PolyHero Rogue Dice — Merch & Dice

WHO THE HECK IS POLYHERO?

Great question! PolyHero is a unique game design company that burst onto the scene in 2015 with a Kickstarter for a brand new imagining of your typical 7 polyhedral set. Unlike your typical polyhedrals, however they were themed around the character you play. The 2015 set was designed for warrior type characters. So, it had a d20 shaped like a shield, a d6 shaped like a sword, the d10s shaped like gauntlets, etc. In that Kickstarter, they also released their first tabletop game, Knight Fight. As you might expect it was designed to be used with the Warrior set of dice. Since then they’ve released the Wizard themed set we reviewed a year ago (themed for Wizards) and they have just shipped their third set, designed for Rogues, with Pre-orders still being processed!

ROGUE DICE?

You better believe it. Take a look at those crazy guys up top and tell me they’re not cool. Better yet, take em to a game, leave them on the table for people to look at, and tell me their not your most popular set of dice. I am a huge fan of how Polyhero picks items on theme and designs rolling polyhedrals that resemble them. The fact that d6s in the set (and level up packs) are either poison vials (because, duh) or short swords (how else do you get sneak attack?) is brilliant. In addition to the loot bag d10s, and the Gem shaped d12/alternate d20. Probably the coolest idea though is the lock&pick d20. I have no idea, mechanically how it works, but there’s literally nothing more quintessentially rogue. The lock & pick set is an add on, so be aware of that when investing, but hey it means you don’t need the whole set if your party’s lock solver is the Bard or the Artificer. But let’s take a look at everything!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

They came in a plastic mailing envelope. Probably helps keep shipping down. Can’t begrudge them at all for that. My dice survived no problem, even with the flimsier packaging. That said there are quite a few reports of people having multiple broken dice. Your mileage may vary. That said, this is with regards to the Kickstarter fulfillment shipments, they may have changed shipping process by the time pre-orders roll out. Additionally, it should be noted that they have been replacing damaged dice for free and have a dedicated claims page to deal with it. Hopefully the shipping process changes a bit, because this is a company that does good work, and they deserve to be profitable.

These are brilliant. Truly genius. I like cool things. This immediately won me over. BUT, the first thing you notice, once you get them in your hands, is their size. They’re gargantuan. Truly massive behemoths. Several of them fit through the dice tower I have, but nothing bigger than the d8 consistently does, and the d8 you have to feed in at a particular angle. If you’re rolling on the table top, or in a dice tray, you’ll be fine, but if you’ve invested heavily in a click clack machine, they may not be to your taste.

I also want to point out that the Lock & Pick set looks cool. It feels cheap, flimsy, and very fragile. It certainly seems to work. But I do worry that it will break in transport or even just general use. I’m going to personally keep it in the resealable blister pack it came in. It makes it take up even more space, but the things cool enough. We’re gonna give it kid gloves.

WHAT DO THEY REALLY LOOK LIKE?

DO THEY WORK?

Short answer: Eh… maybe? Long Answer: We did a Chi square test on them, the explanation of which was very kindly written out by some generous soul over on Stack Exchange. This is the test that asks us to do what we love: Roll Dice! The results of the test have been recorded here. It’s not great. The D20s both fall within an expected range. Same with the D6 and the D4. The other dice were tested significantly less. but the results rolled on them were fairly suspect. This does not mean they aren’t fair. It doesn’t mean they aren’t random. Just be aware that if randomness is extremely important to you or your RPG table, these are not your best choice.

DEFINE GARGANTUAN

There’s really no reasonable comparison for the D4-12, as they are so drastically different in shape from your standard polyhedrals. The d20s though. Oh boy. Here’s the d20s placed between a standard Chessex die, and a Koplow Games Jumbo d20 (That is an affiliate link, and purchasing anything through it may net me a commission). Ultimately they’re pretty par for the course as far as how big these dice are. They are noticeably large.

HOW DO I KNOW IT’S COOL?

This is a fair question. Cool is particularly subjective. So for science, I took it to several D&D adventurer’s league games. i never got an opportunity to use them, because people fawned over them so much they got passed around the table. Feedback was universally positive.

WE’VE HAD BAD EXPERIENCES WITH TOPS, ARE THESE BETTER?

Let’s start with the Lock & Pick. It is truly a top. And it’s a serious improvement on the issues that arose with the Wizard Hat. The biggest problem on the Wizard Hat (and sadly as we’ll see on the Gems) is that it is hard to tell which number is the number the die landed on. No such problem arises with the Lock & Pick set. There is a window in the cover plate, through which only one number shows (unless it winds up cocked, and that’s a whole different thing) which solves that problem. Additionally, the only way to get a number to show is to push the pick “down” in the lock, which prevents it from spinning for untenable amounts of time.

The gems though… the gems are a problem. Example being: what number is this on?

The left one, is a nat 20, right? Because dice read from the top. That’s fine. But what is the one on the right? 20? 4? I don’t think you could make an argument for one over the other, and as such that must be cocked. BUT if you look at it, the 17 has both nibs on the table. So does that make it a 4, because that’s opposite? Or is it a bottom reader? I mean if you have to read the bottom number anyway isn’t that the one you should use? But what if the die lands facing away from you? Are you supposed to shuffle around the table to get a better angle? There are way too many problems trying to identify these. I played several sessions as a rogue using these, but my table got frustrated with this die by the second ability check.

The d12, seems to avoid these same problems. As you can see to the side. Possibly it has a larger side that allows it to land more stably? Regardless it’s pretty clear which face of the die is up, which prevents the weird dance to get a better angle that would be necessary on a bottom reading version. But it is a d12. If you’re rolling a d12, you are not playing Rogue correctly.

LET’S SPEAK BRIEFLY ABOUT BUILD QUALITY

It ain’t great. First of all, the dice we’re reviewing here are “Roguish Rouge.” Below we’ll put a side-by-side comparison of what Roguish Rouge actually looks like, next to the artist rendition we were hoping for:

I hate to sound ungrateful, but that’s not close. Part of the draw to the Artist rendition is the translucence of the dice. The fact that it gives them all, especially the gem a resemblance to a ruby. The actual dice are a nearly opaque maroon. That’s honestly a huge disappointment, albeit one that could be very easily avoided by picking a different color. But let’s look at a couple close ups. That’s a lot of scratches and dings. I’m not sure if this is from over polishing (if tumbled), an utter lack of polishing or something different, but it’s clearly not an anomaly as the scratches are the single most common complaint about these. It’s disappointing. Be advised.

ONE OF THOSE PICTURES SEEMED TO HAVE OTHER COLORS…

Foxfire, Top Brass, Vicious Venom, Roguish Rouge

Also, yes that Foxfire glows in the dark.

ANYTHING TO ADD ABOUT THE BURGLAR’S BUNDLE?

Best part of the set to be honest. I personally love the skeleton key coin/d2. The other two pieces are on point with the theme. It’s a real shame that there aren’t more uses for a d3, but I have begun using both the d2 and the d3 as a DM just because I love the way their made. The rope bundle d4 by the way is one of the best d4s I’ve ever used. Second it seems only to the triple fours from doublesixdice. Colors non-negotiable.

SHOULD I BUY IT?

Let me say emphatically: this is one of the best Tabletop RPG related uses of $30 I have committed to. It’s not perfect. But it is a perfect gift. It’s also an amazing conversation starter. These are probably the coolest dice in my collection, and they’re comparable in price to the zinc alloy dice that are incredibly popular. Pick up a set at PolyHero’s Website.