In my recent talk on playing games, as part of the 30 goals conference, I mentioned how a teacher can add an extra element of fun simply by using unusual dice.

It occurred to me afterwards that not everyone may be familiar with these interesting dice.

By “interesting dice” I mean multi faced dice, such as those which are used by players of D&D, short for Dungeons and Dragons (which Google defines as a fantasy role-playing game set in an imaginary world based loosely on medieval myth). From the teacher’s point of view, what you need to know about the game is that it is globally popular and there are stores that sell accessories for it. Like these dice!

More than 10 years ago I purchased one (just one!) beautiful purple die, with 10 sides. That means it includes the numbers zero and nine. The fun of throwing a really high number and the laughter ensuing when you throw “a zero” really adds spice to a game. As you can see, there are dice with all sorts of combinations, even ones that are in a series of tens (seventy, eighty), though I have not tried to use such numbers in class myself.

Two cautionary notes:

When working with young children with emotional issues, I would not use the zero as a zero, but rather call it the magical number that gives you an extra turn, instead of taking it away. If the teacher does not think of such things in advance, the game intended to be fun could end very quickly and badly.

The clear (see through) die-within-a-die is very cool (you don’t have to throw two dice!) but it is the only one I know of that is actually breakable.

So let the games begin!