Elder Dice: A Kickstarter Sensation - GeekDad

2022-05-29 10:47:58 By : Ms. Yang Ge

Everyone loves a good success story, and Elder Dice by Infinite Black is a good one. These guys popped up, seemingly from nowhere, and launched not one, but two, wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns. Elder Dice are a set of unique polyhedral gaming dice in a rolling tray spell book inspired by Lovecraftian themes. The first set was Cthulhu Mythos, and the second was Unspeakable Tomes. You can sign up to order the first three spell books now, and you can still back Unspeakable Tomes with late backing options.

The Cthulhu Mythos set included three spell books: the Great Cthulhu, Star Elder Sign, and Lovecraft Elder Sign. These are the red, blue, and green sets, respectively. The Kickstarter needed $27,000 to fund, and ended with $261,885 pledged by 4,751 backers. Considering this was the first Kickstarter project for Infinite Black, smashing the threshold by a couple hundred thousand bucks isn’t too shabby.

I was really impressed by these. The color scheme for the Cthulhu spell book is red and gold, and the sprite of Cthulhu is engraved on each die. I find them to be as balanced as most dice, and generally pleasant to hold in my hand.

The spell books are probably the best part. From the spine side, they look reasonably well like a grimoire, cleverly disguised amongst my gaming books. The “book” opens to reveal a compartment with dice inside. Handily, this compartment doubles as a dice tray, and mine sees regular use. The front cover closes with a magnetic strip, making the old-school book locks appear more realistic than one might typically expect.

The backing rewards for this campaign have been shipped, and their website is currently sold out, but you can sign up to be notified when you can order them. Alternatively, you can order these with the Unspeakable Tomes Kickstarter late backing options.

The second run features another three spell books: the Yellow Sign of Hastur, Sigil of the Dreamlands, and Mark of the Necronomicon. These are yellow, purple, and red, respectively. This second Kickstarter needed $42,500 to fund, and hit $391,881 in pledges by 6,228 backers. That’s a heck of a success for a second Kickstarter, especially one so similar to another project.

I haven’t seen these in person, but I think we can safely assume they are just as high quality as the first round, and just as balanced. I find the color combinations a bit more striking than the first set, though. The Hastur dice have gold letters on a neon yellow and black swirl. The Necronomicon dice feature gold on a rich purple and crimson swirl. Finally, the Dreamlands dice feature gold on two bold purples.

These dice and other goodies can still be backed via PledgeManager, and the slip-case which holds all three together is a Kickstarter-exclusive bonus, so you’d better get on it if you’re into that kind of feature. It certainly makes a nice upgrade if you’re planning on gifting these to someone. Kickstarter backers also get a metal D2 coin if they back at $19 or higher, which I think is pretty neat.

The Ultimate Doom Edition is the biggest draw, in my opinion. Honestly, I’m not here to sell these (that’s their job), but I like that there’s an edition which comes with a pile of dice, several grimoires, a playmat, a slipcase, and a DM’s screen. It’s $99, but is a pretty good value, all things considered. (To my wife: wink, wink.)

Once Unspeakable Tomes is no longer orderable through the Kickstarter fulfillment page, it will be available for sale in their store, which has a lot of other options including playmats, pins, art, and fiction books, surprisingly enough.

New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer, and visit our Kickstarter curated page for more projects we love.

Disclaimer: The author received a set of Elder Dice for review purposes.

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