Well, I had thought it was my first Kickstarter but when I went to do the research and get the pictures I found out that the Pathfinder Online stuff and Dreamfall Chapters Kickstarters preceded it. Regardless, it feels like my first Kickstarter. It was 20 March 2013 that the Rocket Dice Kickstarter began and they sprung up all over G+ people were showing these really cool looking concept dice. I have included one of the images from the Kickstarter below to show what the concept was.
I do have a dice problem. I like dice. I like new dice. I like novelty dice. I looked at these and decided I had enough RPG dice but my d6 collection was a little old and could do with a pick me up. Going through the list of options I found a reward ($20 USD) that gave me a rainbow fleet. 12 dice of the colours in the bottom row of the image above. Done. And then I found the add ons – fudge/fate dice had been unlocked and as I was (and if I admit it still am) in love with FATE core at the time I bumped my pledge so I could get a dozen of those as well.
They arrived in Tasmania, in my mailbox, yesterday. I ripped open the pack and pulled out 12 dice – FATE dice. 6 Red and 6 whitish? I wondered where my rainbow fleet is and so I sent a mail to the support email address and got a prompt reply. It was funny because he could not even find my order or that they had sent any with the emails I had provided but grabbed my address and promised to send them anyway. I sent the final email with my address and offered him the only other email I had which I was sure I had not used (my work email) and apparently it was and now they are grabbing me up a set of the rainbow fleet to add to my FATE dice.
I do feel sorry for these people a little. Even I have had unkind words to say about them in the past, but you have to hand it to them. They have stuck with it and are delivering. The people that were after the RPG dice are still waiting, hopefully for not much longer. The thing is with these dice was when they hit Kickstarter they did not physically exist. They were a computer modeled/moulded reality and the idea of mass production had not been tested. The Kickstarter took off and eclipsed its original goal and they got into trying to get them produced.
What happened was the proofs that they started receiving from the factory (China) were not up to scratch. The material was not right, or the shape failed. We got update after update about things failing. I started to think that I may have backed something that would never make it to me. They had to revisit the model and reshape them to make them broader than they appeared – rounder in a way. They stand (when you put them in rocket mode 😉 about an inch and a half / 3.5 – 4 cm tall and they roll OK. The symbols on them are nowhere near as pronounced as they are in the concept image BUT they are clearly visible.
So, has the two year delay been worthwhile? Probably not, but I did not back it to the hilt either and I am happy to have received them, even though the Rainbow Fleet is not with me as yet. I think that it may be the Universe telling me something actually, delivering the FATE dice to my door. Play FATE more perhaps. Regardless, these are nice novelty dice. I like them, would have been nice to have been a little skinnier and how they were originally advertised but they made me smile. And after the past few weeks that is a reward on its own. I also thought – you know what RPG Knights needs? It needs more dice porn – so here you go. Keep rocket rolling!