One of the best things about the tabletop role-play community is its love of theme. Groups go beyond just playing a game. Groups will dress up thematically. Come up with thematic food. Decorate with thematic decorations. So why not extend that to dice? Some individuals might, but it’s rare to see a whole group with a matched set of dice.
Kraken Dice has made that an easy thing to solve. Sweetheart Dice is six full sets of complimentary dice packaged together in a box a little bigger than a deck of cards. Each set is matte pastel coloured in yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and green. Each set is a standard seven-dice set with an eighth d2, for a total of 48 dice. For the detail oriented people, the d6 through 10 are 12mm, the remaining dice range up to 16mm. The heart-shaped d2 is 17mm.
Now, don’t tell anybody, but I’m a child of the 80s. It was a very different time back then, and candy hearts around Valentine’s Day were very common. For those who don’t know, these were chalky candy hearts about the size of these dice. They came in a rainbow of pastel colours and had words printed on them. “Be Mine,” “Sweetheart,” and similar short Valentine phrases would appear, and we knew not to pull a Ralph Wigum and read into what they said. The only thing more ubiquitous for kids at the time would be cinnamon hearts, and those are the opposite end of the candy spectrum. Cinnamon hearts melt or get chewed into a sticky mass and are strongly flavoured. Candy hearts are little more than pressed sugar that dissolve in your mouth with very little flavour. They are a simple candy from a simpler time.
Sweetheart Dice are similarly simple, which is great. The box is very clearly Valentine’s Day themed, with nerdy Valentine lines “You are my adventure” and “You are a Natural 20” on the sides and an elementary school To: / From: on the back. Plus, they are called Sweetheart Dice, so that’s obvious. But the dice themselves are not ostentatious. The d20 and d2 have a Kraken Dice logo on them, not a Valentine’s heart. The d2s are heart-shaped, but a standalone d2 isn’t used very often. The rest of the dice are basic pastel dice, which is a good thing. I know people who would happily play with pastel dice year round, and they wouldn’t seem out of place. Take away the box, and these would fit right in at an Easter game. The cost per set is affordable enough to be a nice little Christmas gift for your group. They could also be a good option for a group of new players wanting to split the costs. Just take out the marketing, and you are left with every game dice.
I’m definitely a theme guy. So the chance to pull out something unique for a holiday that’s underrepresented in gaming is right in my wheelhouse. The fact that it is also a throwback to my youth just makes it even better. Depending on your wants and needs, Kraken Dice also offers Sweetheart Dice in a single eight dice set, an all d6 set, a d6 +3/-3 status set, and a five d20 Spindown set.
If you want to up your game, you can find Kraken Dice online at krakendice.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/krakendice
