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2000 Year Old Roman d20 Up For Auction
dolo666 writes "There is a d20 for sale at Christie's. Titled; "A ROMAN GLASS GAMING DIE", this item dates to circa 2nd Century A.D., and it's likely to go for a mere $6k USD! Just think of the die-hard dice gamer on your list, this festive season! That would make all those late night Cthulhu missions with Lord Nekrull, my 16th level Assassin demi-god, a smashing good time!"
Arg! I am actually interested in the use of this die!
I think that is the real story here. What types of games did the Roman's play with this? What culture / civ came up with it? Was it the Roman's or did they incorporate it from one of the areas that they conquered?
Outdoor storage sheds and pet kennels
So what makes them think this was for gaming? Given the religious significance of regular polyhedra in the classical era -- including but not limited to the Pythagoreans -- it's much more likely that this was either a divination tool or a model representing someone's cosmological theory.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
8 bit D & D parody
Rest In Peace, MTV's Downtown. We hardly knew ye. The 5th episode took place at a Sci-Fi/Horror/Gaming con, and got everything right. A classic. Shouts out to my homie Chris Prynoski..
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
The original audio of this is from the group The Dead Alewives, from my hometown. Look for it on p2p and try to find part 2, one of them brings their girlfriend along.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
This was also in "Knights of the Dinner Table", a comic that ran for a while in Dragon magazine (maybe it still does, I don't know, but you can probably by the bound books at your local gaming or comic shop) I don't know which came first, KOTD or the Alewives thing. (I believe there was a strip about the gazebo too, but maybe the Gazebo is a general DandD meme?)
I am a little older, and I did have the experience of playing Chainmail. I was fortunate to have a middle school teacher who was into military history and did serious tabletop simulations of classic battlefields. One of those guys who I've never understood -- he had time to teach, coach the chess club, and played in a rock band, and still had time to play games. He had all kinds of connections, and one great thing was play-testing some of the Yaquinto games before they were published (Fast Attack Boats and CV).
Anyway I thought Chainmail was boring. I was totally into the theme, but the game was horrible to play. Much more interesting to play an Avalon Hill game than this.
It was several years before I re-discovered D&D, and the AD&D system was much better. Perhaps it was the limited understanding of an impatient 13 year old. Perhaps it was a poor interpretation by a coach who was steeped in the creation of a Prussian batallion using tin soldiers. But playing Chainmail set me back somewhat, instead of getting me into D&D early. I did play the full campaign of 3rd Reich and quite a few Squad Leader/Panzer Leader games though. And Kingmaker. And Risk.
My Latin teacher (mumble mumble years ago) told me this:
In English, the sentence "The die is cast." Can be read two ways
1)The die (cube) has been thrown.
2)The die (form) has been filled and set.
But both readings mean the same thing - something that has already been done cannot be changed.
The Latin versions of the above sentences have the same correspondence. And again both readings mean the same.
Don't remember the exact Latin - it was a looong time ago.
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