Reviewing Mystery Dice by 1985games

Note: not a solo review in the classic sense but considering a few sets of dice are a major tool to play solo games, I'm going to count it. 

The last few times I've been on Amazon I've been prompted to try out something called Mystery Dice. And I was...not precisely tempted. I am a dice guy. I have a lot of a dice. A lot of dice. 

While I am generally always down to get more dice I like there to be something about them. That something might simply be "Doug felt like buying more dice" but at least something. 

Here are these "mystery dice" that are priced ok. $11.99 on Amazon for a single pack. $9.99 for a single pack if you get them directly from 1985games. These prices are, like I said. Ok. I can get cheaper dice at my local brick and mortar and get to pick the color. Reviews were good, though. 

Finally, I went "screw it" and bought a set while ordering some other things. If nothing else, they can go into my "medium-little box of solo RPG dice" (which had 5 sets, so why not 6?). 

Part of what interested me was chances were I was going to get a color that I would not likely buy myself and I would say I got that. You open up the sealed pack and get a little dice baggy with the 7-die set: d4, d6, d8, d10, d10s, d20. I got the sort of pink and gray dice. Again, not something I would snatched from the shelves, probably. But it's nice that they are different. 

Rolling them around, they feel...fine. The colors are good. The numbers are decently readable. Some numbers are a bit rough like bits of paint have flecked off already (see the "90" above for an example). The contrast between the pale pink and washed out gray and then the white text is not the clearest distinction (a reason I might have skipped this set on the shelf) but really it nice enough. The general width of the text is quite thick. 

Above you see (from left to right): a d6 from a $5-ish set, a d6 from the Mystery Dice, and a d6 from one of Infinite Black's Elder Dice sets. The latter is by far the best quality of dice but is also in the $20-$30 range (I got it through Kickstarter so don't recall the exact per-set price I paid). The Mystery Die is larger and has a better carved number than the cheaper die. BUT, the cheaper dice has better paint. 

Considering the cheaper dice can be gotten for fairly cheap on Chessex Dice's website (in the little over $4 range) and you can likely find them in a brick-and-mortar or bookstore for not much  more than that, then I'm not sure paying twice that much is really worth it, especially when you look at the range colors and see that others are probably not all that readable. I got lucky in that regards (those black on red-and-black ones in the third row would probably have irritated me, not to mention the gold-on-white/gray on the first row...the yellow on white in the fourth row? mannnnn). 

Generally, though, my review is largely positive. I'd give them a solid B. You get a fun little game of "random dice" and the quality is worth the ~$10 entry fee. If you were hosting a one-shot or kicking off a campaign they could make a nice way to toss in a little fun. Good stocking stuffers for the GMs and dice nerds in your life. While Chessex (etc) has cheaper sets, you generally are looking at the size and color patterns of the more expensive ~$12 range of Chessex. 

By the way, there is also a $19.99 Premium Die Set. It says that the dice are fancier and the colors more varied (and there's a sticker and a enamel pin). I'm not sure about those but there you go. There's also a subscription service. Still, I have a lot of dice and I think I'm good.