Ice Cream Dice (Kickstarter)

Dice! Ever since our first ancient ancestor scratched some symbols onto a bone or stone, we have had a love for dice. I think every household has a collection of dice somewhere, a bag, a box, or a jar. There is a gut level appeal to dice: the look, the feel in your hand, even the sound of them as they rattle and roll. No matter how many you may have, there is always a temptation to get more.

It took an Edmonton gamer, Marc Schubert, to show us what we’ve been missing, what we’ve been searching for. A sense of humour, a sense of whimsy, a sense of … flavour? Sometimes RPGs take themselves a little too seriously, and Marc got tired of all those dramatic, moody dice sets. So he decided to create something fun, dice sets in colours inspired by ice cream.

I wasn’t really sure how I felt about this idea, until I saw the photos of the prototypes. The colours are vibrant and unique; they are, as the campaign description says “nearly edible”. There are 8 different “flavours”, Neopolitan (brown, white, pink), Orange Dream (swirls of orange and cream), Rainbow Sherbet (pink, blue, yellow), Your Favourite (a blend of browns), Bubble Candy (pale blue swirled with pastel pink), Kiwi (a translucent green flecked with dots) and Razzman (a bold raspberry red). The last colour pattern is Butterscotch, which shows Marc’s dedication to getting everything perfect. He apologizes for the disappointing yellow tones of the test dice, and promises a new, better design more like Orange Dream. Personally, my favourites so far would have to be Kiwi and Razzman: the former for being completely unique, the latter for its jewel-bright colour.

The pledge levels are remarkably affordable for something so beautiful. For $16 (CAD), you get a set of 7 dice (percentile, D20, D12, D10, D8, D6 and D4) in the flavour of your choice. A Double Scoop (2 sets) is $29, a Triple is $39, a Sundae (6 sets) is $69 and you can Own the Ice Cream Shop (all 8 designs) for only $85. After that, things get a little more intense. The I Want it All deal is $159, and includes all 8 designs in both finishes, Matte and Glossy — a grand total of 16 sets or 112 dice! Retailers can get in on the ground floor to sell these beauties for $200. Finally, if you’ve just won the lottery, there’s the You’re the Sweetest! pledge, where you and Marc can get together to design a new and unique design of your very own, which will be produced in a limited edition of 1000 sets. For their $6,500 pledge, three Big Spenders will get 175 sets of dice! 150 of their custom creation, and 25 Ice Cream sets of their choice. One of the most unique pledge rewards is already sold out. For $75, up to 75 people will get a glass “waffle bowl” to display their Ice Cream Dice.

This campaign earned its full pledge goal of $30,000 in less than 12 hours, and is already plowing its way through their list of stretch goals. Already unlocked is the Stick It! ice cream cone stickers, and the Choose your Weapon stretch, which allows you to replace your RPG set with either 10 D6s or 10 D10s. Future stretches include a “Block” of 36 mini D6s, an ice cream cone enamel pin, an 11 piece RPG set (instead of 7) and a “We Crushed It” mystery gift. Finally, if the campaign reaches all the way to half a million, Marc will promise to make a new flavour design, Mint Chocolate Crit, and send it to every backer for just the cost of shipping.

But wait, there’s more! There are 2 add-ons available. For $5, you can get PDF campaign notes for a fun ice cream themed RPG adventure, Flavour of the Month. And you can’t have dice without a dice bag; for $15 you can have a pyramid shaped, ice cream cone patterned cloth bag that can hold more than 100 dice!

I hate to burst your bubble, or in this case drop your ice cream cone, but you will have to pay extra for shipping over and above your pledge price. Surprisingly, the shipping rates are very reasonable: $8 (CAD) for between one and three sets of dice, $9 for four sets, $11 for five sets, $12 for six sets, $13 for seven sets and a mere $15 for eight sets of dice. For anyone who orders more than eights sets together, Marc promises to “eat the extra cost”, so $15 is the maximum shipping cost you have to worry about. (Add ons may cost extra.)

So, what are you waiting for? Check out this Sweet Deal on Kickstarter before the March 7th deadline!

You can catch up to Ice Cream Dice online at icecreamdice.com Facebook at facebook.com/IceCreamPolyhedrals.