using all three colors.

In response to cornixt: I don't know about the -original- dice sets, but mine had d10s. What they lacked was the 10-sided percentile.

The original 1974-1977 OD&D boxed sets had no dice. Players and DMs used multiples of 6 sided dice borrowed from board games.

The D&D Basic boxed sets 1977-1980 did not include a D10 (ever) because the soft cheap plastic dice originally purchased from the school supplier Creative Publications were based on geometric Platonic solid polyhedrons where all the faces are identical sized shapes used as instructional geometry teaching aids. D10 dice (0-9 labelled sides or 1-10 labelled sides or D10 shaped percentile dice with 00-90 labelled sides) are not platonic solids having some different shaped faces to make them work randomly evenly and were not used as gaming dice in that early period, not becoming standard RPG dice included in a D&D set until later around 1981.

When D&D became a phenomenon, D&D bought so much of the cheap plastic dice stock that eventually the supplier and manufacturer ran out and they turned to cardboard chit sheets for randomization instead of dice in some early D&D box sets until more dice could be made because they literally could not buy enough to supply the demand.

I have the (Holmes editor, David C. Sutherland III art cover 1977) D&D Basic set which had five dice: orange D6, green D8, white D20, yellow D4, and blue D12.
I have the (Moldvay editor, Errol Otis art cover 1981) D&D Basic Set which had five all light blue or all yellow or all red dice and a black or white crayon for coloring in the numbers.
I have the (Mentzer editor, Larry Elmore art cover red box 1983) D&D Basic Rules Set which came with six all the same color plastic uncolored numbers dice D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20 and a crayon; most were light blue, some sets were yellow, red, white, gray, black, dark blue or even brown. Mine are all a light blue. crayons were white or black. Mine is white.
The dice were also sold on D&D cardboard header plastic baggies and came in any color previously mentioned.
Later than 1983 the multicolored dice sets are premanufactured with black or white numbers.
Yellow, light blue, and orange are the easiest vintage D&D dice to find. gray, brown, black, and green are tough to find.
By 1985 the dice were much harder multi colored plastic that wouldn't deform or warp and you couldn't shave them down on the corners to cheat like the cheap early softer ones.
The early soft plastic cheap D&D dice are worth a filthy fortune these days as they are desperately needed to make a complete D&D box set dramatically increasing the value over just the books and box alone. They are serious collectors' items that D&D grognards hoard. If you have any don't lose them or give them away!
I'll try to snap a pic of my early dice and boxes when I have a moment.

1977-1980 1st-6th print D&D Basic set J. Eric Holmes editor, David C. Sutherland III art cover. first version of the D&D Basic set which had five dice: orange D6, green D8, white D20, yellow D4, and blue D12 the numbers are factory inked black
image by Playing at the World.

1980 7th print D&D Basic set J. Eric Holmes editor, David C. Sutherland III art cover. had counter chits shown on the back of the box instead of dice. (sadly I own this one)


Vintage D&D dice circa 1977-1983 Some of my original vintage dice. I no longer remember where exactly I got these or in what sets these came in, I think perhaps the dark blue ones came with my expert set. These are uniform color where a crayon is needed to see the number pips clearly.


These are the light blue vintage D&D dice that came with my boxed sets from 1977-1983, they are all colored in with a white wax crayon that came with them.

the colored dice at the bottom are from 1985, they have factory painted numbers.

1981-1982 eighth-eleventh print Basic Rules Set magenta box, Tom Moldvay editor, Errol Otis art cover 1981. the second major revision of the rules. came with five and later 6 dice (some later prints finally had a D10) uniform colored dice with a crayon. Back of the box shows a light colored dice set probably orange or yellow


1981 first print D&D Expert Rules Set light blue box, the second major revision of the rules, compatible with the magenta basic box. came with five and later 6 dice (some later prints finally had a D10) uniform colored dice with a crayon. I think mine were dark blue. Back of the box shows a light colored dice set probably orange or yellow and likely a black crayon for lighter colored dice.


1983 Twelfth print D&D Basic Rules Set red box, the third major revision of the Basic rules. Frank Mentzer editor, Larry Elmore art cover which came with six all the same color plastic uncolored numbers dice D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20 and a crayon, mine are light blue, back of the box shows a red dice set


1983 fifth print D&D Expert Rules Set 2 blue box, the third major revision of the rules, compatible with the red basic box. Frank Mentzer editor, Larry Elmore art cover which came with six all the same color plastic uncolored numbers dice D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20 and a crayon, mine are light blue, back of the box shows a red dice set


1991 D&D Basic box set came with 6 multicolored hard dice

Moving the topic slightly along... Where does the iconic RED D20 come from?

By the late 80's early 90's dice were hard plastic with prepainted numbers and came in a wide variety of sizes D4, D6, D8, D10, D10 percentile, D12, D20, D24, D30, D50 (D100's were available but were basically golf balls that never stopped rolling and completely pointless with percentage D10s in hand, mostly D100s were a novelty) and Body hit location dice. Solid RED and BLACK with white numbers were standard and popular choices. White with black numbers less popular (looked like cheap board game dice) and quaint old school rainbow sets one of every different color for each D number type were things of the past. Here are my late 80's early 90's dice.

By late 90's 2000's dice were very nice multi colored opaque or translucent beasts and solid colors were old school relics.
Now-a-days modern Chessex acrylic dice rule the land I have half a dozen vividly colored swirled and flecked sets that are works of art compared to my ugly but cherished vintage D&D dice.